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benmiller314 / cdm2021spring

Source files for a course in Composing Digital Media at the University of Pittsburgh
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Proposal: Visual Argument / Rhetorical Collage #7

Open benmiller314 opened 3 years ago

benmiller314 commented 3 years ago

Write a brief proposal for your visual rhetoric project. What idea or argument will you try to represent? What claim will you try to make – or, at least, what is the triggering idea (starting point) of that claim?

See the full range of thought-questions in the assignment prompt and/or in lesson 10 for brainstorming strategies.

NB: I am asking you to include a prospective assets list, i.e. a table of the images you think you'll need and where you might be able to source them. You can choose to include that assets list here or place it as a file in your repository, to more easily track changes.

Either way, please include a link here to your visual-argument repository, making it easier to find when we get to group work.

reaial commented 3 years ago

For this project I have two ideas as of right now. One idea that I have is going to be a call to action type of poster when it is all over. I want to portray what it is like during the BLM movement. There are several assets that I have down in my repository for this project, and I think that this will be an interesting thing to portray in stills. This will also show how powerful images can be in a collage setting. The second idea that I have is making a collage about college. I also have the ideas for the images in my assets file in my repository. The argument I want to get across here is what college is actually like. As high schoolers we are told to wait for college. It gets better in college when in reality some of us are doing better while others are doing way worse. The images that will help benefit from a collage would be seeing how chaotic things are, and how depressing things are as well, when there are ups and downs to this life as well. https://github.com/reaial/visual-argument-2021spring.git

patrickjmeyer commented 3 years ago

As a musician and overall as a music fan, I think it's important to be as open-minded as possible when enjoying music. However, I believe that far too many of us silo ourselves into different genres and musical scenes. On the surface level, this seems harmless. Everyone has their preference, right? But when you look closer and think about the full meaning of someone saying something like “I just don’t like the sound of hip hop” or “Dance music isn’t real music”, you begin to realize that there’s something deeper to many “preferences.” Some are probably the result of prejudice, whether that be against other subcultures, social groups or, quite often, people of a different race.

What I want to do is create a design that shows imagery of the joys of different genres. Something of a collage of turntables and samplers, guitars and drum sets, rappers and singers, DJs and more traditional songwriters, MIDI controllers and grand pianos, all surrounding one word: “embrace”. I believe that if we all simply embraced good music, regardless of genre, and took more chances with our listening choices, we would not only be more well-rounded music listeners and musicians, but that we would also generally be better informed about areas of society other than our own.

Here are some examples of assets I think I’ll use. These are all images of certain objects/people and as of right now, I’m thinking all of these will be repurposed:

Objects:

People:

I’ve selected the objects because I believe they’re all equally important and great in terms of their utility in music. I’ve selected the artists because I believe they either exemplify genre-bending/fusion/innovation, or oppose it altogether (looking at you, Don Henley). Hopefully I’ll be able to find Creative Commons licensed imagery of the people/objects I need. Otherwise, I might need to shift my vision somewhat, but right now, I’m very excited to get cracking on this project!

Repository Link: https://github.com/patrickjmeyer/visual-argument-2021spring

by-lynn-priestley commented 3 years ago

For my visual rhetoric project, I would like to focus on the importance of inclusive design/design that meets disability. Specifically, I want to argue against paternalistic design that makes broad-brush assumptions about users with disability and instead emphasize the approach of “designing with, not for” (a phrase attributed to Laurenellen McCann). Given that designers are the people who, through their design choices, decide whether users can access an environment in the end, I think it’s extremely important that they consider the full range of abilities in their user demographic and ask how they can make their designs accessible.

After looking around the Noun Project’s site, I am thinking I would like to use those sort of graphics in my design. The images I could see wanting (depending on the text I go with) are:

Other than graphics, I plan to find a clean, minimalist text off of Font Squirrel to use for my message.

The link to my repository is: https://github.com/cap-alt-delete/visual-argument-2021spring.git

rmanyeka commented 3 years ago

For my visual project I want to emphasize the importance of believing in science. Ever since the pandemic started, there have been so many misconceptions surrounding the science community especially regarding the COVID-19 vaccine and I want my visual project to embody the idea of belieiving scientists, researchers, doctors, etc.

I want the background to have a scientific meaning, maybe a hospital or a lab, or test tubes, im not sure yet, but I do know my project will contain researchers in labs and words saying something like "Believe in Science" or something similar.

