Advocacy in Civic Life

Today’s Rhetoric and Civic Life class centered around the concept of advocacy, which is essentially the placement of one’s support behind a cause, a group, or a concept. What I found most interesting about advocacy is that a person is changed by what he or she advocates and he or she in turn affects and shapes the advocacy group in question. I was personally intrigued by a story by my classmate John Lee regarding how a light suggestion for him to swim turned into a position on the team and furthermore roles as a lifeguard and a swim instructor. Looking back on his story, I thought I might share my own experience in an advocacy that has changed me and I hope to change.

Five years ago I reluctantly began attending my church’s youth group in order to have something to do after school that my mother found constructive to my spiritual growth beyond Sunday school (which I had just outgrown). It seemed like the natural next step in my journey yet I did not really embrace it until I met lifelong friends in my first mission trip in Philadelphia. Since then I have been changed in so many ways; not only have I participated in missions from Montreal to Guatemala City, I have witnessed a spiritual growth within myself. I am currently with my third “youth group”, a campus ministry called Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), and while my youth ministries have affected me, I am poised to affect my youth ministries as well.

Although I am merely a freshman, I am prepared to take on any leadership roles that may come across my path in my coming years in college with RUF. I have led in one bible study already and have even returned to my high school ministry to lead middle school students in their study of scripture. This summer I also plan to begin work at my home church to coordinate a college ministry for students home from college starting this summer. The student ministries I once so hesitantly advocated became a force of great growth in my life, and in turn I hope to do the same in my mission to strengthen these groups.

"For Your Viewing Pleasure"; Visual Rhetoric

This week’s lecture in LA101H focused on the rhetoric of visual images. As humans we are a very visual species, and images can have a powerful effect on emotion and a strong influence on the way we approach things. Our love of aesthetically pleasing images has transcended the canvas, and now visual art has found a home in some of the most surprising locations. With the advent of the computer and sophisticated software in particular, technology pushes the boundaries of artistic expression in ways never before seen. One example of art is album artwork; the covers of music CDs and formerly records.

Album artwork is the first impression between an album and the potential consumer; it is the sales pitch which finds its importance in the fact that we simply can’t help but “judge a book by its cover”. These are some of my favorite pieces of album artwork from my own music collection:

One of the keys to an aesthetic image is the utilization of a focal point in order to present an image the eye can follow its focus upon. The album The Resistance by Muse does this so well with the clear lines formed by the bridge-like structure and all of the geometric shapes meet at the image of the earth. Meanwhile, a mosaic of hexagons creates an array of colors that give the entire image an interstellar, science fiction feel. Meanwhile, all colors are brighter toward the center, adding to the focal point, while the gray border enhances the color vibrancy.



Another intriguing cover is Audioslave’s Revelations album. Coincidentally, this cover also has an image of the earth on it, in this case featuring a continent shaped like the band’s flame logo (Visible in the “O” on the right-hand side). Focal points play a big role in this cover as well in that the image is of a portion of the earth causing the image to be broken up between the planet and the blackness of space. Meanwhile, the band’s name is spaced so that it appears to wrap around the back of the cover and the name of the album is offset from the artist name with a smaller font size and is interestingly upside down.  All images are slightly off-center and it serves an important aesthetic role in that it is much less boring than having all images perfectly centered.

Copyrights, Memes, and Clichés; Oh, My!

In class the other day, we learned of the importance of copyright laws and the powers they hold over electronic media today. On top of that, we learned the limitations of copyright in the form of fair use. One of the more notable examples of fair use we covered regarded the use of films. When using a copyrighted motion picture, the limits of fair use include the nature, amount, and commercial impact of material used. Basically only small portions of a film can be used in a way that does not serve as a substitute for the original work.

The use of movies often is found on the internet in the form of internet memes, which are ideas spread throughout the internet and take on a pop culture status. These concepts are both dispersed throughout the internet and are reshaped in a variety of ways; the memes are at the mercy of the creativity of those who find them. Memes are such a fascinating aspect of the internet that there is an entire website dedicated to following and analyzing them.

The website is called KnowYourMeme.com and it is a database attempting to organize the incomprehensible breadth of the countless memes circulating throughout the internet. Although it is not a perfect website (searching can be difficult and popups can occur), it is both informative and extremely entertaining.

One especially entertaining meme is titled “Supercut Movie Clichés”. This particular meme encompasses varying movie clips that share a commonality such as a catchphrase (i.e. “He didn’t make it”, “We’re not in Kansas anymore”, etc.) and cycles through the commonality in each of the different movies. The comedic value lies in the worn-out phrases in critically-acclaimed movies. It would seem like a no-brainer to avoid these lines (such as “no-brainer”), but they constantly occur in these films. With respect to copyright, the videos are applicable in that the clips of the movies are extremely brief and serve a separate purpose so as not to replicate the original work.

Several examples can be found on knowyourmeme.com, but this is one of my favorites:

“We’ve got company”

Something Strange in the Hidden Valley Pies...

Since I showcased my favorite motion picture advertisement, “Write the Future”, last week, I thought I would show you one of my favorite still picture ads for this week’s installment of Rhetoric and Civic Life. This one is brought to you by Hidden Valley Ranch, and I discovered it so long ago that I can’t quite remember how I stumbled upon it. All I know is that I can vividly remember the image of the boy stealing that broccoli pie!

The style of the advertisement oozes classic Americanism from the polka-dot drapes to the windowsill pies. Hidden valley is clearly trying to recreate the mid-20^th century in order to invoke a classic image. This is important because the dominant portion of the advertisement is the image of the kitchen itself. The old-fashioned setting invokes images of the simplicities of the 50s and 60s and may even conjure up images of grandma’s kitchen.

All in all, the image is one of familiarity, a common tool of advertisements (especially those of a more comedic nature). The goal is to begin with a familiar scene and then introduce an element of the unexpected. The setting is so large that it does not take the reader much effort to notice the kitchen, so in that regard it is recognized first. The unexpected occurs in the focal point of the advertisement, the image the eyes are easily drawn to.

Although the setting is apparent first, the eye is actually drawn to the image at the center of the ad, the boy sneaking a pie off the windowsill, neatly set apart from the inside by the window. Here we find the beauty of the advertisement: the alteration of the American image of the apple pie and the mischievous boy (a la Tom Sawyer) with a Hidden Valley edge to it. The viewer recognizes that the apple pie is in fact a broccoli pie with hidden valley ranch as the lattice. It makes the broccoli look downright decadent and it exemplifies the caption of “Where Vegetables Are Delectable”, a perception of a literal “Hidden Valley” where broccoli is as tasty as homemade pie.

One final point of note is the use of reds and greens; the two colors are complementary and make a clear contrast between the kitchen scene inside and the pie theft scene outside. Also, there is no accident over the incorporation of the boy’s red hair and the cherry tomatoes topping the pies for added aesthetic effect. I find this advertisement simply memorable!