Visual Rhetoric on Aesthetic Dental Restorations
I. Content/ Organization
A. Your essay must include (cite and integrate) Rosen’s “The Image Culture” essay
http://www(dot)thenewatlantis(dot)com/publications/the-image-culture
(two separate quotations);
an image of your choosing http://www(dot)dentalartslab(dot)com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IPS-EMAX-HEADER-IMAGE.jpg;
and a discussion of visual rhetoric;
B. Your introduction should summarize the above essay and mention visual rhetoric, clearly connecting these to the image you’re writing about;
C. You should summarize the essay you’re citing and refer to it in the body of your essay, doing the same for visual rhetoric, as if you were writing about these for the benefit of someone who has not read them;
D. Explicating the quotations you’re using is best left to the body of your essay, so that all elements of the essay remain in balance;
E. Likewise, the order in which you discuss these elements will vary; there is no one “right” way to organize your essay, as long as relationships of ideas to one another remain clear;
F. Your thesis should not only make clear which reading you’re writing, but also its relationship to the image you’re writing about, e. g., “After viewing the image I’ve chosen through the lenses of Rosen’s argument and visual rhetoric, I notice/ see it as …”;
G. Finally, wherever in your essay you start discussing the image you’ve chosen in depth, insert it, and add a caption (see sample paper). However, don’t do this with every subsequent reference to your image (referring to it as, for ex., “the photograph” is sufficient);
H. Documentation
I. Follow MLA style, keeping the following in mind:
1. The first time you refer to a reading, indicate its complete title and the author’s complete name, e. g., “In her essay, ‘The Image Culture,’ Christine Rosen argues that …”;
2. In each subsequent reference, last name and page number, where applicable, are sufficient;
3. In your “Works Cited” page, use the citation provided in the handouts I distributed on 19 Mar., as well as including a citation for the image (again, OWL@Purdue link enclosed has models for you to choose from)
I. Other conventions
A. Use the present tense to write about a text (see II. A. 1 above);
B. Finally, if you’re citing an author who is quoting someone else, use single inside double quotation marks (e. g., “Rosen cites Susan Sontag, who famously noted, ‘”…”’);
Professor’s Name
Course
Date of Submission
Visual Rhetoric on Aesthetic Dental Restorations
Introduction
The aspect of visual rhetoric, which is the use of images as argument, has gained much popularity in the contemporary world. In her article titled The Image Culture, Christine Rosen notes that even though the image of both natural and man-made disasters have long been presented in newspapers and television, the number and range of images in the wake of Hurricane Katrina shows the complexity, speed, and power of images in modern American culture. According to Rosen, satellite photographs taken from space gave a new face to the devastating effects of the storm that had ravaged the nation. These images not only made the American people realize how helpless they were in dealing with the chaos brought by the storm, but it also influenced the understanding of the effects it generated. Today, an increase in the number of cameras has increased the number of images something that has significantly diluted the power of the image. However, this increase of images has also strengthened images over text as more people turn to images to express themselves (Rosen 26). After examining the image that I have chosen on aesthetic dental restorations through the eyes of Rosen’s argument and visual rhetoric, I find the argument unable to represent the facts and, therefore, flawed.
According to Rosen, technology has considerably undermined our ability to trust what we see. While Rosen has tried to explain the reason this is the case, she fails to offer any conclusive evidence to prove that people no longer trust images. The proof that images are still capable of passing messages can be seen in the highly rising number of images in the society today. While it is true that images have led to a decline of the written and the spoken word, claiming that people no longer trust an image is erroneous and a misrepresentation of the facts. Images, I believe, are powerful tools that can make us realize what we do not see or rather what we could have.
While quoting the talented Susan Sontag on her extended essay titled On Photography, Rosen notes that images "carry the risk of undermining true things and genuine experiences, as well as the danger of upending our understanding of art" (31). The reason for this is because people are often disappointed when they realize that they had been deceived into having the wrong image of a particular thing. What Rosen and Susan are trying to point out in this piece of literature is that images cannot be relied upon to create understanding of the things themselves. In short, Rosen seems to be disagreeing with the visual rhetoric enthusiasts who point out that images can be used to tell a story. According to Rosen and other critics, the danger of relying on images is that they breed fantasies.
Fig 1.1 Aesthetic Dental Restorations (Dental Art Lab)
The image above on aesthetic dental restorations is a clear indication of how misleading Rosen’s argument is. If we were to follow Rosen’s argument, the above image should make people wary, as one would be "disappointed, surprised, unmoved when they see the real thing" (31). This assumption is not only incorrect, but it is misleading, to say the least. While the above image is just an artistic impression of aesthetic dental restorations, one cannot agree with Rosen that anyone going through the real procedure would be shocked and disappointed when they realize that they have been tricked into believing a lie.
Ideally, there is no denying that many people have not had good dental hygiene while they were growing up leading to the decline of their teeth as they grow up. While aesthetical dental restoration will not make one’s teeth look exactly like the one in the picture, it has the potential of restoring back one’s smile. From the numerous interviews that I have conducted over the years, I have noted that a beautiful, healthy smile enhances not only one’s look but can have a significant effect on self-esteem. One of the benefits of having aesthetic dental restoration is that it can lead to enhanced self-esteem, as 75% of adults are of the opinion that unpleasant smile can harbor one’s professional and personal success. A restored smile makes it possible for individuals to get back their old smile and start believing in themselves once more. What makes this procedure even more appealing is that it is painless and does not in any way interfere with the normal body functions of an individual. Instead, this is a process that can even enhance the general body health as the process is known to do away with diseases. It is also capable of eliminating constant headaches and joint pains since these are all procedures that can be accomplished using neuromuscular dentistry (Gilman 26).
Ideally, the presented photograph is meant to inspire an individual whose smile is not so good to go for an aesthetic dental restoration. However, Rosen wants us to believe that the apparent photo falsification is meant to dupe the masses. While there is no denying that Photoshop, the new technology that allows people to alter images has been used to create brutal and disturbing images of individuals and situations, purporting that all Photoshop is bad is both naïve and untrue. Rosen believes that the only problem with a photograph like the one presented is that people tend to lose respect for thing...