The Circulation Map is the first project for the course RHET-125 Writing for a Digital World. For Project 1, we were assigned to choose an artifact (i.e., a world, a phrase, a meme, a song, an image, an event, etc.) that has been circulated. After choosing an artifact, we would need to track the circulation of the artifact and analyze how its meaning has changed as it has circulated through different genres, media, audiences, environments, etc. I also able to understand how key terms we have learned in class such as audience, purpose, medium, genre, and ecologies connected to the circulation of my artifact. The final piece of the project required us to present our circulation analysis digitally in the form of a map.

The artifacts I chose came from three different mediums: movies, music, and television. Since there was a limited amount of artifacts for each medium, I decided to include them all. For movies, I chose to present the whistle in the Boulting’s 1968 thriller film Twisted Nerve and Quentin Tarantino’s movies Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Death Proof. For songs, I chose to present the remix of the whistle in Carolina Marquez’s “The Killer’s Song,” Brianna Perry featuring Trey Songz’s “Good,” and Rob $tone’s “Chill Bill.” For television, I chose to present the whistle featured in season one of “American Horror Story” and the Honda commercial “Endless Road.”

My artifacts perfectly illustrated circulation, audience, and genre. They illustrate circulation because throughout my project you can clearly see the evolution the whistle has gone through. Whether the purpose of the whistle is used to have the same meaning of the artifact before it or whether the purpose of the whistle was completely retransformed and redistributed. One can clearly see the way the whistle has been altered and reused during the last 50 years. What I found particularly interesting was the way genre affected the way the whistle was used. In all the movies and in the TV show, the genre was horror, thriller, crime and the whistle was incorporated to heighten suspense. However, in all of the songs, the whistle was completely remixed just to add to the theme of the songs which all paid homage to Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Vol. 1.” I find that my Prezi presentation does a great job to guide the reader to understand the exigence, the audience, and the constraints of each artifact.

The audience for the different forms of the whistle where those who would come across the certain pieces. For example, when the whistle was used in Twisted Nerve, the audience were the watchers of the movie, horror movie fans, and fans of the directors. The constraints included those who wouldn’t understand the meaning behind the whistle or those who wouldn’t come across the certain form of the whistle. For example, I didn’t know that Brianna Perry remixed the whistle to be included in her song “Good” and this is because I am not a fan of Perry so I never would have come across her music. What is also interesting is that if you don’t move beyond the exigence, the audience, and the constraints, you can’t see why the creators decided to use the whistle in the first place.

When creating my Prezi presentation, I knew my imagined and primary audience was going to by my professor and possibly a few fellow classmates. Therefore, I tried to make my presentation simple but also very well informative at the same time. I wanted my audience to go through my circulation map with ease. What I mean by this is that I hope the flow of the map is very easy to get through and clearly shows the way the whistle has been transformed throughout the years and throughout the different mediums.

In reflection of this project, I learned how strong and how deep the connection is between rhetoric and circulation. After reading articles by Bitzer, Rice, and more, I learned how intertwined rhetoric is within artifacts we come across every day of our lives. I enjoyed placing my knowledge from class into my circulation map to help describe the changes of the whistle.

This projected is associated with the course: RHET-125

Website: Follow the Prezi link to view my circulation map that tracked the evolution of my artifact, the whistle composed by Bernard Hermann that is first presented in the 1968 film, Twisted Nerve.: https://prezi.com/view/FPJJrVOMSuWgLLowJQps/

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