Dan asks : "Berger warns us to be skeptical of his arguments but with everything he says he doesn't give much weight to cultural differences. What about what Wysocki says about color as it"does not carry across cultural lines" ex: china- scarlet for bride's dress, white for mourning. (132) Why does Berger miss this?"
Ditto Dan. I felt the same way while watching the videos. Why I thought he might have missed it is because historically, analysis and art criticism is a Western concept. On the eastern hemisphere (and I will speak with reference to my culture alone, just to be safe!) we are a very collectivist culture. That means we do not openly discuss or critique art openly. Also, art was pure...regal...a luxury that royalty could indulge in. Only now is the culture undergoing a metamorphosis with the effects of globalization. So coming back to your question...I guess Berger missed that because of the concept of taking in a global perspective was little known back when this show was made.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Questions on McCloud's "The Vocabulary of Comics" and Berger's "Ways of Seeing"
In the Vocabulary of Comics and from the video's on Ways of Seeing, we are shown how we associate meanings to pictures directly with ourselves. This reflects onto recent online parlance with the popularity of User-comments and ratings by others on websites, blogs, videos etc. Why then (mostly in academia) are we constantly asked to be objective about viewing art, news, advertisements, movies etc.?
Who gives these meanings to icons? How do they become important over time?
Placement and reproduction is very important and crucial to how we view our world. Media is known to manipulate this characteristic and ends up having a lot of control and power over the masses. If you were given a chance, what would you change in media today?
Who gives these meanings to icons? How do they become important over time?
Placement and reproduction is very important and crucial to how we view our world. Media is known to manipulate this characteristic and ends up having a lot of control and power over the masses. If you were given a chance, what would you change in media today?
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Response to Crystal's Questions
Crystal asks: "Think of a Web Site you visit often. Go to that Web site & describe what catches your attention first, second & third? Can you explain why"
I visit Advertising Age website pretty often. It is a website that provides news about the advertising industry. The first thing that catches my attention is the masthead. Simply because it's the biggest size in the whole page. The second thing that catches my attention is the colors used in the page. Now I say this catches my attention, although it may not be flashy or attention grabbing in the least sense, but I think it's the colors and the layout of the elements in the page that assures me that I've reached the right website, even without having to read anything on the page. It is peripheral, but a visually important identity of the website. The third thing that catches my attention is the first news-story. Plainly because of it's placement right on the top-center of the page, accompanied by a thumbnail eye-catching picture.
I visit Advertising Age website pretty often. It is a website that provides news about the advertising industry. The first thing that catches my attention is the masthead. Simply because it's the biggest size in the whole page. The second thing that catches my attention is the colors used in the page. Now I say this catches my attention, although it may not be flashy or attention grabbing in the least sense, but I think it's the colors and the layout of the elements in the page that assures me that I've reached the right website, even without having to read anything on the page. It is peripheral, but a visually important identity of the website. The third thing that catches my attention is the first news-story. Plainly because of it's placement right on the top-center of the page, accompanied by a thumbnail eye-catching picture.
Questions on "What Writing Does and How It Does It" by Anne Wysocki
The chapter talks about typefaces and fonts. Fonts and typography certainly evokes emotions and reactions to the written word. But, would you say pictures are a form of writing too? Can they be compared? Why or why not?
Also, does placement in context matter to the types of fonts used? Can context be separated from the textual matter? This leads into my next question...
The author delves into various forms textual content. In my opinion, the main idea governing text is language and speech. Does language play a role, if at all, in conveying information?
Also, does placement in context matter to the types of fonts used? Can context be separated from the textual matter? This leads into my next question...
The author delves into various forms textual content. In my opinion, the main idea governing text is language and speech. Does language play a role, if at all, in conveying information?
My little graffiti project
So the process of making a stencil started with looking at stencil-making videos on Youtube of which some were really useful. I am a huge fan of learning stuff from Youtube and have almost always found "how-to" videos that cater to your most random learning needs. There are numerous videos that teach you to make stencils on photoshop by using a picture, so it's easy to waste a lot of time finding the one that you will be comfortable with, if your photoshop skils are limited. Therefore, with my minimal photoshop expertise, I found this video fairly helpful.
