McLuhan's Theory (Facebook timeline)

The medium is the message


Facebook timeline is the medium which allows people from all over the world connect to each other by sharing information.While the message is the information provided in the user's timeline, which allow other people to to see it.

Facebook timeline is the latest Facebook profile.The main feature of timeline is to sum up the story of our life since birth through photos, relationship and personal milestone which works like a personal digital diary.
The design of the timeline's milestone is in zig-zag style, from left to right unlike the previous version which is straight down.

Users are able to see the others general interest on their profile page, thus they can be friends to share their common interest.The size of the picture is shown much bigger compared to the previous version which will allow the users to see clearly and easily. Besides that, timeline allows users to edit their milestone by adding or deleting their post to show more stories of their life or to prevent embarrassing moment. Overall, timeline has more visual on the profile page compared to the older version of user's profile page. Therefore, the message of the timeline is to show more personal information of user to the others, in order to connect and know more about the person. Facebook has improve the profile page to to make it easy for the people from all around the world to make friends.The cover of the timeline also act as a canvas to allow the users to express their creativity.

It has cover page to allow the users to express themselves and having fun from it.

source: http://fiverr.com/dsynitcreative/design-fb-cover

           http://email-junk.com/photo/cool-facebook-timeline-cover.html

           http://designbomb.blogspot.com/2012/02/facebook-timeline-design-using-jquery.html

           http://mashable.com/2011/09/27/facebook-timeline-pages/

Parodies

Apple is known for their simple design and yet pricey products, many parodies has been made since, including cartoon show.
Here is the an episode form Futurama, making parody of iPhone.

There are some resemblance between the Apple logo and the Mom logo from Futurama to make it recognizable for audience to identify they are just the ripoff of the Apple.

Moreover, there is also a resemblance between the Apple genius and the Mom employee, both wearing a tag and plain t-shirt.

Besides that, Siri has become a huge hit since it released in iPhone 4S. Siri is an artificial intelligent personal assistant which works as an application for Apple's iOS.I came across this parody video of Siri while I was surfing through YouTube, its pretty funny:)

          

 

Realism

Realism- Close resemblance to what is real; fidelity of representation, rendering the precise details of  the real thing or scene. (Oxford English Dictionary online)

What I understand from Plato's Allegory of Cave is people only believe in what they see and think is real. The prisoners in the cave think the shadow cast by the puppeteer is real until the moment one of the prisoners escape from the cave, then he only see the truth and got enlighten. For example, religion, believers live in their own world and believe on the things written on the bible,perceive it as reality without knowing the real truth. Believers believe that humans are created by God because its written on the bible and without any concrete evidence whereby according to Darwin's theory of evolution humans evolve from primate species because we share similar DNA. The point is things happen for a reason with logic. Darwin is like the escaped prisoner who found enlightenment and come back to the cave, tell his friends(believers) about the truth and no one believe him. People only believe things on what they are told or seen and perceive it as reality without really exploring or seeking the truth. [no offence]

These wax figures from Madame Tussauds house of wax have very high resemblance to the real person, some are so real that is kind of creepy because its difficult to differentiate which one the real and the fake one just like the picture below.This kind of condition falls into the uncanny valley, the figures looks like its alive but its not.People suspend their disbelief in order to entertain themselves, even they know it's just a wax figure they willing to spend money to check them out and get 'close' with their idol.

Here is another example that falls into uncanny valley.These are some hyperrealistic hand-drawn pictures by Paul Cadden using pencil only. The pictures below look like they have been captured on camera. I don't believe it the first time I saw the picture until I was told all of the pictures were drawn by hand.

source (images):
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2115297/Paul-Cadden-The-hyperrealist-artist-recreating-photographs-pencil.html

http://iran-paya.org/%D9%85%D8%AC%D8%B3%D9%85%D9%87-%D9%85%D9%88%D9%85%DB%8C-%D8%B2%D9%88%D8%AC-%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%B7%D9%86%D8%AA%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D9%86%DA%AF%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C/

Chinese Opera Mask

This is my first website done for my assignment. Although my website is not very good and still need a lot of improvement but I will try my best next time.
http://www.shireenpeh.com/

This website has given me a lot of tough times during coding because I am very familiar with the software. It is not as simple as I thought it would be, I never realised a simple website needed so many coding. When I was given the topic for the website which was digital heritage website, I instantly thought of Chinese opera because I never seen a Malaysia Chinese opera before because they are so rare and I only saw it appeared on Hong Kong television drama. Chinese opera has always fascinates me with its singing and acrobatic stunts, but what really fascinates me is the opera masks. The masks are so colourful and yet mysterious.

