Blog #9

1) McCloud's argument about the future of digital technologies and comics are really interesting. He mentioned that audiences read the comics through hypertexts. It's not about only pictures (resembles or icons) which are stable and unchangeable once they're printed. There’re standard ways to understand the printed comics depend on the pictures or the orders of the frames. Comparing the printed comics, the digital comics are more likely flexible to be perceived depend on the audiences' situations and hypertexts.

2) To me, one of the most interesting articles from this class was Mishira's one. His main point is that illustrations bring misunderstandings or misconceptions to the audiences because they don't resemble enough. And, this point very makes sense to me. This is basic concept when we draw pictures. Although the pictures of the structures are technically correct, the reality is often different. For instance, the drawing of human heart and how it works are totally different from the real human heart. This will help me to be more careful and pay attention to differences between pictures and the reality. Also, Goffman's theory was also very interesting. In the article, he introduces several kinds of advertisements such as the family or feminine hand. Before I read this article, I had never thought about how the advertisements approach the audiences. But now, I more likely notice those standard ways, which Goffman introduced in his article, to approach us when I see the advertisements. When I look at the advertisements, I can find his theory in many of them. Also, I think some of his theories reflect the society. For instance, man should be bigger than women when men are more powerful and higher status than women according to relative size. But, I think this has been changing these days. Probably, this theory is still effective, but it’s not as common as before. I think this is because the gender role of men and women has been changing in the society. Men and women are getting more equal these days. I believe the advertisements reflect the society very quickly. Because of it, I think paying more attention and analyze the advertisements help me to develop my critical thinking. Finally, I learned a lot from the visual argument according to Birdsell and Groarke. They pointed three important contexts such as immediate visual contest, immediate verbal contest, and visual culture.

McCloud, Scott. "REINVENTING COMICS." 199-221.

Goffman, Erving. "GENDER ADVERTISEMENT." 28-80.

Mishra, Punyashiloke. "The Role of Abstraction in Scientific Illustration: Implication for Pedagogy." Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World (2004): 177-194.

Blair, Anthony J. "The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments." Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World (2004): 344-362.

Blog #8

1) After I read the article, I still think his dream house came from "political realities, from the class, race, and gender differences...”(VR 396)Because his imagination never can be drawn away from his identity which was created by his and his family’s those physical materials. I studied communication in a college. According to my precious classes, our thinking never can be separated from identities. Although it was not on purpose, his dream house still invisibly represented his identity based on his background and culture. But, it's natural because all we want come from how we are. And, how we are come from our identities, culture, and background.

2) According to Hooks, "expansive and more inclusive understanding of architecture, the vernacular is as relevant as any other form of architectural practice." (VR 399) architecture is unique depend on cultures and traditions in different areas. Also, history has a significant meaning when we look at architecture. In other term, we can say architecture makes a cultural practice. Those two interact with each other. Also, he mentioned “the major challenge of a new architectural historiography is… “past” and “present” be attuned to the complex role of differences.” (VR 399) It contains all differences such as skin color, gender, traditions, and so on.

3) According to van Dijk, the new racism is totally different from the old racism. First of all, it doesn't consider itself as “racism." The new racism is more democratic and respectable than old one. Moreover, minorities, such as drug abuse or lacking achievement values, used to be looked down by the old racism; however, the new racism takes those minorities as just different. Those minorities don't need to be looked down by the new racism. Especially in U.S. and Europe, the new racism is more like psychological and science studied rather than discriminations which come from emotions or prejudices.

Hooks, Bell. "Black Vernacular: Architecture as Cultural Practice." Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World 395-400.

van Dijk, Teun A. "NEW (S) RACISM: A DISCOURSE ANALYTICAL APPROACH." Ethnic Minorities and the Media

Concealment and reveal

According to Burbules, links work for both concealment and reveal. Burbules mentioned, "in our ordinary encounters with links, they are already made.... with materials created by unknown persons whose reasons, biases, motivations, and credibility..." (Burbles 104-105) Moreover, I think there’re also many links are made by companies or governments for particular reasons.
For instance, we can see differences when we search "news" on Yahoo and MSN. They have different arrangements of orders for the links. I think this is because they earn money from sponsors who pay for advertisements. Yahoo and MSN have different order of priorities for the links based on their sponsors which own the link pages. When they're on business, concealment and reveal occur not because of their personal preferences, but because of financial profits.
Also, censorship systems can cause concealment and reveal. According to VOA, "Eric Schmidt, the head of the U.S. Internet giant Google, has reaffirmed his company's willingness to abide by the Chinese Communist government's censorship rules." (Google Defends Decision to Work with Chinese Censors) Chinese government conceals some information which may be harmful for them. The problem is Chinese Internet users don't know their searched information is censored. For instance, I've found out that I and my Chinese friends know different information about Beijing Olympics. I think this is because our information is controlled. It actually makes me scared. This is one kind of brainwashing. On the other hand, some Internet users against the government and reveal some national secrets or conspiracies. Those who usually anonymously reveal the information can be any nationalities. I think the biggest problem is that Internet users are unaware of the fact that all links are already made on purpose.

Burbules, Nicholas C.. "Rhetoric of the Web: Hyperreading and Critical Literacy." 20 Oct, 2001. 7 Jul 2008 http://www.wsu.edu/~pmuhlhauser/pdf.

Ramirez, Luis. "Google Defends Decision to Work with Chinese Censors." Voice of America 12 April 2006 7 Jul 2008 http://voanews.com/english/archive/2006-04/2006-04-12-voa12.cfm?CFID=10071618&CFTOKEN=31000607.

Symbols (Arnheim)

Everyone knows, the first picture is the emblem of the Olympics. These five rings represent five inhabited continents. Actually, these rings don't look the continents, according to Arnheim, the description of the symbol is “the extent to which it portrays things which are at a high level of abstractness than is the symbol itself." (VD 139) If someone who doesn’t know the Olympic sees this symbol, probably he/she won't be able to interpret the representation. As we can see, the level of abstraction is very high. After the users interpret the rings as the continents, they still have to refer the continents to the Olympics. Actually, there’s no connection between the continents and the Olympic games. But, this symbol still works as the Olympic logo. We interpret this symbol not because of referring the image to the Olympic, but sharing culture of the term and the logo. Understanding backgrounds of symbols is something essential to interpret the correct meaning. As he mentioned, "any specimen … can serve as a symbol, if somebody chooses to use it that way. But in such cases, the image leaves the effort of abstracting entirely to the user." (VD139) Although the five rings don’t remind the users of the continents or the Olympics, it still works; it still works as the official the Olympic symbol as long as somebody chose. This symbol is one of good examples of extension of referring. Other pictures contain the city of name where the Olympics will be held and the years. “the verbal name or slogan presented in commercial design, is identified by consumers more readily than the blandmark.” (VR 144) This theory is applicable for the Olympics symbol too. The combination of the city name, the year, and the five rings make us easily perceive that that it’s the Olympic symbol.

Arnheim, Rudolph. "Pictures, Symbols, and Signs." Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World (2004): 137-151

International Olympic Organization. 1 Jul 2008 .