Save The World!

For my Visual Literacy class we were grouped up and tasked to use a sheet of yellow stickers to "Save the World". We were given no guidelines other than that the stickers needed to be involved, and we were to save the world.

The freedom of choice we were given was overwhelming (to me at least) and it showed up in the variety of ideas that were produced by the class. Each group used their stickers for a very different purpose, yet each group threw their collective brainpower at a problem facing the world.

One group in particular stood out to me, not only as a good presentation, but as an idea I would like to see implemented in as many places as possible.

Mental Health

     Mental health is an issue many people are passionate about, yet it seems like hardly anyone wants to discuss it. The idea of this group was to introduce a system of color coded dots that people could wear. For example; a green dot means you are having a good day, while a yellow dot could signify that you are stressed or upset. While potential issues were discussed in class relating to the distribution of stickers/spreading awareness/etc. I believe that this would be a beneficial project to pursue.

     This system would be somewhat complicated to implement, but I believe it could be done. My strategy would be to approach it from social media, and try to start it there. I strongly believe that people feel strongly enough about the subject that a sufficient number of people would adopt the idea. I image piles of stickers (they're cheap!) in common areas of libraries, classrooms, etc. . If someone wants to participate, all it requires of them is picking up a sticker!

      Yes, some people would still hide how they were feeling. Yes, some people may react negatively. The conversation that would be started, however, is worth the small hiccups along the way. I would love to see this idea pursued and believe it could be spread and make a difference.

Minority Representation in Visual Media

The representation (or lack thereof) of women and ethnic and cultural minorities in media is a broad topic encompassing many different things. Any subsection could be taken and be written about at length, and to think that I would be able to adequately cover this topic in a brief blog post is not realistic. Instead of coming at the topic directly, I decided to do a little searching for what we actually mean when we talk about the "representation" of a group in media.

I found an article on the subject written by Maryann Erigha, Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at the University of Georgia. There is a free link to the article HERE if you would like to read it in its entirety. Erigha lays out three different types of representation of a group in media, and describes how they interact and what they would look like if they were all done well.

     

1. Numerical Representation
• How many people of a particular group are there? Does that proportion fall in line with that of the rest of the country?
• A report by the Screen Actor's Guild (2013) showed that white actors made up nearly 75% of all speaking roles, African American actors made up 14%, Latino actors 5%, and Asian Americans less than 4%. 
• While not every movie is required to have an equal distribution of people from different ethnic groups, the fact that the overall average leans so far in favor of one group is still definitely a problem.
2. Quality of Representation
• Another aspect of representation involves the quality. While different numbers of people can be met and all of the diversity boxes 'checked off', the way that a group is represented can still cause harm and strengthen stereotypes.
• For example......
• Was an African American actor/actress chosen because they play a role well, or were they chosen because the film needed an 'urban' character.
• Was a character made to be of Asian descent because they were involved in martial arts?
• Not all representation is good representation.
3. Centrality of Representation 
• Centrality of representation deals with how important (central) a group is to the industry.
• For example......
• 93 percent of Hollywood studio directors from the 6 largest film companies were white and male (Cieply 2009).
• A statistic like this shows the value (or lack of) that many companies/studios assign to people of different backgrounds. When there are so few people of varying groups in institutional positions, another barrier is created for people from those groups to become a part of them.

This blog post was a short overview of what representation in media is, and some of the issues people are facing. I highly recommend you read the article linked above, and do a little research on your own time. I'm confident that everyone can find something they'd like to know more about in a subject that deals with so many different things.

Reflection on the movie Crash

1. What do you feel is the message the director is trying to express in this movie?  Support your answer with examples.
1. I believe the director was trying to portray relations between various racial groups in the city. The movie follows the stories of a small group of people, nearly all belonging to different racial or ethnic groups. Wikipedia’s entry on the director (Paul Haggis) states that “Haggis said that he wrote Crash to ‘bust liberals’, arguing that his fellow liberals were not honest with themselves about the nature of race and racism because they believed that most racial problems had already been resolved in American society.”
2. If applicable, discuss if you think this movie has accurate depictions of minorities or if they are situational. Why or why not? Could certain groups of people be offended or misinterpret this movie? Why?
1. I feel like the movie portrayed the different groups in a somewhat stereotypical way, but in a weirdly fair way as each group was stereotyped roughly equally. That being said, just because it was done fairly doesn’t mean I think it was done well. I feel that people (of all races) that are easily offended may find problems here, but I don’t think there is anything overtly offensive in the movie. The film examines race relations, and naturally there will be some uncomfortable moments that come from that, but uncomfortable is different than offended.
3. Explain if you think the director’s ethnic/cultural/professional background played a role in directing this film?
1. Paul Haggis lives in California, and said that the movie was partially inspired by an experience he had having his car stolen. I don’t believe that his background played much of a role in his direction of the film. After reading a little bit about him it sounds like it was just a story he came up with and really fell in love with.
4. What kind of artistic and/or visual means did the director use in the movie to focus our attention?
1. Close up shots on important moments (ex: purchasing a gun), manipulation of music, and the locations of characters on the screen in some parts are different things I noticed throughout the film.