I never knew there was an association for Chinese opera existed in Malaysia and I found one, it's called Kuantan Chinese Opera Association.
http://www.mana.my/heritage-of-malaysia-empowering-the-artistic-heritage-of-chinese-opera/

Back into dynastic periods, Chinese opera were performed exclusively for the emperor as an entertainment, but as time goes by Chinese opera are now open for public. Besides that, they also perform during the lunar seventh month Chinese Ghost Festival as a form of entertainment to the spirits and audience. These masks were based on the ancient face painting tradition where warriors decorated themselves to scare the enemy.

Moreover, I found that different colour of the mask stands for different meaning and characters because I always thought those patterns and colour were just for decoration until I had done my research.

Blue- staunchness and fierceness

Red- devotion and courage

Purple- uprightness and sophistication

Green- impulsive and violent

Black- roughness and fierceness

Yellow- ambitious and cool-headedness

White- sinisterness and treacherousness


The colour of the masks can be related to semiotics, for example:
signifier- colour of the mask
signified- characteristic of the mask
Therefore, the colour of the mask let the audience know what kind of characteristic is it.

I think we need to preserve our cultural heritage in order to pass it down to the next generation, but now it seems that less and less youngsters are willing to involve themselves in traditional activities which is kind of depressing to look at.

Redundancy and Entropy

Redundancy - something common and predictable
Entropy - something new and unpredictable

An obvious example would be the difference between Pixar and Dreamworks which both are animation studio.

Pixar is known for their heartwarming stories and often comes out new idea which are rarely seen on any other animation film. Their story are meaningful and contain depth and they are able to make a connection between the characters in the movie and audience. Their moral of the story are able to impact on people's life like Wall-E, teaching people to appreciate Earth resources. Most of their stories are out of the box which make it memorable for people. I can still remember clearly the whole story of Toy Story which is one of my favourite animated films of all time because it made me believe toys are alive when i first saw the movie. Besides that, I can even watch Pixar movies over and over again without getting bored. Pixar films rarely get sequels except for Toy Story and Cars unlike Dreamworks. Moreover, Pixar only release one film annually which they have more time to produce higher quality of work compared to Dreamworks.

In contrast of Pixar, Dreamworks's films are more lighthearted compared to Pixar's film which contain more drama and touching moment. Dreamworks release at least two movies annually, which can become a little bit overwhelming and tired of their presence because most of the stories are based on story book and pretty much predictable just by looking at their trailers or posters.Their movies has become a norm, content is not fresh enough because most of their characters are based on animals, featuring celebrities as the voice for the characters. Moreover, Dreamworks keep making movies with sequels, making their franchise boring like Shrek. Their moral and message of the story are lack of depth and I've noticed their moral of the story in the movies are mostly just based on friendship. Even though their stories and characters are not original enough, however there is one thing that can make Dreamworks stands out from Pixar is their humor and satire, their stories contain more laughter compared to Pixar.

Each of them has their own uniqueness, but what I think the most important in animation film is the content and the message. Overall, I think people need to keep reinventing themselves in order to produce fresh idea.






source: http://www.eatliver.com/i.php?n=4175

McLuhan's theory

"The medium is the message"  said Marshall McLuhan.
medium- an extension of human mind or body
message- the idea of information, content, news delivered

In McLuhan's terms the message of a medium not its content, but its effect or impact on our lives, our ways of thinking, our social relations.

One of the examples is an episode from Mad Men series. Mad Men is television drama about a creative director works in a advertising agency set in 1960's in America.

In this part of the episode when he was trying to sell his idea of a slide projector advertisement to his client, he explained to his client that consumers need to have a sentimental bond towards a product in order to sell the product. Therefore, nostalgia is one of the feelings people can relate to, delicate but potent.

At one part he mentioned that the Carousel is like a time machine, it can go forward and backward. I think what he means is we are able to look back into the past and  go forward as in to see the progress of what we are and achieved in the present day.His message is trying to make an impact on people's life, make them think about the sweet and sad memory they shared their loved ones.

