Site-Specific: Virtual Refinishing in Contemporary Rhetorical Practice Author(S): Joseph Janangelo Source: College Composition and Communication, Vol
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Site-Specific: Virtual Refinishing in Contemporary Rhetorical Practice Author(s): Joseph Janangelo Source: College Composition and Communication, Vol. 61, No. 2 (DECEMBER 2009), pp. 297-320 Published by: National Council of Teachers of English Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40593444 . Accessed: 10/10/2014 01:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. National Council of Teachers of English is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to College Composition and Communication. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 129.82.28.124 on Fri, 10 Oct 2014 01:09:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JosephJanangelo Site-Specific:Virtual Refinishing inContemporary RhetoricalPractice Visualrhetoric fuels composition as rhetorsrefinish filmed moments to showothers whatthey "see" in them.My work examines projects that model strategic discourse in publicspaces. It offersideas forachieving full and guardeddisclosure when clarity is butone ofseveral communicative goals. V isual rhetoricfuels composition as viewers-rhetorstransform existing audioand visual material into texts that serve their communicative goals. Such workfinds expression in thevideos people create for sites like YouTube, where theyalter and augmentfilm scenes in orderto rendertheir interpretations ofwhat is "really"going on. Some renderingsspotlight eroticism as rhetors engagescenes fromTwilight and Top Gunto amplifymoments of same-sex desireand fandom.What's remarkable about these projects is their"straight" ahead approachto representingdiversity; they are so directand "out"there for all to see. Yet,it strikesme thatdeclarative texts evince little understanding ofthe vulnerability of public exposure and repercussion,caution, and learned reticencethat can markLGBT(lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) interpretive and composingpractices (Sedgwick). Here, I exploretwo projects that help us understandvisual rhetoric, especially as it pertainsto representingdiversity, as artfuland strategicdesign. CCC 61:2 / DECEMBER 2009 297 This content downloaded from 129.82.28.124 on Fri, 10 Oct 2014 01:09:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CCC 61:2 / DECEMBER 2009 Here,I showhow a filmsequence, the "Trolley Song" from the 1944film MeetMe in St.Louis, inspires two refinishings: a 1993 video Trolley Ride and a scene fromthe 2001 miniseriesLife with Judy Garland: Me and MyShadows. Byexamining these refinishings, I argue that a once "fixed"film sequence be- comesa learningvehicle that reflects and refinescommunity literacy. My goal is to showhow refinishing models an interventionof artistry and agency- one where"interested" readers (Green 161) becomeinteresting rhetors who offer finelessons for revising public texts and memory.I begin by discussing theories drawnfrom composition, multimedia, and architecture. Composing Insight,In-Site I define"virtual refinishing" as an activitythat accounts for the need and abil- ityto changesomething and to keepit as it is. The term"refinishing" is often appliedto workingwith furniture. It usuallymeans the physical act ofputting a new finishon something.Physical refinishing signifies a definitiveexterior modification:strip, sand, paint, lacquer, or gild: a lighteror darker stain, chang- ingthe hardware. It meansmaking a definitive,visible change.1 Refinishing is heavy-handedwhen it impinges upon the subtlety or integrity of a piece.Such designchanges are reductivebecause havinga new finishinvolves a loss of patinaand ofmoments in thepiece s story.2 Designfinds purchase in compositiontheory. Diana Georgewrites that designyields "a morecomplete way of understanding verbal and visualcom- municationpractices" and offers"more than image analysis, image-as-prompt, or imageas dumbed-downlanguage" (32). MaryE. Hocksargues that "design movesus fromrhetorical criticism to inventionand production"(644), adding that"we sometimesborrow elements of visual rhetoric from moving-image studiesand designfields as well as drawmore upon the fullyvisual culture withinwhich our students work, live, and learn"(630). GüntherKress is an eloquentadvocate of design.In 1999,he explained thatliteracy involves "the competence of subtleunderstandings of complex text"and "theproduction of sensitive'responses to aestheticallyvalued texts" ("'English'"68). Focusing on production, he writes that "individuals are now seen as the remakers,transformers, of sets of