Assests List

This list is not final, but I probably plant o fill most of the space with the words.

Link to my repository: https://github.com/rmanyeka/visual-argument-2021spring

kle39 commented 3 years ago

For my visual argument project, I want to represent the idea of “treating yourself”. I would like to focus on sweet treats, specifically ice cream, to illustrate this idea. In order to accomplish this, I have two different avenues to which I am still deciding on which to take. The first would feature an image of a soft serve ice cream cone with the ice cream melting down the side. On one of the “drops” that is melting, I want to have the words “Treat Yourself” typed down the side, preferably on top of the drop. The second avenue would be a dish of hard served ice cream with a silver spoon in the dish, with the words “Treat Yourself” traveling down the handle of the spoon into the dish of ice cream.

Prospective assets: For the first direction

Here is the link to my repository: https://github.com/kle39/visual-argument-2021spring

TrentFoster commented 3 years ago

The argument that I am thinking about making for my visual project is awareness of data privacy. To bring light to the importance of protecting yourself online so the reader does not fall victim to scams, hackers, data breaches, or even big companies taking advantage of their data and selling it off. The internet is a fun and very rewarding place, but it also has some dark corners that I feel not a lot of people are aware of. More specifically the older generations that did not grow up with technology as my generation has. I'd like to present a sort of advertisement image that looks to be an eye opener. A way to show people "Hey this stuff happens, and it is scary."

My assets list as well as the entirety of my project can be found here: https://github.com/TrentFoster/visual-argument-2021spring

Gley21 commented 3 years ago

For my project, I want to make a poster for the philosophy department. As a politics and philosophy major, I'm definitely a little bias when it comes to believing that philosophy is a worthwhile subject, but I'd like to use this opportunity to share my love of philosophy with everyone else! I'd like the image to focus around the word philosophy itself and its definition as "love of wisdom." I want the image to show people how interesting philosophy can be and how adding a little bit of it into your daily life can be really beneficial.

The inspiration for this idea comes from this really cool video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIYdx6lDDhg&feature=emb_logo

And this article: https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/24/what-is-philosophy-for-alain-de-botton/

For the font, I will be using Sofia Pro Light from fontspring.com. The "sophy" part of philosophy comes from the Ancient Greek word "sophos" and the abstract noun version of this word in Greek is "Sophia" so it feels only appropriate for the font to be Sofia.

For the images I want to use some images that are classically related with philosophy (Like the thinking man statue, the brain etc.) mixed with other images that showcase how philosophy would tie into everyday life. I think that maybe the most appealing part of philosophy to the person not interested in it is that it gives you a chance to ask big questions and find the "why." To get this message across I want to use images like question marks and thinking bubbles. I might also play on the classic philosophical conundrum called the "Trolly Problem" to get the viewer thinking about choosing a path that involves philosophy.

Image Asset List:

Here is the link to my repository: https://github.com/Gley21/visual-argument-2021spring

paytonareed commented 3 years ago

Something that I am pretty passionate about is the environment and the importance of sustainability. I think often it is something that people either forget about or don't believe that their actions have any real impact- which they do. My concept for the poster is arguing for people to take a second thought about their everyday actions and to at least start the conversation about larger climate implications. I honestly don't think there is a specific target audience- people of all demographics should feel responsible for saving our planet. My idea for the visual argument is to write at the top "we only have" and then have a large number 1 as the main focal point. Inside the 1 I want to make a collage of a lot of the prettiest places on the planet that need saving, like the polar ice caps and the rainforests. At the bottom of the poster I want to continue the sentence "and we're running out of time". Beside this, I would like to add the world climate clock with the current countdown. Then add the link to the climate clock website so people can continue to do further research.

Link to repository: https://github.com/paytonareed/visual-argument-2021spring

Prospective Asset List: Nature Images from Unsplash Digital clock image from The Noun Project Lettering from Font Squirrel Fading background from white to blue from GIMP

young1m030 commented 3 years ago

I want to use this project to make a visual argument for cancelling student loan debt. I know there's a lot of potential pieces of this argument to include, but right now I'm interested in focusing on 1. the extent of the population who's been forced to take out loans and now has to deal with it, 2. how the cost of college has exploded over the years and 3. the benefits to cancelling student loans (addressing the racial wealth gap, stimulating the economy because money that would be used in other ways). I think it would be too much to do all of this together, but here are some potential assets:

