Month: September 2020

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Jack Albert Nusenow

The Art of Travel: A Sorting Machine

Diegema

Airports, the beautifully industrial purgatory that we spend so little time in yet seem to understand so well. When you spend any time in an airport, and possibly this is only true in a post 9/11 world, you exist under an unwritten social contract. The rules aren’t written anywhere… but you know them. You couldn’t conceive of yourself saying “bomb” out loud. You know how early to arrive, what to have with you, which of your grooming products and drinks will inevitably be stolen from you by security.

You know not to bother anybody. Arrive, security, gate. Maybe food, maybe $25 headphones. Flight, land, maybe bathroom. Walk to baggage claim like your bags will be there when you get there, but they never are. Then leave. If you’re not home that’s good, but where Botton is wrong in my opinion is that returning home is drab and depressing.

I was inspired to describe airport experiences in this way after Botton’s scene about flying. It feels importantly to evaluate the processes that we navigate that sandwich such a powerful experience like flying.

My favorite part of airports is how we enter almost into a hivemind there. Everyone is in an airport for the same reason. There’s a collective understanding that breeds humility. Everyone wants to get where they’re going, and fortunately, that stops everyone from impeding eachother.

 

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Phillip Wade Wilson

Understanding Visual Rhetoric by Jenae Cohn – Description

I really enjoyed this piece because it opened my eyes to a lot of mundane ways we organize our blog posts for this class, and just how things in our world are made to look in general. She focused a lot on the separation of ideas, and things in general really, to make it easier for others to understand as well as the different approaches in order to make those distinctions between one thing and the other. 

“visuals play a tremendous role in a) how we make decisions, b) how we receive instructions, and c) how we understand information”

While the above is seemingly obvious information, how often do we look at the menus in restaurants we visit or websites we’re using, or even our own textbooks and ‘analyze’ how stylistic that work is completed? For me, it is not often at all… though I am more prone to complain about how something is not user-friendly especially in regard to websites and other forms of technology. This detailed essay really opened my eyes as to why I might be thinking “this website is really not laid out well” or “could they have made this any more difficult to understand”. Personally, I think a huge point Cohn makes is all about context.

“the context in which we see visuals matters an awful lot in terms of how we analyze and understand their impacts on us as viewers”

She details how one culture might view a color one way, or one type of profession might have preexisting notions about the way something should be done, or quite possibly where we have seen certain things before in our own lives. Before reading this, I had the ideas to analyze visual representation in ways similar to what she explained but never to the level or extent. She explains the ‘what?’ then gives us the ‘how?’ and ‘why?’ to give her audience the most context before explaining the topics at hand. The opening segment about food and menus puts things into perspective for all of her readers to associate something with. I find it so interesting the way she established this common ground, looking at restaurant’s food pictures online before going and looking at menus while sitting in the restaurant so that we can better understand what she is referring to by applying it to the times we have done or seen something similar

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Samuel James Conroy

Confirmation Progymnasmata

Confirmation Progymnasmata

Jenae Cohn’s piece “Understanding Visual Rhetoric” is a great writing about using imagery to your advantage in writing and to show how something as simple as an image can change opinions drastically. Cohn does a fantastic job of describing rhetorical imagery in a way that most can relate to.

The piece is started by giving an example of going out to get food with your friends. Since you are trying to decide where you want to go out you research various places and see the imagery that is present to determine where you go. You end up finding a burger place online that has some pictures that are simply making you salivate. However, the next picture that you stumble upon is significantly worse than the ones you just viewed. All of a sudden, the burgers look cheap, greasy, and unappetizing. Your liking of this restaurant just decreased heavily, and you no longer feel that it is the choice for you and your friends. Cohn then goes on to explain that the use of these images is all visual rhetoric. These images are used to display information in a way that words cannot.

This piece is unquestionably logical as anyone who has wanted to gain info on something is profoundly influenced by the imagery on display. Say you are attempting to purchase a boat. You go online and find a boat that appears to be the one:

Looks to be in great condition and is reasonably in your price range. Upon further investigation you find this image of the boat from a top angle:

All of a sudden that boat is not looking like you thought it would. The visual rhetoric has changed your mind completely and you stop pursuing this boat despite the fact it could just have been not cleaned at the time of that picture.

