viz.

History:

The Visual Rhetoric workgroup has continued to develop viz., a portal for visual rhetoric research and pedagogy devoted to visual culture and its effects on society and in the classroom. During the 2008-2009 year, the site averaged around 4600 unique visitors per month. In recent semesters, members of the visual rhetoric workgroup have updated the site's blog and expanded its static content. The newest additions to viz. include interviews with scholars working in visual rhetoric, a number of new assignments, an introduction to graphic design as visual rhetoric, and a Creative Commons-licensed slideshow introduction to visual analysis for classroom use. The Visual Rhetoric workgroup project leaders have also promoted viz. as a resource for both first-time and veteran instructors of visual rhetoric by nominating the site for the John Lovas Memorial Weblog Award sponsored by Kairos. In 2008, the developers for this group received the CWRL's 2007 Mastery of Electronic Media in Education (MEME) award for the pedagogical tools developed in conjunction with this project.

Objectives:

• Raise awareness of viz. by promoting the site and, when possible, submitting it for recognition (in the form of awards), review, or inclusion in other blog rolls.
• Regularly post to the blog.
• Add new static content to the site, including new interviews, assignments, and theory pages, each semester.
• Explore new publication types to enhance the site, possibly including reviews of various subjects (films, books, etc.), slidecasts, or other visually-oriented projects (i.e. static content that includes original visual components).
• Rethink and revise the site's bibliography by expanding and annotating it.
• Draft and implement a plan for crediting authors who work on the static portion of the site.
• Rethink elements of the site's design and/or elements of the layout of the front page.

Deliverables:

• One blog entry per group member per week (15 entries total for each semester).
• New static content, including assignments, articles, reviews, interviews, or other content developed in conjunction with project leaders (at least one contribution per semester), with visual content.