Idea Number One: Im a huge fan of typography and if I knew how to work Adobe After Effects, I would do something similar to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HePWBNcugf8
Please watch that link.
With this animation I'd probably focus on how different mediums effect the way we take in information ad process it. Specifically, the digital medium and what graphics and the manipulation of fonts and words do to that way masses process information. For example, the Nike slogan of "Just do it." This is in big, bold, letters usually accompanied by some douche-bag model decked out in over-priced tennis shoes and sweat bands that some poor kid in Indonesia made for two grains of rice and half a penny (Sorry. Im tired). But we still look at those advertisements knowing all this, and we want those products. Those words have more to do with wanting those goods than first perceived. If any of you take the time to watch a commercial, say for laundry detergent, and this commercial is comparing two brands, look at where they put the "bad", cheap brand. On the left side of the screen. The good brand that cleans clothes well is on the right hand side. In Western culture, we read from - you guessed it - left to right. So we see this brand of detergent that doesn't clean very well on the left, and then, due to the way we simply read from left to right, we glance over at the supposedly better brand and say "Fuck. I'm gong to buy some Downy." So thats Idea #1 - how/why the digitization of type and book culture has such an influence on how we process information.
Idea Number One and a Half: Instead of doing afore-mentioned idea in Typography because, well, i have not the slightest clue how to use After Effects (which, by the way, is a program by Adobe that makes all those bad-ass images seen in the link above) I will simply write a paper on the topic. Call me what you will, but make sure you call me boring.
Idea Number Two: Write a creative sardonic short play/story about a band trying to release an album but cant due to copyright law. With this idea I would have to dig into the bowels of the law library and dig out what I could on copyright law. Due to the fact that there is a bunch of legal jargon I can't interpret for the life of me I would need to find ways of getting all that translated and put into the characters and plot of the play. Think Spinal Tap meets A Few Good Men. Except without Tom Cruise. Unless its Tom Cruise from Top Gun. So think Spinal Tap/A Few Good Men w/Top Gun-Tom Cruise.
Idea Number Three: The difference in gleaning information from books and computers. Specifically, on the idea that with books, time is taken, whereas with the internet, it is like a newspaper and headlines can be glanced over. This is similar to Idea #1 in that it deals with the medium. However the difference is in how the information is presented and can determine how much information we do or do not absorb.
I hope these make sense. Please, criticize these, or ask me to elaborate. Tomorrow preferably.
I like the typography idea. And you don't necessarily need to use After Effects (which you may or may not need to buy and then learn to use). You should be able to produce a similar clip by using Flash.
ReplyDeleteGranted, I've never used After Effects myself, so I wouldn't know which would be better, I'm just throwing some thoughts out there.
Also, I think idea #1 is really two ideas.
a) Typography clip
b) Downy concept
If you just focus on the latter, you can remove all the hassle of After Effects. It will still be "how/why the digitization of type and book culture has such an influence on how we process information." Just not quite so impossible. Plus, you can still be really creative, perhaps making a web page or slide show to go along with a report.
Hope this helps!
I'm with Liz. I think her part b of idea #1 would be an interesting way to go. You would just have to be sure to show the digitization of "type and book" culture as opposed to some brand new digital media. Here's a for instance. Book culture has been digitized in the most common way that you see a web site displayed and used. Web "pages" are bound together, most commonly with navigation "tabs" that help separate the content. A search engine then "indexes" the content for easier research. Viewers of the site "bookmark" "pages" that they like to get back to them quickly and easily later. Not every site follows this pattern of copying features and functions from book culture, but I believe they are the most prevalent and the most informative from the perspective of your possible paper idea. How has this digitization of book culture changed the way we process information? I, for one, believe it has contributed to a greater reliance on new technology that is supposedly more effective for research. Another for instance, does anyone use the yellow pages anymore? I do, only when it's a matter of convenience. The inconvenience being that my computer is not in front of me when I'm sitting on my couch, but the coffee table with the big yellow book in the draw is. This reliance on new technology, in turn, has made us process information more laterally or tangentially. Who hasn't started surfing the net in one corner of the world and found themselves on the other in an hour of time? You don't do that with the yellow pages. You can with a set of Encyclopedia Britannica, it just takes a lot longer. Anyway, just a thought...
ReplyDeleteAnthony, all of these have potential; all need to be focused significantly. As for the video, that was a lot of fun, but what I want to know is: WHY is it important or interesting? How does it give us insight into something we didn't before? etc. etc. In other words--and I mean this completely literally and non-facetiously--so what? I am intrigued, so I really want to be educated on this.
ReplyDelete