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.