Sometimes the conference results in collaborations but rather “through Navajo hands,” by that are published, such as The Handbook of Visual which I meant the lack of skills of operating Communication (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2005), a film camera and the lack of basic edited by Ken Smith, Sandra Moriarty, Gretchen conventional aesthetic skills, such as Barbatsis, and Keith Kenney. headroom, etc. Their comment at that time: “Yeah, Herb, we’ve been thinking about Bob Tiemens and Herb Zettl on Saturday, June 17, this, too.” But this was about it. This lack- 2006, spoke to a group of visual communication of-skill variable versus “through-the-eyes” scholars at Midway, Utah. Their talk, “Viscomm one was never really explored in this study, Retrospective,” marked a high point for the 20th and probably will never be, because it is just anniversary of an event that has influenced the too hard to separate the two. I still think visual communication field in countless ways. that their study wasn’t hyped, but flawed— Indeed, the Visual Communication Conference as any study would be if the expression of a has given birth to many ideas and resulted in certain world view is dependent on skills. many publications. In their presentation Zettl and (personal communication, July 18, 2012) Tiemens reflected on the origins of this unique conference. Such is the knowledge gained when attending the Visual Communication Conference. Their talk, The conference is an opportunity to hear of new edited and transcribed below, provides similar and unusual ideas, “half-baked” ideas, and other knowledge. ideas that are “fully baked” and influential. But this conference, more than any other I have The Talk experienced, has a sense of community; some would say a sense of family. The conferees are Bob Tiemens: I was hoping to do something that together from start to finish. We all attend a single would take advantage of the technology that’s session at a time and eat most of our meals here, because there’s a vast difference with the together. One day is always devoted to tools we had at that first conference. We didn’t exploration, and we all head out to the have any of these fancy gadgets. What we did surrounding environs. The stories and ideas have was a helical scan recorder, a video recorder, generated from this hypertogetherness are and playback machine that used two-inch-wide remarkable. In fact, I have learned things that magnetic tape. I think someone used it for his history tends to forget, as most research analysis of TV commercials. And we had an Herb Zettl and Bob Tiemens. Visual Communication Conference, Midway, Utah, 2006. Photograph by Lawrence Mullen. publication leaves such details out because they overhead projector and a slide projector. In fact, might “diminish” the research and its findings. we had two slide projectors. We put a lot of For example, Herb Zettl told me a story about one emphasis on visual presentations. The Visual Communication Conference: of the seminal works in the field of visual communication. What he said was enlightening More notable was the equipment we didn’t have at Bob Tiemens and Herb Zettl Tell All and tells of the true nature of the research that conference. There was no Internet as we endeavor. We were on a bus with the other know it today, so we didn’t need computers. I’m Edited by Lawrence Mullen conference-goers heading to a vineyard to sample not sure we even had portable computer wines when he said: equipment. “PowerPoint” wasn’t in our Right after they had done their Navajo vocabulary. Digital images were a thing of the hen Bob Tiemens was a professor at In a break with the tradition of meeting west of project and had just published their study future. But we relied heavily on transparencies, University of Utah and Herb Zettl the Mississippi River, the conference in June 2014 Through Navajo Eyes (it must have been in slides, and anything to make the presentations was a professor at San Francisco will be at the Whispering Pines Retreat Center the very early 1970s), I met John Adair and visual. It’s amazing how technology has WState University, they got the idea to near the shores of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Sol Worth in Sausalito for lunch. I guess influenced and advanced what we now refer to as have a conference that would offer a relaxed, Island. you know that John Adair taught “visual communication.” visually beautiful setting for discussions about all anthropology at SFSU at that time, and his things visual. All methods. All approaches. All Usually, the conference is attended by 50 to 75 daughter was one of