Disaster

Overexposed to Natural Disaster?

Tacloban mass grave NYTimes

"Ravaged by Typhoon, Philippines Faces Threat of Serious Diseases" on nytimes.com 11.14.2013

I've struggled this week to come up with a topic for viz. It isn't easy to generate new, engaging content week after week. But I was scrolling through various social media platforms this morning, and checking the news, and it was all business as usual until I came across the image above of the first mass grave dug this week in the Philippines for victims of Typhoon Haiyana. 

In a time when it's easier and faster than ever to be informed about events across the globe, and when we confront images daily of places we will never visit or perhaps imagine on our own, I'm struck by how little I've seen from the Philippines this week. It's been a busy week, certainly, and a variety of local news stories (plus that "what-would-I-say" bot) have taken clear precedence on my Facebook feed. Still, I can't help but wonder if my limited encounter with images from this most recent weather disaster is a sign of something other than info glut.

Part II: Suspense is Better than Action

Mushroom Cloud Over Nagasaki

Image Credit: National Archives image (208-N-43888)

Part II: An Objection is Entertained

Last week I argued that suspense makes for more arresting visual effect than does what passes for “action” in Hollywood these days. My main point was that human frailty creates suspense and that psychological realism will do much to improve action cinema. Bigger visuals are not necessarily better at creating an emotional response in the viewer.

Now, you may say to me: Chris, you are not taking into sufficient account how big real visual events have become.

River Rising Part I

walter

In May 2011,  the Mississippi River rose to unprecedented heights, threatening a worst-case scenario of massive flooding throughout metropolitan New Orleans and other outlying regions.Two spillways north of the city opened that month diverting waters into Lake Ponchartrain and the Atchafalaya Basin, but the river still ran high through June.

"She lived happily on this earth for seven years": Ai Weiwei's Subversive Homages

Image credit: Screenshot, "Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei?" Frontline

After last week's posts examining representations of the aftermath of the events in Japan, I was especially taken by moving and controversial images from last night's Frontline piece tonight on Chinese artist Ai Weiwei dealing with the aftermath of the 2008 earthquake that devastated the Sichuan province.

Media Sensationalism and the Crisis in Japan

(Image Credit:  Time Magazine)

Following on the heels of Megan, Cate, and Elizabeth, I've been monitoring media coverage of the disaster in Japan and coming across some interesting points for debate.  I found this Time cover shortly after reading an anonymous letter to Talking Points Memo by a Japanese scholar critiquing Western media coverage of the Fukushima nuclear power plant: 

Cartooning Crisis - Images After the Japanese Tsunami

Pedro Molina, Managua, Nicaragua "El Nuevo Diario"

Ten days after the cataclysmic 8.9 earthquake in Japan, we have only a small sense of both the immediate and long-term consequences for the country.  Political cartoonists world-wide are manipulating the image of the Japanese flag, positioning the crisis as a national tragedy/catastrophe and exploring the aftershocks.  The resulting images are interesting for both their visual simplicity and the complex arguments they (inadvertently?) construct.

Disaster Pedagogy

Japan's flag with a tear instead of a circle

Red Teardrop, via Anota bien.

My class, Rhetoric of Tragedy, is based on the idea that the events we normally label “tragic” are always points of contestation. The right way to remember, what we should do to ensure that it never happens again, who to blame—all of these are controversial questions that provide an opportunity to study how we argue. But it can be hard to talk about these conversations in class, especially when you are looking at visual rhetoric. How do we address these contemporary events without making the classroom an upsetting place?

Picturing "Severe Weather "

            Image Credit: "Hermine Heads Inland," the Weather Channel

 

Not only is it the beginning of the semester for us, but it’s hurricane season  and we, in central Texas, are feeling the effects of Tropical Depression Hermine. Today, I’d like to share a few visual representations of severe weather and begin an investigation of their effects on the viewing public.

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