360degrees.org is a collaborative site which addresses issues regarding the American prison system and uses a variety of methods to appeal to the audience.
1) what is the argument being made?
The main argument I saw the website was trying to present is that our prison systems are faulty and need to be fixed. Basically, that it is impractical to use them as correctional facilities because they are not perfect themselves.
2) what rhetorical appeal(s) is (are) used to make the argument? We talked about the appeal to reason, emotion and morality.
The website uses all forms of rhetorical appeals - ethos, pathos, and logos.
Ethos and logos are used in the "Stories" section of the website. The personal narratives provide an appeal based on their characters, and also on emotion. Listening to the people speak makes you really connect with them and their situation, and you can see how it is really personal.
Other sections of the site appeal to the pathos - or logic and reason. The "Dynamic Data" and "Timeline" provide a lot of facts and statistics that make everything more concrete.
3) what's interesting about the form of the project as it relates to the argument?
I really like how the site is interactive. The layout is really intriguing and makes you want to explore every single aspect of it - and it really offers so many perspectives. The images and audio also make it really interesting, especially the Prison Diaries. They aid in presenting the argument in a clear yet abstract style that really make you engage in everything the site has to offer and gain a better understanding of the prison systems.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Blog Four: Visual Pleasure
This image appeared in a series called "Make Love Not War" in Italian Vogue and depicts a woman being looked at by a soldier. The series itself was highly controversial because of its sexual content and erotic poses of men and women in what appears to be a war zone.
Laura Mulvey explores the concept of sexuality and "woman as image, man as bearer of the look" in her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." The image above is a perfect example of this. The eye is drawn towards the woman and her pose; the man is hardly noticable. The focus of the image is on her.
"In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness."
The way the light accentuates the woman's appearance supports this point. It sets her apart from everything else in the picture. "She is isolated, glamorous, on display, sexualised" and seemingly screams "look at me!" which is exactly what happens. The man is lookng at her, and so are we, as she is "displayed for the gaze and enjoyment of men."
Mulvey's basis for this is the understanding of scopophilia (the pleasure of looking). "There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at." Much like the man is enjoying looking at the woman, it seems the woman is enjoying being looked at, which can be inferred from her facial expression. It almost seems as if that is what she wants - her aim is to seduce and appear mysterious - to captivate the gaze of others.
This image creates "a gaze, a world, and an object" and shows how film can "build the way she is to be looked at into the spectacle itself."
Laura Mulvey explores the concept of sexuality and "woman as image, man as bearer of the look" in her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." The image above is a perfect example of this. The eye is drawn towards the woman and her pose; the man is hardly noticable. The focus of the image is on her.
"In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness."
The way the light accentuates the woman's appearance supports this point. It sets her apart from everything else in the picture. "She is isolated, glamorous, on display, sexualised" and seemingly screams "look at me!" which is exactly what happens. The man is lookng at her, and so are we, as she is "displayed for the gaze and enjoyment of men."
Mulvey's basis for this is the understanding of scopophilia (the pleasure of looking). "There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at." Much like the man is enjoying looking at the woman, it seems the woman is enjoying being looked at, which can be inferred from her facial expression. It almost seems as if that is what she wants - her aim is to seduce and appear mysterious - to captivate the gaze of others.
This image creates "a gaze, a world, and an object" and shows how film can "build the way she is to be looked at into the spectacle itself."
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