Sketching a Theory of VizRhet

     The exercises that we have done in class the past few weeks have moved me to think a lot about what we need to articulate a theory of visual rhetoric. A theory of visual rhetoric finds its place as a subtheory of a general theory of rhetoric. Where many of the basic concepts of rhetoric (audience, message), will be defined prior to approaching questions of the visual, we can theorize of visual as a particular species within the larger genus of a general rhetorical theory, which will itself be part of a larger, systematic notion of philosophy. I’d like to suggest three basic types of questions that we need to ask. I think a theory of visual rhetoric must begin with epistemology, address the difference between the visual and the verbal, and then identify distinctions among types of visuals.
Since visual rhetoric deals specifically with rhetoric as perceived through the eyes, a theory of visual rhetoric should deal with questions of epistemology. First of all, how reliable are our eyes and other senses? Is sensory input the beginning of knowledge or do there exist a priori categories which direct how we perceive our senses? I have a feeling how most of us in the class would answer that question (with the exception of Joe), but I think the first question of visual rhetoric will address the relationship of our senses to the knowledge that we hold or create.
Jumping forward a few steps in the process, a theory of visual rhetoric will have to explain the difference between the visual and the verbal. Why do we distinguish “verbal” (words) and “visual” when we also perceive words with our eyes? What makes them different, and how do we make the case for it?
From there, it remains to define different types and sub-types of visuals. So far in this course I have imagined a general group “visuals,” and identified two particular types - the image and the photograph. I distinguish between the two because an image can be made from scratch wheras a photograph must be “taken” of something that already exists. By no means are these the only two types of visuals, but we have dealt the most with them and when I think about theorizing, they are the types that come to mind.
This is just a rough sketch of a theory of visual rhetoric. But I hope I have illustrated something of the procedure I would follow - from epistemology, to a specific definition of visual rhetoric, to a discussion of types of visuals.