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Contract Proposal

The aspect of visual rhetoric that interests me the most is the connection between neurological science and perception/persuasion. Many readings in the class explore this area, including Barry's Visual Intelligence and Gregory's Eye and Brain. However, there is a wealth of recent, cutting edge literature on cognitive systems and perception, and how metaphors and language assist cognitive systems in processing the world. I believe connecting these two areas of research is vital for rhetoricians, because more and more research is becoming available on how the brain functions. As both rhetoric and cognitive science continue to emerge, the connections between these fields need to be drawn.

Possible directions for this project include exploration of how metaphors structure thought, how cognitive systems affect persuasion, how the mind processes the visual, or how rhetorical theories of perception match cognitive ones. These topics are vague, but I expect the focus to emerge as the research is conducted. Because I think this research will inform some of my other scholarship, I would like to see this project ultimately take an academic form, though obviously the genre and audience hasn't been determined yet.

Submitted by Ryan on Wed, 2007-01-24 15:58.
Ryan's blog

Brainy Topic
David Blakesley's picture
Submitted by David Blakesley on Mon, 2007-02-05 06:58.

Sounds great, Ryan.

I can give you a few additional leads that might be useful:

Steven Pinker's books, The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works are two good sources. Pinker pushes hard on the "mind as complex computer" idea, somewhat persuasively. The books are more about language processes than visual, but there may be some useful intersections.

I've been interested in tracking the deja vu experience in part because it seems to be an instance when perception, prediction, language, and cognition all come into play. Alan Brown's book, The Deja Vu Experience (Essays in Cognitive Psychology is a good resource on that. I can send you a paper of mine on the subject if you're interested.

Finally, there is the recent research on mirror neurons, which connects the subject to identification also. The source study on the subject is online in abstract form, and you can get it through Purdue Libraries. This one specifically connects the process to language also. It would be a good read for the whole class (so I've attached it here):

THE MIRROR-NEURON SYSTEM
Giacomo Rizzolatti1 and ­ Laila Craighero
Annual Review of Neuroscience
Vol. 27: 169-192 (Volume publication date July 2004)
(doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144230)
First published online as a Review in Advance on March 5, 2004

http://tinyurl.com/2748rw

If you type "mirror neuron research" at Google Scholar, you'll get lots of good resources:

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=mirror+neuron+research

Mark Johnson's work on metaphor could be interesting as well, but the connection to visual rhetoric (and rhetoric proper) is somewhat tenuous.

Lots of other ways to go, too!


The "art" of rhetoric?
Amylea's picture
Submitted by Amylea on Thu, 2007-01-25 11:46.

Ryan,
This raises the question again of the domain of rhetoric: Is it an art or a science? If it's just about stimulating the right centers of the brain, then it's a science. And what of the study of rhetoric? Art or science? Or am I being too damn dualistic?


A new sphere for visual rhetoric
Morgan S.'s picture
Submitted by Morgan S. on Sun, 2007-01-28 12:36.

Or, Amy, I wonder if visual rhetoric has created its own realm separate from traditional rhetoric. To this end, I would argue that the visual component of rhetoric, requiring assistance from the eye and brain and sensors to make sense of what is visualized (in a way that is unique from rhetoric in a more traditional sense), does comprise both science and art. I would argue that visual rhetoric has created a new space for itself that is situated more evenly between the two fields.