Rhetorical Analysis - emptykingdom.com

Empty Kingdom is a blog dedicated to sharing art to the world by connecting, promoting, and educating people with their programs, partnerships, and volunteers. This blog has several authors who each post articles full of artwork from creators they want to express to their viewers. However, in their statement about what their blog is about, they state that the purpose of their blog is to go beyond mere self-expression. This means that they want to inspire people with art that they may not discover on their own and develop appreciation and experience in their lifetime. Due to the large number of writers this blog has, each one has a unique writing style and the length of text on each article can vary depending on these individuals. For instance, while most of the articles feature many works from the artist they are covering, the amount of text may be different between authors. There are some who choose to write a couple sentences regarding the art style of a creator, others make an in-depth analysis of the artwork or conduct an interview with the actual artist. With this amount of freedom, the authors can all express their individuality and knowledge in their posts, thus maintaining originality and relevance in their critique of the artworks.

Photo captured by South Korean photographer, LINNNN - courtesy of emptykingdom.com

I suppose it goes without saying that Empty Kingdom’s target audience is people who already have an affinity to art or would like to further immerse themselves in the world of art. Since the posts on this blog is mainly of art, the audience can go straight for anything that they are interested at. As mentioned, the writing aspect of Empty Kingdom fluctuates among its authors and can either make it or break it for the user. If there is a viewer who wants to read about another person’s perspective on an artist or artwork that they find appealing, but finds that the author only gives a sentence or two worth of insight, it would not be as interactive as it would be compared to one that has paragraphs of analysis. Although, that does not mean that some authors cannot convey why they make a post. There can be a post that explicitly says why the author likes this artwork. The text made by the authors can just express how they feel about a certain piece and ask the audience to see it from another angle and understand their own perspective. Then there are some posts that are written in a manner that entices artists of all kinds of skills. With articles that dive into the featured artist and artwork, the audience can learn more about art from a more technical standpoint. These kinds of entries can include information that range from the background of an artist to how the style of the actual piece is created. Additionally, earlier in this post I mentioned that some posts on Empty Kingdom have interviews from the artists they were featuring. This is another method which the audience can learn about art, as well as read the thoughts from a professional that aspiring creators may be questioning to themselves about the world of art as a whole. Having a wide range of posts with varying lengths of text allows the audience to choose what kind of article they would enjoy reading or, in the case when an article does not have much substance, enjoy the creations of artists from all over the world.

Empty Kingdom does a great job with meeting most of the intellectual standards, however there are some they lack on due to the nature of their blog. At the end of the day, the authors write in a manner that expresses their own viewpoint on a piece of art or artists. This makes the blog posts lose its breadth because it focuses on the article from a technical stance and the writer’s opinion. Since the text written by the authors does not provide any need for a counter argument or questioning regarding the work of art, it does not receive insight from another outlook. However, the blog also provides it readers a commentary section within the article which would allow interaction and the sharing of ideals behind an artwork. That being said, it point of the articles is to share perspectives with other people, but that does not require the audience to respond if they just want to enjoy the creations. Additionally, this leads into the absence of adaptability. With no presence of opposition, Empty Kingdom does not step out of its comfort zone and confront with anything taken out of context. Regardless of losing these two characteristics, that is not necessarily a negative toward the website. With no breadth and adaptability, it gives Empty Kingdom a measure of how successful it is. Having articles that are respected and comprehended lead the authors of them to concur that their insight is acknowledged by its readers. It also means that the blog is fulfilling its purpose of sharing and educating art to the world by letting their audience read of their perceptions of art and then inviting them to express how they feel about it as well.

Overall, Empty Kingdom is a solid blog that sticks to the broad topic of art. It provides a wide range of mediums that are welcomed to the art world from illustrations to photography to film and many others. This blog also has easy navigation that allows its users to browse through the website with ease. Combined with the simplicity of the blog’s posts, these two attributes gives the audience an understandable outlook of the art that is presented to them and the explanation that the authors write in order to educate their readers on the work in question. Although this blog fails to bring a strong presence of breadth and adaptability, the clarity of Empty Kingdom in addition to the intellectual standards it does possess make it a successful blog that is able to retain credibility to the theme of the website.