besametonto

A Blog on Remediation

2005-12-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

Bolter and Grusin argue that all new media borrow from old media in Remediation. This is an interesting concept that rings very true in my experiences. When I think of Ipods, it reminds me of mp3 player or computers because both are capable of storing large numbers of songs. Of course, an Ipod is convenient because it is portable. Television borrows ideas from radio, both rely on sound waves, but television brings new technology with picture. Internet search engines are similar to the very basic card catalog system at a library, which only required printed paper. Obviously none of these examples are exactly alike, but by examine the building blocks that lead to "improved" technology the growth of current inventions can only be improved. I guess technology is just like any other subject one might study because it is important to know the history behind it. Instead of useing the trail and error approach to invention, building on what already exists will lead to faster advancements.

Final

2005-12-16T14:01:00.000-08:00

2. The first image demonstrates what most people would consider a comic. Batman is a well-recognized cartoon comic. The key word here is cartoon. In Scott McCloud’s book, Understanding Comics, he creates a pyramid to help measure the level of human involvement. Words are the most abstract visual because the sight of a letter is arbitrarily assigned a sound, while pictures are the least abstract because they mirror life. A cartoon comic, such as Batman, may be well recognized as a human image because it is close to the picture plane, its meaning cannot be fully realized without words. Indeed, the most abstract of visuals brings the comic life and consistency. With pictures and drawings, people are left to make up a story for themselves, but words tell the story. Imagine that the first image is not well known, and there were no words. One reader might look at the images and decide that it was the story of scientific experiment between a father and son on Halloween; the father dressed up as a bat and the son going as some kind of Zorro knock off. A second reader might think it is a story of two who were morphed into a half animal half human creature and attempts to reverse the progress before mutation was complete is urgent. With words, the title Batman comes to represent a story about a man fighting evil through science and strength. On the other hand, without drawings, the authors intended vision would never be fully actualized either. When an audience is given drawings or pictures, they are told how to imagine, instead of making up their own ideas of how a character should look. Therefore, McCloud’s pyramid shows that word (the abstract) and pictures (close to life) are vital instruments in displaying an accurate meaning when they are put together.
In the second image is not a true comic because it is not sequential art. Instead, it is a still shot, meant to convey one message. Although it does not fit McCloud’s definition of a comic, it can still be applied to his pyramid. In the same way that words worked with pictures in the first image to tell an accurate meaning of the author’s vision, this advertisement uses words and pictures to convey their idea accurately. At first glance, the pictures bring to mind youth, sporty, fast, and futuristic. With the addition of, “the fastest cars in the world; a new breed of supercars for the 21st century,” viewers initial ideas are reinforced and expanded on. Now the fast cars are the fastest cars, they are not just cars but super cars, and they are not futuristic but modern. Although the combination of words and pictures seem to demonstrate the most accurate way to convey messages, McCloud says that an author’s message can never fully be understood, and most authors would rate their accuracy of conveyance around 30 percent, at the highest. This is because words and pictures are images, which will always be translated by the audiences’ experiences. A good example of this is when 21st century was translated to modern, or assuming that the cars looked futuristic. To some people, the 21st century may just mean current, not modern, and some people may think the cars look modern, not futuristic. Therefore, although comics appear to be the best way to convey a message, they will never be 100 percent accurate to the author’s meaning.
If McCloud’s argument for comics is not convincing enough, readers may want to turn to William Blake, a romantic writer. His work has survived through many generations, but, according to McCloud, his book Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a comic. Blake accompanied his poetry with drawings. According to Geoffrey Keynes, in the preface to Blake’s 1967 edition, “the philosophy and symbols of Blake’s Songs have exercised the minds of many commentators.” Obviously, if commentators from as early as 1863 to as late as the 21st century have found his book worth while, and Blake’s work has been anthologized, then he proves that comics are more than just literature for children. Although his original meaning will never be fully actualized, as other authors struggle to do, Blake’s work may be better understood through his combination of words and drawings.