my students. They told Herb Zettl: But we did have more hair. theories. Nonhierarchical. Nonaffiliated. people. The sessions are plenary. Sometimes there me about their study on how the group of Interdisciplinary. No awards. No officers. No dues. are dogs. Sometimes there are children. Always, young Navajo students sees the world Tiemens: Thanks a lot, Herb. I needed to be an afternoon is set aside to explore the landscape. compared to Hollywood or some other reminded of that. Thus began the Visual Communication more cosmopolitan groups. We then talked Conference. The first group of university visual A “movie night” offers the chance for seeing quite a bit about whether a group of people, I want to put this reprint from the program in scholars and students, and practitioners gathered developing work. For example, Indiana who are basically ignorant of film, can front of you because it captures the philosophy in 1987 in Alta, Utah. The conference’s movable, University’s Ron Osgood showed the early express their reality through such a difficult and the principles that have guided this conference geographic homes conjure a list of North versions of his documentaries, Trouble No More: medium. My argument was that the for twenty years (see appendix). This statement, American beauty spots that have included Banff, The Making of a John Mellencamp Album and My “striking results” of the Navajo films which was crafted by Ginny Kidd 1 for this year’s Alberta, Canada; Breckenridge, Colorado; Lake Vietnam Your Iraq. (unusual framing, etc.) might have been gathering, is the best statement I’ve seen of what Tahoe, California, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. caused not so much “through Navajo eyes” has been the focus of this conference. Ginny has

Visual Communication Quarterly 4 Volume 21 January - March 2014 Pages 4–13 5 Visual Communication Quarterly Starting top left, in rows. First (top) row: Herb Zettl (center) during a workshop; Virginia Kidd; Visual thinkers at work. Starting top left, in rows. First (top) row: Christine Miller; Bob Tiemens; Participants hike in Midway, Utah during a free Second row: Participants explore a cave during a free afternoon; Berkley Hudson; Sandy Moriarty. Third row: David afternoon. Second row: Scott Shamp; Sue Barnes; Carol Schwalbe; Gretchen Barbatsis. Third row: Don Barth, (below Wagner; Participants ask questions; Holland Wilde watches over another participant; Ron Osgood. Fourth row: Lunch; Don) Stuart Kaplan; Herb Zettl; Holland Wilde; Richard Schaefer. Fourth row: Participants engage in a lecture; Erik Tracey Owens Patton (right); Roxanne O’Connell. Fifth row: Larry Mullen; Bob Tiemens (left) and David Wagner; Scenes Palmer; Virginia Kidd checks the conference schedule. Fifth row: Bob Tiemens (left) and Herb Zettl; Participants explore from the conference. Four color image available online. the town of Midway, Utah; Pete Seel (front) and Don Barth listen to a speaker. Four color image available online.

Visual Communication Quarterly 6 Volume 21 January - March 2014 Pages 4–13 7 Visual Communication Quarterly been a member of this group since the beginning, continued with a presentation by Larry Lichty,3 so she knows how it has grown and developed who did an analysis of newscasts of the Vietnam over the years. She has captured the essence of war. Larry asked, “How much time do I have?” I how we conceptualized the very first conference responded by saying that he had whatever time he and how it has been carried forward throughout wanted, that this was a nonstructured conference, its twenty-year history. not a convention. I said, “It’s a small group of people who are interested in the same thing, so The word retrospective that has been attached to the take whatever time you need, and when we’re topic of this panel causes some anxiety for me ready for a break, we’ll take a break.” Lichty went because retrospective, in my mind, is dependent on for two hours—literally. When he finished, and on memory. After twenty years, there are a few after a lengthy discussion about his presentation, gaps in what I recall about that first conference. we took a break. But by soliciting some help from others, and perhaps using some psychological closure to fill in I think the next presenter took about 30 minutes what may or may not have happened, I’ve come and, again, we had an open-ended discussion. up with a fairly accurate account of VisCom One. And the conference went on like that, throughout And to further support what I hoped would be an the four days. There were probably only about accurate account, I decided to collect some data. thirty people there.

