Interdisciplinary Approaches to Consumer Culture

Activities

Reading the Visuals (Part I)

The opening scene of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window is a perfect example of how our eyes read visual texts as a way to make inferences. The beauty of this scene is that it allows students to construct meaning by only looking. This can be taught in a variety of ways, but I think the key is that students will need to go back and revisit the text. After viewing this text students should be able to answer the following questions:

- What time of year is it?

- What time of day is it?

- Where does this story take place?

- What kinds of people live in this neighborhood?

- Who is the protagonist?

- What is the protagonist's name?

- Why is the protagonist inside?

- What does the protagonist do for a living?

Reading the Visuals (Part II)

Students can practice mise-en-scène using magazine print ads in this exercise.

Students will be given print ads from a magazine and should answer the following questions (Students need not be limited to these questions. Also, students may not be able to answer all of the questions based on the content of their ad):

Mise-en-Scène

• What is this an ad for?
• What does the setting tell us about place and time?
• What does the setting reveal to us about mood?
• What props have any special significance to the narrative?
• How does costume/make-up function in relation to the narrative?
• Does costume/make-up reveal anything about our characters (or, their relationships to other people)?
• Does costume/make-up reveal anything to use about the place and time?
• Do costume/make-up serve as any kind of narrative marker?
• What does the lighting tell us about the time of day?
• Does the lighting highlight certain characters or props?
• Are certain characters lit differently than others via lighting cues (soft lighting, high-key lighting), or colors (reds, blues, greens, etc.)?
• What does the staging tell us about the relationship between actors?
• What does the staging tell us about the relationship between actors and props?
• What does the staging tell us about the relationship between the actor and the audience?
• What about the acting provides other dimensional qualities of a character?
• How is the voice manipulated to create mood?
• What do the gestures of a character reveal to us?

Rhetorical Analysis

• What is the product being sold?
• Who is the target audience for this product?
• What emotions is the ad trying to associate with the product?

Takeaways

• What kind of assumptions does this advertisement present about gender, race, and/or class?
• What kinds of ideologies are enforced by this advertisement?
• What other beliefs and/or values are being sold?

Reading the Visuals (Part III)

In The Writing of Fiction (1925), novelist Edith Wharton states the following, "at every stage in the progress of his tale the novelist must rely on what may be called the illuminating incident to reveal and emphasize the inner meaning of each situation. Illuminating incidents are the magic casements of fiction, its vistas on infinity." Choosing a narrative music video, write a well-organized essay in which you describe an "illuminating" episode or moment and explain how it function as a "casement," a window that opens onto the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

Some Suggestions:

Madonna's "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (2000)

Eminem's "Lose Yourself" (2002)

Coldplay's "The Scientist" (2002)

Outcasts's "Hey Ya" (2003)

Beyoncé's "If I Were a Boy" (2010)

Lady Gaga and Beyoncé's "Telephone" (2010)

Katy Perry's "Part of Me" (2011)

The Band Perry's "If I Die Young" (2012)