What is Visual Rhetoric?

Visual Rhetoric can be defined as the art of persuasion through the use of images.

Firstly, I think that visual/visible rhetoric is a form of communication as the creator is using the creation to say something to an audience. This leads to visual rhetoric being art as it is an expression from one to influence, manipulate, or affect another (this definition of art is my own from what I've learned through history as well as my own claim to being an artist). Thus, in my opinion, art and persuasion almost always go hand in hand, but especially in the case of visual rhetoric. As discussed in class, rhetoric = persuasion. Though one usually thinks of language or words initially when rhetoric is mentioned, in visual rhetoric, the use of images as rhetorical tools is key. By images I mean anything that can be seen: pictures, graphics, text, color, shapes, and all sorts of design.

I know this definition of visual rhetoric seems really loose, but I would like to argue that all art can be seen as visual rhetoric including literature and music (perhaps through the use of imagery). But for this class, visual rhetoric will deal with art that is literally visual and art that is specifically on persuasion.