The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women - Jean Kilbourne

The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women - Jean Kilbourne

I likely never would have thought to click on this video had it not been part of an assignment for class, but after watching it I would recommend that everyone who has the opportunity watch it for themselves. While the video addresses the topic well, to me it served more as a springboard into the topic. What this video did very well was make me want to learn more, and dig deeper into the subject myself.

The video has many different and impactful things to say, but the portion that dealt with the sexualization of children was the most impactful part of the video for me. There aren’t any reasons to be producing high-heels for babies or padded bras for eight and nine-year-old children. 

Just because you CAN sell something to someone does not mean that you SHOULD. 

As a future teacher and hopefully parent, things like that just amaze me (and not in a good way). While the issues discussed are causing harm to people, they aren’t doing it in easily visible ways. Instead of causing harm directly to someone, trends in media and advertising are slowly chipping away at self-esteem and autonomy.

The issues discussed in the video clip apply to men as well, both directly and indirectly. Men are made to look larger or more masculine instead of thinner or more petite, but the idea is similar. In addition to that, I really liked the point brought up around the six-minute mark of the video. In addition to girls and women measuring themselves against increasingly unrealistic standards, men and boys view of the women in their lives is warped and distorted. This distortion of expectations (both physical and emotional) will potentially cause issues in relationships throughout the course of life.

Breaking Ice

Breaking Ice was a show I had the opportunity to attend for my visual literacy class. We went as a group during our class period because the show addressed topics that are seemingly more and more important every day. The description given on the poster reads, “A show about RACE, SEXUALITY, DISABILITY, GENDER and everything else we’re scared to talk about.”.

The show was built as a series of interactions between people that aren’t really sure how to interact with people that are different from them. Common stereotypes like ‘Asian people are good at math’ were addressed, and I thought it was a really cool platform for someone that actually has to deal with these stereotypes to be able to respond and educate the audience.

Toward the end of the show each actor/actress shared their own “I Am From” poem. The poems followed a simple format. Each line began “I am from”, and then was finished with an important place/location/feeling that built that person into who they are. The audience was then asked to group up and share our own versions of the poem, and that was my favorite part of the show by far. It gave me a chance to learn more about the people that were sitting with me, and also gave me a simple (yet surprisingly effective) tool to look at why I am the person I am.

Hidden Images

A lot of thought goes into a logo. While needing to be clear and easy to read, a logo also has to draw in the eye and grab attention. In addition to this, a good logo is one that is memorable and easily identifiable. The four images above are examples pulled from the website Twenty Two Words, and are just a small selection of many. I highly recommend taking a minute to follow the link and check out some more examples (there are multiple pages, the 'next page' button is a little difficult to find down near the bottom).

How many had you seen before?
How many were new?

A lot of messages/images are hidden in plain sight in logos we see very frequently but probably don't put much extra thought into. For example, we've all seen FedEx trucks driving around at some point in our lives, and most of us have probably never noticed the arrow formed by the "E" and "X" (All thanks to kerning, if you haven't go check out my post explaining what that is!). The designer of the logo, however, deliberately placed the arrow there, likely to symbolize speed or travel.




This is a link to some more popular logos that includes a paragraph or so for each that goes into a little depth about why it looks the way it does. My personal favorite is the old Northwest Airlines logo. It has since been changed, but former pilot Patrick Smith had this to say about it: "... quite simply was a work of genius. It was an 'N'; it was a 'W'; it was a compass pointing toward the northwest."



Can you see all three parts of the circular logo? It wasn't obvious to me at first glance but once I saw it, it instantly became my favorite logo design so far. The logo is simple, yet has layers underneath depending on how much thought you want to put into it. Why they changed this logo, I'll never understand.

Kinetic Typography

Kinetic typography is quite simply the combination of text and movement. The video embedded above is a great example of what kinetic typography is and some of the techniques used.

I'm sure that you've heard "a picture is worth a thousand words" in your life in some form or another. A picture speaks in such a powerful way because the image is presented to us in a more engaging manner than a block of text, and the human brain is able to process images nearly 60,000 times more quickly than text. To describe an image in a way that it could be reproduced based just on your written description could take thousands of words per picture, and sometimes a message needs to be communicated more quickly.

Kinetic typography uses movement and different organizations of letters and spacing to bridge the gap between text and images, making certain words/phrases more powerful through various techniques. Text can be flashed over music, slowly fade in/out, grow larger or darker, or any number of other techniques can be used to try and elicit an emotional response from the audience.

The following links contain the sources I used for background on this post and the video I used:
Images Speak Louder Than Words
General Information
Kinetic Typography Video Examples