- Maker: Rachel Taylor
- Genre: Art & Rhetoric
- Level: Graduate
- Program: Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media
- Course: WRIT 5400: Technical Writing
- Instructor: Dr. Eric Mason
- Semester Created: Fall2023
Description
Click the files below for the QR code, to access the audible experience, back story and process behind “The Irish Rose”.
Multimodality has emerged as a crucial aspect of communication, recognizing that diverse modes, such as visual, auditory, and spatial elements, contribute to meaning making. Eversion in art, a relatively new form of artistic expression plays with turning conventional 2D artistic elements inside out for a new experience. Whether it is something as small as scanning a QR code, wearing 3D glasses for augmented reality (AR), or something as big as the immersive Rain Room, 2012 exhibit: eversion art acts as an interactive experience for the audience in some capacity marrying the physical and technical. Eversion art serves as a catalyst for innovation within multimodality, enhancing the field of rhetoric and contributing to the formation of dynamic assemblages.
This project prompted me to explore the critical role multimodality and eversion can play in the world of artistic expression and its profound impact on the field of rhetoric and assemblage. I assembled technology, poetry, spoken word and visual art into one concept. I created a small illustration, with a QR code for users to scan for an audible experience. The QR code would take them to a simple landing page where they can play an original poem I wrote along with a short backstory behind the ensemble. There was music and spoken word, as well as the visual aspect of the illustration. This assemblage was a trifecta, meant to convey a feeling of understanding, and respect while visualizing the imagery spoken. Never before, as a writer or even a low-grade artist, would I consider integrating an audible aspect to this project before understanding the new opportunities for growth within the field of the arts and humanities. In traditional art forms, the audience are merely passive observers. Eversion art compels viewers to become participatory and actively engage, questioning and tracing the patterns embedded within the layered elements.
Why It Matters
By examining the intersection of eversion art, rhetoric, and assemblage, I aim to add to the conversation of how interactive art enriches the communicative experience, challenges traditional modes of expression, and fosters a deeper understanding of complex socio-cultural issues. My project simply pushes its audience to envision a woman and a country. Using symbolism and metaphor, I expound upon culture, femininity and motherhood. Consider future messaging that could be presented and perpetuated through eversion art; inclusivity, anti-hegemonic theory, science and even innovation.
Reflection
The objective of this eversion project was to integrate digital modality into a physical space through DIY making, to tell a story. I wanted to give my audience a chance to interact with the minimalistic art I create, and more importantly hear the meaning behind it through a micro-illustration and a digital QR code. By scanning the QR, users could enjoy an immersive story-listening experience accompanied by an audible original poem entitled, “The Irish Rose”.
Even though I drew from personal experiences and people that are close to me, I lightly played with the posthumanist approach by writing a poem from someone else’s life, using titles and symbolism significant to that person; hoping to grasp and explore the appearance and emotions of another’s life. A complete shift away from any traditional reflective writing presents challenges that I am not sure are completely practical in certain circumstances, but I summon myself and others to delve deeper into posthuman writing to see what new ideas and impacts it could present.
Sources
Boyle, Casey. “Writing and Rhetoric and/as Posthuman Practice.” College English, vol. 78, no. 6, 2016, pp.532-54. JSTOR, https://jstor.org/stable/44075143. Accessed 21 Nov. 2023.
Hawkins, Ames and Novotny, Maria. “Curation: A Multimodal Practice for Socially-Engaged Action” The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, vol. 4, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1-15. http://journalofmultimodalrhetorics.com/files/documents/5d6e8bf6-5730-4a50-bb74-8a48e65a7d81.pdf
Rieder, David. Suasive Iterations. Paperback edition. Parlor Press, LLC, 2016. Web. 14 Oct. 2022.
Rieder, David. “Eversion, Ecology, Touch, and Rain: A Post-PC Rhetoric” Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems, 19(1), 2021, pp. 1-12.
