Iconographic Tracking: A Digital Research Method for Visual Rhetoric and Circulation Studies

•Circulation studies is an important area of research for visual rhetoric.•A new materialist approach to visual rhetoric is introduced.•This approach can help theoretically account for an image's rhetorical becomings.•A digital research method called iconographic tracking is also described.•This method can trace how images flow, transform, and contribute to collective life.

Drawing on recent scholarship in the disciplines of rhetoric and composition/writing studies and communication, the author advocates for generating new methodologies and methods for studying rhetorical circulation. The author introduces iconographic tracking—a research method that employs traditional qualitative and inventive digital research strategies to investigate the circulation, transformation, and consequentiality of images across genres, mediums, and contexts. As evidence of what this method can afford, the author presents findings from a five-year long case study that employs iconographic tracking to trace Shepard Fairey's now iconic Obama Hope image. To help readers understand some of the theories and philosophies that undergird the method of iconographic tracking, the author also briefly introduces a new materialist approach to rhetorical study. As such, the author points in new directions for visual rhetorical study and circulation studies at large.