Month: September 2019

Image

In order to properly justify a paradigm shift, there must be an observable change in all aspects of civic engagement. Starting with structures of attention, the introduction of social media and the iPhone has undoubtedly succeeded in pulling the youth’s focus- regarding interactions ranging from social interactions to political commentary-call into their devices screen. The undeniable dependence on the news delivering functions, now seamlessly integrated into every smart device, has made it nearly impossible to stay up to date on all facets of news and daily social interactions without burying your head in your phone. The underlying significance of having the phone become the core structure to which the world puts their attention on is that Society has begun to integrate more daily tasks into the digital sphere ( shopping, working out, getting food, etc) further enhancing the pull of attention that the internet as a whole has on the world.

 

Moving on to everyday life, the previously mentioned movement into the digital sphere by companies in order to gain  a larger share of the public’s attention have resulted in a generation where The Internet functions as a necessity to life. Banking, applying for jobs checking your grades looking into upper education opportunities are all tasks that have become totally digitized. Now these things might not directly draw people towards into the clutches of social media, but the fact that they’re integrated so seamlessly onto the same platform which social media creates the sense that there is no escaping the race towards total smartphone dependency. Finally, the functions of government and the civic infrastructures that the globe runs on are slowly but surely truing to the internet. Apply to vote, setting appointments at the DMV, applying for visas and getting involved in political campaigns are all becoming dependent on internet access- specifically the same devices that social networking are dependent upon. Considering the current administration, twitter has become a necessity for any citizen that wants to stay up to date on the presidents daily actions.

 

In most things, the government is the slowest to adopt new systems of operation- so the growing dependency on the social media interface from the leaders of the world are a sure sign that the shift into the digital age is here to stay. Considering all of these things, the structures of the public’s attention, the convenient flow of everyday tasks and the civic infrastructures that run the country are all migrating towards dependence on some form of social media, it is indisputable that a paradigm shift has occurred.

Link Here

The image above depicts a group of African american protesters burning an American flag in front of Maxine Waters California office. The story as reported is that the group had assembled as a counter protest to another protest being held by the far right group the Oath Keepers. After the group assembled a truck with an american flag on the back was stopped by the group and the flag was ripped off. The flag was burned in the parking lot to cheers of “Black Power”, “Resist”, and most significantly “This is not the American Flag this is their flag.”

The article was published by Fox news with the underlying intent being to portray people on the opposite side of the political in a negative light yet a deeper meaning can be derived from this image. The underlying message of the protests burning the flag is that the current circumstances of american does not live up the the ideologies (liberty/democracy) the country was founded upon. This image argues that the structures we have built up upon the founding ideologies of the constitution and bill of rights are not being properly upheld. I am drawn to this artifact because my artifact speech has lead me to analyse the usage of  “American” common places (the flag, the pledge of allegiance, the national anthem, etc.) as a mouthpiece to criticize political realities. Using their well developed intrinsic messages to critique the current state of affairs.

What makes this so interesting to explore is that many people, at first glance, will shake this images off as people who hate the country and feel oppressed, etc. But the explicit quote “This is not the American flag, this is their flag” provides evidence that this is not the case- these people are not attacking this country simply expressing their desire to fix it (in the way they best see fit). So I plan to compare and contrast how the people in Hong Kong praising the flag and the people in California publicly burning the flag both result in civic appeals for political change. 

Image

At some point in everyone’s life the question “When are you going to settle down” changes into “when are you going to have kids?”. These innocent questions are soon replaced with a tectonic shift in the social weighting of personal success. People begin to derive social status through how many kids they have and how successful the little ones are. This culture of living vicariously through your kids is epitomized in the family stick figure bumper sticker. Where families make sure everyone around them knows just how big and great their families are.

 

 Enter the childless couple sticker (above). Primal human pride, in this case, bragging about one’s family in order to make oneself look better to others(especially on your car) is the common pace which this sticker’s argument is based. The obvious rhetorical interpretation from the sticker is that instead of having kids, this couple decided to keep their money – worthy of a good chuckle. The logos of the argument is simply that not having kids is not something to be ashamed of, there are trade offs financially which more than warrant a fair bit of bragging.

 

What makes this bumper sticker so effective in conveying this logical appeal can be found in the underlying irony. Although I have been making lofty claims about pride motivating families to brag about the size of their families, a key feature of such bumper sticker is that it isn’t outwardly pompous. The typical stick figure family is generally irritating only towards people without children. The subtleness of this gut punch adds to how irritating those stickers are. 

 

By literally putting a stack of money in place of a long line of children, the image indicates that, first, the children are what others have been bragging about and, secondly,  raise the question-compared to a financial ease who’s really winning? This subtle irony adds a spice of humor to the message and makes the logos behind not having kids a very convincing argument.

 

This image illustrates two things, literally the painting is depicting Queen Elfrida having her step son killed so her biological son Ethelred could take the throne. The second, and more valuable utility of the painting, is the depiction of the classic motif of the servant capitalizing on the perfect moment to kill the king. This painting is the quintessential example of how an image can depict a moment’s kairos. Starting with the color palette, the king is adorned in vibrant colors along with his horse. He is placed in the from of the image and stands looming over the rest of the characters depicted. This demonstrates to the observer his stature and power compared to the other people in the image. On his hips hangs a long golden sword implying his physical might and his influence over the armed forces creating the embodiment of human power. Contrast this with the dark color palette and comparatively smaller dagger of the assassins in the back. Their simpler clothes indicate a lack of wealth and the mere shortness of the sword illustrates the lack of power and influence compared with the king. Combining these things the viewer can feel emotional appeal to the jealous and longing of the people in the back- helping to create a sense of relatability.

The people are tilted in such a way that the viewer can clearly see the king is distracted by the women ( literally his step mother) allowing for the perfect moment for all of his power and wealth – demonstrated in the subtleties of his attire- to be snatched away from him. Taken together, this results in an image that that successfully captures the exact moments the man in the back has the chance to take everything they have ever dreamed of. To complete the overwhelming kairos embedded in this image we can also look at what is distracting the king. The king appears to be distracted by the golden chalice being held up right in front of him, the quickness a person takes to empty a cup implies a sense of fleeting to the scene. The sense of brevity that this small detail adds to an already colossal moment really hammers home the feeling that one is looking at a monumental moment for the paupers in the background, and the viewers can’t help but be excited for them. In culmination with the pathos depicted in the robbers, the viewer of the images can feel the mangled excitement as the ‘common man’ raises his dagger. The creation of pathos through the reliability of the assassin in the back in addition to the logical implication of the scene embodies the ideas and emotions of the timeless moment results in the kariotic appeal to the viewer to look for there moment to kill the king.