I solicited help from six of our colleagues who Zettl: No, it was less than that. Left The whole gang along the shore of Lake Tahoe in 1999 before boarding the paddle boat in the background for a were present at that first conference and who are dinner cruise. Lakeland Village, South Lake Tahoe, CA. Right Jean Trumbo, Deni Elliot, and Marjorie Yambor In Estes attending this conference, and I conducted a little Tiemens: Less than thirty? Park, CO, 2007. survey. Now, as my friend Mal Sillars 2 would say, you should never trust an old man’s data or a Zettl: Oh yes, less. So, those have been some of the guiding away with—how she was really charged up by young man’s conclusions. Despite those cautions, principles. what she had heard. She also commented on how I collected data based on six survey responses. I Tiemens: Yeah. Is that why my sample is so small? supportive everybody was of her presentation even ran into a few methodological problems: Some Now to get back to the results of my little survey. I though she thought it may have been out of the refused to participate, or they forgot to answer the Zettl: Twenty, max. asked my respondents for two vivid recollections. I mainstream of visual communication. She was questionnaire, or they just didn’t bother. One of told them to put their comments in writing, and I concerned about how a bunch of media people my participants wasn’t even sure that he was at Tiemens: Twenty max? Okay. Herb and I agree. didn’t reveal how I was going to use them. I didn’t would accept a rhetorical approach to analyzing that conference. There were a couple of And I thought he was the one that didn’t want people to think too much about their visual images. She was enlightened and assured respondents who were a little anxious about remember. responses, although some of them did. But to give that media people accepted that. Well, it was a participating and nervously asked: Who’s going you just a sense of what people remembered from very interesting presentation. Why wouldn’t we to see this? Who’s going to read these comments? Zettl: It’s okay. the first conference, I’m going to quote some of accept it? I assured them that nothing would incriminate the specifics. Two individuals—well, they happen them and that I’d keep their comments Tiemens: Well, that format is not feasible today, to be [Richard] Schaefer and [Scott] Shamp 4 — Stuart [Kaplan] also recalled how that first anonymous. Well, again, in trusting an old man’s obviously. But I wanted to bring that up because were there, and they both remembered meeting conference ended. After four days, it ended with data, I’ll probably violate that agreement. it’s still vitally important that we allow the time for Zettl for the first time. In fact, Shamp had the duty the town meeting that established one of our discussion. We’ve done it in other ways. We to transport Herb from the airport to the Rustler traditions. We sat on the deck of the Rustler Briefly, the responses I gathered were generally do it over meals or we do it during our breaks or Lodge. They were both awestruck by his presence. Lodge in a magnificent mountain setting and about people. It wasn’t about the technology. It during our leisure time. And I’m so pleased that I think they may even have gotten down on their discussed the future of VisCom. Herb started off wasn’t about where we’ve gone in twenty years. It practice has continued, because it has been an knees or something. by asking in the most low-key way imaginable, wasn’t about the many changes that have shaped important part of how we conceived this thing— “Well, should we do this again?” the field of visual communication. Simply put, the that we sit down and talk. We don’t do that at Zettl: No, not quite, but... comments were all about people and were stated other conferences. We adjourn one session and we Kaplan: That’s exactly how he said it. very much in the same vein as what many of you rush to the next room for a different set of Tiemens: But close, huh? Stu Kaplan 5 recalled the have said about this conference—the concept of presentations, most of which do not contain visual difficulty in getting wine for dinner. Keep in mind Tiemens: You remember that? being a family, treating each other nicely, getting material. That just doesn’t happen at this that this was twenty years ago, and even Utah laws involved in discussions, and that sort of thing. The conference. From the very beginning we have changed. Stu recalls standing in line in the Zettl: I remember that. recollections of that first conference were the encouraged works in progress because there was lobby of the Rustler Lodge so that he could same. We started off that conference with a no outlet for that anywhere else. And we agreed purchase a bottle of wine for dinner. Tiemens: Okay. keynote speaker who happened to be Herb Zettl. from the outset that there was no such thing as a He had forgotten, of course, that he was the dumb idea. Now, some ideas may not be as Stuart Kaplan: Now, wait, wait, wait. Everyone Zettl: