“Create your own visual style…let it be unique for yourself and yet unidentifiable for others.” – Orson Welles
As we continue with our evaluation of the Broadway show Hamilton, we are expanding away from it’s main focus, the music, and diving into it’s visual aspects. This is now making us ask the questions, why do we find this appealing? What about this catches my eye? What is the color pattern? What contrasts are shown between characters? This week has shown the the importance of visual presentation, and how it can change the audiences perspective and displays an entire new meaning then from what is simply heard.
This week in class, we practiced finding visual rhetoric within the Hamilton mix tape song “Immigrants”. Before we began, we discussed what we should be looking for when analyzing a visual argument. This included the basics of color, structure, design, and lighting. Then we dove deeper, examining examples of figurative language within the video such as irony and allusion. These devices pressed the argument that Americans don’t treat immigrants as equals, and are not treating them with the respect they deserve. They are performing the jobs that are undesirable by the general public and by doing this are helping build the foundation of our country. However, they argue that “Immigrant has become a bad word” which is ironic because America was created by immigrants. By going back and interpreting the visuals given, it assists the audience in understanding what the author was trying to convey.
This weekend I had the opportunity to go on retreat with my parish, to the Dallas Catholic Youth Conference. We were shown many inspirational videos that contained incredible visual arguments that were very compelling and emotional. For example, one video we were shown demonstrated the internal anguish we feel when we are separated from God or allow worldly things to take his place. It showed God remaining by our side and trying to help us, whether we see it or not. To do this they used music shifts to demonstrate when the characters were close to God as opposed to drifting away into chaos. They also used visuals such as adding or removing black clothing to signify their relationship to God. After examining the Hamilton song in class, I couldn’t help but notice these specifics when watching this video.
On this church retreat I was introduced to many new faces, ideas, and lives that I had never encountered before. With these new found friends we quickly began expressing our opinions on relationships, a common topic among teenagers. Over dinner, I began an argument about if allowing your friend to date your ex-boyfriend was okay or not. Many opinions were thrown out into the conversation, and we finally decided that it depended on the situation. From there we covered every situation that could possibly occur and debated the correct way to handle the situation. This continued for some time, and included the use of forks and spoons for place holding characters in the scenario. Although the discussion got very intense, it ended in laughs and acceptance of other peoples opinion.
Chan, Carmen. “Visual Literacies.” Design Wiki. 2008. <http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Visual_Literacies>.
Residente, Riz MC, and Snow Tha Product. “The Hamilton Mixtape: Immigrants (We Get The Job Done).” YouTube, YouTube, 28 June 2017, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_35a7sn6ds.
English 1302 