Friday, September 4, 2009
Greetings
What a wonderful Fall morning it is. To recap, by this Tuesday you should post your first comment on the class blog. The comment should respond to one or more of the questions about an image from chapter one that you discussed with fellow students in class on Thursday. You recall that the questions asked you to think about the message that the image was sending and to consider how the image conveyed that message. You discussed the structure of the image; what you observe and/or infer from looking at the image; what metaphors does the image employ; and then reflect on what the larger message of the image seems to be. In your blog comment try to focus on articulating what the larger message seems to be and how any of the other elements such as structure, observation, inference, or metaphor help build that meaning. But most importantly, just try this out, relax and I hope that it works well for you the first time. If you have difficulties with the mechanics of posting a comment, we will address them on Tuesday. 'Til then, all the best
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My group discussed the Nike shoe ad on page 60. We observed from the advertisement that the upside down foot was displaying the shoe not only as a pedestal, but also it showed that the shoe fits perfectly because the foot and shoe were exactly the same length. Another observation made was that the statement underneath the photo was a play on words, instead of saying "word of mouth" the ad said "word of foot". The last thing we noticed was that the foot looked young, so one can infer that the advertisement was directed towards the youth.
ReplyDeleteKeehn, Melissa
We discussed the nike ad one page 60. The ad is a foot holding up a nike sneaker. The foot posses as a pedastal to the sneaker. The shoe also seems to fit the foot perfectly making the sneaker seem the perfect choice of shoe. The caption underneath the picture reads "made famous by word of food advertising" the sneaker speaks for itself, people will want to buy hte shoe after seeing others running in it.
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ReplyDeleteMy group discussed the picture, “Mom Ironing” on page 64. It is easily seen in this picture that the house is very messy; clothes are everywhere and the house has little sunlight. The mother who is ironing appears to be very unhappy. My group inferred that she is abused and under appreciated. This mother is obviously shown no sympathy by the young woman in the picture sitting in the chair. This young woman, who we assumed to be the mother’s daughter, is biting her nails, drinking out of a red cup and seems to be in a daze. The family also appears to be poor. Judging by the grape soda bottle with the Windex cap shows that they don’t have enough money to buy new bottles. My group also inferred from the repetitive colors of blue throughout the house, that the mood of the picture is to be sad and depressing. The message of this photo is that sometimes mothers are under appreciated, over worked, and abused. Mothers are sometimes expected to take care of the family and the house and the laundry, and in this picture it shows that this mom is definitely fulfilling her role.
ReplyDeleteMy group discussed the picture on page 58 of the web page. You can see on this page that the layout is of the Yahoo! web browser. In the search engine is the name of an artist, Richard Estes. We inferred that the web has opened up a giant door to finding people through the web along with personal information of them. The web page also has several advertisements on the right with information regarding Mr. Estes and artwork. The links from the search results show enough information about Richard Estes and how good of an artist he is. This image is a small representation of how broad the web can be and how useful it can be to anyone who needs some more knowledge on a specific issue.
ReplyDeleteMy group discussed the image on page 60 of the Nike shoe. This advertisement of the shoe is simple, but it sends a strong message about the shoe itself. The foot is balancing the shoe like a pedestal, and it is the same length as the foot. This demonstrates that the shoe is fitting for the foot below. Also, our group discussed that instead of the saying being "word of mouth", it states "word of foot". This clever saying catches peoples' eyes, which results the consumer to be more eager to by the shoe. There's a short paragraph describing the shoe, stating that the shoe is meant for "serious runners". A consumer may think they want to buy it because it is what the "serious" runners are wearing.
ReplyDeleteMy group discussed the Basement Carpet on page 34. Without the caption we wouldn't have known it was a carpet. It looks like a sky view of a forest. It seems as if autumn has begun and the leaves on the trees have lost their green tint. Once you read the title and are suprised by what the photo actually is, different thoughts come to mind. The carpet seems old and worn. The colors on the carpet have faded in some spots. This adds to the deception when attempting to decipher what the photo is taken of.