And you said yes. keynote speaker. He also had forgotten what his developed as others, but from the beginning Herb lined up. paper was about. But I remember, and I reminded and I agreed that we would not discourage Tiemens: No, I said, well, I don’t know. him just a few minutes ago that the title of his anything—there are no dumb ideas. We also Tiemens: That’s why there was a line. You were paper, which I assigned to him, was “What Are agreed not to limit the scope of the presentations. the twentieth in line. Zettl: Oh, I forgot. We Doing Here, and Why Is It So Important?” You know, visual communication is really what you say it is. Ginny6 revealed some of her personal feelings Tiemens: [Philip] Kipper 7 said yes. Kaplan said Following Herb’s opening remarks, the conference about the conference in terms of what she went yes. A number of people said, yeah, we ought to Visual Communication Quarterly 8 Volume 21 January - March 2014 Pages 4–13 9 Visual Communication Quarterly do it again. And then the question was, when? polite, and especially his emotional callousness. Maybe in another year? No, too soon. Two years? This hasn’t disappeared. On top of that came a Maybe too soon. Three years? Well, I got terrible TV presentation that was so bad that I outvoted. We did it the next year and the next year would have flunked any student had he or she and the next year. So, for twenty consecutive presented me with this type of a live presentation. years, we’ve done it. I thought it would burn itself My immediate reaction was: mea culpa, mea out, but fortunately I’ve been proven wrong. So, culpa. I apparently didn’t do a good job teaching, anyway, as Stu said, everyone nodded at that, and you know. We all go through those periods. And that was it—we would do it again next year, and especially looking at that television presentation— this incident started another delightful VisCom I’ve written a book about it, how to do it, and I tradition: We never vote on anything. I hadn’t thought it was pretty good, but it was obviously thought of that, Stu, but you’re right about that. ignored. One guy in, I think, the second or third conference came in with the suggestion that we elect And then came my involuntary confinement at the officers— hospital (getting a hip replacement) and my doubts about teaching effectiveness were magnified by Kaplan: Oh yeah. being strapped into the bed looking up to the television set. This was the only entertainment, Tiemens: —that we have committees and that we except the nurses, and I saw close-ups—real tight establish a journal and after— close-ups—of people eating bugs and other live Left Herb Zettl Instructional Doodle. Sitting at lunch talking with Herb about aesthetic concepts, he started animals and retching. And then there was a show demonstrating the concept on the nearest piece of paper--my copy of the conference program in this case. I think he Zettl: Bylaws and bylaws. where they were slicing open dead bodies in the was discussing visual abstraction, or some related concept. [Lawrence Mullen] Right Herb Zettl giving an impromptu speech at a gathering in Banff, 2005. most gruesome way. I also saw pictures of how Tiemens: —and bylaws, yes; we needed a charter much damage a bullet can do to the stomach or something. Everyone was somewhat stunned when it hits you—all in beautiful graphic detail— whispered about the establishment of large, secret them out of the box, but they refused. They said, for a moment, and there was dead silence. Then three-dimensional, computer-graphic detail. I camps that are highly guarded and that hold “Just give me what I need for a good job and don’t everyone broke out in laughter. He hasn’t been wasn’t depressed but distraught. I really doubted suspects without due cause. And that the guards bother me with anything else.” I told them over back since. It’s really the only dumb idea we ever my effectiveness in teaching media aesthetics, of disregard human rights and international law. and over again, “Look, please take a creative risk. had. all things. They whispered about the suspicion that many I will not flunk you as long as you are properly suicides may not have been what they seemed. prepared. Do something that is outside the box.” So the guy who started this off with his keynote My lament was compounded into a Weltschmerz. And they whispered about actually using torture. Very few people took me up on it. address, “What are we doing here and why is this I was feeling sorry for everybody, including And they talked about the control of the media, so important?” is now going to answer that same myself. This brought about by all the news about the arts, and all abnormal behavior. And they The other result I think of this existential angst is a question, I think. Iraq and triggered a very strange déjà vu talked about putting up walls and fences to keep growing conservatism and religious fervor if not experience that I hadn’t shared with anyone except the foreigners out and they were guarding the fanaticism. I think