"Black Box"

After the class discussion about the idea of the "Black Box" and how a movie theatre is a perfect example of that. I thought it was really interesting how the purpose of the movie theatre is to limit distractions and really captivate you in the movie yet the things that destroy and break down the "black box" are things that are sold to us at the movie theatre. The room is supposed to be black so that we as viewers are focusing on nothing but the movie. The things that break down that focus and concentration are things like people, POPCORN, CANDY, and SODA! All of which are things people love to have at movies and probably even go to the movies specifically for the popcorn, I know my mom does. So I find it hard to understand why something in our main stream culture and something commonly practiced is so contradictory to itself. Also, if anyone has ever read Plato's The Republic, there are very interesting corellations between Socrate's allegory of the cave and with the "black box" theory.

lssacademy.com/2008/01/14/shadows-or-reality/

Week 1: When Have We Gone Too Far?

Haha, the post below me reminded me of a video of an advertisement form another country that I had seen years ago.



These types of ads are something that I have never seen in the U.S., but seem to be acceptable and possibly even normal in other countries. Is this because we have laws against them? Because the powers that be in the television industry would not allow it? I for one don't have the answer.

To me this "suggestive" advertising is funny, but I can't help by being caught off guard. I know that many countries in Europe have more relaxed standards and views of nudity and what they deem appropriate and I often find myself thinking that it is better to have such ideas. I would say most can agree that the giagantic backlash after the wardrobe malfunction in the superbowl was a bit overboard.

But at the same time I can see the U.S. traveling down the road to such standards, when one looks at the relaxation of regulations with the use of profanity and violence in mainstream t.v. and often I feel that this is something that may not be in our best interest, and I consider myself to be more liberal then most.

What do you all think..Do you think that the U.S. as a whole would be better of if these types of "open" commercials were allowed to air and not thought of as inappropriate?

I can't say for sure, but I know if I had a child, I certainly would not want them to ever even have the thought of a human and a dog having sex, even if they were in the form of a balloon.

Myth of Photography

In Chapter one, I found the reading on “The Myth of Photographic Truth” pretty interesting. When mentioning the philosophy of positivism and how the use of machines to capture a moment or represent a frame of time were regarded as more reliable than a painting or sketch done by human hand, I had a hard time applying it for today’s world. Granted, this description was formulated in the mid- 19th century when today’s technology was not in existence, but it stated that “a photograph is often perceived to be an unmediated copy of the real world, a trace of reality skimmed off the very surface of live, and evidence of real”, however in today’s world, you can rarely look at a professional photograph that has not be altered in some way. If you checkout this youtube video you can see how easy it is for today’s technology to alter a simple photograph. So, how much of what we really look at in our magazines and television ads are real, and how much are altered in order to appease what we want to see as reality? So when the book defines “myth” as a “hidden set of rules and conventions through which meanings are made to seem universal and given to the whole society”, I have to apply it to how people and advertising agencies use the magic of photo shop and all the other fancy gadgets they utilize to create an image of beauty, in this particular case, that influences our society.

testing

testing...testing...