- Question
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Visual Essay in 2 parts
This assignment is made of 2 parts:
- Proposal and annotated bibliography due February 16th (worth 20%)
- Visual essay with critical write up due March 30th (worth 30%)
Descriptions of both are below. You might find it helpful to read the visual essay instructions first so that you have an understanding of the final assignment.
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
Due: February 16th
Weight: 20% with a late penalty of 5% per dayProposal: Students will write a 3 page proposal that should contain the following:
- A brief description of the topic you plan to do in the visual essay (eg. how nature
photographs end up hiding environmental damage by making it look like wilderness is still pristine and unpolluted). Locate your topic in the context of visual culture and explain what your central focus and argument will be. This section should provide a rationale for the project that draws on visual culture theories (discussed in class or researched for this project). (About 1 page)
- A brief literature review (about 1 page). A literature review explains what the existing research says on the topic and how your project fits in. It will complement, but not repeat information from the Annotated Bibliography.
- An explanation of what form and medium the project will take (eg. Prezi presentation, series of still photos, blog, Tumblr, etc.). This section should be about one page, as detailed as possible, and include:
a` a discussion of the number and type of images you will use (photographs, sketches, textual components). Remember that at least 3 of the 10-15 final images must be original. See below for more details.
a`How you plan to gather these images
a`How the images will work together or what strategies will be used to group the images, eg. thematic groupings, juxtaposition, narrative, etc. - 2 images that you plan to use in the final project. (These can change as the project evolves). Include these as figures and label them in MLA style. They do not need to be in the Works Cited page if they are labeled correctly.
Annotated Bibliography: The annotated bibliography should be in MLA format and include a minimum 4 scholarly sources, as well as any other relevant non-scholarly sources. You may use course readings but they do not count towards the 4 sources. The annotations should contain both a brief explanation of the source and its relevance for your project (3-4 sentences per annotation).
Visual Essay
Due: March 30th
Weight: 30%, with a late penalty of 5% per dayA visual essay is a series of images that make some kind of argument or appeal. The final project will consist of 2 aspects: the visual essay, which will be made up of a series of images (minimum 10-15); and an accompanying short critical write-up (3 pages).
Visual Essay
The visual essay component will be comprised of a series of images. These images should be carefully chosen and/or crafted to work together to make a convincing and compelling argument. You may use any type of image, but at least 3 should be original (eg. created by you). The original images can be photographs, sketches, or any other type of image that you create.
Think about how the quality of the image works to make an argument. What is the rhetorical appeal of a pencil sketch compared to a selfie compared to a photo taken on an expensive camera? One is not “better” than the other, but they make a different type of appeal. They give us different information because of their quality, staging, form, and content.
Think about how the images will work together. Some possible strategies include:
- Juxtaposition. Images contrast sharply in either style or content.
- Narrative. The images work together to tell some kind of a story.
- Series. Similar images work together to build up some type of argument.
Remember the #iftheygunnedmedown Tumblr. Taken together, the images make an argument about how the mainstream (news) media stereotype people of colour as “thugs.” This Tumblr works because users juxtapose photos (snapshots, selfies etc.) of themselves looking like “thugs” beside photos (family snapshots, graduation portraits, etc.) of themselves looking like upstanding community members. Put together in a series, this Tumblr makes a convincing argument.
The visual essay can be in any file format that makes sense to your project. You will include image citations in the Works Cited page in the Critical Write Up section.
Critical Write Up
The critical write-up should be 3 pages in length (750 words). The write-up should not try to explain the argument being made in the visual essay, but should provide a critical accompaniment and/or theoretical framework. Be very specific, and provide any context not possible to communicate visually. Although the write up is an analytical piece of
writing, it does not need to have a thesis statement. However, it should be furthering the argument being made in the visual essay.
Think of the #iftheygunnedmedown Tumblr. A critical write-up might contextualize this essay in the larger context of Ferguson and the Black Lives Matter Movement. It might draw from critical race theory to argue that the mainstream news media stereotype black youth.
The critical write-up should be formatted in MLA style and draw from a minimum of 2 scholarly sources. These sources can be from the Annotated Bibliography. You may use course readings, but they do not count towards the minimum of two scholarly sources. The bibliography should also include references for the images used in the Visual Essay component. (The images in the Visual Essay do not need to be labeled as per previous assignments.)
To submit
Everything will be submitted through Blackboard. You do not need to submit anything to me directly (eg. data keys or paper copies).
