My visual argument was made for the cause I feel most passionate about which is helping the environment. I wanted my design to express the importance of making a change ourselves in order to heal our planet from the damage we have done to it already. People wonder what they can contribute to this and easy things such as recycling; saving trees and cutting down on electricity can make a big difference. I think people would see the message in my visual argument because the words pertain to the picture and the picture speaks clearly to the cause. By showing a pair of hands holding a budding plant, this represents how we can use our own hands to help the environment and make a difference.
Wurman’s reading, “the business of understanding” explores the importance of understanding and the journey we must take to get there. What speaks to us? What is it that actually allows us to understand, empathize and comprehend a message? Wurman states “Understanding should be thought of as a continuum from data to wisdom.” In my design, what compels this continuum is the combination of an image and a picture. By having both, I believe this allows the brain to quicker reach the point of understanding and what the message is trying to say. In my case, the blue and green tones associate well with the environment and the focus is on the leaf and literally having the earth in our hands.
While the comprehension of data is vital to understanding, having information and knowledge are important as well. To have any prior knowledge pertaining to the visual argument would make it undoubtly faster to comprehend and to have information makes the whole argument stronger because this helps shape the meaning or message. In my design, viewers reach the point of understanding by connecting the image of the hands holding a budding plant to healing the environment. In terms of information, by seeing the words ‘trees’ ‘recycle’ and ‘earth’, this provides us with enough information to assume that the message pertains to helping the environment.
This is so beautiful and you are right, the words trees, recycle, and earth above this organically pleasing picture definitely made me stare at it for a while. And great job explaining why you chose this route for your visual argument.
ReplyDelete~Sara E.
It was a great idea to go with a picture featuring human hands (another classmate did this too---the one with the hands holding the world). I think it's such an effective image because it makes the issue literally tangible; you can reach out and, by getting your hands dirty, actually make a difference in a seemingly larger-than-life issue. It makes the viewer believe that change is possible.
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