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<TITLE>'The Poster' (new journal): call for contributions</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>THE POSTER<BR>
<BR>
The Poster is a new peer-reviewed journal published by<BR>
Intellect. Lead by Simon Downs (<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="s.t.downs@lboro.ac.uk">s.t.downs@lboro.ac.uk</a></U></FONT>) at<BR>
Loughborough University, the journal draws on an editorial team<BR>
from Loughborough, the Universidade De Aveiro, the University of<BR>
Guadalajara and the University of New South Wales.<BR>
<BR>
The Poster provides a forum for debate about the ways in which<BR>
visual devices are used to form opinion, sway, persuade,<BR>
provoke, unite and divide us. Scholars and practitioners of<BR>
visual culture, visual ethnography, critical studies,<BR>
cybernetics and the social sciences are invited to join in the<BR>
discussion about the ethics, aesthetics, effect and operation of<BR>
visual rhetoric in the public sphere.<BR>
<BR>
Submissions can be practical, theoretical or philosophical in<BR>
nature, from essays on industrial practice (e.g. successful<BR>
campaigns, analysis of trends and methods) to artefacts from<BR>
practitioners in the field of visual communication (e.g.<BR>
graphics, illustration, curation, experience design,<BR>
photography, etc).<BR>
<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="http://tinyurl.com/theposterjournal">http://tinyurl.com/theposterjournal</a><BR>
</U></FONT><BR>
Aims and the full first call can be found below.<BR>
<BR>
Simon Downs<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Call for Papers<BR>
<BR>
The journal The Poster has been founded as a forum to promote debates <BR>
around the following issues:<BR>
The ways in which visual devices are used to sway, persuade, provoke, <BR>
unite and divide us.<BR>
The impulse behind the use of visual means to make rhetorical points.<BR>
The means that are deployed to make such visual rhetorical points.<BR>
How the material nature and placement of the means affects the rhetoric.<BR>
If it is even possible to effectively direct understanding through <BR>
visual rhetorical means.<BR>
<BR>
These are urgent issues in our increasingly mediated world. The act of <BR>
making persuasive interventions is a massively multidisciplinary <BR>
process: the effect of these interventions is of vital importance in <BR>
promoting public dialogues and forming healthy political structures.<BR>
<BR>
Political actions succeed or fail on their ability to engage with a <BR>
heterogeneous mass of actors, uniting them in a common cause. Public <BR>
health campaigns either function or people die. If successful <BR>
communications shape global patterns of consumption, perhaps they <BR>
could save the world? If visual rhetorical systems possess this <BR>
persuasive power shouldn't we explore their limits and find the wisdom <BR>
to use them well. In exploring these issues we are seeking textual and <BR>
visual practice submissions on the following subjects:<BR>
<BR>
1. What is meant by 'Visual Rhetoric' and 'The Public Sphere'?<BR>
2. Why the poster stands as a symbol for visual rhetorical practice: A <BR>
privileged signifier of rhetoric, over and above every other instance <BR>
of the visual which also persuades or affects behaviour…and if so, why <BR>
and how?<BR>
3. What new forms have taken up the torch of visual rhetorical action?<BR>
4. Does the poster still have a role in the panoply of visual <BR>
rhetorical media?<BR>
5. In a networked world who now owns and controls the means of <BR>
rhetorical production?<BR>
6. What alternative/critical projects and strategies are possible and <BR>
how will these new visual rhetorical manifestations operate?<BR>
7. To what degree it is possible to influence people's hearts and <BR>
change people's minds through visual rhetorical means?<BR>
8.Is it possible to create a neutral information vehicle that informs <BR>
in a non-partisan way?<BR>
9. Is there a difference between visual and other forms of rhetoric?<BR>
10. Do visual rhetoricians have a moral responsibility for the means <BR>
they put at the disposal of their clients and the messages they devise?<BR>
11.Is it possible to create an analysis system appropriate to posters?<BR>
<BR>
If you have an interest in any of these areas we would encourage you <BR>
to make a submission.<BR>
<BR>
Submissions can be theoretical or philosophical in nature, from essays <BR>
on industrial practice (e.g. successful campaigns, analysis of trends <BR>
and methods) to visual artefacts from practitioners in the field of <BR>
visual communication (e.g. Graphics, Illustration, Curation, <BR>
Experience Design, Photography, etc.).<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Aim<BR>
The Poster is a forum for the study of visual rhetoric in the public <BR>
sphere; a place to discuss how and why visual messages are thrust into <BR>
the world and the media forms used to do so. This peer-reviewed <BR>
journal stands as a vehicle for the ideas of media theorists; scholars <BR>