Once I learned how to make the stencil, I needed an idea. I had two. One was to make a T-shirt for my friend with his picture on it. I thought it'd make a nice birthday gift. It's a picture of him doin
g the karaoke. My friend, Trey, is a serious kinda guy and it is really hard to get him animated about anything. But then, God made Karaoke! (well, not God, but you get the point.) So I set out making his stencil. It looked like a pretty good stencil. But. Oh yes. The final graffiti looked NOTHING like my dear friend Trey karaoke-ing. And if I actually did make the t-shirt it would look absolutely ghastly. Here is the story, in pictures, 'before' and 'after'.
So after that little disaster, I decided to make a stencil for something really simple. I had this idea of making a
logo for a theater-group that I'm a part of. The name of our little Indian theater and drama club is Mithya. Mithya is a Hindi word that means "illusion". We don't yet have a logo and are in the process of making one, so I thought it'd be opportune to flesh out some ideas. The logo you see at the bottom is what I had in mind. The faces opposite each other give a nice theater-y feel to it, something that can bespeak acting, drama, emoting etc. and that they make a vase inbetween gives it a touch of "illusion" (remember, mithya). Of course, the vase has nothing to do with theater or the word mithya, but I was aiming that the logo would reflect something about the name and not end up being a really complicated image. I made the logo on photoshop first, then the stencil, and finally the graffiti. If truth be told, the graffiti looks okay but could have had a better finish. I used poster paint that started to run into the other parts of the paper and smudge it. Had I used spray paint this problem wouldn't have occurred. Another mistak
e that I learned from is that small sized letters are extremely hard to cut out (especially with no prior practice or experience), so that messed up my design too. But I'm glad that the illusion of the faces-vase looks pretty good. What do you guys think? Ideas? Comments?
Once I learned how to make the stencil, I needed an idea. I had two. One was to make a T-shirt for my friend with his picture on it. I thought it'd make a nice birthday gift. It's a picture of him doin
g the karaoke. My friend, Trey, is a serious kinda guy and it is really hard to get him animated about anything. But then, God made Karaoke! (well, not God, but you get the point.) So I set out making his stencil. It looked like a pretty good stencil. But. Oh yes. The final graffiti looked NOTHING like my dear friend Trey karaoke-ing. And if I actually did make the t-shirt it would look absolutely ghastly. Here is the story, in pictures, 'before' and 'after'.So after that little disaster, I decided to make a stencil for something really simple. I had this idea of making a
logo for a theater-group that I'm a part of. The name of our little Indian theater and drama club is Mithya. Mithya is a Hindi word that means "illusion". We don't yet have a logo and are in the process of making one, so I thought it'd be opportune to flesh out some ideas. The logo you see at the bottom is what I had in mind. The faces opposite each other give a nice theater-y feel to it, something that can bespeak acting, drama, emoting etc. and that they make a vase inbetween gives it a touch of "illusion" (remember, mithya). Of course, the vase has nothing to do with theater or the word mithya, but I was aiming that the logo would reflect something about the name and not end up being a really complicated image. I made the logo on photoshop first, then the stencil, and finally the graffiti. If truth be told, the graffiti looks okay but could have had a better finish. I used poster paint that started to run into the other parts of the paper and smudge it. Had I used spray paint this problem wouldn't have occurred. Another mistak
e that I learned from is that small sized letters are extremely hard to cut out (especially with no prior practice or experience), so that messed up my design too. But I'm glad that the illusion of the faces-vase looks pretty good. What do you guys think? Ideas? Comments?
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Response to Aaron's question
Aaron says: 'Since "immediacy" has the same root word as "hypermediacy", what can we then say about the way we commonly use the word "immediate"? It seems an interesting question, considering what it has come to mean, possibly in spite of its origin.'
