I Was Here, You Were Too

For my project I will be proposing a series of enthymemes about the public areas of Chicago. By travelling to different areas, observing, and letting myself free-associate on the affects of the area, I am creating a chance for myself and my audience to later reflect on the judgments I have passed. That will create a consideration of what premises of the argument I have subconsciously pulled upon to create my own understanding of Chicago.

Contingency:

The interdependency of happenstance. My project draws on this because I am leaving my experiences to chance. I am not planning when or where I will pause to absorb Chicago, nor can I dictate who or what will be there. It is all reliant on the occurrence of something else, both beyond and tied to my decision.

Magnitude:

The forced uniting of perspective. I am isolating perspective to my own experience, but in that way forcing the reader to consider Chicago through my eyes. In other words, I am giving the reader/audience a chance to take a walk in my shoes, taking a humanizing stab at scope.

Phronesis:

The ability to have thoughts about thoughts. I will have my original thoughts, in the place, in the public, and then reflect on them. Why did I think that? What about that thought can be traced through rhetoric and affect of the public I was in? What larger ecologies are my observations apart of, and why?

My goal with this project is to make things matter by offering first-hand experience in public places. I hope to examine my own influences in a more rhetorical context. Pulling on a personal account will allow the reader to consider their interactions with Chicago beyond the surface level affect and into the underbelly of public rhetoric.