Visual rhetoric is the fairly recent development of a theoretical framework describing how visual images communicate, as opposed to aural or verbal messages. The study of visual rhetoric is different from that of visual or graphic design, in that it emphasizes images as rational expressions of cultural meaning, as opposed to mere aesthetic consideration (Kress 18). Vision can refer to: Visual perception is one of the senses. ... In common usage, an image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact that reproduces the likeness of some subject—usually a physical object or a person. ... Hearing is one, the auditory, of the traditional five senses, and refers to the ability to detect sound. ... Broadly conceived, linguistics is the study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Aesthetics (or esthetics) (from the Greek word αισθητική) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty. ...

Visual rhetoric examines the relationship between images and text. Some examples of artifacts analyzed by visual rhetoricians are charts, paintings, sculpture, graphs, web pages, advertisements, movies, architecture, newspapers, photographs, etc. The term text has multiple meanings depending on the context of its use: In language, text is a broad term for something that contains words to express something. ... A chart is a graphic representation of some data. ... The Mona Lisa is perhaps the best-known artistic painting in the Western world. ... why hello hello Sculptor redirects here. ... A webpage or web page is a page of the World Wide Web, usually in HTML/XHTML format (the file extensions are typically htm or html) and with hypertext links to enable navigation from one page or section to another. ... Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as... The Parthenon on top of the Acropolis, Athens, Greece Architecture (from Latin, architectura and ultimately from Greek, αρχιτεκτων, a master builder, from αρχι- chief, leader and τεκτων, builder, carpenter) is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. ... A photograph (often just called a photo) is an image (or a representation of that on e. ...

Visual rhetoric is closely related to the older study of semiotics. Semiotic theory seeks to describe the rhetorical significance of sign-making. Visual rhetoric is a broader study, covering all the visual ways humans try to communicate, outside academic policing (Kress 11). Semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped in sign systems. ...

Visual tropes and tropic thinking are a part of visual rhetoric (the art of visual persuasion and visual communication using visual images). The study includes, but is not limited to, the various ways in which it can be applied throughout visual art history. A trope is a rhetorical figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i. ... Many times, the term art is used to refer to the visual arts. ...

The term "visual rhetoric" has emerged mainly as a way of marking out disciplinary territory for scholars interested in non-textual artifacts such as those mentioned above; conceptually, the term "visual rhetoric" is itself somewhat problematic. It is usually used to denote non-textual artifacts, yet any mark on a surface -- including text -- can be seen as "visual." Consider the texts available at Project Gutenberg. These "plain vanilla" texts, lacking any visual connection to their original, published forms, nevertheless suggest important questions about visual rhetoric. Their bare-bones manner of presentation implies, for example, that the "words themselves" are more important than the visual forms in which the words were originally presented. Given that such texts can easily be read by a speech synthesizer, they also suggest important questions about the relationship between writing and speech, or orality and literacy. Project Gutenberg (often abbreviated as PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive, and distribute cultural works. ... Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. ... World literacy rates by country The traditional definition of literacy is the ability to use language–to read, write, listen, and speak. ...

References

• Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. New York: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0-415-10600-1
• Handa, Carolyn, ed. Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004. ISBN 0-312-40975-3
• Hill, Charles, and Marguerite Helmers, ed. Defining Visual Rhetorics. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0-8058-4403-1
• Taylor, Alan We, the media: Pedagogic Intrusions into US Film and Television News Broadcasting Rhetorics, Peter Lang, 2005, pp. 418, ISBN 3631518528

See also

• Media theory
• Visual culture

Media studies, a communication science, studies the nature and effects of media upon individuals and society. ... Visual culture is a field of study within cultural studies focusing on aspects of culture that rely on visual images. ...

External links

• Visual Rhetoric Portal
• Semiotics for Beginners
• Pictorial Semiotics
• EServer TC Library: Visual Rhetoric