Photo courtesy of Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash.
The collage was made to visually represent what rhetorical citizenship means to me.
Here is my artist statement to accompany the collage. It explains my reasoning behind the rhetorical choices behind my collage such as design and messaging.
For my collage, I decided to choose a digital photo collage because I am a visual person and I wanted to put my collage skills in Photoshop to the test. I started out by placing the photos in front and behind each other until I reached the desired aesthetic I wanted. After setting up the base of my collage, I started playing around with a hue and saturation adjustment layer. The photographs were too bright and colorful so I wanted to tone it down. First, I tried making the collage black and white which did not work out for me. The photos began to blend into each other so I could not distinct one from another.
As I continued adjusting the hue, saturation, and lightness, I discovered that it looked better in color. As I previously mentioned, the color was extremely vibrant. Therefore, I toned it down by turning the lightness and saturation down so it creates a pale effect. Once I was satisfied with it, I added words that I believe represent rhetorical citizenship. I colored the words using white and I used the overlay blend mode for the words. As for the photos, I chose photos that represent various political issues such as the gun debate, climate change, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, the #MeToo movement, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
The working definition I have for rhetorical citizenship is citizens who come together by using necessary language and communication skills to spark positive change within a state, country, or nation. Therefore, positive change can be made by using political or non-political means. My process for creating this working definition was defining rhetoric and citizenship separately. This process was helpful for me because I could break them down which enabled me to create my definition for rhetorical citizenship. I believe that rhetoric is a means by which a rhetor uses language and communication in order to interact with society; therefore, he or she may use rhetoric for personal gain or to inspire others. Likewise, I believe that citizenship is being a part of a community, big or small, in which creates a chain reaction of positive change within a state, country, or nation. As you can see, I combined these two definitions to create my definition of rhetorical citizenship. I believe that rhetorical citizenship is neutral. It can be used for good or bad. It depends on the person who utilizes the term.
Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee go back in time in their piece, ‘Ancient Rhetorics: Their Differences and the Differences They Make.’ The authors open the piece with how the public perceives rhetoric. Most of us associate the term with politics because rhetoric is mentioned in the political world quite a lot. Crowley and Hawhee explain that ancient rhetoricians used rhetoric to “make decisions, resolve disputes, and to mediate public discussion of important issues” (1). Rhetoric was used for the greater good. It was used to solve arguments. It was not used to start them as it seems to be used in that way in today’s political landscape.
Unlike Crowley and Hawhee, Caryn McTighe Musil focused her piece on citizenship and the various types of faces or phases of citizenship. There is a chart that lists each face or phase. The face or phase that stands out the most to me is the charitable stage. Musil says that this is “the most typical face of citizenship…” (13). When I think of citizenship, I think of playing an active role in a community whether that is volunteering at a local pet shelter or helping out an elderly neighbor. Being charitable is about putting someone else’s needs before yours. I believe Musil’s article is another way to view my collage. All of the pictures that I included are ones that have groups of people standing up for what they believe in.
Peter Levine’s ‘We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: The Promise of Civic Renewal in America’ takes a look into the political world and how we should interpret it. I wanted to include information from Levine’s piece because I wanted to challenge it. Levine explains that “…the human scale of politics is certainly studied but not sufficiently in ways that combine three matters: facts, values, and strategies” (24). I found this interesting because politicians have their strategies in trying to persuade those who listen to them speak. I do feel like since most of us associate rhetoric with the idea of deception; it is difficult to think that politics is factual and valuable. With my collage, I tried to communicate the coming together of people who are trying to protest a political ideal or issue.
In conclusion, I chose to do a digital photo collage for my project because it is what represents me best as a visionary human being. I believe that Crowley, Hawhee, and Musil all share similar beliefs in what I define rhetorical citizenship as. They do not define rhetorical citizenship bluntly but they define rhetoric and citizenship separately. Levine goes into detail how the backbone of politics is truly embedded within facts, values, and strategies. In the end, rhetorical citizenship can be used for the good of public instead of using it for bad.
