Visual Rhetoric Project

A Story beyond the Roots

Brian Ingebretsen

ENGL 1A

This project required me to think outside the box to cultivate an impressive idea about the subject to my last essay which was the connection between science and literature to create Romanticism. At first I brainstormed many ideas but as more time went on and more rules were added, these ideas seemed to be futile until I arrived at one idea that I felt to be a fantastic interpretation. This object was a flower that had the natural look on the outside and the literature on the inside to further support the idea of the underlying connection but the final product fell flat and I had to begin again. The flower was a great idea but the way it was created gave it an infamous image of Kindergarten status work and tackiness with no representation of actual natural life so I decided on another, entirely new project. I decided on exploring the correlation between a tree and the written word and thought of ideas such as having book pages for leaves and so on, however, there were no perfect ideas. I wanted the literature to be effective and the nature to be believable and practical which ties into my secondary theme of simple complexity because my view on the correlation is in fact simple complexity. You can have a subject as simple as a forest but in order to create a world in and around that forest, you need to use complex structures and imagery to completely teleport the reader because without this complexity, they won’t really see the depth or the actual beauty of the forest. Though I could not do what I really wanted to do, I tried my best with the materials I’ve commandeered and the ideas that I have put to practice. Using two coffee cups, I created the base of a tree and used construction paper as the color source even though I wanted to use actual bark at first. The bark would have given it the natural aesthetic feeling but I decided to make that with the leaves instead which also include strips of a story that I had written myself. The leaves for the tree are actual leaves from a tree, however since they are killed right when they are pulled off; I have to replace them so the project still has its natural beauty to it. The story I wrote  is a Romantic themed short story about keeping in touch with your past and never forgetting it as you strive to the future which I thought was appropriate because in a way that is how we, as college students, are feeling now. The tree has a mixture of story pieces and natural leaves to fully combine the two ideas into one grand impression which is what my topic is entirely about. Though obviously my item connects nature and literature, it needs to be supplemented to contrive the actual meaning which is simply that you cannot have Romanticism without a combination of science and literature. It relates to my previous essay in regards to message and tone by showing how both nature and literature go hand in hand with each other and how a simple idea can have a complex message. The tone itself is simple and joyous, it is far from beautiful but it gives the looker a sense of mystery as they use their own interpretation of what they believe to be the correct view which is what my plan is. My topic cannot be answered in black or white, it can only be answered by interpretation by others and how well they critically think about it because there really is no right answer. My object would serve the best purpose if it were hung outside to really be one with nature and really be a part of the message it is trying to send.

While making my project I had to overcome a few obstacles that would’ve doomed it in the beginning and actually served to be learning purposes for myself. I had to think of a clever and practical idea that the audience would understand just by looking at it and also have that underlying theme that I’m looking for. Next I had to think of creative ways to create my object and by using critiques that I received in class; I was able to fully create my object though I still used construction paper. I learned a lot throughout the making of this project and I’m glad I was able to experience a project like this. It is the first project of this caliber that I have completed so it offered many new and fun challenges that I had to overcome using cleverness and logic. I learned the significance of combining an idea on paper with a real tangible object to help supplement the message. Grade-wise I believe that I should receive a B because though the project may not look the best, the idea is there and helps fill out the rest of the message. My subject was hard to create an object for just because it is such an opinion based topic that anything I create will be open to interpretation which is what I recommend for my topic.