Wysocki 2: The Sticky Embrace of Beauty

I want to clarify that this selection was not something that we were assigned to read, but, as I started to move on to Johnson-Eilola section, I kept getting sucked back into this chapter of our new media text. Maybe it was because the “sticky embrace of beauty” is paired primarily with the “peek” layout on p. 148 or maybe it is because this selection is really about assessing new media and making good (ethical) decisions while creating our own new media texts. We want to evoke emotion and connection without “using” someone or the idea of someone in parts, but as a whole. The lessons provided in analyzing are teaching students (and us) how to create better new media texts by using critical analysis.  Wysocki argues that “…approaches many of us now use for teaching the visual aspects of texts are incomplete and, in fact, may work against helping students acquire critical and thoughtful agency with the visual…) (p. 149). In the Peek advertisement  Wysocki is moved by both pleasure and anger and goes throughout the chapter to describe the disconnect between good layout and what we may be missing if using the current analysis structure.

She continues by talking about many theorists and texts including Robin Williams, Rudolf Arnheim, Molly Bang, Kant, and Wendy Steiner.  For this blog, I will talk primarily discuss the work of Robin Williams and her text, The Non-Designer’s Design Book. This is a text that has been required for me as a communication and English student at least 3 times throughout my education. I am sure many of you are also familiar with this text, but it is a fairly short and easy to grasp book. Williams discusses four design principles within her text, they are: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity (p. 150). If you are going by these rules, the advertisement for “peek” is well-done. For the most part it adheres to Willaims rules. But, what are we missing? Wysocki suggests that if we look at Williams principles “as is” we may overlook that we are using someone else’s BODY in the advertisement. She says, “We are not encouraged to ask about the woman in the ad as a woman, only as a shape,” (p. 152). Meaning we are looking at this woman as an image only. Something we can change, tweak, and reduce in order to create a better advertisement. This is where Wysocki’s “anger” comes in, she says, “My very (learned) idea of what is beautiful, of what is well-formed, is dangerous for women and any aestheticized Others,” (p. 168). Being a member of the women and gender studies program, I could not say THANK YOU enough to Wysocki for pointing this out and even offering  a solution (changing people’s minds about what is and is not aesthetically pleasing is sure to stir up conflict on the way). Wysocki suggests that we must criticize, analyze and rethink how we know how to make visual arrangements.  We need to “…learn to appreciate formal arrangements and practices that do not abstract and universalize,” (p. 169). Meaning we cannot change how this media is presented, if we do not go to the roots of how we are taught to present it. We cannot change what is going on through television, advertising, magazines, catalogs, etc. without first questioning and recreating our own methods. Which means as university instructors, it starts with us.

I will end this blog entry by discussing the advertising campaign by Absolut Vodka. The text reads, "In an Absolut world true taste comes naturally" and then "All Absolut flavors are made with natural ingredients." Using Williams principles, how may Williams critique of this campaign differ from Wysocki’s? What would Wysocki suggest we are missing?