4.The technology available today has created a secondary morality. While some critics of the new visual age warn against too much television, internet, and video games, such as Marie Winn notes in her essay “Understanding Media Issues,” there are some links to the past that show literacy is not always best. In Orality and Literacy, Walter Ong makes the argument that literate cultures are not superior to oral cultures, and that both have their disadvantages. In order to make his argument clear, he notes the concerns Aristotle had about print. Aristotle was a great thinker of his time, and he worried that a literate culture would lead to weak minds, that a society would rely on books instead of memorization. Of course the argument for print is that it has shown society a way to expand and build upon its knowledge because being able to look things up frees the mind to think more abstractly. It appears, therefore, that a blend of both societies would be best.
As Kyrstina Madej wrote in “Towards Digital Narrative for Children: From Education to Entertainment: A Historical Perspective,” “narrative is the primary form by which human experience is made meaningful.” Narrative, in this case means story telling, as one might experience in an oral culture. Therefore, watching television may not be as harmful to the brain as some critics may have formerly believed. However, it cannot be forgotten that print allows the mind to think in more abstract terms. Therefore, technologies, such as computers, appear to be the best solution. With computers, users get a mix of print and visual. A feeling of community can be accomplished through the Internet, with that the feeling of an oral community is returned, although slightly changed. With all the visuals being thrown at society today, it is certain that a purely print culture is a thing of the past. However, this “second morality” does not appear to be the downfall of great minds. Indeed, with a blend of print and oral cultures, it seems that the capabilities of the mind will be expanded. New advances always bring new fears, as the onset of print, but surely those fears will be set aside as the benefits show to outweigh any disadvantages.

Comics applied to McCloud

2005-12-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

In chapter 8, McCloud talks about how color can "express a dominant mood" and how "tones and modelling can add depth." In the "Get Fuzzy" comic I'm looking at (www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/) there is a definite lack of color. However there is shading that adds depth. I think this comic could be black and white for the sake of cost, as McCloud notes is often the case. However, I think that the traditional look is nice. If color can project a mood, than I like using my imagination to guide the mood. Although the last chapter of McCloud's book says that no artist can every completely potray what he was thinking, I still like being able to choose the mood myself. Of course color is not the only mode of expressing mood, and in some cases it might do more harm than good. Is blue really known to be a calm color universally? Probably not, therefore color may have its benifits, but so does black and white.

Blog on Understanding Comics

2005-12-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

Chapter six is titled "Show and Tell." I find this the best explaination of comics McCloud offers. In his comic, there is a child showing and telling to his class about the robot. When the child is at loss for words, he shows the class why he likes it. I think that the best comics must find this balance. Comics must show what is better understood through a visual, while words should be used to push the story forward clearly. McCloud says that at their best "comics are like partners in a dance." Obviously partners in a dance have to know the other persons strengths and weakness, utilizing each other for the best performance. Good comic creators know the strengths and weaknesses of visuals and words. As this age is leading to a mix oral and literate world, I think comics could lead the way. They are the oldest form of mixed communication (as old as hierogliphics according to McCloud). Indeed this form of showing and telling links huge gap that Walter Ong created. Although a unviversal language is unlikely, McCloud believes comics is our closest attempt yet. He also claims they have a magical quality about them, which I think can be found more in the gutter than in their ability to communicate in words and pictures.
As he says, the mind knows how to fill in the gaps between frames, what he calls "closure." In the ability to understand what happens between frames, no matter what language a person speaks, is trully magical. Furthermore, it is what makes comics so universal. However, it is complicated, as McCloud notes, when one must decide which direction to follow the frames or when the frames are "non-sequential."

The Medium is the Massage

2005-11-15T12:54:00.000-08:00

Towards the begining of the book, there is a page with a scene from Alice in Wonderland. I like how this page demonstrates how we are taught to believe a certain order of things are correct by society. In the U.S. your are "innocent until proven guilty," and this page suggests that the Queen is looked at as evil because she does not value humanity or whatever it is that we are supposed to believe is correct by first "hearing the evidence." But what really makes this page great is the multiple meanings it has. It also could show how we value research before developing our ideas and recording them in sentences. It also might allude to how web pages and children's books are designed. First there might be pictures, or "evidence" and then the text. Why does the text often run at the bottom of a page in children's literature. This may be a stretch, especially since McLuhan was writing more about television than the internet or children's books, but they mirror television. When writing a news story, the reporter gets the story, the evidence, and then makes sentences for the report. In the report there might be pictures intermingled with the text, but that doesn't really show which comes first so it is a little off topic.

2005-10-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

Justin, Kelly, Nina, Ed, Kristi, Olivia

McLuhan is famous for the coining the phrase “the medium is the message.” In this book, he plays on that idea calling it “the medium is the massage.” Why does he do this? What possible interpretations might there be?
It may be a play on how the medium massages our imagination. Also, people make up their own enviornment and individual thoughts, the message is our perspective. It’s an abstract to the way we think over or “massage” our thoughts.

