Week 10 - Games & Avatar In The Information Age

Do you believe that you are cyborgian in nature?

Nowadays, with the era of globalisation, people are exposed to much more information than ever before. I like to call that "information flooding".  We are growing up in a world that is more different from our parent’s life than any generation before them. We are adjusting to a culture that our parents or grandparents do not understand. Technology has improved our standard of living in many ways and digital technologies, in particular have provided us with amazing opportunities.

Therefore, in consequences, people are now too relying on the technologies as it gives benefits to our life. Hence, we all are cyborg. Cyborg is part of human and part of machine. Yes, this maybe sound awkward to you, or you maybe thought that this only sci-fiction but actually in reality this is true. As stated by Case 2010), cyborg is an organism “to which exogenous components have been added for the purposes of adapting to new environments”.

However, it does not mean that we are robot cop or terminator. It means that in our everyday life that we are never missing using the computer or mobile phone or any other devices.  We are no longer control the machine, but the machine is control us. These technologies help us to travel faster, communicate differently. 

Well I admit that I am one of the cyborgian in nature. This is because my everyday life is full with this technology. There are 2 important things in my life, which is mobile phone & laptop. 

 

Seriously I cannot survive without both of it. Laptop is the tools for me to engage with other social networking such as Facebook or twitter to interact with my friends. I have spent more time with this social networking than spent time with my family. It saves times a lot rather than have to make an appointment again with my friends and think where we should meet up. Similar also with the cell phones, imagine it just lose one day only, for sure I going to be half insane without it. 

Technology is now replacing our body such as leg, hand, mouth, eye and so on. For example, if we want to purchase ticket, we are no longer to go to the counter at travel agency or airport. Now we are able to purchase it through online directly. See how this technology made our life easier.

Reference:

• Case, A. (2011). We are all cyborg. Retrieve on October 15, 2011 from 
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1KJAXM3xYA
• Robins, K. (2000). Cyberspace and the world we live in. In Bell, D. and Kennedy, B.M. (eds.), The cyber cultures 34 reader (pp.77--‐95). London: Routledge.

Week 9 - Cinema & Television

Cinema and television are high profile creative industries as well as and pervasive forms of popular entertainment and cultural expression within contemporary society. Cinema is life: it inspires, it entertains, and it gets you thinking. Cinema breaks your heart, again and again, but you keep coming back for more. While, television is a powerful medium for appealing to mass audiences; it reaches people regardless of age, sex, income, or educational level. In addition, television offers sight and sound, and it makes dramatic and lifelike representation people and the products.

Cinema and television actually give us the cultural literacy on it.  It gives the basic information that we need to know to carry on a logical conversation with most people we associate with. The more culturally literate you are, the more conversations you’re able to participate in with more people. According to Puttnam (1999) “screen literacy can help us achieve a better understanding of both the medium and the message”.

The influence of cinema & television shapes our concepts of who we are, what is important to us, and how we live our lives. This stated by Kermabon & Shahani (1991), “Television has accustomed the viewers to quick changes of perspective and identification of objects within the frame, transparently denotative of concrete things and events”. 

For example, the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on the TV shows.

Although it is to entertain people but it gives a negative/bad effect on the children. The children tend to follow their wrestler steps in wrestling with their brothers and anyone. The children want to be strong as their idol wrestler. I see thing happened on my little sister also, where she act wrestle with the pillow after watching that show.

While for me, I like watching Grey’s anatomy where it showed how our lives is very priceless. Where all the doctors are trying very hard in saving the people lives. 

And Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), where the staff analysis on surrounding environment also could improved my observation and analyse on my work.

Therefore, cinema & television could shape our identity, where the people aims or behaviour could change after watching some dramas or scene.

References:

• Kermabon, J. & Shahani, K. (1991). Ed. Cinema and television. India. Orient Longman Limited.
• Puttnam, D. (1999). Screen Literacy and Cultural Morality in the Digital Era. Retrieved on the October 2, 2011 from EbscoHost Website

Week 8 - Photography

How do captions and cutlines re-frame the meaning of an image?

Photography is a device for recording an image of an object on a light-sensitive surface; it is essentially light box with an aperture to admit light focused onto a sanitized film or plate.

Different people have different own motivations for taking pictures. Some is to capture things that have inspired them, to capture perspectives and moments others will miss. People mostly take, and keep, pictures of happy times. You take a photo to capture a present moment, and instantly it becomes a record the past.

Mostly, the aims of photograph for majority of people were mostly taking pictures to document their lives that later on could help us to recall back our experiences of our lives. This is because memory is impressionable, and as time goes the details become vanished, or changed.  And what we remember before may not actually the same as it before.

Photos are also as a tool of communication for us with the others to share our experiences or to capture and relive shared experiences. It allows understanding better the surrounding world and gives precious moment into everyday life. In other words, pictures help us memorize.  The pictures would allow us to go back and experience the feelings we had, and remember.

Last week, I have already told that every picture tells a story. Different person would have different perspective and interpretation when looking of an image. Therefore, with the help of writing caption on the picture, that would improve the people in understanding more what the image are trying to illustrate and create a meaning. A bit of explanation could shaped more their interpretation.

For example, the figure below, what do you expect?

Maybe some of you would think, there is a guy who shut the girl mouth with his hand. Maybe look like that guy is trying to kidnap the girl. Maybe the guy was hide from someone else, then girl is come across then the guy had to kidnap him and let her be as his ransom. Hence, there are many assumption of meaning towards the single image above. How about the image gives some caption and cutlines, such as “Ben Whishaw in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, based on a novel by Patrick Süskind (Europeanfilms)”? Then, it would be affect the reader or viewers mind on the story that are they create before this.

Therefore, text caption provides information that the photo cannot give. Although it is short but it is informative.

References:

• Malone, J. (1983). Read about photography. Grolier International, Inc.
• Photo captions & cutlines. Retrieve on October 2, 2011 from http://web.ku.edu/~edit/captions.html
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