representationalresources- rather than as users of stable systems"(87). Remakingrequires acumen: "Display and arrangementare thefundamental features of the logic of the visual. The implicitand foundationalquestion posed by the organization of a visualrepre- sentationis: what are the salient elements, and inwhat spatial relation to they standto each other"(79). In 2005,Kress aligned salience with digital rhetoric: 298 This content downloaded from 129.82.28.124 on Fri, 10 Oct 2014 01:09:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JANANGELO /SITE-SPECIFIC: VIRTUAL REFINISHING "Insteadof competence in relation to stablesocial frames and stableresources forrepresentation, we needthe notion of design, which says: In thissocial and culturalenvironment, with these demands for communication of these materi- als,for that audience, with these resources, and giventhese interests of mine, whatis the designthat best meetsthese requirements" ("Gains" 20)? Focus necessitatesprecision. Kress adds that"aptness of mode to thecharacteristics ofthatrepresented is muchmore a featurenow- it is the facilityof the new media"(19). To discernaptness, rhetors ask: "Whatdoes readingmean here? . Whichmode carries which kind of information? What kinds of information are notfocussed on here?"(19). To describeways of modifying things without physically modifying them, I drawon theoriesof multimedia. In "WillNew Media Produce New Narratives?" theoristMarie-Laure Ryan explains that we can use digitaltechnology to modify a versionof a textwithout altering the original. She writesthat virtual works are composedof "volatilesigns" that, "unlike books or paintings,. can be refreshedand rewritten,without having to throwaway the material support" (338). In Narrativeas VirtualReality: Immersion and InteractivityinLiterature and ElectronicMedia, she linksthat capacity for refreshment to thefact that "thevirtual is an inexhaustibleresource" and that"using it does notlead to its depletion"(36). Since originaland alternateversions co-exist, the originalis leftintact with its storiedpatina undisturbed.3 Ryanexplains that digital texts can sustainendless retooling and mu- tation.She suggeststhat because "therelation of thevirtual to the actual is one-to-many,""there is no limiton thenumber of possible actualizations of a virtualentity" (Narrative 36). Thus,we can workin-site, by introducing new visualand audio componentsor reconfiguringexisting material, to (re)build meaninganew. Ryan discusses this ongoing mutation, arguing that "digital workstend to be composedof many autonomous objects" that "can be used in manydifferent contexts and combinations,and undergovarious transforma- tions,during the runof the work." ("Will" 338). The "run"includes the work itselfand ongoingprojects that refinish it. Themost effective refinishings evince rhetorical acumen. Here I referback to refinishingfurniture. When modifying a piece, one usuallypictures a spe- cificsetting in which it will "go." The anticipateddesign site offers a particular environmentin whichthe piece willcollaborate with others to addressusers' needs.The artists job,then, is to blendcreativity with compatibility: to refinish a piecein ways that will help it work (perhaps by complementing, questioning, highlighting,or counteringother pieces and designideas) in specificsettings. 299 This content downloaded from 129.82.28.124 on Fri, 10 Oct 2014 01:09:39 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CCC 61:2 / DECEMBER 2009 The idea thatrefinishing, both physical and virtual,should serve the local en- vironmentis ofinterest to rhetoriciansbecause itpromotes subtlety. It shows howwe can alterpieces so thatthey are distinctive,but not intrusive.It also suggeststhat the goal is notfor a piece to standout in a space,but for it to use thevernacular in order to speakto a designsite persuasively and idiomatically. The idea thatcompositions should evolve strategically is consonant with vanguardtheories and practices of architecture. In HowBuildings Learn: What HappensAfter They're Built, Stewart Brand outlines "steps toward an ad, ive architecture"'(190). He arguesthat spaces are best redesigned by those who live in themand that"adaptive use is thedestiny of most buildings" (109). Brand praisesevolutionary design and admiresbuildings, both public "and some - less public- thatchange constantly to matchthe changing work they have to do" (48). Brands writesthat buildings "learn by paying attention" (221), that is to say,when architects anticipate and respondto inhabitants'multiple and evolvingneeds.4 That interplayof anticipationand responseyields a storied maturitythat is complexand compelling.Brand notes