Artifacts Analysis Paper!

My Interview for my Writing Artifact Analysis is one my friends and mentor. The man is a legend in my eyes because - for the last 6 years – he has been steering the music scene of Santa Barbara out of the depths and back to a place where it is cool again for musicians and music fans alike to go support local shows. His Program: New Noise Santa Barbara is Santa Barbara’s mecca music conference and festival where music lovers, artists and innovators all come together for a 4-day event in the heart of Santa Barbara and celebrate and expose themselves to what is cool and new about music! He was unable to send me any complimentary artifacts before this paper needed to be written so I did some research on my own to uncover what public artifacts New Noise SB has implemented.

My first Artifact is the “about” page of New Noise Santa Barbara’s Website. Its layout features the company branding and logo for 2014’s festival. The colors are of a blood orange and contrasting white, black and yellow. The warm, but harsh tones are reminiscent to the punk and early alternative style genres. The logo for this last year’s site also features a lightning bolt that is striking between the “New” and the “Noise” of the logo. This theme’s symbolism says to me that lighting does strike the same place twice! In this case, 6 years in a row for this music festival. On either side of this spectacle is quick and legible information concerning need-to-know facts such as: dates of the fest, history, and location.  Underneath this heading are links to more information such as media (pictures, video, articles) and a blog link. There is also an option of a pdf download of this last year’s festival program of which we will discuss later. 

Next section down is all of the organization’s social media links: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as well as an email signup field. This area of the webpage is congruent throughout the website. I interpret this convention of the “about” page to be the open hand of the festival toward its fans to allow them to become more than just a participant, but an advocate and possibly a volunteer or member of the organization.

Finally I get to the writing of the “about” section, where we discover why New Noise is what it is. The beginning explains what is the primary function of New Noise, where it is hosted and for how long. It also addresses its audience upfront with a “who?” section. This is a great tactic because it will immediately set the tone for the intended audience or it will detour uninterested readers from continuing and possibly becoming frustrated with the provided information. This section talks about how New Noise brings like-minded people in one beautiful place to celebrate music and it’s industry. This convention is appealing the audience’s pathos or emotion to become connected with like-minded people. It says to me that if I go, I’m going to make friends, network with inspiring and knowledgeable people, and have a lot of fun. The Next section is a historical reference that is labeled “ Past Performances” and “Past Speakers”. This section speaks to the ethos or credibility of the festival. The reader who sees this section will note all of the recognizable names of artist and weigh those into consideration when contemplating attending this festival this coming year.  

In conjunction with these performances and speakers a list of all the sponsored business for the festival also speaks to the reader’s logos or logic that this festival is backed by large and local companies which means it must be legitimate and a large scale event to have the trust the business to repeatedly sponsor the festival. These conventions are all apart of the “about” page genre to pursued the festival’s intended audience that it is a legitimate, emotionally satisfying experience and has been this way for the festival’s history.

My Second Artifact is a chain of emails between a few bands, He, myself, and the venue owner for a show from last year’s New Noise Music Festival. This Email Genre I will call the “Show Details and Confirmation” artifact. These emails are an essential part to event planning of live shows and are carried out in different ways depending upon the formality of the audience and the writer.

My Interviewee begins the conversation and genre by thanking the headlining band for their return to New Noise Fest. By doing so sets the tone of the email as a familiar and friendly conversation among the participants. Following his display of gratitude the email contains the name, location of the venue, itinerary for the evening and participants involved. The itinerary is broken down into chronological bullet points so that the information is interpreted easily and is laid out in a chronological order for the intended audience. This section is concluded with a list of volunteers and personnel who will be present to help perform and carry out all the details of the itinerary as well as a check for understanding of the email’s content and an invitation to any questions or concerns of any of the participants. 

The Kairos (timing) of this artifact is very important and is sent out as soon as all the pieces are in place so that if there is any objection or complication arises to the itinerary it can be corrected in a timely manner. An example that arose from this necessary karios was a response from the Headlining band who mentioned that they would not be able to make the scheduled load in time because their travel time between cities would not be manageable on that time table. In this instance, the “Show Details and Confirmation” genre does what it then intended to do, make an available and documented chain of communication between all parties involved in the planning and execution of the event.  Another example would be questions that arose from the other artists considering the sharing of equipment on stage so that they would not have load and unload everything. This artifact’s tone and conventions are an informal discussion piece where participants can be informed, get their concerns addressed and contribute feedback and intentions on the event they are all apart of.

The previously mentioned artifact, The Festival’s Program Guide, is it’s own genre its self. It intended use is to inform people the daily itinerary for the festival’s happenings. This Guide is a rhetorical tool to appeal to an audience’s “kairos” or aim and timing. When a participant or reader looks at their program guide they are provided with options based around the timing of specific events in the festival. There is also a demonstration of Logos or persuasive facts all over the guide – show times, speaker and forum descriptions, locations and sponsorships – for people to be enticed by. The Tone of this Artifact is extremely formal and instills high level of professionalism in its organization, easy to follow information, branding and theme. The intended audience is all current participants and potential ones.  Finally the historical notes about the festival being around for 6 years and it prestigious performances and speakers as well as it’s large sponsorship speaks to the audience’s ethos and creates a legitimacy around the event and organization.