LaurenMitchell's blog

You are your grades

LaurenMitchell — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:43:15 +0000

This New York Times article discusses the implications of new online systems that allow parents to monitor their children’s grades and attendance.

Titled “I know what you did last Math class,” the article explains that sometimes parents know the results of their children’s tests before they do. Many parents check the system on a daily basis, although some opt not to use the system at all. There are clearly some fantastic advantages to be had from such a system—for working or divorced parents, for students that need a lot of motivation, as well as for detecting warning signs of other problems that the child might be experiencing.

As a surveillance issue this is especially worrisome because these children are essentially becoming their grades. There is no contextual information for the grades. One mother commented that, “’There’s nothing telling you that your kid loves the class but isn’t a good test taker.’” And in a time when the preparation for and pressure surrounding college admissions is beyond ludicrous, it seems to me that creating this sort of relationship with learning and grades will only worsen the situation.

The article comes down with the conclusion that the systems can be very useful if used correctly, but it can be very damaging to the parent-child relationship as well as the learning atmosphere. I think this is a bit excessive for most students. But if you have a child that is deceiving you constantly, this clearly would be a helpful tool. I’m left wondering should we just get used to the advantages and disadvantages of having this much information about each other?

Fashion ads that try not to be fashion ads

LaurenMitchell — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:25:54 +0000

I don’t know what to make of these new ads for Marc Jacobs featuring Victoria Beckham. This New York Times article covering the ads asks “When is a Fashion Ad not a Fashion Ad?” And I’m not sure what the answer is. Jacobs has a history of using images that don’t feature his clothes but are touted as being “interesting” and “provocative.”

According the article’s interview with Jacobs’ photographer, Juergen Teller, he convinced Beckham to do the unusual ads by saying “‘You’re the most photographed woman in the world,’ ” Mr. Teller recalled. “ ‘And fashion nowadays is all about product — bags and shoes — and you’re kind of a product yourself, aren’t you?’ She was, like, ‘Uh, yeah.’ ” So, the ads play with the idea of the celebrity image as a product by actually putting Beckham into the shopping bag.

Jacobs and Teller are trying to move beyond ads that just make the clothes look pretty: “That is what they have attempted to do with Ms. Beckham, whose participation forces a different question than the banality of ‘Is she beautiful?’” However, just a quick sampling of the commentary on the ads in the blogosphere shows that people are focusing on criticism of how Beckham looks, rather than the intended artsy message. For example, there was much discussion and criticism of her bangs and pose in the ad below.

Obama's Design

LaurenMitchell — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 05:31:15 +0000

As far as design goes, Obama has already won the presidency according to this New York Times article.

Apparently continuity in design is crucial to a campaign in the same way that a consistent message is, and Obama has been out-doing McCain and Clinton at least in this arena. Branding expert Brian Collins says that “From the bold ‘change’ signs to their engaging Web site to their recognizable lapel pins, [the Obama campaign has] used a single-minded visual strategy to deliver their campaign’s message with greater consistency and, as a result, greater collective impact.” Obama is also able to send a coherent message via the multitude of different media sources that we’re using today. It doesn’t stop there though--even Obama’s font is hip.

He’s using Gotham, which is modeled after the font used on signs at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. According to Collins, it has a “blunt, geometric simplicity” but also manages to be “warm.” I don’t know about all that, but it looks good to me.

I also found it interesting that he’s been able to personalize his brand through the use of state-specific buttons that fuse a state’s abbreviation letters with his familiar “O” symbol.

I agree with Collins in that it’s appropriate for a man who is clearly in tune with the power of rhetoric to also understand the power of visual rhetoric and design.

Ordering pizza is not so simple

LaurenMitchell — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:54:03 +0000

The ACLU is using this video to promote their campaign to collect signatures for a petition to stop a national ID and database program. The Real ID Act, passed by congress in 2005, would connect all state DMV databases into one interlinked database, “facilitating government tracking of Americans.”