ReplyDeleteThere are a myriad of observations, inferences, and patterns that can be made from the image found on page 28. Some observations that can be seen from this image is there are many flowers and vases all over the kitchen. In addition the home seems to be an older home not a modern home, maybe a home of grandparents. A pattern that can be seen in this picture is a geometric repetition of rectangles. There are also many pictures of children and pictures that children drew; something that can be inferred from this observation is that those who live in this house are very family-oriented people. The dog that is seen at the bottom of the picture adds to the cozy and warm feeling the picture conveys. There is no metaphor that can be seen in the picture it is very literal.
ReplyDeleteI, along with my group members, chose to observe and draw inferences from the picture titled "Bedtime Prayer" on pages 82-83. The first thing we noticed was that there are obvious religious references. The three people, whom we inferred to be a mother, father, and daughter, are joined in silent prayer. Also, angelic dolls can be seen from the shelves of the bedroom. However, what caught my eye the most in this picture was the poster behind the girl. In this poster, a kitten is dreaming of becoming a tiger, and the phrase "Dream Big!" is displayed. Not only does this suggest that the girl has an interest in cats, but it suggests that the girl wishes to dream big. We suspected her dream to be one of becoming a cheerleader. This inference was made from noticing the pillow behind the girl which reads "I ♥ to Cheer!"
ReplyDelete-Scott Schneider
I decided to blog about the picture on pgs 74-75. The image depicts a baseball team kneeling in a circle with there heads, as if praying. If they are praying they are most likely praying for a victory. which make me think how funny it is that when people actually think of "god" most of the time, it's when they need something or are asking for something. And the practice that the people in the image is true in all sports and most people.
ReplyDelete(Perla Espinosa)
Our group chose "Jone's Sun Room" which appears on page 30 of the book. This photograph depicts a small, non descript room cluttered with and assortment of odds and ends. There are a multitude of bags, as well as a can of Dirtex, a roll of tape, a bottle of cleaning spray, a bucket, etc. The focal point of this picture is obviously the light, which seems to be coming out of a window on the right end of the room (due to the thin shadows reflected onto some of the objects, it's shape resembling the panes on a window). There is a minor theme of open tops, as can be seen on the bucket, the Coke box, as well as the brown paper bag. The overall theme of this photograph seems to be linked to divinity though. There is something about the positioning of the light that gives the picture a major religous undertone. The objects towards the right of the photo are erect and free standing, cast in an almost cathedral like glow, while all of the items to the left and in the shadow seem to be dark in color as well as sinking/drooping towards the ground. I could be wrong, but it is an interesting idea to consider.
ReplyDeleteDouglas Capraro
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ReplyDeleteMy group discussed the picture from page 34 called "Basement Carpet." At first we thought the picture was showing a forest with little pathways in between the trees viwed from the sky.Because of the different types of oranges, yellows and reds we deduced that it was Fall. After we read the name of the picture and we realized it was a carpet, we were able to see the picture from a different perspective. Now picturing the carpet in our minds, we were able to see its soft texture and its pale colors. It looked dirty and had little patches in between. Things are not always what they look like. We saw two different things represented by this picture, from one perspective it looked like one thing (forest)but it looked totally different(carpet) from the other.
ReplyDeleteMy group viewed the picture on page 82. The picture was of a young girl and what we thought to be her parents on the girls bed. It can be inferred that it is night and that they have joined together in a nightly prayer. There is a religious reference to the picture. This can be inferred through the prayer and the angel dolls above the young girl's bed.
ReplyDeleteThe group i was a part of chose the family picture with the kittens in the background on page 82-83. Some of the observations we made were a tea party, kitten, tiger, teddy bear, and cheerleading. We inferred that the little girl was a cheerleader and that those were her parents. We also inferred that it was night time and that the family had some religious beliefs. We believe that the little girl is represented by the kitten in the picture posted up on the wall. She wants to become the tiger. This can mean that she wants to accomplish big things for herself maybe as a cheerleader. I thank my fellow classmate Scott for choosing this photo with the kitten. It turned out to be very interesting and had a lot of meaning to it.
