Piracy and Tinkering

The beginning of the reading brought about a point that text constructs meaning and that is why kids are taught how to write. If this is true then why was oral literacy proficient to constructing meaning as well, it is also noted that if a person cannot read then they are illiterate but I think that only makes them illiterate for reading only because a person could have profound knowledge in any topic or activity and could probably outperform anyone who learn those activities through reading.  I also think that text is not the only way for construct meaning; this is because with the presence of the radio, video, and TV, any person can construct meaning on what is happening through hearing only, especially when something drastic happens such as 9/11.

I also like how the reader expresses that anyone can be a tinker now days, as in mess and innovate new creations out of anything through the internet as well in real life. But when the topic of piracy comes into play, it represents how there are many laws that protects things such as music and films and how other laws are ignored for things like TV broadcasting and radio plays of music. I also think that while there are laws and because people are “tinkering” more than ever on the internet, there is probably a higher risk of things getting pirated. Especially when the laws only apply mainly for the USA, because places like China are known to take things and create a cheaper and exact same version of our products for use in their country. Also, when movies are released first abroad, it is easier for someone to easily record the film and release it on the internet as well as creating bootlegs. There are even sites that also promote tv series and movies to be free to the public such as projet-free-tv.com.

POL reading 183-200

Photographs modernized the way people saw the world starting in the 19^th century.  The book also says that the photograph emerged along with science and advanced medicine, but maybe photography influenced advance medicine as well as science. I think this could be so because maybe someone photographed a sickness which then influenced a scientist to further develop a treatment for the sicknesses. Photography was also probably used as surveillance and therefore could have also influence the development of other technologies such as the internet to communicate with one another. It would be to no doubt that photography would influence movies. This is because cinema added the elements of movements and sound to photography since film is basically pictures moving at a fast frame rate. As for the reproduction of art section of the reading, I was reminded of the Dada art movement because in Dada, images or things that already existed would be reused to different forms to send messages.

Lets Blog About Horror Games

I personally do not own a computer that would handle any game play so I like to watch YouTube gamers play games to try to make up for the fact that i can not play the games personally.

One game play demo scared me though, the game is called Silent Hill P.T and the demo is played by the YouTube #1 gamer, Pewdiepie. The demo shows how far we are going with gaming graphics and I personally think it is awesome, as a viewer, to watch these things happen. The graphics are not too real and not to fake and really gets you the feel of the creepiness that is happening while you are stuck in the endless loop. It seems like you are also playing the guy who murdered his family and you are reliving what you have done to your family.

While this might not seem scary to others, I watch these videos around night time to midnight with headphones on all alone in the dark to make the experience better.

Here is the video to the demo and it makes me want to invest into a new gaming console to experience the the generation of graphics and interactivity of digital media gaming.

POL 49-62 Viewers Make Meaning

This week reading focuses on how a viewer interprets meanings. Mainly what I got from the reading is that depending on the viewers upbringings, their codes and conventions will vary how things are interpreted by them. While the producer of images and other work of art might have a specific objective of meaning in mind when they created their master piece, the viewer might not always view what the artist made with the same interpretation in mind. Some might even hate what is being viewed depending on what taste the person has, meaning what they like in film, art, food, and many other things. Tastes vary person to person because depending on their social class the viewer could have been raised to like different things. For example, high class people might be use to high quality food, entertainment, and activities while a low class would be use to average food as well as TV shows and movies and regular sports. An average person cannot afford to do figure skating or horseback riding or even sailing and gliding because that is of expensive taste in activities.

Maybe this is why the value in art may seen outstanding to certain classes since ownership is key to the value of the art. For example the blue painting with white line (by Barnett Newman) was sold for about $44 million and maybe someone of a higher class statues viewed the art as exquisite but to an average joe, like me, would probably say "why the heck would you spend so much on an art that you could draw yourself."

The Painting that was sold for $44 Million

Manga Data Bases, comic style learning.