Interesting question Aaron, but what did you have in mind while writing this question? Was a certain instance/idea of immediacy that you were thinking about? I’m asking so that I can understand your question better. But anyway, I think the word “immediate” and/or “immediacy” means something that occurs “after” a certain action. Therefore, in context of the readings, immediacy is something that would happen after viewing or experiencing a certain medium. But you know, the author talks a lot about virtual reality…and I don’t know if immediacy is the right way to categorize the experience of it. Virtual reality would be spontaneous or simultaneous…rather than being immediate…or what we understand from the word “immediate”
I don’t know if this answers your question…I hope that I’ve understood and commented appropriately.
Interesting question Aaron, but what did you have in mind while writing this question? Was a certain instance/idea of immediacy that you were thinking about? I’m asking so that I can understand your question better. But anyway, I think the word “immediate” and/or “immediacy” means something that occurs “after” a certain action. Therefore, in context of the readings, immediacy is something that would happen after viewing or experiencing a certain medium. But you know, the author talks a lot about virtual reality…and I don’t know if immediacy is the right way to categorize the experience of it. Virtual reality would be spontaneous or simultaneous…rather than being immediate…or what we understand from the word “immediate”
I don’t know if this answers your question…I hope that I’ve understood and commented appropriately.
Thought Questions on Remediation
1. If “new digital media participates in culture’s redefinition of self”, what would culture be defined as with the presence of laptops, smart phones, Wiis, telepresence technologies, and similar hypermediums in society today?
2. I recently saw an ad, where a lady talks about her car and “Real people” flashes under her name. Reality TV is undeniably popular. And so are things that offer a peek into other people’s stories, follies and triumphs. But soon, reality TV was not real anymore. It was always mediated (by a producer, script-writer etc), and the audience saw it was flawed. Was it wise to replace entertainment with reality, because let’s face it..reality isn’t that interesting as we observe it and participate in it every day.
3. “New digital media are not external agents that disrupt an unsuspecting culture but they emerge from within cultural contexts, and they refashion other media embedded in the contexts.” When we speak of new-media, we picture the World Wide Web, Youtube, iPhone, Facebook and the like, and forget that more than 50% of the world’s population lives in poverty..without any access to the technological luxuries we call “new media” today. As the quote above says that new media emerge from within cultural contexts, would it possible to define new media in an all encompassing, global perspective?
2. I recently saw an ad, where a lady talks about her car and “Real people” flashes under her name. Reality TV is undeniably popular. And so are things that offer a peek into other people’s stories, follies and triumphs. But soon, reality TV was not real anymore. It was always mediated (by a producer, script-writer etc), and the audience saw it was flawed. Was it wise to replace entertainment with reality, because let’s face it..reality isn’t that interesting as we observe it and participate in it every day.
3. “New digital media are not external agents that disrupt an unsuspecting culture but they emerge from within cultural contexts, and they refashion other media embedded in the contexts.” When we speak of new-media, we picture the World Wide Web, Youtube, iPhone, Facebook and the like, and forget that more than 50% of the world’s population lives in poverty..without any access to the technological luxuries we call “new media” today. As the quote above says that new media emerge from within cultural contexts, would it possible to define new media in an all encompassing, global perspective?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
About me
My name is Susmita. I am from India. I know four languages – three Indian languages and English. People think that’s cool but it’s pretty normal for anybody from India to know more than two languages.
I came to the University of Illinois last year to study Advertising. I never thought my life would bring me here as I come from a family of engineers. So I’m sort of like the “black sheep” in my family. But I love it. No matter what people say about advertisers and how ugly they portray us ‘capitalist devils’. I read somewhere that a job in advertising is looked upon as the second lowest respectable jobs to have. The lowest being that of a….car salesman!
Anyway, Jon, the INFO 303 instructor says we must create links now. So I have to stop cribbing NOW. The websites I visit regularly are afaqs, adage, RIVET, and Anoushka Shankar’s website. I’d also like to add a link of this website because I recently acted in a monologue - my first theater performance that I was really, really excited about. The play was called Chimeras.
So that’s a little bit about me :)
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