Sunday, February 19, 2012

Disney or Hollywood?

I'm sure you've heard the words, "I love you" more than you care to hear. But what would you consider as to be "love." Is it the Hollywood version, or maybe the Disney definition? Either way, its a central part of the American culture. Love revolves around EVERYTHING. So how does society pin a Webster definition on this particular noun?

Well according to Dictionary.com, love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. But does this definition fit in today's society or in the imaginary world of Disney? In Disney, Prince Charming rides through the night to save the princess from eternal doom. But today's movies sheds a different definition of love. Take for example the Twilight series. In this particular quartet, love is complicated, it can be full of frustration and depression.The two definitions are foils of one another.

If you hadn't already guessed, definitions can be exemplified by arguments. Society frequently presents their take on a certain subject, like the definition of love. Formal definitions are what you find in dictionaries, whereas operational definitions identify an object by what it does or by what conditions it creates. Arguments derive from either one of these definitions whenever people disagree about what the conditions define. Definitional arguments evolve out of the occasions and conversations of daily life, whether public and private.  

So the next time you take a look at an adjective, take the time to realize what the author is trying to present. The world displays a lot of different definitions in their own personal way. It's through these representations that people derive their own definitions of words from their own and other people's experiences.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Arguments Based on Emotion: Pathos (ch. 2)

Arguments Based on Emotion: Pathos (Ch. 2)

The Sculpture of Love and Anguis
Emotional appeals to any audience are powerful methods for influencing what people think and  believe. It is one of the most popular forms visual arguments use. We all make decisions that are based on our feelings.Writers, speakers, and artists find images to evoke certain emotions in people, so that their audience can connect to those feelings and even act on them. Take for example the sculpture pictured to the right. It is of a hand reaching up to the sky in a desperate attempt to grasp for help. The hand is tattooed with a number from Aushwitz and is the figure of a dying persons last attempt at help. The figure might leave the onlooker with despair, hope, or even a feeling of emptiness. The creator of this sculpture wanted to create these feeling so that the people who gaze upon this large piece remember the Holocaust and the immense grief and hardship human beings faced during this terrible period of time.
A Series of Vignettes
Sensing Both Love and Fear



The photographs to the left are of the figures that cover the hand pictured above. A Series of Vignettes shows a truly emotional image of an elderly man pleading for the young child's life, and the one to the right of it is a mother who is trying to comfort her child before their unavoidably death to come. These visual arguments do not need words to convey intended argument to its audience. It is the emotion one feels when they look upon these figures that stirs the wanted action. This is the purpose of pathos 
in visual arguments.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Chapter 14 Visual Arguments

CHAPTER 14
Visual Arguments have been around for centuries. They have lined the banks of the Nile in the form of statues, leaders have stamped them on monetary coins, and early cave dwellers carved them on cave walls. Visual arguments can range from the simplest of images to television ads. These images make arguments of their own, since each person analyzes the meaning differently. Human vision is selective. People have a tendency to shape what they have seen and learned to see things according to their meanings within their culture. Images can bring meaning to life because they appeal to emotion, or a significant point in history. Any image can be portrayed as a visual argument. Take for example, the picture on the top left. It is a visual image of characters from The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland in the setting of a modern day subway. Anyone who is familiar with the short story or Disney's film Alice in Wonderland, knows the famous line from the white rabbit, "I'm late, I'm late!" The title of the subway has the word "circus" which portrays how hectic people are on their way to work or on the way home in a subway. And in the long run how ridiculous it can be. Overall, analyzing the visual elements of arguments can be tricky, especially because images can hold more than one meaning. But it can also be the reason why visual arguments are so effective.             
So as a synopsis, the chapter in this book was primarily on visual arguments as a whole. It emphasized the power of visual arguments, and the effectiveness of shaping the messages behind visual arguments. If you refer back to the chapter in Everything's an Argument, the chapter will give you tips on how to analyze different visual arguments and how to determine the meaning behind the images.
It also provides a section on using visuals in your own arguments.


                    IDEAS FOR ADVOCACY AD          
 images from Shepard Fairey             

                                         
          


                    


Monday, January 16, 2012

Introduction

Hey everyone! I'm Daniella. I am a freshman at ASU majoring in Biomedical Engineering. I came from Queen Creek, AZ. Queen Creek is a small town right in between Florence and Chandler. Its a quiet area, but recent construction has brought an influx of people from the surrounding areas and now what was once dairy farms and fields, is now occupied by Walmarts and Targets. I have always wanted to be a Sun Devil since a small child, and that goal is the reason why I choose to attend Arizona State University. I live on Campus in PV Main. I have a couple of interesting hobbies and facts about myself:
Picture of my Home Town :)

  • I am a NBA fan, the Suns being one of my favorite teams
  • I also played basketball all through high school
  • My favorite color is black
  • I am the oldest of two children in my family, as I have a younger sister
  • I love Supernatural, in my opinion one of the best shows on television to this date
  • I like all types of music except for alternative
  • I am the queen of sarcasm
  • I love the movie Bridesmaids
  • I want to work in the medical industry
  • I have never been the one to like writing, or the one to write in journals
  • The only sport I cannot watch on television or in person is soccer
  • I am Hispanic, even though I may seem like the whitest person in the world
  • I am not afraid to try new things
  • I am also a video game nerd, as sad as that seems