The book is an “inventory of effects” of electronic media. Which ones struck you as most relevant to your experiences with electronic media?
The section that listed extensions because electronic media is another extension of us. The war section was also very relevant because electronic media has made it readily available and the imagery brings it “closer to home.” Now with internet, the effects are greater because television is limited in objectivity, due to monopolies. The internet is not as limited as other forms of media because anyone can post or publish ideas and opinions.

“Innumerable confusions and a profound feeling of despair invariably emerge in periods of great technological and cultural transitions.” How might this line apply to events today?
In the case of the internet, sometimes there is too much information, and this makes people frustrated. It is information overload. There is also a fear of the unknown, and with advanced technology some generations become wary of it. Take the news for example, how do you pick-out the good from the bad with so many choices.

“When two seemingly disparate elements are imaginatively poised, put in apposition in new and unique ways, startling discoveries often result.” How do word and image work in this book? How do the images support, undercut, subsume, the words? Or vice versa?
Images often set-up or prepare readers for the text. In this way they support the text by providing an enviornment. Take “A Cell for citters to cit in,” the bars set up an image imprisionment or confinement.

In the books beginning McLuhan writes that electronic media has affected these things: Your familyYour neighborhoodYour educationYour job Your government “the other” briefly explain how and discuss your experiences and ideas related to this.

Family: We rarely write letters. Parents are no longer the primary influence in children’s life because media is pervasive.
Neighborhood: Your neighborhood grows. It is no longer just the physical, but what people can acess electronically. This results in more distant relations with physical neighbors, and almost more isolated because communication becomes digital.
Education: Research is no longer book oriented. Now people can search through journal search engines and databases, which makes the accessable knowledge more expansive. Also, classes might include videos in the classroom.
Job: More people can work at home. In McLuhan’s time copy machines and television made work easier and/or faster.
Government: Politicians have to make short memorable sound bites for television because our attention span has been shortened with electronic media. Electronic media makes us feel more participatory. Internet and television polls help facilitate this. Even talk radio allows people to let their opinion known.
“The Other”: Electronic media helps minorities be seen and heard. Their voices can no longer be ignored.

Project ideas

2005-10-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

I will probably write a paper for my project. I like the idea of how the printing press and paper created the Renaissanse man. I also like exploring the differences and similarities between oral and literate cultures. It should be fairly easy to tie these two subjects together. What I want to explore in my research is whether literate culutures mimiced modern oral cultures before the invention and wide use of the printing press since few people had access to writing. By doing this I hope to show that "the great divide" is not that big.
Making a video might also be fun, but I don't have any ideas for one. Maybe I could make one to suppliment my paper. I think I'll just wait and see how much information I can find and how long my paper is.

Classical Revival Reoriented

2005-10-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

"It is not so much that printing made the Reniassance possible as that the Renaissance contributed to the successful spread of printing."
I like that Eisenstein exams this quote by Vervliet so closely, even though she disagrees with it. I think this matter is kind of like "which came first; the chicken or the egg?" While E. is arguing about how weak V.'s arugement is, I'm thinking that the two are definitly related, and that relationship is more intresting than E. complaints. Obviously, cheap paper was needed for print to be huge. So once that was established, one might wonder if people were naturally becoming more enqusitiv. I think almost everyone can agree that print was the hugest technology of the time, but what else was happening during that time. What I think it comes down to is that the two perpetuated each other. With the onset of print, the "Renaissance Man" found himself able to reach goals and trying to keep those oppertunities going.

