Sunday, May 1, 2011

Visual Symbols in Daily Life, Part 2

There has been an incentive over the course of the semester to find the coolest and best use of technology or visuals for the week. These posts ranged from film clips and trailers to poetry and music to skits and still images. Our ideas of visual literacy were expanding, and we used themes to enrich each other. Whether it was perusing classmates' blogs or creating informational visuals for presentations, I was having a good time.

Some clips were for fun:
The Crater Face Video,
Minimalism - Kinetic Typography Poem
The Red Balloon (below),


Some were informative:
15 Sexist Vintage Ads,
Sir Ken Robinson speaks on Creativity (below),



-but all were cool new ways of expressing and understanding what the author, composer, or speaker is visually presenting to their audience.

My terms of Visual symbols have expanded over the semester to include: poetry, body movement, non-verbal cues and the use of words as graphics (to name a few). I understand why visuals within presentations and art are used and when it is appropriate to use them with an audience. I learned about means of using visuals such as propaganda and video games to creatively enhance a message.

I feel that without visuals or teaching the world to be visually literate, our communication and education would be greatly lacking in emotion and depth and we would be less comprehensive to our audiences. And I also think its our job to expand means of visually communicating, while assisting others to understand them correctly. We're bombarded daily with images and data, if we're not reading them correctly, we could be missing something important!

Aha Blog #5: A Dead Car

Saturday, I was involved in a car accident that turned my already lemon of a car into a piece of smooshed plastic and metal-and it was NOT my fault. Having just fixed my car two days before (for the fourth time this winter), I was more than just a little ticked to find I now had a compact car- literally. Temperamental car as it was, it got me to where I needed to be and without major injuries- but as of today that is gone! Now my vehicle was sub-par, and one might say resembled a dying toad, yet I still was upset when I had to say goodbye.

The interesting and fun part will come now in choosing a new vehi
cle. Perhaps one with power windows AND locks!?! Or maybe even TWO working windshield wipers! I feel like a Maybach Excelero or a Rolls Royce Phantom is not very feasible at this time, but I'll settle for a station wagon as long as it gets me where I want to be!


I'm intrigued at all the technology they pack into vehicles today: mp3 players, SYNC computer systems, and dvd players! The only entertainment my family's first van provided was a dried booger that hung from the ceiling from the previous owner's kids. Even the slightest wind could have sent my sister and I into screams of a possible booger invasion. Though a brand new Ford Edge or Cadillac Escalade is not in my near future, I'll appreciate something with an air conditioner and consistently working speakers (No boogers, please).

*Photos taken from:
http://maybach1.com/maybach_exelero.html
http://wamraazhar.blogspot.com/2009/04/rolls-royce-phantom.html