My Visual Rhetoric Project

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PjpFNYl6niytokycYjZN_gR941u6uekawIiDRo32oTQ/edit

www.flickr.com/tonithetiger

MoCP

I recently visited the Museum of Contemporary Photography.  I thought a lot about the exhibit there called Peripheral Views of America.  I can appreciate any kinda of art and I can honestly say I enjoyed going to the MoCP.  I thought the concept of the exhibit was a little strange though.  After hearing all that Sontag had to say about photography I feel a bit brain washed.  It's hard to not look at it negatively now.  I don't really like how they attempted to capture the United States in just a few hundred photos.  Yeah, that's a lot but can you really explain and visualize something in just photos?  On top of that, all the ones that were taken off of Google Earth were from poor communities.  If I didn't live here and saw this exhibit I would look at America as a sad poor dirty place.  Since I live here does that give me the right to judge wherever that photo was taken from and say that it is a sad poor dirty place? No, maybe that picture was just taken from a bad neighborhood and from the opposite angle that town could look completely different.  I just don't see what they are trying to get at from the Google Earth photos.  On the other hand, I do see their point with the giant collection of photos.  I can see that they are trying to point out that America is a materialistic country.  I don't think that every person in the United States worships objects but our culture influences us to be that way.  I think the videos, The Silent Echo Chamber, really worked.  I thought it was hilarious, yet true and serious at the same time.  It was so foreign to see the people who I know from just the world of television in their own little worlds.  It makes you realize that their stardom is somewhat of a show.  They are real people too, and of coarse I know this, but being a viewer you never see that side of them.

Sontag's messed up views

After reading Sontag's In Plato's Cave I felt bombarded by negativity.  Although I can see the points of her views, they are all extremely exaggerated.  Referring to photos as murder is a bit of an overstatement.  Yes I can see how photos can cause negative emotions to stir within people but not to the point where I think this world should have nothing to do with photography.  In contrast with Sontag's thoughts I do think that photos contain truth.  Honestly if we didn't use any type of photography It would give us a disadvantages when it comes to a lot of thing, education being one of them.  If you use her arguement about how photos don't show everything therefore they aren't truthful, then basically humans can't communicate with eachother anymore.  We all don't explian every little detail of everything that happens in our lives when telling others about events that have happened to us.  There is always going to be that slice of mystery in just about everything in life.  Is it even possible to know 100% of something? Not really, and I don't think that that is a bad thing.  I think life would be boring if we knew everything.  Photos can say a thousand words, and so can people.  Either way those "words" are probably going to be distorted is some way, shape, or form.  Say you actually go the the place where the photo was taken with the exact same environment as when it was taken then does that give you a better impression on what was depicted in the photo.  Of coarse, but then again even experiencing it in real life will still leave you not knowing every detail.  The truth can only be seen to a certain extent.  Overall, photographs are a positive thing not a negative one.  When viewing and taking photos it is important to take in all the angles but you don't have to over think it.

Rhetoric Analysis

Baby Lips is a lip balm made by Maybelline.  I actually own two of theses, the peppermint clear one and the peach one.  I like them a lot that's why I choose to analyze this in terms of rhetoric significance. I usually see ads like this one in seventeen magazine and other magazines that are focused on young women and beauty.  The sender is Maybelline, the message is using baby lips lip balm will give you great lips.  The receiver is women who use beauty products and women in general.  Its a beauty product and their is a women in the ad which made me think it was focused on women.  The exact message is in the name of the product.  This advertisement uses pathos in the name of the product.  Just using the word baby's makes you think of cute babies.  Also when you hear the word babies and their lips you would think of fresh, new, plump, soft, flawless lips.  Using logos if babies have soft lips then you to will get soft renewed lips.  I think the font and colors that Maybelline uses to promote this product was no accident.  They are all bright playful colors.  The font looks playful as well.  At the same time the lady in this ad looks very sophisticated.  With the combination of both of these a sophisticated women can use this and bring out her playful side.  The ad is sending out a message that women who use this will look sexy.

Artist I Admire

Not until recently have I noticed how well Tom Hardy does what he does.  He's an English actor whose first breakthrough performance was in the legendary Christopher Nolan's Inception.  Which is saying a lot because he was co-stars with Leonardo Dicaprio.  If that was his breakthrough roll, living up to Leo's ability, he's going to go far.  And he has, in 2011 I saw Warrior at this theater convention I go to every March in Vegas.  That movie was amazing!  Tom plays a boxer.  In one of the scenes he finally gets to have a deep conversation with his father.  The guy who plays his dad does most of the talking but the camera cuts to Tom a lot.  The way he reacts to what his father says is so realistic and deep.  You can see the truth in his eyes in that scene.  Then Tom was in the new Batman movie where he had to act with his eyes again.  He plays Bane, the bad guy who wears a mask the whole movie.  My old acting coach always said the eyes are the windows to the soul.  Tom really lives up to that.  Just yesterday I saw the movie Lawless, Tom is also in that.  It's a western movie that just proves Tom can have a wide range of character rolls.  I don't use this word a lot but I would have to say that the way Tom Hardy preforms is brilliant.  I have loved every movie he was in that I saw.  I recently read that he likes coffee too and thats a plus in my book!  And if that's not enough, Tom's pretty cute as well.

Bio :)

Hey!  I'm Toni.  Coming from a small tightly knit town, Burlington Wisconsin, I haven't experienced city life like this before.  Although a bit nervous, I am so ecstatic to know that Chicago is where I will be living the next four adventurous years of my life.  I can't really put into words why exactly I chose Columbia but I know this is where I am suppose to be.  My scholarship may have been a deciding factor as well.:)  My major is film and video.  I love filmmaking because I am an artist and after all film brings all art forms together and harmoniously makes them one.  I use to be interested in acting until I took a film acting class where we had a mock production set.  I was more interested in talking to the camera guy that my acting coach.  My parents also owned a movie theater for most of my life.  I practically grew up in that theater.  My dream job would be to edit movie trailers. :)  Which is strange because a lot of people in film don't like editing.  I love it!  I have a lot of "loves" in life.  I love rural areas, because I love the quiet and how gorgeous everything is.  I love movies, for obvious reasons.  I love my summer job as a camp counselor.  I get to chill with little kids and teach them about Jesus all day and get paid for it!  I couldn't imagine spending my summers anywhere else.  I love coffee.  It is just so delicious.  Finally, film is my passion, thats why Im here!  But above all else my true love will always lie with Jesus Christ.  He's my best friends.  Writing isn't exactly my strong suit, that's why I don't really like it.  I am a perfectionist and writing is just one thing I can't perfect.  I am a hard working and determined person though.  So I am hoping to overall improve my writing skills.