[csaa-forum] 'The Poster' (new journal): call for contributions

[Gerard Goggin]

THE POSTER

The Poster is a new peer-reviewed journal published by
Intellect. Lead by Simon Downs (s.t.downs at lboro.ac.uk) at
Loughborough University, the journal draws on an editorial team
from Loughborough, the Universidade De Aveiro, the University of
Guadalajara and the University of New South Wales.

The Poster provides a forum for debate about the ways in which
visual devices are used to form opinion, sway, persuade,
provoke, unite and divide us. Scholars and practitioners of
visual culture, visual ethnography, critical studies,
cybernetics and the social sciences are invited to join in the
discussion about the ethics, aesthetics, effect and operation of
visual rhetoric in the public sphere.

Submissions can be practical, theoretical or philosophical in
nature, from essays on industrial practice (e.g. successful
campaigns, analysis of trends and methods) to artefacts from
practitioners in the field of visual communication (e.g.
graphics, illustration, curation, experience design,
photography, etc).

http://tinyurl.com/theposterjournal

Aims and the full first call can be found below.

Simon Downs


Call for Papers

The journal The Poster has  been founded as a forum to promote debates
around the following issues:
The ways in which visual devices are used to sway, persuade, provoke,
unite and divide us.
The impulse  behind the use of visual means to make rhetorical points.
The means that are deployed to make such visual rhetorical points.
How the material nature and placement of the means affects the rhetoric.
If it is even possible to effectively direct understanding through
visual rhetorical means.

These are urgent issues in our increasingly mediated world. The act of
making persuasive interventions is a massively multidisciplinary
process: the effect of these interventions is of vital importance in
promoting public dialogues and forming healthy political structures.

Political actions succeed or fail on their ability to engage with a
heterogeneous mass of actors, uniting them in a common cause. Public
health campaigns either function or people die. If successful
communications shape global patterns of consumption, perhaps they
could save the world? If visual rhetorical systems possess this
persuasive power shouldn't we explore their limits and find the wisdom
to use them well. In exploring these issues we are seeking textual and
visual practice submissions on the following subjects:

1. What is meant by 'Visual Rhetoric' and 'The Public Sphere'?
2. Why the poster stands as a symbol for visual rhetorical practice: A
privileged signifier of rhetoric, over and above every other instance
of the visual which also persuades or affects behaviour...and if so, why
and how?
3. What new forms have taken up the torch of visual rhetorical action?
4. Does the poster still have a role in the panoply of visual
rhetorical media?
5. In a networked world who now owns and controls the means of
rhetorical production?
6. What alternative/critical projects and strategies are possible and
how will these new visual rhetorical manifestations operate?
7. To what degree it is possible to influence people's hearts and
change people's minds through visual rhetorical means?
8.Is it possible to create a neutral information vehicle that informs
in a non-partisan way?
9. Is there a difference between visual and other forms of rhetoric?
10. Do visual rhetoricians have a moral responsibility for the means
they put at the disposal of their clients and the messages they devise?
11.Is it possible to create an analysis system appropriate to posters?

If you have an interest in any of these areas we would encourage you
to make a submission.

Submissions can be theoretical or philosophical in nature, from essays
on industrial practice (e.g. successful campaigns, analysis of trends
and methods) to visual artefacts from practitioners in the field of
visual communication (e.g. Graphics, Illustration, Curation,
Experience Design, Photography, etc.).


Aim
The Poster is a forum for the study of visual rhetoric in the public
sphere; a place to discuss how and why visual messages are thrust into
the world and the media forms used to do so. This peer-reviewed
journal stands as a vehicle for the ideas of media theorists; scholars
of Cultural Studies and Cultural Materialism; for social psychologists
of visual communication, for architects and designers of wayfinding
schemes; for philosophers of Aesthetics and Politics, Society and
Linguistics; for social scientists, anthropologists and ethnographers;
for political campaigners and artist activists; for communications
researchers and visual communications practitioners.

The poster maker, the pamphleteer and the tagger aim to sway the
popular heart and mind through visual public interventions. As new
technologies rise; turning the public sphere into a transparent,
ubiquitous communications medium and a global marketplace; is the
privileged status of the poster doomed or are we seeing it transformed
as part of a new wave of visual rhetoric?  When the environment starts
to become responsive to our very presence and aware of our individual
nature what is the role of the 'traditional poster' delivering a
classical rhetorical message? This journal aims to lead the debate.

The Poster is fully refereed and peer-reviewed through a rigorous
review process conducted by our international Editorial Board and team
of Associate Editors, selected for their ability to bring a unique
insight into the applications of visual rhetoric in the public sphere
and their academic strength as researchers and practitioners. Each
contribution will be independently reviewed by a pair of reviewers,
with a third reviewer being sought to abitrate in the case of an
initial  disagreement between the first reviewers.

Scope
The Poster stands as a privileged symbol of visual rhetoric manifest
in the world, and as such visual rhetoric is the heart of this
journal.  Once the poster was a simple beast, it's role was that of a
focused shout; a singular message delivered as powerfully as could be
devised into the melee of the public sphere. As such every rhetorical
visual form intended to sway hearts and minds; from Luther's Thesis
nailed to the church door in Wittenberg to that glorious symbol of
Western civilization that is Times Square in New York City; could
easily fall within the journal's purview.  As the visual rhetorical
impulse grows ever stronger; with every miniscule social group having
the means and media savvy to visually project their case into the
public sphere; the material nature of the poster is in flux. Things
are changing and this change is the founding impulse behind the
creation of the journal.

We offer this journal as a forum to examine the role of the poster in
its fullest and richest sense. As a social, graphical, aesthetic,
philosophic and historic device inhabiting the junction formed by the
visual rhetorical impulse and the social environment that the impulse
acts upon. The physical form and manufacture of an artefact is often
confused with its function. This journal will not be constrained by
restrictive discussion of purely historic materials and forms. Rather
we will engage with an exploration of all forms of public-facing
communication intended to persuade us by focusing our attention on a
singular message. We invite contributions on the rhetorical forms
themselves: historic and traditional poster forms, movie & game
microsites, location specific mobile advertising, viral media,
artworks affecting the public sphere, architectural wayfinding
schemes, public display technologies, public interactive media,
geographically targeted advertising. Moving beyond these rhetorical
manifestation we seek contributions grounded in the theory and
philosophy of such communications: public political interventions, the
systems science of communication, the social reception of artefacts,
the psychology of visual rhetoric and the anthropology of public
messages.

We find ourselves in the midst of a communications revolution. The
form of the poster has never been more diverse, the intention to
deliver a message never more ubiquitous or yet more individually
targeted.

The journal is actively looking for both theoretical and practice
based contributions to it's refereed content, but also recognises that
many with an active interest and expertise in the area are from
outside the academic sphere: to this end we invite those who
contribute vitality to the visual rhetorical landscape to send in
their work as non-refereed submissions.


\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Gerard Goggin
Professor of Digital Communication
& Deputy Director
Journalism and Media Research Centre
University of New South Wales
Sydney 2052 NSW Australia
http://jmrc.arts.unsw.edu.au/ T
e: g.goggin at unsw.edu.au
w: +61 2 9385 8532
f: +61 2 9385 8528
m: +61 428 66 88 24

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