| This study utilizes an eclectic postmodern approach to critically analyze The Art of Peacemaking, an installation memorial that includes a five-ton sculpture made up of over 7,000 firearms, an area called Victims' Voice that includes photographs of victims of armed violence, and a section called Blackboard where visitors are encouraged to leave reflections and comments that foster public dialog. The memorial has received global attention and exists as a powerful postmodern rhetorical text. Rhetorical visual communication studies are ripe in the academy, and this project promotes a postmodern visual rhetorical analytical approach in order to provide a comprehensive way to critically explore multi-faceted installation art. This analysis suggests that experiential and social communication processes are inter-related and must negotiate between visual and verbal texts. Given the uniqueness and impact of The Art of Peacemaking as well as the room for exploration in postmodern visual rhetorical study, this dissertation contributes to such study. |
