TOW #9- Visual Text

            The word graffiti often has a negative connotation. It comes with the feeling of rebellion and recklessness. However, street artists spend a lot of time planning and creating their pieces in order to convey a message. I recently stumbled upon a street artist by the name of Hunter Rodriguez. He is a small street artists in New York City attempting to improve the world one piece of artwork at a time.

            I found three pieces of work he has completed (all three are attached) that are all very unique and convey a powerful message. The one I found most interesting is the “Media Unit” drawing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The drawing is of a man’s body with a television as a head and the words “Hunt for peace” running vertically down the side. Rodriguez uses a lack of colors, and symbolism to convey that the media is holding humanity back from finding peace.

            The illustration is so detail oriented that color could have been a distraction. The shading makes for a very realistic deep picture despite the fact there is no color. The lack of color in the photo creates a serious tone. Another strategy Rodriguez used is symbolism. As a head, the body has a television and there is a channel changer in his pocket. This symbolizes how engulfed America is in the media. He also clearly conveys his audience by putting an American flag on the tie. The man also looks very stiff and constrained and has handcuffs on. This shows that media is holding American’s back from peace. On the man’s pants there is stitching of a peace sign and a heart. With peace, there comes love. The overall meaning is powerful and effectively shown.

            All of Rodriguez’s street art has a strong meaning however this one stood out because of the fine detail put into every aspect of it. This is the type of graffiti people don’t mind seeing on the street.

(The one I chose)

TOW #8- Hyperbole and a Half IRB

           There certain ways illustrations are able to convey a humorous tone. In Allie Brosh’s case, she uses the characters facial expressions, surroundings, and dialogue in her illustrations to make them humorous. Brosh’s use of original images in Hyperbole and a Half assists to convey her purpose. Throughout the book Brosh’s purpose is not a traditional moral of the story purpose. Her purpose is to try and connect with her audience by sharing her experiences in a humorous and light-hearted way. 

            Previously mentioned, the most original thing about this book is the use of illustrations. Throughout the book there are 1-3 illustrations per page. These illustrations include stick figure characters that are consistent throughout the book. In one story called Identity Part 1 she uses an illustration of her character laying on a sofa watching television. On the television is a man running a marathon. Behind her on the couch is a list of things to do including shower, groceries, laundry, and jog. The only thing she has crossed out is shower. By looking at the small details in the picture it conveys the humor that she had not gotten anything done compared to this man on television. She also uses facial expressions to create humor. In a story called Lost in The Woods, her mother gets her and her sister lost in the woods one night. Her mother tried to hide the fact that she was lost and when Brosh and her sister asked where they were, the terror and exhaustion in the mother’s eyes was witty. In another story called Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving, the author uses dialogue in her illustrations. Her dog is referred to as simple dog because it is very dumb. In the story she conveys this through his dialogue. Although dogs obviously cannot talk, there are words of what the dog is thinking. The words make an incoherent incomprehensible sentence.

            Allie Brosh achieves her purpose of conveying her stories in a humorous light-hearted way in order to connect with her audience greatly through her use of illustrations. Many say a picture is worth a thousand words. In Brosh’s case this is definitely true.

TOW #7- She’s America’s youngest female billionaire- and a dropout (Article)

            As I was scrolling through the articles this title caught my eye. It was a captivating article however as I read I noticed the topic of this essay is not about a young female who became a billionaire despite dropping out of college. This article was about a woman who started a lab that is now making groundbreaking changes in blood testing around America. And she just happens to be America’s youngest female billionaire and a college dropout.

            Along with many of these articles there are videos. In this video CNN interviews Elizabeth Holmes and asks her about how it feels to be a college dropout with all of this success. It is very obvious that she would much rather be talking about her discoveries in science then her wealth or her past.

            Despite the off-topic titling of the article, it was still a very informative piece about the future of blood testing. Rachel Cranes purpose in writing this essay was not to inform the reader of Elizabeth Holmes but to convince the reader of the vitality of blood testing. Crane uses pathos and logos to convey her purpose.

