Visual Appeal, Rough Draft.

http://prezi.com/uqzvhvi98pim/rhe-330e/ (link to Prezi)

The College Labyrinth

             In my visual argument I claim that living the college life gives us all a guideline for becoming adults, but the path to victory is double-sided.  For every happy memory, there is a sad one to follow suit, but once we get to the end, we are relieved for having made it to the finish line.  I confirm this argument by showing the happy side of college life, the side that we all, or most, look forward to, and compare it with the strenuous fight it takes to relieve lots of stress and earn our degree along the way. 

            The first image in my Prezi is the UT tower at night lit up blazing with orange, bearing the number one to show our great victory.  The UT tower is the first or one of the first things every student and prospective student sees at UT.  It marks the start of a great year and makes us all feel happy to have pride in our school.  The second image displays what we get to do in our free time.  Not everyone attends the football games, but the great majority of us has attended at least one game and knows the feeling of pride and joy as the cannon sounds or of the booming roar of the crowd.  UT football unites us all as one big mass and shows the pride and joy of thousands of colleges students brought together.

            The third and fourth images show the opposite sides of how campus and our minds look when we are under a lot of pressure.  The Twilight Zone-resembling tower creates feelings of stress and pulls us into a world we cannot escape, which could be finals, mid-terms, roommate problems, or any of the endless lists of college anxieties.  The image of cram studying is one we are all familiar with.  It creates stress and anxiety because cram studying feels exactly like what the picture displays, having our heads crushed by knowledge.

            The fifth, sixth, and seventh images represent our friends, loved-ones and our enemies.  Having a girlfriend or boyfriend evokes a lot of happiness and is a great anxiety-free tool.  They can be our best friends and each of us that has one know we go to them to seek comfort in our stressful times.  The sixth picture is of the familiar Delta Tau Chi boys of Animal House.  They are a brotherhood of friends who will take care of each other through thick and thin.  They represent the best friends you’ve made along the way who make you feel happy and safe when you need someone to talk to or lean on; but with each friend you make you have someone who is out there to haze you, to hurt you, to make you feel wanted and then thrown out.  The sixth picture, although humorous, shows us that we will be tested by fake friends along the way.

            The last two images can basically be formed into one.  Feelings of happiness arise knowing we have made it through some of our toughest years.  We have a foundation laid out for us and feel accomplished through each painstaking step we’ve taken.  The final image is not only a picture, but a symbol that represents who we are and where we’re from.  UT’s hook-em sign symbolizes pride in our school, our state, and ourselves and makes us all feel extremely happy knowing that we go to UT.  Whether we’ve sported it in a Facebook picture, at a football game, or to acknowledge a friend, the hook-em sign brings us all together as the UT family and shows that each picture was a step forward in our path to making it through college.

Photos

1.              Private Collection

2.               http://www.neuhaus.org/attachments/contentmanagers/4167/UT_football.jpg  4/2/11.

3.              http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3341/3205940138_5a2a4e8bb6.jpg  4/2/11

4.              https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13IkS8lMovJ1OfKzJYcPE8HzM9a1SdWe4L5C2vgMwj-QBKhvi5TofKmCOgoDQcR6ANaz6wDaG-oLaEnlUX4VSjjhrccilELw68-gHLCG2b2CpLg_jFv9VZ0UixlmsUMW90FUYYqYBZ_I/s400/cramming.jpg  4/3/11

5.              http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nationallampoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07  3/30/11

6.              http://www.about-alcohol-info.com/college-couple-smiling-while-having-fun-drinking.jpg  4/3/11

7.              http://www.walltaping.com/duct%20tape%20images/duckta83.jpg  4/4/11

8.              http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jun/group-no-graduation.jpg  4/4/11

9.              Private Collection.

Massumi Blog Number 2

In chapter 1 Massumi talks a lot about levels of intensity of emotions by showing the example of the students analyzing the German film.  He notices, oddly, that the students seem to connect the sadder images as being more emotionally pleasant.  I was having a pretty hard time understanding why this happened so let me know what you all think or if it's even important at all.



Another part I found interesting was at the end of chapter one when Massumi connects affect to emotion.  He says that although they are used as a synonym for each other "they follow different logics and pertain to different orders." 

An emotion, Massumi says, "is a subjective content, the sociolinguistic fixing of the quality of an experience which is from that point onward defined as personal.  Emotion is qualified intensity, the conventional, consensual point of insertion of intensity into semantically and semiotically formed progressions, into narratavizable action-reaction circuits, into function and meaning."  Confusing definition, but I think it's saying that emotion is what defines our reaction to certain thing and what shows how we perceive the meaning of situations into some form of "action and reaction." 