Although the ACLU admits that we haven’t gotten to this point yet, they say that “we are fast approaching a surveillance society where every move, transaction and communication is recorded, compiled, and stored away to be examined and used by the authorities -- and even private corporations --whenever they want.” That last part--that companies will have access to this database--is very disturbing to me. The video plays upon that concern perfectly in giving a simple pizza restaurant access to all sorts of personal information about the customer.

There’s also a hint of a nanny state in that the customer’s health records can restrict what he’s able to buy. Considering how much of our lives happen electronically, it seems that “the system” depicted in the video is a real possibility. I think the bottom line here is that I just don’t want everyone knowing what size pants I’m buying.

Posing for your eating habits

LaurenMitchell — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:43:03 +0000

I’m wondering why the debate over meat-eating and the treatment of animals keeps happening on women’s bodies. This newest addition to the controversy happened on America’s Next Top Model when the contestants were taken to New York’s meat-packing district where they participated in a photo-shoot dressed in various articles of clothing made out of raw meat.

There has been quite a hubbub in response to the episode which aired last week, and it’s not really clear what message Tyra Banks and company were trying to send. PETA’s official statement in response to the episode basically says that they think using raw meat glamorizes the violence and torture of animals. They wish that America’s Next Top Model had dressed their girls up in veggies just like Pamela Anderson did for their ads. A blogger at www.grist.org , an environmentalist blog, thought the images might wake people up to the fact that meat actually comes from somewhere--it doesn’t always look like a pre-packaged hockey puck that waits for you at the grocery store.

Tyra may not have been trying to send any message regarding eating meat. The meat theme is probably a sign that they’re running out of absurd photo-shoot ideas, which is really what the show is based on. However, this would be perfect fodder for Carol J. Adams who looks at how animals-as-food and women are objectified in a very similar way. They are both something to be consumed and something that is asking for that consumption and objectification. I think she’d find that these images illustrate her point beautifully in that both the meat and the women are objectified simultaneously in a way that is very unapologetic about portraying women as purely seductive beings and meat as something to be consumed and butchered.

Food and Warfare

LaurenMitchell — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:56:47 +0000

Here is an amusing/horrifying animation of the history of human conflicts (WWII to the present day), which uses the foods typically associated with the various countries involved to act out the conflicts. It’s called “Food Fight.”

Japan is pieces of sushi, the Arabs are represented by kebab and falafel, the Israelis are bagels and lox, the U.S. is hamburgers and chicken McNuggets, Russia is beef stroganoff, the Vietnamese are those yummy rice noodle wrapped spring rolls.

On one hand, to watch food stereotypes blowing each other up is pretty funny, as is trying to figure out which foods represent which countries. My favorite part is the representation of the Cold War where the hamburger and the beef stroganoff face off, the hamburger keeps adding more and more beef patties, the pile of beef stroganoff gets bigger and bigger, and then they resolve the conflict by just leaving.

However, because it’s a food fight, the mess left behind after they blow each other up can be disturbingly carnage-like, which this gives the whole thing a pretty somber undertone. I found the representation of when the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs on Japan disconcerting: those pieces of sushi were completely charred. And you can’t help but consider the real human beings that were charred after those incidents. The depictions of suicide bombings were also a bit hard to watch since we hear about them every day. The 5½ minute animation also highlights the fact that there has been a war occurring somewhere in the world pretty much continuously since WWII.

The use of food stereotypes highlights the absurdity of warfare while at the same time maintaining a focus on the seriousness of these situations. The foods make these events seem ridiculous, but only up to a point. Because these are real events that have been repeated again and again.

Interior decoration and Psychology

LaurenMitchell — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:13:32 +0000

According to this New York Times article, office décor and location can be very important if you are a psychologist.

Apparently everything, including furniture, wall hangings, books, and office location, both reflects the philosophical underpinnings of a psychologist’s practices and can impact a patient’s response to those practices. A recent article in the journal Psychoanalytic Psychology argued that complications in the therapist/patient relationship may be caused by holding therapy sessions in the therapists’ homes, where too much information about the therapist’s private life may be brought into the therapy session via the more personal office environment. However, other psychologists argue that there’s also a danger in creating too clinical of a setting--one that’s entirely devoid of all personal effects.

