San Diego State University Visual Analysis Discussion

Watch a clip from Solange’s “Don’t Touch My Hair”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTtrnDbOQAU

Write a 1-2 page visual analysis response. Listen to the song, watch the video. Begin with an intro para where you employ a description of the music video’s visual elements and posit a thesis statement. Go to the body paragraph to carefully analyze the video and lay out the evidence in detail using the context of the film. Look at the use of visual art elements to complement the lyrics and music. What is the song about primarily and how does the visual elements work in service of the song’s theme or against it and how is that tension explored. In what cultural context does it exist? Use the five-step method in the VISUAL RHETORIC youtube video. End with a strong conclusion that refers back to the thesis statement you started out with and leaves the reader with something to think about. Use the questions and the steps outlined in Visual Rhetoric video shared in Week 7.

Here are the questions again:

1. In which cultural context (historical era, country/nation, sub­cultural group, political climate) was this image originally produced?

2. Is any information (such as text, or a detail of the image) highlighted or stressed to attract your attention? Why do you think this is?

3. What cultural values does the image evoke? Does the image reinforce these values or question them?

4. What role is played by the words that accompany the image? How do they clarify, reinforce, blur, or contradict the image’s message?

5. What overall impression / feeling does the image create in you?

6. What positive or negative feelings about individuals or ideas does the image intend to evoke in its viewers (what are its appeals to pathos?)? Is this at odds with the actual feelings it evoked in you?

7. What is your impression of the creators of this image? Do they make any overt appeals to ethos?

8. Does the image make any appeals to logos? (In addition to facts / statistics / etc., remember also reasoning based on common sense, reasoning based on cultural values, analogies, etc.)

9. Overall, do you think that this image makes an effective argument? Why or why not?