Grading Criteria
- Students who create compelling images or who show inspired curation will be rewarded for their creativity. By contrast, if a quick Google image search locates the same 10 images used in your visual essay, it will be obvious that very little time and effort went into the project. Images will not necessarily be graded according to their artistic merit, but in how they work together to make a convincing argument.
- Visual essays that incorporate text will not necessarily be graded for spelling and grammar, but will be graded on how the text works with the images to create an argument. Visual essays free from text will not be penalized. Visual essays that rely on text to make the argument will be.
- The critical write up should be considered a formal piece of academic writing. It should be free of spelling and grammar errors and have correct MLA style citations. The write up should provide a good analysis of that aspect of visual culture being communicated through the visual essay.
| Subject | Essay Writing | Pages | 10 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Visual Culture on Climate Change
The Climate change is one the recent catastrophes that affects the continent. It has caused deaths of several plants and animals, extinction of several species, migration of people from one place to another due to drought, and even certain deadly diseases to humans. Although several authors have done a lot of writings, there are some groups of individuals who have not understood this problem, therefore, continues to conduct activities that facilitate the process of climate change. In that regard, the use of visual aid is expected to be another important way of passing the same information since the method has been an effective way of communication (Brenthel 47). Notably, a thought-provoking question currently is how to understand and act on the climate change. Previous studies of the issue have concluded that the exigent communication of climate change is insufficient. The indiscernibility of carbon dioxide and lack of a stable relationship between current emissions and the future effects have been seen as the primary challenges. In many occasions, people understand pictures more than they do to writings. On the same note, most individuals do not spare their time to read. The paper, therefore, will use pictures and images to pass information on the effects of climate change on the environment.
Brenthel, in his study questions how the communication challenge has been articulated, and the study focuses on the images which along with the scientific discussion include the cover images to reports, graphic design elements or backgrounds to diagrams (37). According to the study by O'Neill and Nicholas, the conclusion is that even if the scientific research may fail to pass the information about the complexity of the climate change, the extra images, and the manner in which the story is told, has managed to bring a feeling of change to individuals (80). A research conducted by Brenthel reveals that with the visual culture of climate change, people comprehend that there is a real expectation the supplementary visual images used together the with scientific maps, graphs, and tables can do it -that this supplement images will make people loosen up to predict and see beyond what it is possible in the correct systematic pictures. According to Nerlich and Rusi, such virtual images possess the “strength of multiple deployments”, connotation that they induce the understanding beyond the point to assemblages of the significance (270). On the same note, O'Neill and Nicholas argue in a similar manner by saying that the climate communication requires attaining such a condition to have pictorial justice to the fast changing world (82). This is the reason why such types of virtual images can give a needed complement to the typical images customarily presented in the virtual reality. Brenthel’s research is bathed in a mythical elemental soup in which people’s bloodstreams have simulated memories from the archaeo-psychic pasts; all are mixed with pseudo-scientific notions that initiate the imagination.
The project will take several forms and media of photos. It is important to note that the aim of the task is to bring the understanding of climate change and its effects by using visual cultures such as images. In that regard, as many as possible images will be utilized that are in different forms. In particular, the project will use at least 15 still images, but clear ones that are easy to comprehend and understand. The pictures that will be in the form of photographs and sketches will cover different areas and the extent to which the climatic change has affected the environments and its elements. The photos will be gathered from various sources. The Google images will be used to collect images across the globe, which varies with the time they were taken. Additionally, other pictures will be gathered from the journals that will be used to write the final essay. Such articles include "Climate change and visual imagery by O'Neill, Saffron and Nicholas Smith from Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews and "Images of extreme weather: symbolizing human responses to climate change" by Nerlich and Rusi. These are approved journals with verified images about the climate change. The images will assume juxtaposition alignment which will be close to each other. This will allow one to capture more than two images hence easier comparison, analysis, and understanding.
To understand the effects of climate change, this proposal will present two images that will be used in the final project. Image 01 shows the activities of humans that have contributed to climate change. It is the emission of dangerous gasses including greenhouse gasses. Image 02 shows the effect of climate change in which animals and plants have died as a result of drought in some parts of the continent. Remember such places were once getting regular rainfall and drought was not part of the problem.
Image 01
Image 02
References
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Brenthel, Adam. "The Drowning World: The visual culture of climate change." (2016). Nerlich, Brigitte, and Rusi Jaspal. "Images of extreme weather: symbolizing human responses to climate change." Science as Culture 23.2 (2014): 253-276. O'Neill, Saffron J., and Nicholas Smith. "Climate change and visual imagery." Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 5.1 (2014): 73-87.
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