Questions- The Great Divide

2005-10-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

1. Reading Achebe's novel almost provides evidence for Ong's claims. The two cultures were drastically different, and those who held tightly to their traditions could find no middle ground between the new and strange culture. However, it is important to realize that it was convert or stay "primitive." There were actually many similarities between the oral and literate cultures. In Achebe's novel there was a missionary and tribal leader who communicated often about the differences of their people, but the similarities as well. Also it is important to note that writing does not necessarily take people to a "higher consciosness." There were already people in the tribal community who were contimplating issues in their tribes, and by accepting the oral culture they simply were able to act on their thoughts.
2. I think that writing has many affects on cultures. It allows those belonging to a literate culture to think more abstractly, aquire a wider range of knowledge because things can be looked up, and the past can be remember more accurately are among some of the most obvious influences of writing. However, without print press, these changes could not have been as useful because knowledge would have been limited to what a person can write down, as opposed to a machine that can make accurate and numerous multiples of the same information. In Things Fall Apart, it becomes aparent that being able to record a culture's history and knowledge helps advance them and put them in a position where conquiring other cultures is relatively easy. Not only could the missionaries come in to villages with recorded and "accurate" proof of their god, but eventually weapons and organized troops could conquire a diminished (in numbers) village.
3.Oral cultures and literate cultures do share many similarities. There is an organized division of labor, religion, law, and education. Oral cultures do not thrive on survival, they also live in communities, and in many other ways resemble literate cultures. I saw many of the similarities mentioned earlier in Things Fall Apart, and while it is important not to divide these cultures as completely different, it is interesting and important to study the differences that are quit evident.
4. I think it is somewhat natural to think of an oral culture as inferior and natural because literate cultures tend to think of themselves as more developed and knowledgeable. However, who is to determine if writing is unnatural just because it was a developed technology? If nature evolves, can't humans' abilities evolve also? This kind of thinking, however, leads us back to the conclusion that literate culutures are more evolved than those that are not. I guess it is difficult not to think this way when one see the "progress" writing can create. The thing that is important to remember is that people in an oral culture can be trained to think like literate cultures and possibly the reverse. So that means that they are as intellegent and capable, and that "progress" does not equal intelligence, real improvement, or quality of live. "Progress" in literate cultures has created problems with so-called solutions. (Think pollutions as an example.)
5. The importance of the lists is that a person can see the difference between oral culture's perspectives and literate culture's perspective. The significance to Achebe's book is fairly obvious; it shows how easily the cultures clashed. However, there were outsiders who joined the literate culture, which shows that there are always similarities as well. Human nature might be what some people call it.

6. I think the first thing that struck me in Chandler's second diagram is that Practices is in the middle. This seems to reinforce Ong when he said oral cultures are conservatives. If everything in an oral culture relies on "practices" of what has traditionally been done in a given situation, then yes they are conservative because they do not wish for change. Chandler's first diagram is much more complex. It seems to imply that recording and writing offers a lot more options, but it also implies that there is more room for misinterpretation. Chat rooms appear to be the only outlet where orality meets writing. Electronic media is definetly another form of writing, but unlike paper or other devises it is highly developed and offers a lot of options. In Achebe's novel, social context surrounded the villages. Okonkwo refers to what should be done about the missionaries according to what their society believes in, as an example. He refers to the roles of men when he tells them it is their duty not to let a man deficit on the floor of his house. Also he portrays an attitude of frustration and anger, which are socially accepted as "manly" emotions to display. This attitude also protrays that action needs to be taken, and the tools to do it should be the ones that they have always used, since they have always brought success. If Okonkwo did not speak in this manner, no one would have listened to him; this is what is sociably acceptable.

A blog on Ong

2005-09-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

What is the relationship of print and writing, but also the relationship of print to residual orality in print culture?
Print made writing more accessible because as printing technology advanced, texts could be reprinted easily. Ong claims that, " Print suggests that words are things far more than writing ever did." Print did this by making the written word more wide spread, but more importantly, print gave writing a new visual look. With print hearing no longer dominated poetry, sight was its new dominance. Not only do poets chose visual words that create imagery, they are also wondering how it will look on the printed page. The structure of the stanza and in other writing paragraphs can put emphasize or meaning to a part of writing that was not considered before the uniform spaces created by print.
Originally, writing had heavy oral residual. Ong points out different versions in The Bible where the early text does not show consequence with words like then, it is simply additive and repetitive as an oral culture would have been because of the need to memorize. Ong also notes that the way print is presented on a page yields heavy oral residual. Footnotes are at the bottom of the page because humans have feet at the bottom of their bodies and no culture reads from bottom to top because that would be upside down in an oral culture.

Quiz

2005-09-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

How does writing, according to Ong, restructure consciousness?
With the "technology of writing," humans become "beings whose thought processes do not grow out of simply natural powers but out of these powers as structured, directly or indirectly, by the technology of writing." In other words, the written word has restructered the way humans think. Ong suggests that because writting is "context free" and that the author is not present to be questioned, the reader turns inward for answers. In an oral culture words are argumentative, loaded and memorable, however they do not lead to much interpretation and tradition is the basis of desicion making. There is less of a sense of individual thought because there is always interaction.
Ong also argues that writing becomes a part of a person. People forget that writing is a technology and therefore it becomes part of how they think and process abstract and complex ideas. It is a way that humans can record these processes, unlike an oral culture, who may find it difficult to explain or remember how they solved a complex problem. Writing is, in a sense, like a computer, it can help "store" knowledge until it is needed. Although Plato claimed that this would make the human mind lazy, it is essentail in storing the vast amount of knowledge and complex problems presented by modern society. Also, as Plato feared, many people can be considered "smart" because it is not necessary to have a lot of facts memorized if they can be looked-up in a book or on the web. As long as a person can comprehend and put to use the read information they can be considered smart.