it is really a flight from Zettl: Thank you. I hope you don’t mind if I sit, my wife and Bob, who had to listen to me when I borders with the military—real guns. And they responsibility for making choices. When you are because it’s that time of the afternoon my hips are arrived. Now you, too, have to listen to my story. talked about conducting preemptive strikes against all of a sudden freed from absolutes and you have a little bit sore, so I’m going to stay seated, and I countries when they merely seem a threat to to make your own decisions, you feel a little hope you don’t mind. The other thing I would like Picture SCENE 1: Scene one shows an old national interests and security. And they talked uneasy and it’s easier to have somebody else make to do in my reflection of VisCom is really not a gentleman with his hands crossed, leaning on his about the total disregard for world opinion. the decisions for you. “Where do you want to reflection of VisCom, but more a fifteen-minute cane staring at nothingness. We call it thinking. go?” “Tell me where to go.” detour and a reflection on me, if you don’t mind. And there’s a slow dissolve to scene two with a SCENE 3: We dissolve back to the old man and And since we are family I would like to share my young boy, curly hair, jumping in the fields and he just sits there, staring into nothingness. So, the real danger of this existential angst was feelings with you, which sort of built up in me running around catching butterflies, except that that to avoid making choices is to look for the since that last VisCom in Banff. And when I was was the wrong file. END OF LITTLE BOY SCENES strong leader. Not the one that waffles or flips the in Banff—so I’ll get to Viscom again even though coin, the one who kicks ass. We got one. you’ll think I’ve forgotten totally—but when we SCENE 2: The real file was the boy tiptoeing As with any nightmare, or day-mare, in my case, This made me think that the emotional armor we were in Banff, I did a very simple, straightforward down the stairs listening to his parents and a more disasters kept piling up inside of me. One acquired might just have spawned the bizarre thing of an analysis of the Bush–Kerry debate in group of friends whisper. And before they was, that I feared the postmodern era was shock TV. I think that producers invented Coral Gables, Florida, and I purposely kept the whispered, the little boy saw them lock the doors, collapsing—that the postmodern era which had unconsciously all this gruesome shot detail to politics out and just looked at how it was televised. lock the windows, draw the curtains and make brought the freedom from absolutes and break through our emotional armor. Whether or But, you know, I edited down and...I tried to find sure they’re totally secure and then they whispered engendered a tremendous burst of creativity, not they are successful, I don’t know. about three or four or five or six significant places about the following things which I now sort of brought at the same time an uneasiness—a where I could show the televised technique. And recall. general, universal angst. Everything seemed to And then I thought, “Why in the world do I worry by the time I finally got it done, you know, it was undergo a strange paralysis even in the face of about the definition of an index vector or a motion the audio that stuck in my mind. And it had a They whispered about an ever-growing natural disasters and manmade disasters, as in vector, especially when the world is on fire?” delayed effect that accumulated and increased in intelligence net, spying on private citizens and New York. When I was still teaching I noticed intensity until now. I was and I still am amazed, their private flow of information. They whispered that the students didn’t dare to think outside the Once I had less hip pain I also lessened my when I think about it, at Mr. Bush’s narrow that all citizens must report to authorities all box. Not because they weren’t smart but somehow Weltschmerz, not surprisingly, by reading. What worldview and his lack of clear thinking, to be suspicious activity of their neighbors. They they just didn’t dare to get out of it. I tried to pull was surprising, however, was the types of books

Visual Communication Quarterly 10 Volume 21 January - March 2014 Pages 4–13 11 Visual Communication Quarterly that turned me around. One was The Battle for elements and build their own creative work Zettl: Oh, by the way, I almost forgot, there is a The theme for this year’s conference (in case you want Peace by General Tony Zinni. I don’t know without having to imitate what’s already on the difference between a motion vector and an index to use it, but you don’t have to because that’s the kind of whether some of you have seen it already, Against air. So, I thought that was pretty good, ’cause vector, and it does make a difference, and we conference this is) is a look back to ask what we have All Enemies by Richard Clarke, The Passion of the that’s exactly what the book was intended for. And