Page 340 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
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What Do We Know about the World?
acteristics and they recreate images and spaces. Spatial rhetoric enrich-
es media production and analysis with the awareness of space and the
figures and practices of place-forming. In media, rhetorical penetration
helps the realization of new media texts and messages as objects and
events in the real and intellectual space and supports the development of
spatially sensitive (multi)media literacy. Hyperlinked texts exploit spa-
tial logic and operate with visual force – namely, what spatial rhetoric
can contribute relevantly to in description and interpretation.
7. Procedural Rhetoric
In his work on persuasive (digital) games, Ian Bogost introduced a
new term of rhetoric suggesting:
the name of procedural rhetoric for the new type of persuasive and expres-
sive practice at work [...]. Procedurality refers to a way of creating, explaining,
or understanding processes. And processes define the way things work: the
methods, techniques, and logics that drive the operation of systems, from
mechanical systems like engines to organizational systems like high schools
to conceptual systems like religious faith. [...] Procedural rhetoric, then, is a
practice of using processes persuasively. More specifically, procedural rhet-
oric is the practice of persuading through processes in general and compu-
tational processes in particular. [...] Procedural rhetoric is a technique for
making arguments with computational systems and for unpacking compu-
tational arguments others have created. (2010: 2–3)
Procedural rhetoric is built on procedural logic which has its roots
in both graphical (depiction of movement, lighting, rhythm of change,
collision, etc.) and textual (selection, combination, sequencing) opera-
tions. It is fed, also, by operational models and their common patterns
of media usage and interaction (menu; toolbar). Hence, procedural rhet-
oric uses figures of operational, textual and graphic thinking in order to
form ideas and draw conclusions out of processes. However, as Bogost
emphasized, procedural representations differ from textual, visual and
plastic representations. They depict how codes regulate through hard-
ware and software systems.
Although these representations may lead us further from the com-
plex communicative and rhetorical phenomena of new media, procedur-
al rhetoric may reveal how media message programming and program
coding is inherently rhetorical. Procedural rhetoric is an invigorating di-
mension of the classical discipline, in the sense that it connects inter-
face strategies with systemic ones and highlights the argumentative ca-
pacity of rules and regulations. La Molleindustria’s online games exem-
acteristics and they recreate images and spaces. Spatial rhetoric enrich-
es media production and analysis with the awareness of space and the
figures and practices of place-forming. In media, rhetorical penetration
helps the realization of new media texts and messages as objects and
events in the real and intellectual space and supports the development of
spatially sensitive (multi)media literacy. Hyperlinked texts exploit spa-
tial logic and operate with visual force – namely, what spatial rhetoric
can contribute relevantly to in description and interpretation.
7. Procedural Rhetoric
In his work on persuasive (digital) games, Ian Bogost introduced a
new term of rhetoric suggesting:
the name of procedural rhetoric for the new type of persuasive and expres-
sive practice at work [...]. Procedurality refers to a way of creating, explaining,
or understanding processes. And processes define the way things work: the
methods, techniques, and logics that drive the operation of systems, from
mechanical systems like engines to organizational systems like high schools
to conceptual systems like religious faith. [...] Procedural rhetoric, then, is a
practice of using processes persuasively. More specifically, procedural rhet-
oric is the practice of persuading through processes in general and compu-
tational processes in particular. [...] Procedural rhetoric is a technique for
making arguments with computational systems and for unpacking compu-
tational arguments others have created. (2010: 2–3)
Procedural rhetoric is built on procedural logic which has its roots
in both graphical (depiction of movement, lighting, rhythm of change,
collision, etc.) and textual (selection, combination, sequencing) opera-
tions. It is fed, also, by operational models and their common patterns
of media usage and interaction (menu; toolbar). Hence, procedural rhet-
oric uses figures of operational, textual and graphic thinking in order to
form ideas and draw conclusions out of processes. However, as Bogost
emphasized, procedural representations differ from textual, visual and
plastic representations. They depict how codes regulate through hard-
ware and software systems.
Although these representations may lead us further from the com-
plex communicative and rhetorical phenomena of new media, procedur-
al rhetoric may reveal how media message programming and program
coding is inherently rhetorical. Procedural rhetoric is an invigorating di-
mension of the classical discipline, in the sense that it connects inter-
face strategies with systemic ones and highlights the argumentative ca-
pacity of rules and regulations. La Molleindustria’s online games exem-
