viz. - Class Activity

The University: instituting culture, institutional culture

Jillian Sayre — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:44:27 +0000

This summer I taught a rhetoric course that focused on the idea of a University. The course used Cardinal Newman's nineteenth-century treatise as a jumping off point but also looking at other ways a university might define itself as an institution. One of the more interesting discussions in class was one in which we investigated the relationship between art and the university...

The University of Texas, our home institution and object of study, has an archive (describing itself as a "world-renowned cultural institution") that not only houses important pieces of visual, textual, and performing art but also has its own galleries to put these objects on display. The building itself was recently renovated, and the atriums converted into "galleries" themselves that display the Center's significant collections on etched glass windows:

This is in addition to the University's art museum (a "cultural gateway"), which opened one of its two new buildings last year, a 124,000 square foot space that houses more than 17,000 works of art. When the museum opens its second building next year it will be the largest university museum in the country.
The space, time, manpower, and of course money (the Blanton project is estimated at $85 million) that the University has invested in art is somewhat astounding and the questions we asked in class were somewhere along the following lines:
How does collecting and displaying art further the mission of the university? What do these collections argue about the nature of the university among other institutions? Of the University of Texas among other universities? Does this accumulation at the level of high culture stand in contrast to the modern, investment-model university or can it also serve its mission?

Their answers were varied and interesting, but I won't offer them here. What I will do is give you the outline of a related assignment from the class. One obvious connection the university holds to visual art is through its use of sculpture and statue. These are everywhere on campus, offering the public an image of the University's values through its association with the figure. I gave them a map of statues around campus and asked them to explore.

Umlauf's Torchbearers outside the FAC

I told them that their task was to find and analyze one piece of public art on campus. That it should be a statue or sculpture visible to the public (not inside a building or in the art museum). Their job was to discover the argument of the piece and to consider the argument the university makes about itself by making the piece part of its public space.

Mac vs. PC in the classroom

erinhurt — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:43:46 +0000

When teaching a rhetoric course, I love to use the Apple Commercials to show my students an example of real-world ethos.

We talk about the various logical arguments that these commercials make (e.g. Macs don't get viruses, their applications are geared towards creative projects, they are easy to use, etc.). Then we look at how these commercials construct a Mac ethos literally through clothing, posture, body language, etc. One that works particularly well is the Counselor Ad, in which Mac is able to compliment PC but PC can only find rude things to say in response. My students have a good time close-reading this commerical and pointing out how PC's appearance and actions are meant to influence our own feelings towards the Mac product.

UT Visual Rhetoric Presentation

Nate Kreuter — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 20:00:55 +0000

Since fall of '06 I have been giving a PowerPoint visual rhetoric presentation in UT's RHE 306 and RHE 309K classes. The presentations have been pretty successful and seem well received by students and instructors alike. I have had some requests to distribute the presentation but have been holding off for a couple of reasons: 1) the presentation is composed almost entirely of coprighted material and unlimited distribution would almost certainly violate the fair use terms under which I am currently using the materials; 2) the images I included are often controversial, for a variety of reasons, and I am hesitant to distribute the presentation to instructors without backgrounds in visual rhetoric or who might not be attuned to some of the delicate classroom issues some of the images present.

But fear not. I have plans to finish, in the near future, a similar presentation composed entirely of public domain images that are also of a less controversial nature. Additionally, I will be leading a workshop for instructors on the UT campus sometime soon (date, time and location TBA) that will give me a chance to address some of the project's liabilities face-to-face with instructors.

And, as many people know, the presentation features the now infamous Facebook Ambush, of which there is a great discussion on our pedagogy blog at: http://pedagogy.dwrl.utexas.edu/?q=node/162

PowerPoint 101

moserjos — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 16:09:53 +0000

Notes for the Instructor: This assigment is designed to introduce students to Microsoft's PowerPoint presentation software. Students are asked to work in groups and create presentations related to the content of the course (the instructor may wish to generate a list of acceptable topics). This assignment is designed to last no more than 2 or 3 class meetings: students will choose (or be assigned) their groups and topics, work on the presentations outside of class, and then present them to their peers. Students are also asked to submit a two-page paper describing the process of working on the project; instructors may choose to tweak this aspect of the assignment according to the goals of the course.

Assignment Description: Becoming familiar with PowerPoint

Category: Group project

Goals: This project is designed to introduce students to Microsoft’s PowerPoint software and give them practice in using it by producing an organized presentation to be given in class.

Tasks:

Working in groups of (around) four students, create a PowerPoint presentation incorporating both images and text.
Each presentation should be organized around a clearly defined topic related to class discussions and readings.
Presentations should focus on being both informative and interesting.

Guidelines:

Each presentation must contain a minimum of 10 slides and last approximately 10 minutes.
Students must incorporate both text and images into their presentation; additionally, the images need to be informative and clearly related to the content of the presentation.
Each group must also hand in, on the day of their presentation, a 2-page paper describing the presentation and reflecting on the process of creating it.
These 2-page papers need to be double-spaced, use a font of no more than size 12, and include the names of all four group members.

Suggestions: Groups will be given some time to work on their projects in class, but are also expected to meet at least once outside of class to discuss the topic, plan the presentation, and divide different responsibilities among members of the group.