In class, we discussed Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," which is really the seminal work in well, understanding comics.  McCloud discusses just about every, and any aspect of comics that can be conceived, and our discussion on 'gutters' was interesting, as I hadn't read "Understanding Comics" in some ten years.

As an avid comics fan (buff?), I had always been told that Neal Adams was one of the genre-defining comics-book artists of his day (which happened to precede me by some 15 years).  As you can see in the examples to the right, his use of panel arrangement was completely "outside-the-box," to coin a phrase that came up in class.  That is not the interesting part, however.

What is interesting about the two examples presented here is that they do not conform to the most-often-used transition cited by McCloud, the "Action-to-Action."  Instead, these particular panels, and their arrangement, necessitate a "Moment-to-Moment" reading.  This is interesting, because there is no shortage of action in these panels.  And in McCloud's admittedly small sampling of Western comics, "Action-to-Action" panels dominate.

There is an underlying philosophy in the way stories are told, which is probably all the more exacerbated by the comics medium (65% "Action-to-Action!"), and it is the concept of agency.  McCloud touches on this a little bit in his book, but I prefer Lera Boroditsky's thought that Western (particularly American) readers are much more likely to "assign agency" when describing events.  "John hit Bob," as opposed to "Bob was hit by John."  Or "David broke the glass," as opposed to "the glass was broken." This way of constructing narratives and describing events comes out in our visual language as well, and those artists who break free of that paradigm (like Neal Adams) are to be commended.
0

Add a comment

Trap. The combination of the genres of trance and rap usually through sound mixing and editing, has become a staple of parties and festival shows. They share similar use of synth, heavy base and spoken words to create music.
When we talked in class about usability and the internet, it sounded like the conclusion as to what makes a usable website is simplicity. Creating a website to serve a very obvious purpose is the key to usability.
Every day we are faced with multiple typefaces: the good, the bad and the ugly. Some help us to read faster and more clearly, some to invoke a specific feeling or emotion, all the while persuading us to do something (or buy something).
... and how clashing implications continue to shape our reactions to these colors.

Depending on the region and cultural upbringing, one may have different connotations associated with the colors black, white, and red.
When talking about the ethics and rhetoric of data displays in class, I brought up the example of geographic information system (GIS) and their technique of interpolation.
"The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint" makes the assertion that:

The core ideas of teaching- explanation, reasoning, finding

things out, questioning, content, evidence, credible authority not patronizing

authoritarianism-are contrary to the cognitive style of PowerPoint.
When I first pulled out Tufte's packet on Power Point, it looked like one of the most boring texts on the planet. 30 pages on the style of Power Point? But as I read, I started to see his point and even found myself laughing at certain parts (talking about the “stupefied audience”).
Since media technology has advanced past the typewriter, the capabilities of visual, and eventually digital, rhetoric using images have grown exponentially. By appealing to different human attitudes and emotions, digital images have the ability of persuasion and gaining compliance alike.
Often referred to as graffiti, tagging, or more negatively as vandalism, street-art has been around for 40ish years as it was birthed in the 70 but only gained a real popularity in the mid-80’s.
Blog Archive
Loading
Dynamic Views theme. Powered by Blogger. Report Abuse.