Intuitive and Unconscious Meaning

When a student writes a formal essay he or she is aware of the parameters defined by our teachers, our training, and the genre in which we write. This is something that was taught to us or something that we read and acquired through logical thinking. It is a conscious process, that builds a community of like people that all try to practice this process and work towards something.

Because writing is man-made, we also prescribed certain rules and restrictions that define what or what not it can be. A student writing a research paper is expected to behave a certain way, certain values are stressed such as logical process, building our ethos, and making our thesis clear.

Now, what happens when someone uses pictures in a research paper? Yes, it is frowned upon sometimes (most often). And yes, it has its functions. But what happens to the reader when they scan over the picture? Well, like McCandless said, "there is something comforting about pictures." Whether we like them or not, we can't help but scan over pictures and interpret them. The person can also be manipulated in certain ways to see a certain way. An example of this is with the WIRED magazine Fetish page in which the eye can't help but follow the pattern that the designers set. They created a never ending loop that keeps drawing our eyes back, around, and to the pictures they want to emphasize.

I think the main reason stiff English rhetoricians are resisting pictures is because there is so much unconscious activity taking place that they cannot define and can't place in a specific genre or grouping. It is much easier, I believe, to trick people with pictures than with words. Just think of illusions or optical tricks like this one..

With our eyesight we expect certain patterns, maybe that are even defined by our genetics. When we come into contrast with these pictures, our eyes might know that something is not possible, yet keeps trying to make a connection. This could be because our eyes are much more connected to a stable sense of reality than our brain, and when something threatens this reality, it still sticks to its guns.

Now, I think that one of the ways in which we can escape this sense of threat(coming from personal experience ha) and ignorance is to create genres for visuals. We make meaning out of things that we see, even more so than writing, yet previously this has all been done so quickly that we don't realize we made the connection, or it was done unconsciously. If we teach that certain visuals equals certain meanings, and show people in schools or in training the function of pictures and the allure of lines and shapes, people like myself will not feel like they are getting manipulated by pictures unconsciously. We can define the picture and through that definition and genre, make a logical connection that sets a parameter for it, and defines its function and what the picture is trying to accomplish.