Link to OneDrive: https://studentsecuedu66932-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/personal/kaoy18_students_ecu_edu/Documents/ENGL-8600%20Project%20Draft%20181119.docx?d=w09001fe070b64d8ea6b4cea71277fe77&csf=1&e=SOnof2

I have included a link to my project. I was not able to upload all of it. So, I will only put the Writer’s Reflection and the Introduction here.

Writer’s Reflection

The first question is not difficult to answer. I chose to write about this topic because I love quilting and sewing. It was not easy to find this topic, though. In all honesty, I was rather skeptical when I saw the quilt show, Guns: Loaded Conversations, in person. It was not at all what my grandmother and I were expecting when we went to the museum. Usually, quilt shows are all about form and execution. This one was more about the message and the rhetoric behind the construction. Many of the quilts looked like they were constructed by first-time quilters, but that not the point of the project, which I find fascinating. Many people do create artwork with other goals in mind, such as crocheting/knitting blankets, scarves, and shawls for the Prayer Shawl Ministry for people with illnesses like cancer. This is exciting because I have never quilted for or otherwise engaged in any kind of social justice reform. since I am including digital and multimodal aspects, this project is giving me the chance to analyze quilting and art in a different way.

The part I am struggling the most with is the social media, activism, and social justice reform parts. I am working through the associated readings over and over, but I have little-to-no practical experience with social media or activism. Since I do not have a clear sense of the procedures and different movements for these things, it is hard to look at any of them through a quilting lens. I can analyze the quilts piece-by-piece, but I am struggling to analyze the quilts with social justice reform in mind. It is not a problem with regards to purpose. They are clear about what they are trying to do. It is taking all of the smaller pieces and finding deeper meaning than perhaps even what the authors intended and what that might mean for the quilt collection and quilting as social justice reform as a whole. That also is the part of the analysis that I am finding the most difficult. I can break down the quilts to their smallest physical parts, but making this rhetorical, compositional, and activist is challenging.

My questions about this project have to do with choices and data analysis. I only chose quilts from SAQA’s show Guns: Loaded Conversations. These quilts came from people across the U.S., but should I have included other quilts from other social justice reform art groups? Was my initial example an effective analysis? Is there something more I should add? I am concerned about the cohesion of the project as a whole. I wanted to include digital and cultural rhetorics, but I worry that might be too much, especially since I should be focusing on social justice reform. For that reform, I think I need to make a decision as to what my analysis determines the overall rhetorical message to be. The quilt show already came with a theme about gun violence, but the quilters all chose different things to focus on. Should I consider multiple messages or only work towards one (e.g., these quilts are composition that work rhetorically to call for social justice reform about federal gun laws)?

Introduction

Last summer, I visited a quilt show at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. The show was called Guns: Loaded Conversations. It was an exhibition on gun violence via quilt-making. There was a formal call in the state of California to U.S. schools to contribute to social justice reform. I would like to explore how people use art for social justice reform. I will also research digital multimedia because the organization that sponsored the quilt call, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), maintains a major online presence, as well. Quilting is the form of art for this project because of its complexity and its potential. The purpose of this study is to determine the rhetorical and compositional effectiveness of quilting as social justice reform, both as artwork and as digital multimedia. For this purpose, I will conduct a case study content analysis of five quilts from the quilt show Guns: Loaded Conversations. I will look at multiple layers, not just at construction, but at artistry/execution, message, cohesion, culture, and digital platforming. These will serve as lenses for analyzing the effectiveness of quilt-making as social justice reform as both physical and digital modes of rhetoric and composition.

The museum’s website has a gallery of pictures of the quilts from the show, but I chose to use the images and information from SAQA’s official website. I am still wondering about whether to focus on the collection as a whole or on a few specific examples from other quilt shows. I intend to conduct a case study content analysis on five quilts from Guns: Loaded Conversations, and will qualitatively analyze their composition and their rhetorical effectiveness, as both physical and digital platforms. I am also not sure whether or not to take into account each quilts-in-questions’ effectiveness. For instance, these were student projects (some collaborative, some not), but some made poor rhetorical choices, and I am debating on addressing those. One quilt had a background that was the American flag, and there was a gun over the top of it. The gun was large and made of a black plastic material; it looked appropriately sinister for a quilt about the 2nd Amendment, recent shootings, and gun violence. However, the quilter chose odd fabric patterns for the flag: the red stripes were strawberries and the white stripes were mushrooms. If they did that on purpose, then I cannot fathom why because it made no sense to me. Would that be too much for this project?

Define social justice reform – use source material – calling for either changes in federal gun laws or in some cases even amending the 2nd Amendment (the right to bear arms). Some quilters were looking more to bring awareness to others, but I intend to focus on the broader effects. Gun laws vary from state-to-state, and these quilts come from people across America, so I will not narrow things down beyond the state level.