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Lucas Enrique Fernandez

Understanding Visual Rhetoric

Thesis or Theme:

In Understanding Visual Rhetoric Jenae Cohn delves into the wonders of visual rhetoric that impact our decision making in our everyday lives. Visual rhetoric is present in the advertisements we see when we try to decide something to eat, the colors of the buildings we visit to make themselves more appealing, and the signs on our roads to grab our attention.

if we limit ourselves to words in our arguments, we may not successfully reach our audiences at all.

Here Cohn asserts that visual cues hold an essential power over our brains that is key in persuading and directing another individual. In a split second, an image or a visual cue may allow the reader to better understand something than it can be broken down into by words. Cohn drives this point home by giving an example from a menu where explaining the effect given by the visual actually takes a lot longer than just looking at the image, and when you are in a hurry you want to process information as quickly as possible.

Cohn then dives into how different forms of visual rhetoric influence us as well. Lines may be used to show us where to focus our attention, like where we should walk or where we should keep out of. Size is also another straightforward visual rhetorical strategy where what you want the viewer to see will be big while less important information will be smaller and more obscure. Color can be used to pull at a viewer’s emotions, using red may be a way to signal that something is dangerous or intense. However, it is also interesting to note that this is not the case in a place like China, where red is a lucky color. This means visual cues also rely on contextual knowledge of the viewer. Visual rhetoric meant to influence one audience may have a very different effect on another audience. These elements highlight how the combination of different visual stimuli allow us to understand and interact with the world, along with being pulled in every which direction along the way.

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Aongus Mui

Alain de Botton: The Art of Travel

Alain the Botton: The Art of Travel

In the short film taken by Alain de Botton, he discusses what he searches for on a vacation. In the first ten minutes of the video, he explains that one of the biggest things that he wants is to be away from himself. “Wherever we chose to go, perhaps the underlying wish is for me to get away from me.” (de Botton 6:19) He is going about how he wants to forget his worries and his struggles with his life and within himself. De Botton turns to travel to relax without any problems lingering in his mind. Another point that he talks about is how travellers only see the good side of travel. Tourists always see brochures or advertisements about certain places but when in reality the place is not as good as the advertisements make it seem like. He claims that people never consider the downsides of a vacation, as in the substandard parts of a location like the crowds and loud traffic of the place. One of the main themes that I picked up from de Botton is to never expect too much from a certain place, otherwise it could end up being something you didn’t quite enjoy and the place no longer feels as special or loved.

Something that I related to was when de Botton stated “Hotels offer a particular opportunity to experience anonymity and to speculate about the anonymous others around us.” (de Botton 32:19) As someone who has travelled many places and visited many hotels, I noticed that hotels were almost always comforting. Hotels have a way of making you feel at ease even though you are in a room that you’ve never been in before. In a way, you are just left with yourself and your thoughts, allowing you to reflect on yourself. “Something about being away from our ordinary habitat sets us free to release bits of ourselves that don’t get an airing in everyday life.” (de Botton 34:18) Time and time again, travel proves to be the most efficient way to discover and learn more about ourselves, things that would otherwise stay hidden in our familiarized pattern of life.

Travelling helps people loosen up and let their guard down just enough to uncover bits and pieces of our hidden self.

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Catherine Dodd Corona Uncategorized

