Excercise #2: Photo Response

Image Credit: Behherit

I find the following image to be quite intriguing. However, the question is not whether I find the image visually appealing but "why" I find it visually appealing.

To begin, I find the colors in the image to be a perfect mixture of pure color and muted tones. I think the mix of intense and muted tones really help to draw the eye forward and focus as it would naturally, on the red berry like forms, making them the center of interest in the piece. To drive the nail further, the rest of the image in comparison to the berries which are quite focused compared to the background brings the eye continually to the berries but not without some wandering first. The berries in the foreground of the image act as a resting and focal point for the eye.
The drops of dew on the piece create several diagonal lines that act as guides, inviting the eye and the viewer to move through the image. However, the viewer does not move aimlessly and without end through the image, as the size of the berries and the fact that the berries are front and center in the picture, leads the eye to rest on them.
There is also a wonderful contrast in the image that is dealt with through not only the colors but also through the blend of blur and focus in the picture. It is as if we, the viewer are standing in front of the branch and looking only at the red berries, leaving the rest of the branch and it's surrounding to fade and blend into a whirl of mush. Even the subject matter, draws out some interesting natural contrasts, such as, the hardness of the branch and the softness and fluidity of the dew dropping down like strands of iridescent pearls.
The image is also a wonderful example of the kind of value that is desired in a photograph or a drawing. At the bottom of the photo the darkest shades of color are represented. However, the photo is not bottom heavy because some bits of dark also draw the eye to the top of the piece, where the lightest shades are represented.
There is a certain balance to the piece that is not achieved through symmetry but through asymmetrical means. However, despite the image being skewed to one side the viewer gets a sense of unity and balance because of the the other complimentary components listed above.
In short, we get a feeling of real atmosphere, not only due to the subject, but because of the use of space, line, color, value, etc. throughout the image. The use of these elements and principles of design help to create a convincing and intriguing piece that allows the viewer to experience a piece that is aesthetically appealing, but in a way far more than that. We get a real sense of depth, visually, and emotionally.

- Juleah Chandler

Marshall McLuhan

Born in Canada in 1911 to a real estate salesman and actress, McLuhan did not meet with academic success until college. He became interested in the way communication influences society. In 1959 he became the director of the Media Project of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters and the United States Office of Education. It was during this project that McLuhan met with great critical success, winning the prestigious Governor General's Award. He believed that the most important aspect of media is the technical medium of communication. The medium, he claimed, was the message, and that 'print is the technology of individualism.' McLuhan foresaw electronic media as a powerful tool that would unify and stabilize the human race. He went on to write many successful and insightful books, including 'Understanding Media' and 'The Mechanical Bride.' McLuhan is best remembered as an influential writer, theorist, and educator of mass media in culture. He died in 1980, just years before the Internet revolution took flight.

Max Coady

Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan is a man of great depth. His words though irrational to many have given others an alarming sense of truth regarding the path down which society has traveled. He is much like a piece of fine art. He gives us just enough information to see the image; which in his case is a society consumed by technology, all the while allowing his viewers the space to make their own criticisms.

            He speaks of extensions and amputations- those tools that both add and take away from the endeavors of mankind. He speaks about these as two separate things while in fact they are the same. He’s giving us the option to choose. It’s like asking someone if the glass is half full or half empty. Is technology- helping society, or are we just hurting the potential we have to make progress within our endeavors? For instance someone who views the glass as half full might say that a computer has aided society in many ways by giving us a faster more condensed way to access and store information, whereas a viewer of a glass half empty would say that we are losing more than we are gaining due to the lack of human connection lost in the hours spent in front of the glowing screen.

His arguments have left a lasting impression as he has challenged us to face the lives that we live and decide whether or not we are “extending” our abilities or “amputating” our progress. Getting people to more thoroughly examine their lives and the choices they have made could quite possibly be the greatest of all his accomplishments.

D. Whitcomb

Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan is a monumental figure in the field of new and digital media and has been referred to as "the first father and leading prophet of the electronic age. He dedicated his work to learning and understanding how technology and popular culture are interrelated, and how each has helped shape the other. His knowledge of how a message is changed by the medium by which it is presented is really interesting, and is a point that can be taken into account in the advertising industry. What's even more interesting is that, in the 1960s when TV was brand new and the internet and cell phones did not exist, he created phrases like "global village," which describes our age much more than his. He had many predictions concerning technology and communication, and noted how technologies that "extend" the human mind or body in some way make certain skills obsolete, such as a car extending feet or binoculars extending the human eye.

-Stefany Townsend

VIDEO AND DIGITAL RESOURCE LIST AND SOME FILMS TO WATCH

http://uwf.edu/fcarlisle/digital_practice/video/art4630_video_resources_carlisle.htm

Media Interpretations

Marshall McLuhan is an important figure in media studies because he changed the way mediums were interpreted and viewed by audiences. McLuhan adapted this view of thinking from two of his Cambridge University professors. This first being, I.A. Richards, in which the idea was to not look at literature, in McLuhan's case Media, in how it can be restated or easily interpreted, but how it mentally effects the reader or audience. The second was F.R. Leavis, who taught McLuhan to analyze his social surroundings. McLuhan applied those teachings into his analyzing of mediums and how they affected the mental perception of those who viewed them. Also showing the cultural beliefs and common assumptions that are perpetuated in the media through advertising.

McLuhan personally speaks to me as an advertising major, to take notice of the subliminal messages that are being fed to viewers through all forms of media (television, radio, etc.) His research and the technique he used to apply to media shows how in our society, stereotypes are able to be able to continually be perpetuated by the role media plays in our day-to-day existence.

-Alexis Cummings

McLuhan the prophet

"In the mid-sixties, McLuhan presaged that TV would prompt politicians to become entertainers as style and image dwarfed substance, while 'the news' turned into an entertainment package. McLuhan noted that 'a four-year stint in the White House is no longer easily distinguishable from something arranged by a booking agency.'"
-Judith Fitzgerald for The Globe and Mail


What a genius. More to Come.

-Brooke