            Towards the end of the article, the author uses statistics to back up her points. For example, as Crane was explaining how much say laboratories in the U.S. have she used a statistic that U.S. labs dictate 80% of clinical decisions annually. This helps her further prove her point of the necessity of one getting their blood taken and sent to a lab. She also backs this point up by saying that 46% of Americans are not compliant with the tests that their physicians give them. These statistics make the necessity and lack of blood tests un-debatable.

            Not only did Crane convince the reader blood tests are vital but she also convinces them that they aren’t so bad. She says this by conveying to emotions through diction. Theranos Wellness Center is the lab that Holmes helped found and it is described to have calming music, glossy magazines and offers a blood test with a relatively painless prick.  These descriptive words help the reader picture a calming entertaining space, making blood testing seem better.

            Although the title was misleading, the article was just as interesting. Through logos and pathos Rachel Crane convinces the reader of importance of blood testing.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/16/technology/theranos-elizabeth-holmes/index.html

TOW #6- Virtual Reality: The Next Frontier in Gaming (Article)

TOW #6

Trends are mainly identified with the fashion industry. However, many fads also come and go in the gaming industry. Some include 3-D games, social networking games, and moving your body to control the game. The time has come for a new one: Virtual Reality (VR). The goal of VR is to make the game feel as if they are inside of the game.

An article on CNN.com titled VirtualReality: The Next Frontier in Gaming describes the new trend and what it entails for not only gamers, but also game creators. The article is by Larry Frum who writes tech/gaming articles for various different websites. He is very in tune with current tech issues, which gives him credibility on the subject.

Frum directs the article to game creators by taking many quotes from the VR creators. He takes many quotes from two major companies, Oculus Rift and Sony, which were creating their own version of virtual reality. By using these two credible sources he creates ethos to help his purpose, which was to express the importance in the quality of games they create for the headset.  He quotes the CEO of Oculus Rift, Brendan Iribe, and Anton Mikhailov, a researcher and developer for Sony. Both Iribe and Mikhailov tried to explain how important the games are to the gaming system. The creation has been a long hard process and the fait of the system lays on the games that support it. Oculus Rift and Sony are both very dependent on game creators to make epic games to match their epic system.

Not only does the author quote credible sources but he also uses diction. Through the diction he describes to game maker what the games they are creating should be like. For example, it “plunges headset wearers into three-dimensional virtual worlds that feel incredibly lifelike”. Throughout the article he uses describing words like this to hint at the game makers.

Through powerful diction and multiple credible sources Frum achieves his purpose of informing game makers of the vitality of their games. Virtual gaming has a great potential to stay around a lot longer then other gaming trends, depending on the games made for it.

In case you were curious, this is the Oculus Rift. It is out now.

TOW #5- Visual Text

Anyone who has witnessed a temper tantrum of a young child knows how awful it is. Lying on the ground, kicking and screaming for an underserving reason. The pain and wretched look in a crying child’s eyes is heartbreaking. The Children Corporation Against Cancer’s (CONAC) ad channels that sympathy and turns it around as blame.

CONAC created this ad in order to remind parents who smoke of the harm it does to their children. In the ad it shows almost a bag of smoke around the young boys head and appears to almost be choking him. At the bottom of the ad inside a shape of a cigarette the words “Smoking isn’t just suicide. It’s murder”. The creator of this ad holds a lot of automatic ethos being a corporation with the direct purpose of the ad.

This ad has the obvious audience of parents who smoke. The words at the bottom are one of the most powerful things about this ad. There are many ads saying that smoking can kill you however there aren’t many ads saying smoking can murder someone else. Parents love their children more then anything and this ad uses that strong audience to their advantage. The ad is not only saying parents can hurt their children but they can kill their children.

The photograph of the child is very disturbing. It appeals greatly to pathos. The pain and anguish in his facial expression makes the audience want to help the child. The smoke around him helps convey the meaning behind his facial expressions. The smoke going in through the mouth and nose is very noticeable. The aspect of choking or being engulfed by the smoke conveys even more pathos. It looks as if the child is begging for help.

Overall the author’s purpose was very well shown through the quote as well as the photo. This advertisement is unique and very well executed.