The slides is like a collected memory that will make us feel nostalgia instead, take us to a place we ache to go again. Moreover, he said the Carousel travels like a kid travels, go round and a round and back to home again, a place we love. I think what he is trying to say is slide projector is not only for presentation only which were mainly for office use but also for people to use in their house, share with their family and friends. He changed the name of the wheel into the Carousel to make it sound more interesting and family friendly.

The medium in the video is the Carousel, the slide projector while nostalgia is the message Carousel carries in it, a memory when they look at the slides. The main purpose was to let people feel nostalgia when they look at the slides. From this video, I've learn that old product can be change into something new and fresh just by changing its 'message'.

To me, I think he presentation in this part of the episode is quite impactful and meaningful. The mood and music are well put together to project a sentimental feeling towards the audience.

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRDUFpsHus

Semiotics

From what I had learned in my media history and culture class, semiotics is the study of sign. A sign that signify something.
Wolverine has been one of my favourite comic superheroes, there are few examples that can relate to semiotics.


From arbitrary to iconic
Without seeing the picture or real photo, we can't tell whether 'Wolverine' stands for the animal itself or the comic book superhero.

Iconic

           
                Arbitrary                                                                                                              


Wolverine is known for his near indestructible adamatium claws from his hand

Denotation- Wolverine's claws coming out from his hand with a sound effect, 'SNIKT !'

Connotation- He is ready to fight and the fight will be very nasty and violent

Myth - His powerful adamatium claws that can cut through almost everything.



Binary Opposition
There is always will be a villain in every superhero comic in order to show the binary opposition among the characters and to make the story interesting as well. For instance, the picture below shows Wolverine(hero) fighting with Sabretooth (villain), Wolverine's long time arch enemy.

Here is an interesting poster that I found online when I was searching for some inspiration for my poster design assignment. This poster is design by Olly Moss, a graphic designer.

As you can see there are two batman face in Wolverine's face. I found this design very simple and yet creative in putting an image within an image.
Since I saw this poster I started to notice a lot of batman in wolverine comics.


source(images):

http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/marvel-pinball/91941-marvel-pinball-trophy-guide.html

http://www.tvsinopse.kinghost.net/w/wolverine1.htm

http://www.reelfilmnews.com/2011/10/30/mangold-reveals-tidbits-regarding-wolverine-sequel/x-men-origins-wolverine-hugh-jackman-as-wolverine/

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fan_fic/news/?a=54620

http://marvelvs.tumblr.com/post/28587717122/dientes-de-sable-vs-wolverine

http://www.ollymoss.com/galleries/posters

Cultural Talk

During the study break,my classmates and I attended a cultural talk led by Shao Hong SER. Surprisingly the talk was not as boring as i expected, it turns out quite entertaining. He started to define what is culture, culture is the way of life for an entire society. For instance, if someone or even celebrities started to have a tribal tattoo on their neck, others will start to follow the person and eventually turn into a culture.
Besides that, he also mentioned that there are 3 cultural levels which were:
-Physical [Material culture]
-Social [Behaviour culture]
-Spiritual [Ideal culture]

Moreover, there are 4 steps before designing a product
1) investigation (setting a scenario, research)
2) interaction (telling a story)
3) development (writing a script, sketches)
4) implementation (designing)

These steps will help us a lot for designing a product, allow us to create a much meaningful and worthy product. If we do not follow one of these steps, things might go wrong. For example, Shao Hong has mentioned that was a controversy involved in the design of the limited edition Nike Air Force 1 in Thailand.

Besides having the the flag of Thailand and the royal patterns on the shoes which were consider to be disrespectful for the Thais. The main issue of the design of the shoes was the symbol of the holy spirit(only for the King of Thailand) on the back of the shoes, which was very offensive and disrespectful to the King of Thailand. As a result the shoes were ban in the country
When the designer of the shoe was asked why did he design in such way, he/she then replied that he thought the symbol looked cool and interesting when he/she first saw that symbol in a temple in Thailand. The designer who designed the shoes simply put the things he/she liked without doing any research about the meaning of the symbol and the culture of Thailand, which will eventually create a backlash from the society.
The lesson of the day was always do research on the subject before taking any action.

