This portion of my portfolio reflects the work I have done for English 357, Visual Culture and Language.

 

This class required me to take ideas discussed during class and with the given mentor texts for the purpose of creating my own example of the analyzed genre and conventions. An example of this type of work can be seen with my remix video. I analyzed a video done by Jonathon McIntosh that commented on right –wing political rhetoric by using both cartoon clips of Daffy Duck as well as audio from Glenn Beck’s radio show. I wanted to follow this mentor text (video) by commenting on a social issue that I think is reflected in various mediums of our culture. After analyzing McIntosh’s video, I tried to emulate his application of audio to video in a way that told a newly devised story by relating the two mediums to the same overarching theme.

 

Communication across genres has also been a prevalent part of all the assignments this semester. One aspect of the course material that I found to be a common theme across genres is the notion of Word/Picture relationship introduced by McCloud. I first evaluated Word/Picture relationship through an infographic I analyzed at the beginning of the semester. However, every other genre we analyzed for class required attention to word/picture relationship. For example, the photo essay I analyzed included captions and an introduction that aided in the audience’s understanding of the photographs and their theme. I did not include a portion to my photo essay written analysis about the word/picture relationship of this photo essay, but would have liked to add that section if I had done a revision.

 

I did not complete any revisions for this portfolio.

 

One strength that I think is reflected in my work is effort. I was very adamant about studying a mentor essay or video in order to capture the essence of what the genre was designed to accomplish. For example, I studied multiple photo essays in order to understand how to produce my own. I am very unfamiliar with photography and how to take a good photograph. However, I used the examples I studied to produce photographs to the best of my beginner ability but also focused on the other elements that are significant to the photo essay genre. I applied captions and focused on the presentation of the photo essay such as how photographer had done in my mentor texts.

 

Another strength I think I reflect in my work this semester is in my analyses. I think I produced analytical work that closely studied the text in class and applied this text to real projects. An example of this can be seen in my first analysis, which I revised multiple times in order to further develop my understanding of McCloud’s text.

 

One aspect of my work that I would have loved to work on is how I could have improved my ability to take photographs based on the concepts of Complete Photography. I was not as knowledgeable about how to navigate photography conventions and technology. Another aspect I would like to continue to work on is evaluating the closure of different works within the various genres we studied throughout this course. Closure is an integral part of visual communication and I would like to continue working on my analyses of how closure is working within different pieces.