Categories

I never realized that there was so much about categories, and how humans use categories on a daily basis until I read a section from the book Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. In the section that I read the author discusses how there is no "correct" way to categorize (pg. 9). I knew that people categorized things differently, but I never really gave it any actual thought until I read that part. Now when I think about it, it is obvious that different people are going to categorize differently. The section that I read also discusses how categories were originally looked at are now being questioned and focused upon. In turn this puts into question many things, and already established ideas will be put into questioned (pg. 9). I never thought categorizing had so many connections to hymn thinking and human ideas.

Selfie

A few days ago I watched the first episode of “Selfie,” on ABC. The show is about a girl who is self-centered and can’t make real world connections. She relies on her phone and social media to connect to people. In the show she sets out to try to change herself to be a better person with the help of a guy who is not connected to social media. The show is a critique of social media and media in general. It is about how people think how others perceive them. I thought about the first project that we did in DTC 356, the web ego essay. I thought how the show and the project related to one another when it comes to digital footprints, and how people judge on what that footprint might say. The show is a comedy and is overall pretty good.

Copyright

People and companies are always thinking of ways to keep material under copyright after its long period of protectiveness is done. An example of this, which is used in the book Practices of Looking, is the book Gone with the Wind. The author’s estate wanted to keep the book protected, so the estate contracted out an author to write a sequel. The sequel would then be copyrighted by the estate because it was written under contract. The original book would then be protected because the sequel used the same characters and ideas of the same characters that the first book used.

As time goes on more and more people, estates and companies will try to creatively keep their copyright protection. What I don’t like is that the law is set up a certain way, but people always seem to try to go around it, and they get away with it. And the law doesn’t do a whole lot about it. To a point it is unfair this way to other copyright holders, and is hurting them. If the law isn’t being followed or totally enforced, then why have it? I think there should be a time limit on copyright that is a long limited time to make sure there is no monopoly, as it is now. However, I think the law needs to be enforced more, or it needs to be reviewed again to make sure that it is fair.

Are Those Photos Real?

When I created my storyboard comic, entitled “Super Lego,” I wanted to give the photos I took a comic book look. I applied filters to the images to accomplish this. However, I wanted to make sure there was also no question as to whether the photos I took were real photos that actually depicted a real Lego scene or not. This relates to a section of the book Practices of Looking where the book discusses how some photos aren’t real and are digitally manipulated to appear real (pg. 217). Digital manipulation has the power to go back through time in images and change them. Some of the time it is amusing and not a big deal when someone inserts themselves into an old photo to make a statement. Other times digital manipulation of photos is used to hide a truth that someone doesn’t want to be revealed when the photo is supposedly supposed to tell exactly what is happening; the truth. Digital manipulation in photos allows designers and artists to achieve what they want and helps them to do so, when they sometimes don’t capture the exact photo that they want.

Comic Information Structure

Here is a comic by Marvel that is based off of the Cirque du Soleil show KA. I like the way this page is set up with the main action happening in most of the page, and then with the boxes on the side showing more detail. The way the information is presented here enables me to mot only see the main action but also the up close, finer details.

For the storyboard style comic I decided to build scenes out of Legos. I then took pictures of the Lego scenes and uploaded them to Photoshop. I then applied filters to get the photos to look more cartoon like. One of the challenges I faced was having enough Legos to do certain scenes. Another challenge I ran into was trying to get the photos to have the same look and style, since each photo was different. 

I decided to go with scenes that were mostly set outside. I did this to make the comic more relatable to the real world, and because it was also the easiest way for me to make scenes with the Lego pieces I had. The reason why it is more relatable is because I could use colors in my scenes that were also found outside. This way I didn't have to use different, weird colors for ordinary things. I wanted the comic to have a more comic feel to it instead of looking like real Legos, but at the same time I wanted the Legos to be recognizable. That is why I did the filters I did. I also wanted the faces to be able to express what was going on in the scene, so I drew on the faces. I tried to keep the faces and basic colors of objects in the photos as close to real life as I could. With the faces, colors I chose and scenes I was a able to do, I am overall happy with how the comic turned out.