Link to repository: https://github.com/young1m030/visual-argument-2021spring

annaruz commented 3 years ago

For this project, I want to make an argument about public health with my graphic design. I am starting classes with Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health in the fall. Before this pandemic, whenever I mentioned that I wanted to pursue a career in public health, people would ask me what public health was. While I think the majority of people have a better understanding of what public health is during the pandemic, it is easy to overlook the depth of the field. With my designed graphic, I will include some photographs to encapsulate the wide expanse of issues that public health covers from hand washing to wearing a seatbelt to mental health campaigns. Along with the photographs will be a focus on the words "Public Health Matters." Right now, I am planning to get my assets from the source Unsplash. Prospective assets:

Here is a link to my repository.

anatems1 commented 3 years ago

I would like to make a claim that your past does not define your future in this project. For anyone, no matter who you wronged or who wronged you, it is important to know that you can shape a different future for yourself. It is sometimes hard to overcome the struggles that everyone faces in their life, but it is not impossible. I am going to use this project as an inspirational or motivational statement for people to see. As of now, I do not know exactly how I want the project to look, but I do want there to be some kind of comparison of some silhouette persons past to their future. On one side there will be a troubled past with vices and struggles present and on the other side, there will be happiness and joy in the person. In the center of the graphic there will be some kind of transition (either a door or a post pointing to the past and future).

For project files and more information please access My Repository

Prospective assets list: I should be able to either draw some of these graphics or source them from a website such as Unsplash

jackie216 commented 3 years ago

I listened to an NPR podcast recently about how renting and shipping essential bee colonies across the country is an industry standard in crop production and it got me thinking how the "save the bees" slogan has a similar vibe to “reduce, reuse, recycle" in that both slogans are acknowledged as being true and important but the reality of the apocalyptic situation they are trying to prevent isn’t told, or at least not nearly as often.

My visual poster idea has a “save the bees'' thesis but I plan on emphasizing the things we wouldn’t be able to have and the bad things that would happen if bees are annihilated as opposed to going for the more optimistic and comfortable "preservation of nature" vibe. To start, I’ll use easily recognizable and universal images of the types of food that would be a risk and come up with a new short slogan for “save the bees.” I’ll also use lines of honeycomb pattern to direct the viewer’s eyes through a hypothetical series of bad consequences to tell the story of what could happen if bees are not protected.

Link to my repository: https://github.com/jackie216/visual-argument-2021spring Link to my assets: https://github.com/jackie216/visual-argument-2021spring/blob/master/Assets.md

gregsexauer commented 3 years ago

For this project, I plan to argue about my dissatisfaction with contemporary United States politics. Both the Democratic and Republican parties are failures of democracy, as I see it. Both parties are run by ghoulish elites serving the interests of capital, not people. The only difference between them is that one party says the quiet part out loud. My plan is to recreate a presidential debate scene, but the two candidates are two snakes which are really connected as two heads of one snake. One of the snakes will be wearing a blue tie, the other will be wearing a red tie. I might also add a textual element that compares the speech of the two snakes. For instance, the blue snake would say "overflow facility," and the red snake might say "immigrants behind bars." The blue snake would say "spreading democracy," and the red snake would say "bombing foreign countries." Something like that. Repository with assets.md: https://github.com/gregsexauer/visual-argument-2021spring

aer84 commented 3 years ago

One of my all-time favorite movies is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and as I was rewatching it this weekend, I realized what I wanted my project to be. An iconic line from the movie is “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” I think that today this sentiment hits very close to home.

Last year, when the pandemic had begun to wreak havoc on the world, I was disappointed in myself for not enjoying the first two years of my college career more or taking more opportunities to enjoy life. I think that many people felt the same way. I think back to when I was in the service industry and I would see families sitting at a table while all of them were on their phones with little to no conversation. With these thoughts in mind, I put together what I wanted my project to be. I want to recreate the famous picture of Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane in the Art Institute of Chicago except we will see them looking down at their smartphones instead of the art. The subtle quote from Ferris Bueller will be somewhere on the image to make sure the point comes across clearly. The point of this image would be to remind people to get off their phones and enjoy their lives. In terms of the project, I’ll have to adapt a different tilt so viewers can see the phones and the art would barely be in frame (which may present problems for me). I’ll also either take images from the internet and try to edit them or have my friends pose as them for this project.

I also developed a list for the prospective assets list: • Image from the Art Institute of Chicago (probably from the movie) • Willing participants to be Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane (or pictures of them) • Phones/technology • The quote I plan on sourcing most of these images on Google first but then I may look online for websites that pull images/screenshots from movies.

