Has anyone heard of Jenny Holzer?
In short, she is an artist that conveys complex meaning through simple prose statements. She does this by utilizing a variety of media while being mindful of how medium, environment and context can change the meaning of text. Consider the following from Holzer's Survival Series:
"Men don't protect you anymore"
This phrase was conveyed through a video projector beaming the text as an image on the side of a building. Through this medium, and in this environment, the phrase has an ambiguous meaning. Was this a critique of the Cold War (which started at the time she produced the work)? A critique of New York? Without deconstructing assumptions of Gender and sexuality, this message could be either or both; but it was in her second choice of medium that the message perhaps achieved lucidity--on the wrapper of a condom. "Men don't protect you anymore"; this message, in this medium and in this context, was about AIDS.
How could we in rhetoric and composition ignore this power? I take the point of Selfe and her team that multi-modality is already a reality, and we have no reason to think that, from the printing press to the internet, that communication will ever remain static. We should be mindful of this. From a rhetorical standpoint we should be aware of semiotic domains of communication, that is, if we profess to be students of how language constructs meaning and how meaning constructs language.
My analogy ignores computers, sound and moving image, but I think the point still stands. Holzer evolved with technology. She used projectors to contextualize her work within certain spaces. She later uses digital billboards are to add movement, making the text more organic. Like Holzer, I want to be mindful of how technology is changing how we communicate. I want to know more about how text and image and sound can shape our understandings and expressions. I profess that like many teachers of composition, I am no expert in digital communication, but I aim to take their advice and start slowly and small. I can always build from there.
I agree that the point still stands, even without reference to computers, sound and moving images. I think Wysocki would consider Holzer as practicing new media even without computers, largely because of that attention to the material conditions of the project. (By the by, I think seeing "Men don't protect you anymore" on a condom wrapper is one of the most rhetorically powerful visual messages I've seen in a long time.)
ReplyDeleteOooooh. Although Holzer "composed" her message, when does something move beyond the bounds of the composition classroom and simply become art?
ReplyDeleteGood question, Ashley!
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point about how new forms of expression can make a larger and more organic impact. It makes me think about commercials with no dialogue that focus on motion or a lack of motion to make more of a lasting impression than anything else would be able to. Innovative techniques like those of Holzer can be used in today's changing classroom where more information can be said in fewer words (texting anyone?) than ever before.
ReplyDeleteI love Holtzer...my fav is "Protect me from what I want" which she has reproduced using a variety of media and technologies.
ReplyDeleteI have no answer to the distinction between art and composition. In the MC reading, James Gee is cited as encouraging literacy in semiotic domains (looking at signs and symbols, metaphors and analogies)to understand their power to communicate (and I would say persuade). Holtzer identifies herself as an artist which complicates my analogy.
Side note, and to Claudia's point, how awful are the De Beers commercials?
I thought of James Gee as well when reading your post. He did a lot of job regarding semiotics and their implications. However, Holtzer's artful use of text and media appear to be more applicable to the teaching of writing in classroom rather than Gee's use of video games. Holtzer is able to pull in various analysis about writing with her creativity, i.e. how message persuades, visual rhetoric, the delivery of meaning, and so on.
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