Ouya

While I was doing research for my essay topic which is about video games. I found this interesting website about a new $99 Android-based video game console called Ouya ("ooh-yuh") that will challenge the way Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have been bringing games to us on our television for years. Ouya is a a new game console for television which is powered by Android. It is a fully hackable console,  a system that is being pitched as a platform for both indies and big companies. 
Ouya is a console that is fully open to develop for and on which every game will be free either initially as a demo or as a free-to-play game. This console will only be made through crowd funding, their goal is to raise $950,00. They promise that Ouya will be released in March, 2013 is they hit their goal.

Although the name of the brand sounds weird but it does look promising enough, it's going to bring the game industry to a whole new level. People are able to hack the console without violating any rules. It will be great for those indie game developer to release and sell their games. Everyone are able to afford this console which only cost $99, a gaming system with a modest amount of horsepower behind it. 

Source:
 - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console
- http://kotaku.com/5924657/an-all+star-plan-to-build-a-new-99-hackable-video-game-console-requires-950000-of-your-money



         

Intertextuality

Based on my understanding, intertextuality is a complex interrelationship between a text and other texts taken as basic to the creation or interpretation of the text. Intertextuality tends to be distinguished from mere plagiarism through its sense of creative 'ownership', which kind of means nothing is original. People tends to get inspiration from each other. There are two types of intertextuality which are unconscious and (self-)conscious.

Nowadays more and more books are being adapted into live action movie like Harry Potter, Twilight,etc.. especially superhero comic books. One of the movie that can be related to intertextuality is the amazing spider-man that I've watched with my family recently. This movie is the reboot of the original spider-man movie franchise directed by Sam Raimi.I can't believe its already been 10 years since the first spider-man movie released in 2002. Although the movie has the same concept but it has improved the plot of the movie which is based more on the original comic itself compared to the first spider-man movie.

Both of the poster design are quite similar, but the design of the costume has changed to avoid confusion

Since this movie is pretty much based the comic, web shooters and the lizard are reinterpret from the comic into the movie with more realistic and scientific explaination.  

Spider-man is not the only movie that has remake, films like james bond, batman,etc. Although the film is remake of the original series which is kind of unnecessary and yet people are still going to watch the movie and make millions dollars out of it. Maybe the reason people keep coming back to watch these movies is to see the improvements with new cast, adventure and CGI effects,as long as the content of the film is fresh. While the movie focus much more on the peter parker's life, the entire film is just an interpretation from the comic book. The comic book and the original series act as an inspiration source for the remake of spider-man. In a nutshell, nothing is original.


source(image):

http://fs6boys.weebly.com/the-amazing-spider-man.html

http://tu-cine.com/spider-man-spiderman.html

http://listas.20minutos.es/lista/spiderman-personajes-321464/

http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/Curtis_Connors

http://comicscreen.blogspot.com/2011/01/spider-man-aura-des-lance-toiles.html

http://cine-maravillas.blogspot.com/2012/06/proximamente.html

Rough Magic

Rough Magic


When I first read the article written by Ivan Philips, I totally had no idea what is he talking about. I had to read for several times then only I can understand the general meaning of rough magic. I had learnt that media, history and  culture were connected to each other. Since I am taking degree in interactive media design which involve media, therefore these principles are pretty essential as they can be applied on my future assignments. Rough magic is the ability to control and metaphor for the products of culture.

One word that really confused me is 'culture' because from what my high school teacher taught me, the meaning of culture is custom or belief. Instead of consists of one meaning, there are tons of meanings written in this article. I never knew there were so many meaning in one simple word. Culture also mean civilisation , pop culture, nature, conservative, growing things and much more. Apparently, according to a quoted statement by T.S Eliot in the article, today's standard of culture has retrograde.

However I agreed with Brian Sewell's statement that there are no highness or lowness in culture, in fact it is just a sign of cultural laziness. I think that every generation has its own culture, especially in 21st century where latest technology and infrastructure are provided anywhere and any time, everyone is using  media.For instance, nowadays most of the people use digital painting instead of old traditional paintbrush painting. The result of digital painting not only can be paint as well as the traditional one but also convenient and less time consuming, the only difference of the digital and the traditional is the craftsmanship.

Overall we need rough magic as a tool to create culture