Project Repository: https://github.com/aer84/visual-argument-2021spring.git

hua-tori commented 3 years ago

For my visual project, I want to tackle the subject of mental health, specifically understanding one's own traumas in order to grow and be able to fully love and care for those around us. Although abstract, I believe the tagline "Giving from a place of emptiness only leads to resentment" is a good way to guide the audience to where I want them to be. And then I wish to include numbers to Pitt's counseling center as well as the national mental crisis hotline. With midterms and finals whirling around and the pandemic causing losses everywhere, mental health has been on my mind.

Prospective assets are:

Overall I believe I want to stick with a more simplistic and straightforward design bordering on minimalism. The message in and of itself plus the resources should be enough to get the message across.

This is my link: https://github.com/hua-tori/visual-argument-2021spring

gdelallo commented 3 years ago

As an environmentalist and a prospective environmental/conservational journalist, I care a lot about sustainability. Within the US, we are fooled into thinking recycling is the solution to the waste crisis facing the globe. Although we house a mere 4% of the world's population, we create over 30% of the world's waste. As soon as we were tasked with creating an argumentative collage, I knew I wanted to focus on something that will convince people to be kinder to the Earth by reducing their waste. For my collage, I plan to use a butterfly whose wings are filled with garbage to illustrate how ugly we are making the Earth. Elements I plan on including will include some aggressive language to convey a sense of urgency, bright, saturated colors to make the natural beauty pop while making the waste dull, providing contrast. I will also play around with the font for my phrase, keeping in mind the dominance hierarchy.

Link: https://github.com/gdelallo/visual-argument-2021spring

cmgo412 commented 3 years ago

As others have mentioned, I want to center my visuals project around mental health awareness, especially with regard to burnout and depression. Although this is a relatively broad topic, I think that most people, including myself, deal with it in some capacity because there's an expectation (either from their parents, academic environments, society, etc.) to take on as many responsibilities as possible and that an individual's self-worth is entirely contingent on their productivity. The message I want to convey with my visual graphic might be along the lines of how burnout is a real issue that should be addressed seriously, and that it's becoming increasingly important to be aware of the symptoms to treat it. I'm not entirely sure of this yet, so an alternative message that I thought of that's more related to depression is how others can be too quick to diagnose mental illness as laziness and that it's also important to recognize the symptoms. Speaking from personal experience, I tend to internalize most of the emotions I feel, so I think it's important to emphasize and encourage others to reach out for help either from online resources like teletherapy (because of the pandemic) or to their own support network.

My soundscape repository can be found here. Most of the assets will be sourced online, such as typefaces from Font Squirrel and photos from Unsplash. If time permits, I also want to experiment with photographing and utilizing my own pictures/graphic illustrations for this project.

Prospective Assets List

TBrusilovsky commented 3 years ago

For my project I wanted to do something about climate change and how it is eating away at our plant. I was thinking something like a jagged maw filled with teeth that represent various issues contributing to the crisis closing around a picture of the earth. I will be arguing how these things are literally consuming the earth piece by piece in a very visual manner.

Prospective Assets List

My project can be found here: https://github.com/TBrusilovsky/visual-argument-2021spring

boredhero commented 3 years ago

One of my hobbies, when I'm not pulling all-nighters or playing games, is cooking. My dad was a chef and I enjoy cooking from both a practical and an artistic/expressive perspective. I believe that cooking is a valuable skill and I have a private Snap story where I post step-by-step instructions as I cook sometimes. I routinely get people asking about how to cook, so I've considered at one point or another when my bank account is hovering around $0 hosting a class/instructional service for a small fee where I teach people the basics of ingredient selection, prep work, cooking technique, and walk them through the actual process of cooking the food. For my visual argument, I'd like to make a poster/social media assets (either one or a series, think when you're on Instagram or Snapchat swiping or tapping through things formatted for a mobile phone screen) to advertise this semi-hypothetical service. I'll be using pictures of food and such to illustrate the types of things and techniques I can teach. I might even include a free sampler of a lesson in this. Another fun direction would be some visual stuff that gets across the benefits of cooking for yourself.

Repo Link

Prospective Asset Source
Pictures of Food Self Created & CC Search
Clip Art / Decorative Elements CC Search

img A picture of some compound butter I made with fresh herbs. This was used on steak later.