Presence and the Enythymeme

I, like a few of the previous posters, don't necessarily see Berger's visual-as-narrative, the HH-ers visual-as-argument, and our new visual-as-rhetorical epistemologies as being at odds, rather, I see them as being somewhat complimentary. By that I mean, they can all work together inside an image.

I think an example of this can be seen if you combine Blair's discussion of the enthymematic properties of the visual, and Hill's discussion of presence. When you present a visual to an audience, like the cover of the New Yorker that Travis posted:

You are using the intertextual narrative to engage them in "filling in [the] unexpressed premise[s]," and, thus, having them "participate in their own persuasion." This act of having them "participate" in the argument causes the image, and in turn the argument, to be much more present in the audience's mind. 

This can also be seen in the Pepsi ad that Blair, Travis, and Heather discussed. In discussing the commercial, Travis outlines the audience's construction of a narrative for the children on screen. By forcing the audience to construct a narrative, rather than just giving them one, Pepsi is forcing the audience to "participate in their own persuasion." This participation increases the presence of Pepsi in the viewer's mind, and pushes out, or occupies too much space for, other thoughts like going to get some water from the tap, or squeezing some lemons to make lemonade. Instead, they think about Pepsi, and how much they want one.

Changing directions, I wanted to briefly mention Tange's essay. Although I didn't necessarily agree with everything that the author proposed (mainly her assertion that people were offended by the painting because it was saying that an ideal home doesn't produce an ideal woman), I did find it really interesting. After I read the essay, I started thinking about modern examples of constructing an identity through visual rhetoric. While I'm sure there are many examples, one that came to mind immediately, was a quarterly magazine called Kinfolk Magazine, which displays the ideal "neo-bohemian," "hipster" aesthetic. It, like the guides Tange discusses, gives you the tools you need to fit in, but does not tell you how to do so tastefully.