should teach it, especially to the people who put learned over the 20 years we have shared. It’s hard to by Richard Tarnas, and then in the spirit of union and synchronicity I got on presidential debates. remember that when this conference started, few people Western Mind The Kite used computers, the Internet and CNN were just Runner by Khaled Hosseini that some of you may five letters from former students from whom I beginning, laptops and e-mail were exciting have read. Indeed, an eclectic bunch of books that hadn’t heard for the past twenty years—one from Notes conversational topics, and the Mac had not yet devised all confirmed the dignity and preciousness of India, Germany, Israel, Los Angeles, Washington, its breakthrough commercial. humankind and the working of our democracy, DC, and China and somewhere. And all of them 1 Virginia Kidd, PhD, Department of Communication, however slow it may be. The surprise for me was either sent me their latest work, like the woman California State University at Sacramento. We hope you will join us for the 20th Visual that the general’s book was against the war. But it from India had her film produced by one of the Communication Conference. This conference is a forum 2 Malcom Sillars, emeritus professor of communication for the presentation of research and creative work in all should not have been surprising, because those of best directors in India, by the stars from Indian at the University of Utah. us who have lived through war know the film and it’s distributed now. The other one took a areas of visual communication. As you can see from its 3 history, presentations of work in progress as well as inhumanity and insanity of it. To me, the other youth orchestra to Moscow, and etc. And one did Emeritus professor in the Department of Radio/ research reports on finished projects, critical issues, or surprise was that their comments were widely a large documentary of somebody who built a Television/Film at Northwestern University. theory development are welcome. publicized. In my previous scenario one, they submarine in the desert of the Ukraine because he 4 would have been summarily executed and the wanted to go to the Black Sea to see the world Richard Schaefer, associate professor of mass The conference allows for a variety of presentation media sent to Siberia. But now in my present from inside the water. But they all praised...their communication at the University of New Mexico; Scott formats. Most presentations are given a time slot of 20 Shamp, director of the New Media Institute at the minutes. More extended time periods for creative scenario their comments are simply par for the influence by Sight Sound Motion, not as a book that University of Georgia. course. helped them produce better movies, but basically project presentations may be allocated. Lunch roundtable discussion groups or special topic panels because it had information in it that helped them 5 Professor emeritus of communication at Lewis and may also be proposed. No overlapping presentations Clark College. Fortunately, my déjà vu experience came to an apply all these principles to their daily living— will be scheduled. Conference participants hear all abrupt halt. Thank God. My recovery was also which was pretty good. And the fourth 6 presentations and stay for the entire conference program hastened by three seemingly unrelated turnaround experience was meeting Holland Virginia Kidd at the time was a professor at the University of California at Sacramento. in order to build the kind of feedback and informal experiences. One was reviewing Moholy-Nagy’s Wilde,8 of all things. And when I first met him I discussions that mark the nature of this conference. Vision in Motion. I don’t know whether you know sensed his passion for humanity and creativity and 7 Philip Kipper, former director in the Department of it. It’s one of the manifestos of the Bauhaus. At that’s in evidence again in this conference. And Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts at the Proposals: Proposals should include a 200- to 400-word that time (1946) Moholy called for aesthetic his, really, eagerness to learn more and join the San Francisco State University. abstract and indicate the type or format of presentation, education—an education of emotional literacy as community of scholars. And finally, the fifth presentation time requirements, and audiovisual needs. 