Old Conference Papers by Craig Hennigan
ABSTRACT: Street art is a visual rhetorical tool that produces a discourse in opposition to elit... more ABSTRACT: Street art is a visual rhetorical tool that produces a discourse in opposition to elites and dominant classes. In the city of Detroit, there has been economic devastation, but an influx of artists into low cost housing available throughout the city. Do-it-yourself culture (DIY) is growing due to local government cutbacks and the culture of the people entering the city to live and work. One expression of DIY is through the creation of public art. Public art projects are becoming commonplace in Detroit, some with the permission of owners of property and others without. This paper aims to survey three public art projects in Detroit through the lens of Horkheimer and Adorno’s culture industry to see how DIY and public art with permission can serve to co-opt the rhetorical messages behind street art. The DIY nature of new public art projects serve neoliberal interests providing free labor and enhancement to the community for the benefit of property owners.
ABSTRACT: Material rhetoric has been theorized by multiple scholars. For this paper I advance a... more ABSTRACT: Material rhetoric has been theorized by multiple scholars. For this paper I advance a theory of material argument. Argument can be fashioned from a material perspective that goes beyond what the visual can provide. A material perspective can bring a broader definition to argument by looking at issues of material rhetoric as points of persuasion in argument. Two texts are analyzed to support this conclusion: the artwork of Andres Serrano and urban spaces in Detroit.
Papers in progress by Craig Hennigan
THIS IS A VERY ROUGH DRAFT AND SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A REFERENCE. Thank you.
Tensions between ... more THIS IS A VERY ROUGH DRAFT AND SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A REFERENCE. Thank you.
Tensions between urban and suburban residents of Metropolitan Detroit are historically rooted in issues of race, class, and privilege. Even though these tensions exist, still many from suburbs outside the city proper "claim Detroit" discursively through representing themselves as being "from Detroit." I argue this claim is not simply a matter of convenience in relaying geographical proximity, rather the discourse creates opportunities for neoliberal and racially motivated changes in local politics and urban citizenship.
Work in progress -
There is a large effort being undertaken to revitalize postindustrial rust be... more Work in progress -
There is a large effort being undertaken to revitalize postindustrial rust belt cities. Detroit, Michigan has had an influx of filmmakers documenting that effort to increase business and economic opportunities. With new opportunities comes questions of who will win a contest over spaces and gain the right to the city. Often, marginalized races are shut out of While racial tropes and memes have been studied in many forms of fictional narrative films, there is less work done in the documentary genre. Finding racial “semes” in the film Detroit Lives, we see that the documentary style can be used to shut the black body out of discourses of urban revitalization. Because documentary implies truth-telling and recording of history, the style is especially problematic when depicting the black body in ways that omit them from the possession of the city spaces in which they dwell.
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Old Conference Papers by Craig Hennigan
Papers in progress by Craig Hennigan
Tensions between urban and suburban residents of Metropolitan Detroit are historically rooted in issues of race, class, and privilege. Even though these tensions exist, still many from suburbs outside the city proper "claim Detroit" discursively through representing themselves as being "from Detroit." I argue this claim is not simply a matter of convenience in relaying geographical proximity, rather the discourse creates opportunities for neoliberal and racially motivated changes in local politics and urban citizenship.
There is a large effort being undertaken to revitalize postindustrial rust belt cities. Detroit, Michigan has had an influx of filmmakers documenting that effort to increase business and economic opportunities. With new opportunities comes questions of who will win a contest over spaces and gain the right to the city. Often, marginalized races are shut out of While racial tropes and memes have been studied in many forms of fictional narrative films, there is less work done in the documentary genre. Finding racial “semes” in the film Detroit Lives, we see that the documentary style can be used to shut the black body out of discourses of urban revitalization. Because documentary implies truth-telling and recording of history, the style is especially problematic when depicting the black body in ways that omit them from the possession of the city spaces in which they dwell.
Tensions between urban and suburban residents of Metropolitan Detroit are historically rooted in issues of race, class, and privilege. Even though these tensions exist, still many from suburbs outside the city proper "claim Detroit" discursively through representing themselves as being "from Detroit." I argue this claim is not simply a matter of convenience in relaying geographical proximity, rather the discourse creates opportunities for neoliberal and racially motivated changes in local politics and urban citizenship.
There is a large effort being undertaken to revitalize postindustrial rust belt cities. Detroit, Michigan has had an influx of filmmakers documenting that effort to increase business and economic opportunities. With new opportunities comes questions of who will win a contest over spaces and gain the right to the city. Often, marginalized races are shut out of While racial tropes and memes have been studied in many forms of fictional narrative films, there is less work done in the documentary genre. Finding racial “semes” in the film Detroit Lives, we see that the documentary style can be used to shut the black body out of discourses of urban revitalization. Because documentary implies truth-telling and recording of history, the style is especially problematic when depicting the black body in ways that omit them from the possession of the city spaces in which they dwell.