Attuning to Ambience

Brian Hendrickson

Attuning (to) Ambience

Thomas Rickert's Ambient Rhetoric: The Attunements of Rhetorical Being

A Review by Brian Hendrickson

University of New Mexico

Thomas Rickert’s (2013) Ambient Rhetoric: The Attunements of Rhetorical Being retheorized rhetorical invention by way of Heidegger and within the context of various postmodern materialisms, thereby inviting contemporary rhetoric into conversation with theoretical and technological advances in other fields.

In this review, I'll explain the fundamental concepts and mechanics of Rickert's theory of ambient rhetoric (and provide a chapter outline) in Dynamics. Then in Diffractions, I'll articulate the distinctions Rickert drew between a theory of ambient rhetoric and other relevant ontologies, epistemologies, semiotics, and rhetorics, while offering illustrative examples of the theory at work. Finally, in Dwellings, I'll explore some of the theory's implications and limitations.

Navigate this webtext via the menu below, the navigation bar at the top of each page, and the links dispersed throughout the text itself.

Powerlines

The photograph featured throughout this review, T. L. McBride's (2014) Powerlines, is for me very much about invention. It captures a familiar scene from my native state of Florida; it influenced in large part my choice and modification of this Web template; and it recalled for me Thomas Rickert's (2013) paraphrase of Jane Bennett (2005): "There is a wild element to the path and direction that electricity takes; it is prone to 'loop flows,' for instance, where the power finds a route different from the one that controllers intended it to take" (p. 211). Like electricity, texts are also prone to "loop flows," such as those found in Ambient Rhetoric (Rickert, 2013) and throughout this review.

Reviewer

Brian Hendrickson is a doctoral candidate in rhetoric and composition at the University of New Mexico. His research focuses on writing across the curriculum and in the disciplines, with a particular interest in employing object-oriented methods to study the connections between writing and learning in the co-curriculum and writing as civic and community engagement.