The Art of Travel – Alain de Botton

Traveling Nearby

Progymnasmata: Confirmation

This video as a side piece to Alain De Botton’s book “The Art of Travel” is a wonderful collage of the reasons to travel. The perks and drawbacks of traveling to the unknown. He ventures through different kinds of travel such as cruise ships, road trips, and plane travel. With most places he draws from artists who painted, photographed or wrote about the sublime and wonderment of different places. Along with clips of the cities and villages that almost abstractly show the feeling and aura of each place. Whether it be an obscure shot of the neon on a red light district or the smooth movement of an airport escalator. From quick shots of tanning European cruise ship go-ers to the erotically dressed swinging hotel guests, these small clips give the viewer a sense of the atmosphere of a certain place. Botton travels to several different countries and discusses the “why” of travel in all of them. One of my favorite points he makes is that one does not necessarily travel far to feel the excitement and pleasures of travel. He observes people in distant places wandering sheepishly towards their guide. It seems that their curiosity is not being fed by the must see wonders of that destination. People have left their home to wander aimlessly, and maybe that is what they want. But there are lots of people that travel to see something exotic. He argues that something “exotic” is a matter of perspective. A cold rainy english day can be exotic to an Egyptian, just like the Nile can be exotic to an english man. The point being travel and the wonders of travel can be felt very close to home. It’s a wonderful argument because it manifests curiosity. People should travel to different cultures. There is extreme merit in that, but people should also explore their known. By accepting travel to nearby or known places one can accept more curiosity into their day to day. In a way it folds some of the wonder in travel into habitual life, so days do not feel so monotonous.

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Paula I Arraiza

The Solitude of Traveling

Edward Hopper, Morning Sun (1952)

Progymn: Impersonation

 “His figures look as though they’re far from home, they’re in search of work, sex, or company, adrift in transient places. And, yet, they seem to hint that there might be something consoling, glamorous, sexy, even, in traveling alone. Far from home, in the road to nowhere in particular” (de Bottom 30:49)

It’s the first time in my entire life I’ve had the courage to go somewhere by myself. The road took me to this big, wide, city where I don’t know a soul. It’s all so new and different, so exciting yet nerve-wracking. I look outside the window as a slideshow of old memories replays in my mind. All of my friends, family, and happiest moments echo inside of my head as I sit on a bed inside a nearly empty hotel room. I left everything I knew behind for a quick break from reality, wanting to get in touch with myself. I ended up somewhere where no one knew my name. I’ve been alone with my thoughts for the first time in forever, making me feel as if I don’t know myself anymore. I’m not the same person I was a few days ago and will never be her again. In a city full of strangers, it feels like I am the biggest stranger of them all. I came here with one goal, and that is to find myself. I’ve barely even been here, and I have already discovered more about myself than I had during my entire life. As the hours pass while I look out into hundreds of skyscrapers, I slowly begin to understand myself. I realize there is no way I’ll go back home being the same person I left.

Explanation:

I decided to do an impersonation of the woman in Hopper’s paintings, based on de Bottom’s description of his style of painting. I tried to capture what I felt when looking at the image and made a story to go along with it. When looking at the woman in the painting, it feels as if she’s staring out into the city with hope and excitement, yet there is still a sense of nostalgia involved in the picture. These feelings evoked by the image inspired me to write a short description from her point of view, basically writing what I feel like she would be thinking as staring outside that window.

 

 

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Samuel E Evans

“Understanding Visual Rhetoric” by Jenae Cohn, The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

Progym: Proverb

“Give the camera, put it away, and start to draw, because if you draw, you see the beauty of things properly” (de Botton 43:58).

In this quote, taken from Alain de Botton’s film The Art of Travel, he paraphrases the message of the English philosopher John Ruskin. I like this quote, both because the message is both very relatable and understandable, but because there is also some humor to it. Having English parents and thus being raised on British television and comedy, I can see the subtle, dry humor in de Botton’s philosophy, including with this quote. He seems to present Ruskin’s message in almost the most direct method possible, both for effect and to help prove his point. This quote, as well as his choice to use Ruskin, demonstrate in short de Botton’s very English perspective on travel.

Ruskin, according to de Botton, despised the attitudes of tourists, who he thought “looked at things but didn’t really notice them” (de Botton 43:44). Ruskin then urges us to really make an effort to not just capture images because we feel obligated to, but instead to really appreciate them. De Botton translates this to the modern-day with the example of cameras, and in this scene, he proceeds to collect the cameras of the Japanese tourist group he is with and make them draw the English church they are examining. This, accompanied by the chuckles of the tourists and his clumsily collecting the many cameras really makes the scene.