8 The proposal should indicate the current status of the an essential prerequisite for the survival of our significant event in my turnaround was reading Holland is an independent scholar last known to be based in Calgary, Canada. See, http://www.calgarysun. work submitted. civilized world. He was quite serious about it. And Ginny Kidd’s brilliantly precise and incisive e-mail com/news/columnists/michael_ so am I. He said something like, “The artist has to (see appendix)—that’s it—and I thought it was platt/2011/01/06/16779281.html, or http://www. At several past conferences, suggestions for innovative untangle the daily chaotic occurrences and weave just a wonderfully precise genealogy of the hollandwilde.com/Holland_Wilde/Holland_Wilde. presentations have been offered. These include a them into a fabric that has clarity and purpose.” VisCom family in a few sentences. And my html, or even http://www.hollandwilde.com/Holland_ modified poster session with brief presentations That’s what I try to do in Sight Sound Motion with criterion for evaluating something like this is Wilde/Holland_Wilde_Bio.html. followed by feedback, special topics panels, favorite the idea of clarification, intensification, and always if I can say, “I wish I had said that,” I think teaching exercises, current technology applications, and interpretation. The second key event was, I went that’s pretty good. And I wish I had said that. I Appendix: Excerpt from an email written by perception and aesthetics. Consider organizing such conference organizers Virginia Kidd and panels or presenting in an alternative format. Include to a bookstore, a local bookstore, to look for the wish I could have done it that beautifully, so thank details in your proposal. media section—I needed the latest movie index— you. So, freed from my Weltschmerz it became Karla Berry and I walked by the poetry section and I quite clear to me that we are the people who can The deadline for proposals is about February 7, 2006. Twenty years ago, Bob Tiemens and Herb Zettl sent out discovered, prominently displayed, the little poetry and must help others who are lost in that variable an announcement about a new conference to be held in At this time details on the cost of the conference, book my wife wrote. So, I picked it up and looked world and multidimensional world—that are Alta, Utah. The plan of the conference was based on a at it again and read some of the stuff, and this making eyes and accept the education for registration, and deadlines for lodging, and the most longing for colleagues with similar interests to be able to efficient way to submit your proposal are still being time not as a husband but just as a guy looking emotional literacy, but also accept the gift of sit down and chat about ideas in progress, flickering negotiated. A website at with additional information through poetry books, and I was simply amazed creative freedom. And that we are the people that thoughts, applications of theories, and wild possibilities. will be posted soon at Viscom20.org. and marveled at her undying enthusiasm for life must not only comment on the digital revolution It was to be, as Herb Zettl said at the first meeting, a and beauty and her skill to find joy and wonder in but help to steer it, and several of you people have “conference of half-baked ideas.” Program coordination is by Karla Berry (berryks@ the ordinary. So that helped. The third one was demonstrated that to me that we are in the middle gwm.sc.edu) and Virginia Kidd ([email protected]). The conference grew, with attendees dedicated to the Sight Sound Motion reviewers. I’m trying to write of doing. So, what do we do now? What have we notion that it was okay to present works in progress in the fifth edition and the publishing company sends been doing for the past twenty years? Exactly what Site/registration coordination is by Crag Denton (craig. order to get feedback, revise, and build stronger work; [email protected]). out prepublication reviews to the people I don’t we should have been doing to avoid all the pitfalls that everyone should hear one another’s presentations— know—you know, it’s like the articles, I was just talking about—to help the world get that is, no dividing into breakout groups; and that time Make plans now to attend the 20th Visual anonymous. And I think, in this case, they hoped back into the right track. And it also was should be built into the conference for personal Communication Conference! it would be negative because they didn’t want to evidenced by what I just witnessed by this interactions. This type of meetings spawned a network -Virginia Kidd and Karla Berry do a fifth edition. But the reviews came back; they beautiful family for the past few days. And I think of collegial bonds that, over two decades, have grown were all pretty positive. And one person, it’s worthwhile to stick around for another twenty into friendships. Lawrence Mullen, Ph.D., is professor and director especially, flattered me. That helped my ego, of years. And now we return to Utah to celebrate the Visual course. And he said that Sight Sound Motion was Communication Conference, a recurring meeting with at the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and like cracking the genetic code of visual Tiemens: Anything [else], Herb? no formal organization, no officers, no dues, and lots of Media Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. communication. So that people could take the creativity, mutual respect and friendship. Email: [email protected] Visual Communication Quarterly 12 Volume 21 January - March 2014 Pages 4–13 13 Visual Communication Quarterly