ReplyDelete-George Nikolis
My group and I discussed the imaged on page 34, “Basement Carpet”, by Roe Ethridge. If we take a first glance at this picture, we perceive different interpretations of what the picture is and what it is trying to express to us. When my group viewed the picture, our thoughts varied in different directions. These thoughts ranged from the image being a forest in the middle of the fall season to being a part of a coral reef under the water. Without the captions, there is an unlimited amount of interpretations that can be pulled out from this one picture. Once we established that the picture was of a carpet, we questioned who, what, when, where and what to figure out what the picture might be expressing to us. The angle, colors, shading and lines all give off the idea that it is a dirty and used carpet. Therefore I begin to go beyond the carpet, by thinking about what or who caused this carpet to become this way. This one simple, yet complex image, leads people in different thought paths, which shows the power of this picture and many other pictures.
ReplyDeleteMy group discussed the Basement Carpet on page 34. we guessed the leaves falled in the floor by the wind in fall.Then the color has begun to become lighter through the time.When we saw the title"carpet",we thought the carpet has been used for a long time.Because there were some cracks in the carpet.It tell us the carpet was old and dirty.This image give us a variety of imagination.
ReplyDeleteWe viewed the picture on page 57 which was structured as a web page. The page had a search box on Yahoo! as do many sites such as Google, Ask Jeeves, etc. We viewed this as a negative because by simply typing in someones name, such as Richard Estes, one can find out their address, phone, and age by simply typing in their first and last name. We observed that person is trying to be found and inferred that a different person is trying to find out details of another persons life. For example, facebook is another type of search engine which can lead to identity loss or identity theft because by typing in someones name, all their personal information is on the screen for millions to see, and perhaps hack. (see attached article)
ReplyDeletehttp://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/01/post-1.html
In addition, one of the links were charging $9.95 to find out details about Estes' life...ludicrous! They were trying to make finding out information about someones life a money making business!
My group and i took a look at the picture on page 25. We noticed a couple of thing in the picture such as the rundown building, the graves on the sidewalk, the painting of the man on the building, the phrase on the building and violent pictures on the building. We realised there was a very depressing and gloomy mood in the picture. It looked like an area were there had been many killings and murders done. We also inferred that the man on the building could have been a hero who died for a certain cause.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite place in nature wouldn’t seem to be what it is at first glance. Walking down feet in the sand, stepping onto a dock that is falling apart, looking into mucky water –my first instinct is to turn the other way because this is just to gross. Instead though I stayed. I sat down in the kayak and paddled my way out into the middle of the lake. My arms are exhausted by the time I stop in the middle of the lake but the effort was defiantly worth it. I look up and all I see are trees surrounding glistening water. All the noise from the children swimming and announcements being made on campus fall away and all I focus on is the scenery around me. It feels as though I am in a postcard, everything is still. From my first view of the lake I would never have thought that something so beautiful could be.
ReplyDeleteSight. Some take the ability to see for granted, while others utilize it to its fullest. The gift of sight helps one see the natural obvious, that which is beautiful and/or useful in nature or in ones life. Although one can see the beauty in nature at times, sometimes one neglects to see certain objects, places, and the abilities that one has. This is what Annie Dillard calls the "artificial obvious," that which is hard for one to see. A person walks and talks all the time, speech is the key to communication, and helps matters of the world happen; this can be called the natural obvious. But at times, we neglect the usefulness of speech and the miracle that is speech. The fact that it is so hard for us to see and recognize, is what makes it the artificial obvious. The world is made of natural and artificial obvious, that which one choses to see or neglect to see, not realizing the beauty and usefulness of the world.
ReplyDelete