Some may disagree with de Botton’s argument here and say that photographs and postcards and tacky wall-art are important pieces of the travel experience that help you remember it once you return home. You might say that “a picture is worth a thousand words” and that you will never be able to recall just how wonderful your time away from home was unless you can really see it. This, it can be argued, is exactly his point, because we will always remember it better and also enjoy it more in the moment if we aren’t focused on getting the image that will allow you to see it later. If you let it sink in while you are there, perhaps by drawing it, you will remember the full moment better.

You could compare this idea to the many people who decide to travel with no plan. Sometimes, if you worry over the details, obsess about having the best possible time on your vacation, you ruin the moment. Just as focusing on the perfect picture takes you out of the moment, so does thinking only about the “next thing.”

Personally, I have begun following a similar idea over the last few years. When I was younger I would take far too many pictures, stopping to take poorly-framed, underlit snaps of whatever attraction. But now, I have decided to only take pictures that I think I will actually like to see later. I can find an image of the lighthouse at Negril in Jamaica, but not a picture of myself with the eccentric guide who brought us off the beaten track down the rocks past the building. Things like this are worth capturing because they enhance the moment, they don’t distract you from it. Instead, I can put my mind to simply enjoying my vacation, in the moment, not worrying about whatever else.

De Botton’s quote here, in its odd humor and awkwardness, and the amusing scene it is a part of, is particularly enlightening to me because it puts into words an idea I have been acting on for a while, but haven’t consciously thought about. It goes against many of our impulses as travelers, but it is also highly rewarding and worthwhile, and de Botton’s method of illustrating it is excellent.

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Ehren Joseph Layne

American Vacation – Vituperation

Where Was the Birthplace of the American Vacation? Vituperation/Thesis

 

It always baffles me that there is such a thing as an “ American vacation”. I have always thought of vacation as an essential part of the colonist mindset, one where your history colonizing has given you the privilege to not work. On vacation people tend to shut down and shut out – we escape to a better place and we often follow the direction of others to figure out how we should be enjoying the  time  we have with ourselves or loved ones. Two conflicting mindsets are apparent in the advent of vacation: one where your history of colonization has led you to a point where you no longer need to work and one where you’re using the direction of others to put you in a place not to work. You would think that if you had the privilege of a colonizer, you would know the  peaks and the valleys of the lands you’ve colonized; you would assume that all those years colonizing would provide you and your descendants with the knowledge of the land you own, so much so that your escape into it wouldn’t so much be a vacation, but rather a hike. Instead, Americans are so easily able to venture off into the woods of the Adirondack Mountains, believing they are replenishing their souls in nature, only to colonize the mountains again. Americans use vacation as another form of profit, taking away the sublime of nature and any human connection to it. Soon after the bulldozers have taken over another mountain, or another beach, or another valley, Americans will flock and bathe themselves in the profit and dream of being somewhere and doing something. America’s unrelenting want to control has made nature and the sublime a bore: not many people truly want to expose themselves to nature, but would rather follow  in the footsteps of another hoping to capture a piece of their happiness. This mindset of following in another’s footsteps to capture a piece of their happiness makes the American vacation sound lazy and unappreciative of the act of becoming apart of nature  The mindset of a colonizer is lazy yet efficient – if I can go somewhere, I can take anything and turn a profit, in the hopes that one day I can do nothing somewhere else. It is unforgiving the American Vacation: a true representation of America’s insatiable need to control.

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Jack Albert Nusenow

American Vacation

To me, at least in an abstract sense, the American vacation signifies an almost cocky rebuke of biology. Ultimately, we’re all still animals. Highly intelligent and social animals living in a complex modern society, but still animals. We live in an interesting (and very privileged) environment when we’re able to shift our daily concerns from abject survival to cuisine choices, clothing shopping, and desk jobs. And so, when we need refuge from these pains and stresses of everyday modern life, many of us in America venture back into nature, a place with no concern for our survival or enjoyment.

In the Smithsonian article, a grad student named Nina Caruso working at one of the remaining great camps, Santatoni, is quoted saying:

You get a bit of your soul back when you come up here.

And I believe her. I love the wilderness, and part of me feels more real, more aware, in nature. But there’s also the humor in reaching a point in our evolution as a species where we find clarity and quietude in nature, outside of our habitats.