The article discusses some very interesting examples of this phenomenon: one very strictly Freudian therapist placed nude watercolors of herself in her waiting room, another offered patients a place to sit on a dirty couch with cheap stuffed animals on it, and a child psychologist placed a book of Robert Mapplethorpe nudes on the coffee table of the waiting room.

If your style choices are statements about who you are, then it only makes sense that in a field where identification between patient and therapist are critical personal style could have some pretty serious repercussions.

He knows us so well

LaurenMitchell — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:54:03 +0000

This photo of Adrien Grenier had me totally pegged as I perused celebrity blog perezhilton.com in an effort not to do any of my real work.

But I really like the idea of a celebrity sending a message back to us, observing what we are doing at that very moment in such a completely accurate way while we try (or maybe Perez Hilton tries) to describe and make judgments about what he's up to.

I'm reminded of those shirts Britney Spears used to wear, in that those were sort of an anticipation of what the viewer was thinking about her, instead of about what, in this case, the viewer is doing.

In both of these cases there's a weird fusion of watching, making judgments, and sending messages that make reciprocal judgments all in one image.

Hoping to use al-Qaeda's propaganda against them?

LaurenMitchell — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 07:43:12 +0000

This article from the BBC Middle East shows that the U.S. military and Iraqi government hope that some visual evidence will help them to win “hearts and minds” in their efforts to rid Iraq of al-Qaeda.

After raiding an al-Qaeda hideout north of Baghdad, coalition forces found videos of young boys brandishing guns and grenades. The videos show about 20 boys running around with machine guns, staging mock kidnappings, and in one scene putting a pistol to the head of their “hostage.” The videos are apparently part of al-Qaeda propaganda aimed at attracting new recruits. But American and Iraqi officials hope that the “images might persuade Iraqis to turn against the Islamic militants.” It’s interesting that we’re hoping these images will turn Iraqi’s off to such activities and al-Qaeda is hoping that they will turn people on to their cause.

Walls

LaurenMitchell — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:29:59 +0000

This piece in the BBC News UK "Fenced in--or out," is an interesting discussion of the symbolism and uses of walls.
The article looks how walls were used in the Victorian era when they purportedly created order in society mainly by keeping those that were not welcome out. Consequently, walls and gates were often the target of abuse during protests, a practice that hasn't gone out of style.
The article also looks the literal and figurative walls of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain. Finally, it considers the contrast between the U.S.'s position on the Berlin wall and the one that we intend to build along our border with Mexico.

This collection of some of the most famous walls in history makes me wonder if walls are always a bad thing? Are they always a symbol of the power of the state to control the public geographically? Do they have their purposes? or must they always be a target of protest?

Square America

LaurenMitchell — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 07:10:49 +0000

If you're interested in amateur photography or early twentieth century life in the U.S., check out this site Square America. The site consists of collections of photographs found at garage sales and flea markets of American life during the first three quarters of the twentieth century. Interestingly, there are two collections of photographs of what was on television: one of the TV coverage of JFK's death, another of women on TV (the person who took these liked to take photos of women in soap operas and movies). There's also a collection of biracial and homosexual couples in the 70's, one entirely of wedding photos, and one titled "Guns! Guns! Guns!" It's a great peek into the reality of everyday American life, as well as a look at homemade images of the major themes of American culture.

Do you know where your manholes came from?

LaurenMitchell — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:30:18 +0000

Adam Huggins, a free-lance photograph for the New York Times recently made a visual argument that caused a lot of people to pay attention to manholes.

Huggins went to the foundry in India where all manholes used on New York City streets are made and photographed the working conditions there, finding men with little clothing and no shoes handling molten metal of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The slideshow Huggins produced convinced Con Edison, another buyer of the manholes, to rewrite its international contracts to include safely requirements. The attention disturbed the American buyers of the manholes, and worried the Indian factory owners, who were concerned about lost contracts and jobs. Apparently, in addition to worrying about where, and under what conditions our fake Louis Vuitton bags and new Nike’s are made, we need to worry about the manholes. Huggins work is another illustration of how images make a powerful argument.