class questions

2005-08-31T10:58:00.000-07:00

1. In order for Okoye to retrieve his money he stops by Unoka's hut as if it was going to be a casual visit. Unoka then offers all of the polite comodities and they begin talking. Okoye mentions the knew title he is planning on taking in order to start the conversation out lightly, but the topic he picks will also allow him to mention the debt easily. Unoka of course does not have the money so he mentions all of the other debts he owes and how they have not asked for the money. He also makes a statement that says, Hey buddy don't you think it is a little rude to ask for the money because you should trust me. Of course there was nothing Okoye could do to get his money so he left.

2. Dear Treasured Friend,
I can still remember the days we used to spend playing on the big toys at recess. Just yesterday I was reminencing about the endless hours we would spend swinging away the cares of addition, substraction and grammer and discuss more important manner, such as the hairy mole on the lunch ladie's chin. Aye, those were the days.
Then my thoughts turned to our Freshman year in college. I remembered how much fun we had in your first car. It was always overheating or leaking some kind of fluid. Eventually your parents bought you a better car, and the adventurous days of not knowing how we would get home were over. Sadly, I have ran into a few adventures of my own that are not so grand.
Recently, I ran out of money for college, and with only one semester to finish, I am determined to finish on schdule. However, the cost of living has dampered my ability to save, and I have been contemplating source of money that I could access. Then I remebered how you had bought that first car. You had started a job with fabulous pay, and you needed a car to get to work. With all of the money you would have coming in you knew it wouldn't take long to pay a car off, but no place would give you a loan. Of course, I saw the urgenecy of the situation and volunteered $2,000 of my own savings as a loan with no interest.
Well, the intentions of this letter is to ask for the return of the loan money. I hope I do not come across as bitter or untrustworthy. The only reason I am requesting the money is because of my desperate situation. I truly hope you understand and can return my letter with the warmth of a true friend.
Sincerely,
Kelly

3. The difference in the way I asked for the loan repayment was that I was a bit softer and appealed to a feminine aspect of the friendship, while Okoye appealed the honor of a man. However, we both asked in a polite way, leading into the topic with lighter conversation.

4. In an oral culture, speaking clearly is very important. If Okonkwo has a stammer that means that he is flawed. In the case of Things Fall Apart this flaw shows one of the reasons why Okonkwo must work so hard to be manly.

5. Palm oil is the ultimate drink, it is used to honor guests, celebrate and such. If proverbs is the palm oil with which words are eaten then it is clear that proverbs should be taken seriously and more importantly they help people understand. They help people understand religion, life, and culture.

6. In the scene where Achebe writes that a snake cannot be called by its name at, shows readers the power of words in an oral culture. In many ways, it is like propganda or the news. Whether something is true or not a great deal of people can be persuaded to believe it if it is repeated often or acknowledged by many sources. In literate cultures, it is common for people to believe in something they read in a newspaper, a website or magazine, especially if the source is creditible. The closest way our society resembles the one Achebe writes about might be our television and radio commentary/news.

proverbs and their meanings

2005-08-31T10:10:00.000-07:00

1.You could throw a handful of sand and the grains would not be able to find their way back to earth. This means the market, or where ever you're throwing the sand at is so crowded with people that nothing, not even sand can get through.
2. He who brings Kola brings life. Kola nuts are really good, reviving and create good interations between men.
3.Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel underthem. Those who are already successful will gain more success before those who have little or no success.
4. A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing. If something looks out of place there must be something unusual must be happening.
5. A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness. If a person follows the correct procedures, especially honoring the great, will be successful because the ancestors will not be angry and those that are alive will be willing to help.

Clearly, proverbs are convienent, memorable and traditional way of communicating in an oral culture. However, it is interesting to note that literate cultures also have "sayings" or expressions that compact ideas into fewer words. Unfortunately the downfall of these is that the meanings can be misunderstood by those who are not familar with the culture.

Who am I?

2005-08-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

My name is Kelly and I am an English student at WSU Vancouver. I recently moved to the area and I think I will love it. I have always been a bit of a Tomboy and the outdoorsy type so all of the rivers and forests around here should provide many adventures. I also like the idea of being around several cities with different atmospheres and activities.
As a child I always had a pet and grew up respecting animals and wanting to take care of them. I recently raised chickens and was surprised by the amount of personality a bird can have. Unfortunately, I no longer have chickens, but my love birds are a whole new learning expierence.