Discourse Analysis Two

Jason Cleverly, et al. "Creating Assemblies in Public Environments: Social Interaction, Interactive Exhibits and CSCW." Computer Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing 14.1 (2005): 1-41. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=107&sid=cceaf962-5c20-4f7b-a845-5c3364ee2dc6%40sessionmgr112&vid=6&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=15806017>

Wysocki uses his text to provide readers with a better understanding of the visual elements that create visually effective papers in which one is encapsulated by the imagery displayed.  He states that text is an image itself, and the way we view the words we see generalizes the way we think about them.  For instance, large colored words instigate a children’s book while a single spaced Times New Roman font face communicates adult literature etc.  Objectifying literature is a task our minds perform before we even open up the cover of a book, by first glance of a cover, we have preconceived notions of the plot, subject, goal, and have successfully contextualized a single image (sometimes no image at all) into 300 plus pages of our own imagination.  I believe this is where the saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover” comes from.  In everything we read there is some sort of organization and format which constructs the visual form of a paper, book, magazine, the list goes on and on.  Using this framework for understanding what the writer is trying to communicate will give readers an in depth understanding and identification with the author.  

To give MY readers insight into what Cleverly is talking about, I want to briefly venture into his ideas and his goal in writing.  In his writing, Cleverly talks about the ways people interact with, and collaborate with other people while viewing an exhibit.  In his exact words, the goal of his writing is to “involvement in a programme of work concerned with designing and deploying low tech interactive exhibits to investigate forms of social interaction within museums and gallery spaces” He speaks of the ways technology are impacting the way people experience a science center; a major point being the way interaction with others is being limited by hand held devices and TV screening guides etc.  Instead of continuing with the complaint of technological downfalls, he speaks of how people interact with simple exhibits; as opposed to fancy expensive exhibits.

Using Wysocki’s thinking while reading Cleverly’s article, I was able to understand the type of communication and targeted audience in which Cleverly is trying to reach.  Although this is an academic article, I expected there to be minimal color or much of any display besides size 12 font.  Typically this type of writing is very plain and structured; there is no need to stylize and color the article in a way that draws attention from the words themselves, however I was surprised to see many visual images depicting and supporting the conceptual ideas of the author.  The author’s target audience judging from the text size and organization, I guesstimated an audience of 20 and up would read this for academic and scientific purposes.  This article is titled by with large letters, about 2X the size of the section titles, and the section titles being 2X the size of the plain text.  Each section is not number, instead, is given a simple title stating what the following information will entail; this mechanism allows for easy scrolling and navigation throughout the text.  Apart from the text, I was surprised to see a total of 16 pictures and one diagram.  The images portrayed simple science exhibits in which subjects interacted with; the structure of the object could not be clearly depicted through the article so Cleverly cleverly (pun intended) showed the object in different views on the page in a linear format.  While these images were black and white, the reader could still get a better picture of what the writer was talking about.  Cleverly, visually, through his structure and images, conveyed his information to his target audience with a well-structured and simple layout.