of Cultural Studies and Cultural Materialism; for social psychologists <BR>
of visual communication, for architects and designers of wayfinding <BR>
schemes; for philosophers of Aesthetics and Politics, Society and <BR>
Linguistics; for social scientists, anthropologists and ethnographers; <BR>
for political campaigners and artist activists; for communications <BR>
researchers and visual communications practitioners.<BR>
<BR>
The poster maker, the pamphleteer and the tagger aim to sway the <BR>
popular heart and mind through visual public interventions. As new <BR>
technologies rise; turning the public sphere into a transparent, <BR>
ubiquitous communications medium and a global marketplace; is the <BR>
privileged status of the poster doomed or are we seeing it transformed <BR>
as part of a new wave of visual rhetoric? When the environment starts <BR>
to become responsive to our very presence and aware of our individual <BR>
nature what is the role of the 'traditional poster' delivering a <BR>
classical rhetorical message? This journal aims to lead the debate.<BR>
<BR>
The Poster is fully refereed and peer-reviewed through a rigorous <BR>
review process conducted by our international Editorial Board and team <BR>
of Associate Editors, selected for their ability to bring a unique <BR>
insight into the applications of visual rhetoric in the public sphere <BR>
and their academic strength as researchers and practitioners. Each <BR>
contribution will be independently reviewed by a pair of reviewers, <BR>
with a third reviewer being sought to abitrate in the case of an <BR>
initial disagreement between the first reviewers.<BR>
<BR>
Scope<BR>
The Poster stands as a privileged symbol of visual rhetoric manifest <BR>
in the world, and as such visual rhetoric is the heart of this <BR>
journal. Once the poster was a simple beast, it's role was that of a <BR>
focused shout; a singular message delivered as powerfully as could be <BR>
devised into the melee of the public sphere. As such every rhetorical <BR>
visual form intended to sway hearts and minds; from Luther's Thesis <BR>
nailed to the church door in Wittenberg to that glorious symbol of <BR>
Western civilization that is Times Square in New York City; could <BR>
easily fall within the journal's purview. As the visual rhetorical <BR>
impulse grows ever stronger; with every miniscule social group having <BR>
the means and media savvy to visually project their case into the <BR>
public sphere; the material nature of the poster is in flux. Things <BR>
are changing and this change is the founding impulse behind the <BR>
creation of the journal.<BR>
<BR>
We offer this journal as a forum to examine the role of the poster in <BR>
its fullest and richest sense. As a social, graphical, aesthetic, <BR>
philosophic and historic device inhabiting the junction formed by the <BR>
visual rhetorical impulse and the social environment that the impulse <BR>
acts upon. The physical form and manufacture of an artefact is often <BR>
confused with its function. This journal will not be constrained by <BR>
restrictive discussion of purely historic materials and forms. Rather <BR>
we will engage with an exploration of all forms of public-facing <BR>
communication intended to persuade us by focusing our attention on a <BR>
singular message. We invite contributions on the rhetorical forms <BR>
themselves: historic and traditional poster forms, movie & game <BR>
microsites, location specific mobile advertising, viral media, <BR>
artworks affecting the public sphere, architectural wayfinding <BR>
schemes, public display technologies, public interactive media, <BR>
geographically targeted advertising. Moving beyond these rhetorical <BR>
manifestation we seek contributions grounded in the theory and <BR>
philosophy of such communications: public political interventions, the <BR>
systems science of communication, the social reception of artefacts, <BR>
the psychology of visual rhetoric and the anthropology of public <BR>
messages.<BR>
<BR>
We find ourselves in the midst of a communications revolution. The <BR>
form of the poster has never been more diverse, the intention to <BR>
deliver a message never more ubiquitous or yet more individually <BR>
targeted.<BR>
<BR>
The journal is actively looking for both theoretical and practice <BR>
based contributions to it's refereed content, but also recognises that <BR>
many with an active interest and expertise in the area are from <BR>
outside the academic sphere: to this end we invite those who <BR>
contribute vitality to the visual rhetorical landscape to send in <BR>
their work as non-refereed submissions.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <BR>
Gerard Goggin <BR>
Professor of Digital Communication <BR>
& Deputy Director <BR>
Journalism and Media Research Centre <BR>
University of New South Wales <BR>
Sydney 2052 NSW Australia <BR>
<a href="http://jmrc.arts.unsw.edu.au/">http://jmrc.arts.unsw.edu.au/</a> T<BR>
e: <a href="g.goggin@unsw.edu.au">g.goggin@unsw.edu.au</a> <BR>
w: +61 2 9385 8532 <BR>
f: +61 2 9385 8528 <BR>
m: +61 428 66 88 24 <BR>
<BR>
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