Abstract
Despite the recent flurry of interest in the visual, the written word continues to dominate as both the focus and medium of deep analysis. I suggest that we ought to challenge this paradigm by questioning the privileging of the verbal in western culture in general and the academy in particular. I propose that one way to do so is to elevate visual rhetoric to equal status with verbal rhetoric. Unfortunately, when visual entities are “elevated,” the “elevator” commonly turns to framing strategies that isolate artifacts from the broader cultural contexts in which they are created and used. Not only does this strategy encourage narrowly defined analysis based on visual form, it perpetuates a separate, but not quite equal status for visual rhetoric. Instead, I suggest design historians should explore the narrative encoded into design artifacts by analyzing the ways in which cultural content is distilled and then instilled in the design process, and then ultimately expressed in the use and visual form of design artifacts. This approach reveals complex narratives that are not readily apparent to most people. By investigating this visual meaning, I suggest design historical work is likely to yield insights that both pure visual analysis and verbally biased analysis of visual phenomena may miss.
Keywords
Design History; communication in design processes; critical thinking; cultural analysis of design; visual rhetoric
Citation
Atzmon, L. (2006) Visual Rhetoric and the Special Eloquence of Visual Form, in Friedman, K., Love, T., Côrte-Real, E. and Rust, C. (eds.), Wonderground - DRS International Conference 2006, 1-4 November, Lisbon, Portugal. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2006/researchpapers/3
Visual Rhetoric and the Special Eloquence of Visual Form
Despite the recent flurry of interest in the visual, the written word continues to dominate as both the focus and medium of deep analysis. I suggest that we ought to challenge this paradigm by questioning the privileging of the verbal in western culture in general and the academy in particular. I propose that one way to do so is to elevate visual rhetoric to equal status with verbal rhetoric. Unfortunately, when visual entities are “elevated,” the “elevator” commonly turns to framing strategies that isolate artifacts from the broader cultural contexts in which they are created and used. Not only does this strategy encourage narrowly defined analysis based on visual form, it perpetuates a separate, but not quite equal status for visual rhetoric. Instead, I suggest design historians should explore the narrative encoded into design artifacts by analyzing the ways in which cultural content is distilled and then instilled in the design process, and then ultimately expressed in the use and visual form of design artifacts. This approach reveals complex narratives that are not readily apparent to most people. By investigating this visual meaning, I suggest design historical work is likely to yield insights that both pure visual analysis and verbally biased analysis of visual phenomena may miss.