WP-3 Statement of Purpose

People often times limit themselves as to what they choose to analyze critically.  The idea of rhetoric is that everything in society can be placed under a microscope and that everything makes an argument.  Previously, we've looked at the various elements at play in photographs and comic strips, but sadly there was never any mention of art objects.  In this, my last blogpost Statement of purpose, I will rhetorically consider my sculpture, Bryan Hunt's "Arch Falls", with deliberate attention paid to my audience and the mode of which I will be presenting this to the audience.


The interesting factor about this project is that rather than my grade being based off a blogpost online for possibly my classmates to see but with reasonably only my teacher as my primary audience, now I will be presenting a letter written to my statue in front of the whole English 151H class and my professor, Josh.  When taking this into account, it is obvious that my classmates and professor are all well versed in the terms and concepts of rhetorical analysis this late in the semester and that all parties are aware of the assignment at hand.  The fact that they themselves will have been and/or are completing the exact same assignment as myself makes their perception as audience members that much more critical because they themselves will have meditated and reflected on their works as I have.  It is for this reason that my reading and imitation will require a creative presentation that illustrates a deep, reflective understanding of my sculpture.  In addition, the drafts of my letter will be typed and placed within this blog bringing about another set of audience members.  The secondary audience for the letter will include both UNL students that take this class in the future and look back on my blogposts as examples and the rest of the internet crowd that may come across my post through a random search engine compilation.  This secondary audience requires that I explicitly state the effects of the various rhetorical devices, thus nullifying the basis of knowledge of my primary audience.  For this reason, the letter must be explicit and concise in both it's presentation and analysis of the sculpture.


With that in mind, the analysis of "Arch Falls" must effectively describe as many of the rhetorical elements as the piece presents.  Obviously, our understanding of art is every growing with time and each piece has countless aspects and values that can be addressed.  Factors that attribute to the piece's argument may not have even been the original intent of the sculptor himself but anyone of my audience members may view the statue in another light.  For this reason, it's important to present all of the perspectives and concepts that I can come up with in hopes of addressing all the different view points.  An important thing to consider when hoping to appeal to such a broad outlook, is that the ideas must be concise or else I will risk hurting the credibility and ethos of my presentation.


In this modern age, art surrounds us in society and has become a major method of communication within our culture.  A perfect example of this is "Arch Falls" (Bryan Hunt).  After hearing my presentation of my analysis the audience will hopefully walk away with a deeper understanding of both what arguments are portrayed in this work, but also how art works rhetorically towards us all.