Civic Artifact Outline

 Introduction:

• lead in with the fact that famous art is great, by Picasso or Van Gogh but because of how long ago the art was created, it often does not have the same meaning now that it was originally intended to have
• possibly introduce Dali’s “The Face of War” as contrast
• Banksy on the other hand, is less famous but when his graffiti pieces are examined there is a lot of relevant points that he gets across quite easily

Thesis:

• Banksy approaches the subject of war vs. peace not-too-subtly with his street art stencil “Soldiers Painting Peace”
• This piece highlights the ironies of war through
  • location- House of Parliament
  • kairos- time of war (Afghanistan and Iraq)
  • pathos- humanizing soldiers

Body Paragraphs:

• location- this peace was stenciled onto a wall near the House of Parliament in London, and was later taken down because if violated protest laws
• ironic because in times of war, fighting for rights such as freedom of speech and yet those rights are being taken away
• kairos- applicable because there were 2 wars going on, in Afghanistan and Iraq, so telling people about their civic duty to stand up for their rights during wartime
• pathos- the soldiers are not just mindless bodies working to fight the war, they are people too who can protest the war
• ironic because they are protesting the war, and are for peace however they are holding guns, weapons of violence, to defend themselves

Connection to Civic Duty:

• The soldiers are doing their civic duty to stand up to the government and express what they think, even during wartime. The irony is that during wartime, rights are simultaneously being fought for and being restricted

Pulmonary Rhetoric

Breakout: one of the most classic -and addicting- games for Atari. Released in 1976, Breakout features a layer of bricks along the top of the screen, and one pixel that bounced off a movable platform near the bottom of the screen. This rendition of Breakout replaces the platform with a cigarette, and the pixels are arranged in the shape of a pair of lungs. Just as the objective of the original game is to destroy all of the bricks, this image shows how the consequences of smoking slowly deteriorate your lungs.

This image really targets a wide range of an audience. Because the game is still so relevant, (type “atari breakout” into the google image search bar) young audience can understand the message that is being put out there, and older generations can also recognize the old game and interpret the meaning.

The ethos of this image is questionable, because although smoking is proven to decrease lung function, the actual lung does not break down from the bottom up, as depicted in the picture. Instead, it turns black and gray, decreasing in size. The pathos however, is very effective due to the fear it strikes in people, that cigarettes directly damage your lungs.

The only thing I would change about this image would be to make the cigarette more eye-catching, because it took me a minute to understand the message, and to make the words “Quit Smoking.” at the bottom corner a little larger. Just to clarify the message even more for people who do not have that much time to look at it.

As a final note, I think that it is significant that the game Breakout was chosen, because it was know for being addictive and stubbornly popular throughout the 40 years since it’s release, similarly to the addictive properties of nicotine in cigarettes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakout_(video_game)

When a Game Only Looks Like a Game