Security Vests and Doctoring Photos

LaurenMitchell — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:12:53 +0000

Although Cannon probably sells a lot of photography equipment to journalists, according to a www.news.com article, they made some of these loyal customers very angry when the NFL made it mandatory for photojournalists to wear a red vest with the Cannon logo on it for "security" reasons.

The NFL claimed that the logo was just a representation of the financial support of Cannon, but the photographers objected to being forced to become walking (and photographing) advertisements for Cannon. The claim is clear on that one; if you're a professional photographer and you're walking around with a Cannon logo on your chest, people MIGHT make a connection between the two.

The image above also illustrated how Cannon is also involved in other forms of questionable advertising. This ad shows professional photographers using lenses on the end of the white lens hoods. There shouldn't be lenses on the end of lens hoods; that negates the purpose of the hood. Here's another photo that's un-altered to compare:

So they used these photographers for an ad, and then altered the photo, implicating the photographers in their rather unethical statement.

It's interesting to see a company whose credibility is based on their savvy about images, using images so carelessly. They're using these images to make claims that are false.

Text or Image, why must we favor one over the other?

LaurenMitchell — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:00:32 +0000

I just saw a talk given by Katherine Hayles here at UT. Hayles is arguing that literary criticism is missing something when it ignores the material aspects of a text. She calls for a new form of literary criticism that she terms media-specific analysis. This form of criticism views the material aspects of a text as contributing as much to the meaning of a text as the text itself. She showed two examples of electronic texts that make visual arguments at the same time that they make textual arguments.

One was Lexia to Perplexia by Talan Memmott. This text takes control away from the reader by using text that disappears suddenly, text that becomes unreadable when you roll the mouse over it. Essentially, the movement of the mouse can unexpectedly change what is on the screen. The words and images are fused in this text. The create significance together because the words are part of the images.
The other text that Hayles showed during her talk was Nippon by Young-Hae Chang. Nippon uses moving text and music at the same time. Half the screen is red with white English words and half white with red Japanese characters. The words and characters move at a readable pace and then too fast to be read. It alternates between the two. The size of the letters also changes as well as the method by which they appear on the page. The text is also synchronized with the music. So this text has audio, visual, and textual characteristics which contribute to its meaning.
These two texts are examples of a fusion of visual and textual rhetoric. One is not subordinate to the other in the way that captions are to images, or images serve merely as examples of what is being discussed in a text.

The Statue Controversy

LaurenMitchell — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:07:37 +0000

Because the purpose of memorials is to represent and remember a person or event, they make arguments. Once there is representation, there is argument. It's also clear that memorials make arguments because people get very excited about how and where someone or something is represented. That’s why the rebuilding of the Twin Towers site is still being discussed. This sort of passionate argument about memorials is also seen in University of Texas at Austin's statue situation. One part of the UT statue controversy is that many have called for the removal or modification of statues of those famous confederates Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. This is not a new controversy and complaints have been made for years.

In addition to this, the University is attempting to diversify its statues in order to counter-balance the confederate representatives. This can be seen in the Martin Luther King statue installed in 1999 and the more recent statues of Cesar Chavez, which was just unveiled, and Barbara Jordan, which is still in the works. The Barbara Jordan statue is particularly interesting as an example of visual rhetoric, and maybe body-language rhetoric, because the design has gone through two versions. Barbara Jordan was the first African American to represent a southern state in Congress, and the first design had her sitting on a bench leaning back as if to take something out of a briefcase. Supporters of this design felt that it conveyed her as a politician of the people (anybody can sit next to her on that bench), who was not controlled by special interests during her time in office. Dissenters said that it didn’t portray her power or strength. Some said it didn’t look like her, and others wondered why she had to sit while other white, male statues such as Davis and Lee got to stand. In any case, that design was scrapped, and now they have a new one with her standing tall, hands on hips. I can’t see how you can get more powerful than that. Clearly who gets a statue and what that statue looks like says a lot about what people and what events are important to UT.