Outside the Frame

Where is the computer in the Oval Office? In this photo the President is identified as sitting at "his secretary's desk outside the Oval Office" to view the new IT Dashboard that offers information graphics to represents data visually and to promote the transparency that USASpending.gov promises to offer. It's an interesting shot of the president, who is sitting at a work station that doesn't ergonomically suit him, as he sits in a chair that has not been adjusted for his height.

Another interesting example of visual rhetoric that goes outside the frame of convention is how the White House YouTube channel uses images to identify clips that aren't actually frames of the video. In particular, the close-up YouTube direct-address style of Obama's online videos isn't conveyed in the still picture. In this shot, Obama appears with the evidence of professional production values, as we see the faceless operator of a boom microphone in the periphery.