This is the repository for my visual argument assignment in Composing Digital Media (Spring 2021). Because the rationale behind the project is to explore the affordances of images as a medium and to make a rhetorical claim through the juxtaposition of images and text, I have decided to revolve my project around the idea of burnout and the importance of reaching out to your support network during a mental health crisis. All components for the project are explained below. For more information regarding the assignment, please refer to assignment.md.
For this project, I want to center my visuals project around mental health awareness, especially with regard to burnout and depression. Although this is a relatively broad topic, I think that most people, including myself, deal with it in some capacity because there's an expectation (either from their parents, academic environments, society, etc.) to take on as many responsibilities as possible and that an individual's self-worth is entirely contingent on their productivity. The message I want to convey with my visual graphic might be along the lines of how burnout is a real issue that should be addressed seriously, and that it's becoming increasingly important to be aware of the symptoms to treat it. I'm not entirely sure of this yet, so an alternative message that I thought of that's more related to depression is how others can be too quick to diagnose mental illness as laziness and that it's also important to recognize the symptoms. Speaking from personal experience, I tend to internalize most of the emotions I feel, so I think it's important to emphasize and encourage others to reach out for help either from online resources like teletherapy (because of the pandemic) or to their own support network.
Please refer to ASSETS.md for the complete list of visual assets used and appropriate attributions for this project.
For my preview, I decided to depart a little from my initial project proposal. While it still centers around mental health, I mainly wanted to emphasize some of the symptoms and experiences of depression—specifically that it's associated with feelings of fatigue, hopelessness, lack of concentration, and slowness in activity. I know from personal experience that I become apathetic and that my head tends to feel heavy (like it's filled with water), so I decided to utilize that overarching theme when creating my preview. Moreover, depression is often referred to in metaphors of drowning or suffocating, which translated well for the project.
More details about my visual argument preview can be found at preview.md.