The difference between emotion and affect is that "affect is unqualified.  It is not ownable or recognizable, it is thus resistant to critique."  Help me out on this one guys, I'm not sure how it can be unrecognizable when your bodily actions show your affect to an emotion,  Maybe I'm not looking at it right or not translating right, but let me know what you think.

Transmission of Affect Chapters 3-5 (Mainly Chapter 3)

Brennan first says that the transmission of affect is a theory of the group.  "It is also a theory of the group based on what is produced by the group" (Brennan 51).  Aristotle said that emotions can often flow much greater when used to appeal to a group, which is what I think Brennan is saying.  She makes a more interesting point though when she writes "the emotions of two are not the same as the emotions of one plus one" (Brennan 51).  Brennan is saying that with a group, emotions will be different when one person is appealing to two or more people rather then two groups coming to each other with different emotions.

The thing that I thought was weird was how she says "each of us will take onboard the effects of this new composite" (Brennan 51).  So if my group is angry, and the opposing group is happy, the clash of the two groups will create some emotion in the middle?


Moving on to the next interesting point on pages 59-60.  Brennan compares to Aristotle's views on group emotion yet again by saying "Critically, the crowd adds nothing new to what the individual would do if he were by himself.  The individual behaves just as he would behave alone, only more so.  He behaves more so because the sights and sounds facilitate an increased fervor int he responses of each" (Brennan 60).  To me, this is defining peer pressure.  We all have to feel some emotion on a certain level of intensity, but with a group feeling the same emotion, its level of intensity rises up.  It seems like it can be compared to rumors going through the grapevine.  The more people hear about it, the more real it becomes.

Revision: DeBeers Diamond Ad Visual Analysis

Note: for this revision I have made my paragraphs easier to read and have made the sentences flow better.  I took out one connection of Aristotle that did not fit (confidence and kindness).  I also changed the focus of the main pathetic appeal, which I first had as humor to a sense of sexiness and reigniting a boring marriage.  Lastly, I didn't narrate so much so the analysis sounds more like analysis.

Reed Daw

The image I have chosen comes from a DeBeers diamond ad.  Although at first I thought this ad would be directed strictly for women, it is for men as well who want to reignite their first-date sparks.  I assume they are hammering out as many of these ads as possible for the upcoming Valentine’s holiday, which is why it is directed toward men.  All men want for Valentine’s Day is a simple gift, while finding the right present for your wife is a much more strenuous process.  I think the audience is married, upper-middle class couples who have solid foundations and jobs.  The families have above average status; they drive a nice car, live in a two-story house, and live a very comfortable life.  The affected audience isn’t overly rich because although they have everything they need, a diamond is only given as a gift for special occasions.   Even though this ad is for men I found it advertised in adult women’s and men’s magazines such as Vogue, Ms. Magazine, O, GQ, Esquire, and Men’s Journal. I think DeBeers advertises in women’s magazines so the woman can drop a hint to her husband about what she wants.  I think women find this ad humorous and seductive at the same time, which entices them to want a DeBeers diamond.  The DeBeers ad will be displayed in men’s magazines with the hopes that a husband will be able to bring his wife back to their first kiss, his proposal, or some other equally memorable moment.

                The DeBeers ad has a solid black background with one picture (diamonds) and one sentence.  The words are sprawled out in different sizes in huge bright white font that reads in all caps: “HEY, WHAT DO YOU KNOW, SHE THINKS YOU’RE FUNNY AGAIN.”  The different font sizes are used to catch the audience’s attention and even if you skip some of lines the message is still clear.  This strategy is effective because at a quick glance you will read “HEY, YOU’RE FUNNY AGAIN,” making the audience curious about the ad without having to read the whole thing.  Clearly, DeBeers wants us to buy this or any set of beautiful diamonds they have, knowing it will make our significant others that much happier with themselves and with us.

            The color of the ad is very important; De Beers uses the two black and white colors for a reason, it looks elegant and adds an emotional appeal to the ad.  White and black scream out sleekness, class, and a sense of sexiness as well.  All the top car ads: BMW, Mercedes, etc., show shadow-like black cars that make you feel confident and popular.  The color contrast gives off a “Ying-Yang/Male-Female,” type of energy that makes buying a diamond feel right.   

The emotion this ad wants to bring out in the audience is a sense of desire; what woman doesn’t want a diamond that is “forever,” a stone that will re-ignite those first-date sparks?  The solid black background reminds me of a darkening cave, representing your days counting down to get the perfect gift.  By having everything you could already want the ad shows that a diamond is forever, meaning that this is a perfect, unique gift that can never be replaced and will be remembered forever.   The bright words and diamonds are the light at the end of the tunnel, our talisman to success, and of course the punch-line, “A diamond is forever,” says that your relationship with your woman will create new levels of happiness when you purchase the diamonds.   

