The Visual Essay
The goal of this assignment is to construct a sequence of ten images as a visual essay that explores a media/technology theme of the student's choice.
Designed for: Media/Technology/Everyday
Life
Requirements:
The goal of this assignment is to construct a sequence of ten images as a visual essay that visualizes a media/technology theme of your choice.
Visual component:
Ten images, drawn from your original pool of 25 images, arranged in a sequence, with possible captions or comments. On flickr, arrange your images as a set called "visual essay."
Written component:
1,000-word project statement explaining your theme and conceptualization of your visual essay (if applicable, include a bibliography).
Details:
Project Statement:
The project statement provides an insight into your thought processes and decisions during the construction of your visual essay. In 1,000 words, address the following questions in a cohesive statement (i.e. do not answer each question individually):
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What is your theme?
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How do your images visualize your theme?
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Why did you arrange these images in this particular sequence?
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If you chose to add quotes to your images, why did you choose these particular quotes? If you cite from a text, please provide a bibliography with your statement.
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What is your strongest image? Where in the sequence did you place it, and why?
Visual Sequence:
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Remember that you are trying to “write” with these images—your visual essay should have a beginning, middle, and end. The first few images should set up your theme in the clearest way possible, the middle images provide details, and the final images offer a conclusion.
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You may add up to 100 words of text per image. You can add the text as a description (comment underneath the image) or as a note on the image itself (to highlight a particular detail). The text can be written by you, or it can be a quote from readings we have done in class or from any other text. Text and image must be in tension with one another. This means that the text cannot simply be a description of the image, or the image an illustration of the text. Rather, the interaction between image and text should encourage the viewer to think about how image and text relate to one another (consider Rene Magritte's painting This Is Not a Pipe as an example of how image and text exist in tension with one another: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_is_not_a_pipe).
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You may edit your images with Photoshop/other image editing software or with picnik, flickr's built-in image editor (you can access it by clicking “edit photo” in the menu above each image). If you completely distort an image, you need to explain why you chose to do so in your project statement.
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You may change the size of your images (in fact, you are encouraged to re-size them to less than 1000x1000 pixels). You can re-size your images or crop them to highlight details.
Grading Rubrics
Overall Conceptualization (max. 50 points):
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Focuses on the relationship between theme and images. Is the theme well-defined? Do the images visualize it, rather than simply illustrating it?
Project statement (max. 25 points):
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Focuses both on form (grammar, organization, style) and content (explanation of your theme).
Visual sequence (max. 25 points):
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Are the images arranged in a cohesive way—is there a beginning, middle, and end? If applicable, do quotes or captions add another, thought-provoking dimension to the images?
Download full grading rubrics (PDF)
Sample Student Project: Information Overload
by Hayden Monfette | Fall 2009
Excerpt from Hayden's project statement:
The idea of “Information Overload” came up when I looked at some of my pictures and saw that some of the students, when they were studying, had multiple books and notebooks out and opened at one time . . . .The ten particular photos that I chose to make up my visual essay actually tell a story. From the browsing of a bookstore to the failure of a student’s technology, this story follows one students study time from start to finish.
I chose to put the images in a sequential order so that they would tell a story because we started this project briefly after our class watched a French film in class titled La Jetée.
La Jetée is a film that tells the story of a man whose mind travelled time during post-World War III. But I didn’t get my inspiration from the plot of the film, but from its composition. Then entire 28-minute long film was comprised of almost all black and white still photos. The photos, along with some narration, successfully told the story with only one very brief scene of actual cinema film, but it wasn’t used to advance the story, only add another artistic element. Dialogue was another unnecessary element that wasn’t used in La Jetée, as well as my visual essay. I composed my essay in a way that tells a story similar to how La Jetée tells its.
