affordances

Technological Affordances

• The dynamic imagery seems to compel audiences to see more. The moving imagery seems to be asking audiences to see what's next.
• Dynamic imagery technology could hold as many pictures as the author/designer wants as long as it is designed appropriately so it doesn't bog down the download time.
• Audiences are going to see a lot of imagery representing the school--lots of synecdoches--that the school wants to present. Because dynamic isn't random, the designer maintains control of the audience’s experience and connection to the school.
• Authors/designers could change the imagery regularly or change the order of the slides in the slideshow.

Representational Affordances

• The fifteen rotating images synecdochize education at WSU as a significant and rich connection between learning, research, and the application of research/learning to local, national, and global issues/communities.
• Because all of the images picture only individuals, the message is individuals’ learning stories are important.
• Images synecdochize students and professors as white, middle-class, smart, motivated, and successful.
• The images portray research subjects as diverse (animals, food, people, global issues, etc.).
• The images show human research subjects are primarily white.

constraints

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Technological Constraints

• Though audiences may feel compelled to view the slideshow, audience members may not sit through the entire slideshow and may miss some of the synedoches. Slideshow order becomes significant so that the first slides become the ones most likely to be seen by audiences before they click to another section of the website.
• The technology takes more time and experience to implement.
• This imagery or vision could be changed regularly by the author/designer and the slides could be rotated to create even more synecdoches, but it may not be changed very often.

Representational Constraints

• The fifteen rotating images synecdochize education at WSU as ONLY a significant and rich connection between learning, research, and the application of research/learning to local, national, and global issues/communities.
• Because all of the images picture only individuals (never group shots), the message is education/learning is ONLY an individual practice/process/outcome.
• The images synecdochize students and professors as ONLY white, middle-class, smart, motivated, and successful (not all students are white, middle-class, smart, motivated, and successful).
• The images synecdochize research subjects as primarily men, animals, and food (only one young female).
• The images show human research subjects are primarily white.
• Because the shots are all close-ups, it creates an intimate connection between the audience and those pictured, but because they are shots of individuals only, there’s no intimate connection between those pictured and others/community.