Another emotion the ad wants to evoke in the audience is confidence through humor.  DeBeers is showing this through the struggles of finding the perfect gift for your wife.  The diamond is a symbol that defines you as the number-one husband this Valentine’s Day.  The diamond is your ticket to a perfect Valentine’s Day and your woman will forget your acquired beer-belly and will remember you as her new, sexy, perfect man.

On the other hand, having the mindset of a broke, wifeless college student created a different reaction to the ad for me.  The first time I looked at this image it provoked anger because of what the title reads.  Why the heck do I need to get my significant other a diamond for her to like me?  It made me feel inferior because if I have no money, then can I not make my wife happy?  I think that if I had the money and a loving woman to buy the diamond for, my thoughts would be different. 

                The connection the ad made to Aristotle was to my thoughts and his analysis of anger.  At first it doesn’t seem like his definition of anger connects with the ad: “an impulse, accompanied by pain, to a conspicuous revenge for a conspicuous slight directed without justification towards concerns oneself or towards what concerns one’s friends” (Book 2, Part 2).  The impulse of anger asks the question of why a wife needs diamonds in order to be happy, but if my pain can be defined as buying love through materialistic things, then that would define it accurately, but I also had the pain of wishing women didn’t care about these sorts of things. 

                 DeBeers wants men to want to be loved by their wives more, and what other way than to purchase them a huge, flawless diamond?  Who would’ve known that through the power of a diamond, your woman will remember the first time she met and fell in love with you?  DeBeers apparently, and through this ad they have shown that you cannot let your wife go without their beautiful selection on Valentine’s Day.  DeBeers uses a carefully laid out strategy of making the audience feel like they must buy these diamonds in order to bring back those first date sparks!  Either way, the ad is effective in producing the sense of need and want for what will end in an ecstatic wife and a continuous happily married couple.

Transmission of Affect blog

This book was really technical I thought, which I can just translate into a book that confused me most of the time.

But for the times I did find catchy things, I thought Brennan and Aristotle had some interesting points to compare with each other.

At the very beginning of chapter one Brennan is showing the "transmission of affect" and how it works its way into everyone.  "There are many psychological clinicians who believe that they experience the affects of their patients directly" (Brennan 2).  Aristotle said that we share our emotions and that one of the most persuasive ways of persuading your audience is to really feel the emotion yourself, or at least act that you do.  Another person we read, (can't remember who), wrote a section about how when we act, we tend to feel certain emotions.  He/she used the example of faking a smile; when you do this you too feel the emotion of happiness even though you are pretending or faking the feature.  I think this part is important because whatever emotions you have are going to shed onto whomever you're venting them too, and vice versa.

Moving much further ahead to chapter 2 is Brennan's section on Drives and Objects: Affects and Attention.  Brennan says "the drive propels the affect; it is in large part the stuff out of which the affect is made" (Brennan 34).  So, here's my question directed toward your thoughts...What do you think about our drive and the affect it has on us.  Would you say it's like Brennan's description, "The indebtedness of the affects to the drives is plain if we reflect on the way that affects...  If i am depressed, it may be because i have turned the affect of anger back against myself rather than directing it toward another" (Brennan 34)?  Or do you have an answer of your own for the purpose or level of intensity of our drive?  This seemed like somewhat of a good quote to sum up his first thoughts on the drive.

All the parts I read were on page 34 so you don't have to go crazy looking through the book.

Written Pathetic Argument

I am making the claim that eating disorders are addictive and dangerous diseases that many young girls are being diagnosed with.  I hope to guide you through the emotions of feeling sad, and having sympathy and understanding towards the evils of bulimia and anorexia.  I will be showing these first emotions with a diary of a young girl who was diagnosed with anorexia due to being made fun of for being overweight when she was in fact at the perfect weight.  I will also show statistics and facts on these eating disorders and how they are very serious and hurting a big number of the population.


After I have informed and shown my claim on eating disorders I hope to evoke feelings of confidence, positive energy, and clarity knowing that we now have the information to prevent a friend or loved one from falling victim to these horrible diseases.  I end my argument with some signs to show what to look for with someone who you suspect is developing an eating disorder along with the steps to take to confront them to reach their path to being healed and cleared of all negative emotions that follow these disorders.



The link to my written argument:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19F9duEvnvUWd21Ctr7ZBqE5PojiMjof_V2o8phpVegY/edit?hl=en&authkey=CI_I0pMG&pli=1#