To be honest, reading the Database descriptions in the manga comic style reminded me of trying to figure out the stupid data book when I worked in retail. This is because the comic tries to simplify the way you make databases through a chart to figure things out fast, and it uses the retail grocery setting as an example. While the data is suppose to help the cashier quickly find the price of items, I got confused on how things are recorded and joined from other data to become one data. This also confused me in a real setting of looking at a book to figure out what a specific type of jacket would cost, because where i worked, you would have to go to the outdoor wear tab then go on the chart to find either adult or kids, then scan the chart to either men or women, then scan again for either workout, heavy, medium, or light wear. Then if the jacket was of brand name, if you even knew the brand names, then you would repeat the process on another page the chart tells you to go to in order to figure out what the brand and style of jacket would cost. Overall it was nice to read a description in manga style, but reading about databases in chart style just made me confused and took me to the time when I worked in retail.

Free Culture 7-30

Free Culture, Lissig 7-30

While reading the preface and introduction of the Free Culture PDF, the overall of what was said, that I understood,  is that when new technology comes forth, laws would be made in order to protect business or the way products are used when something new is made that is meant to be life changing and forthcoming. The example though of the invention of the airplane,  I can relate to the man who found a little annoyance military aircraft flying over their home. this is because where I live the united states naval airplanes make routine practices making rounds and flying really low to land at the airport in repeat for about an hour or so, and each time the plane passes low, the house shakes like a mini earthquake. This also is really annoying when they happen to do the routine around 9pm, but at the same time I am in awe of planes because aircraft is a little fascination of mine, therefore I do not really bother and can think of the house shaking as a sign that the house is really stable. From a computer and society class, I can also understand how some laws are made when new technology are Developed , especially when things are made for the consumer and not military.  For example, there are more laws for books because they are the oldest form of media and there are less laws for computer and internet laws because they are new and when new laws are made, new advances to technology are already made, making the laws no longer fitting to the technology they are protecting.

Meanings of Images

The reading from pages 26-46, in Practices of Looking, generally talked about how the meaning of images are interpreted through conventions. Meaning that meanings of images and symbols have to be taught and learned in order for a person to incorporate some type of meaning. This could defiantly correspond to the knowledge we have on big corporate logos and brands, such as the yellow M for McDonald's, and the Apple for apple products such as macs and iPods. The same goes for signs such as road signs because road signs are universally the same in image therefore if one was to travel to Europe from America. The stop sign will be red and in octagon shape even though the words might be different in language. 
The reading then goes on to explain about icons, symbols, and indexes. Admittedly, I have and still have confusion about the differences between these three contents of signs, even if I have learned the difference from a sociology class last spring, but to try to make it seem more sense to me, I try to use the example of a fast food chain restaurant to help me out.  For example Burger King, when you drive down a road you see a burger sign, the index of the sign is its presence and the icon is that it is a burger therefore you can get something to eat there, the sign is also conventional because, as an American, you were probably taught the meaning that the burger king sign means that burger king is close so you can go get yourself a burger which makes it symbolic because it establishes a meaning to you.
Besides fast food chains, iconic images, as from the reading, can also have a great symbolic meaning. And an example of this that I can think of is the Vietnam war photo Napalm Girl. It shows a little girl naked because a napalm bomb was accidentally dropped on a town of civilians and it shows her and other kids running but she had to take off her clothes to stop the burning sensation. The image then became an icon as a peace message because it shows that innocents were being harmed.

POL Representation and Realism

In the week 2  reading, Practices of Looking, the topics of Representation and Realism were covered. Whiles reading the pages about representation though about how images of violence attracts attention as well as using language and images to create meanings about what is happening in the world, I could not help but to think about the incident and riots that happened in Ferguson Missouri a few weeks ago. The incidents were triggered when a white police officer shot a black teen who apparently stole from a gas station. Without much other information, the images sent through social media and eventually the media was police brutality and the overwhelming force they have when dealing with riots. This brings up another topic from the book that talks about the myth of photography in which images can tell certain different truths. Images from the riots shown that a McDonald was looted but another image taking from  the looters was released showing that they took the milk from the restaurant in order to help out the tear gas victims. Therefore this helped showed different truths that an image could have depending on the perspective the photographs were taken.  Representation also attracts to Realism because realism tries to capture the accurate truths and meanings of people, objects, and events while representation can contribute depending on the point of view that has been capture on film, art, or images.