Questions & Responses on Chapter 4: Breakout of the Visual
The fourth chapter of the book, "The Breakout of the Visual," poses the argument that visual media is not only becoming the most important and most influential form of commercial art available… but the chapter also argues that there are few other literary functions in the world that can match its growth (and subsequent scope). I agree on the point that there is a great deal of media that involves or necessitates the usage of the visual. There are many aspects of commercial art and many aspects of professional work that involve the visual--website design, desktop publishing, internet journalism, album cover design--and as a result there are many areas for an individual to pursue if they wish to succeed in the visual. I don't wholly agree with the idea that the visual is the best way to experience any particular concept or to express a particular concept; because I believe in the power of the written word. I will concede to the notion that the visual aids the written word in a variety of manners, but I still hold that that visual magnificent only insofar as it is to help along another aspect of design, such as text. —Aaron
I found it interesting how the author says hypertext is rare. Instead, the correct term is hypermedia. Also, I thought it was interesting how the chapter went on to say that in print as well, more elaborate graphics are being incorporated. I like how designers have new typographic freedom on the web and in print. The section on visual metaphors and the example of razors as the bars of the chart provided as a great example. I am a visual learner and this made a lot of sense to me. How do computer text and images affect the way our society learns in comparison to text and images in print? —Carrie
The fact that verbal text is being diminished for the sake of immediacy in understandable in news venues and other media attempting to relay a quick message; however, at what point will this usage of pictures and other forms of communication take over, and what effect will it have on our society? —Diana
I was just surfing blogs I check, and found an interesting link [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/19/125148/65] to an article relating to images and text that relates to today discussion. Granted theres a liberal slant to it, but it's still interesting to look at. It's what CNN and a top Chinese news site would look like, if all of the advertisment media and visuals were taken away, and just the news was left. —Elizabeth
What is the difference between graphic design, which is defined as the combination of "word & image"when compared aesthetically? —Jeremy
In Chapter 4, the author's tone seems almost discouraging of imagery in typically textual environments. He criticizes the designers of the shaving graph for many things, including the implication of distrust in the audience's ability to interpret numerical data. I don't think this is necessarily the intent of the designer, but rather a method to draw interest to a generic graphic of data. Using the slice of pie example, he explains that images often reiterate exactly what the text portrays. He also refers to graphics and media today as a "extraordinary noise." While there is a lot of useless and low-quality graphic and video media, there is also a lot of useless and unfounded literature. In both cases, viewers need to discern quality pieces from garbage. The author also predicts that video and audio media will take over E-Mail as the technology becomes available. The technology is available, and some have embraced it, but only to supplement E-Mail. As a comparison, video phones are now available to the general public at reasonable prices, yet consumers have expressed little interest or demand. Similarly, I think E-Mail, and the ability to sit down and compose a textual message, will not transfer as smoothly to live audio and video as the author suggests. I do agree with the author that images in many recent formats have overpowered text, and writers/designers may need to work to achieve a greater balance between text and imagery, using the appropriate emphasis for the subject matter it is communicating. —Jim
1. Can you better define what the author meant by "philosophy of transparency"?
2. All throughout the chapter the author talks about the text being overtaken by the visual elements from newspapers to graphics. What does this over visualization mean for a non english speaking population. With so many graphic elements in games and things on the internet do you think the visual images will hinder people learning english or help them? Will it mean the visual elements make it harder to write english? If all one sees is images. —Hannah
The breakout of the visual is an interesting chapter. It is interesting to look at the progression of the visual to text.Today I think the real question remains of what is more important the visual or the text. I am beginning to think that the visual is more important today. We are surrounded in our society by images. Visual images seem to stimulate and make me remember things that text simply does not. Visual images are clearly something we value and use in our society. Writers must now almost create books that are better then the visual. A truly good author is one that can create an image within the reader’s mind with only text. Authors who can write text well without images are losing value within our society as we rely more on visual images to stimulate ourselves. We must clearly try to find a balance between the text and the visual. —Megan
Is the image stronger than the word? For me, since I was little I would always "judge a book by its cover". I didn’t care so much about the writing as I did the images. For me, I would rather see an image tell a story than words. A book couldn’t keep my attention long enough for me to get anywhere. As I did start reading, like we discussed in class, I was a fan of the great illustrated classics, because there were very little words and many colorful images depicting the story. As I have gotten older I have learned to enjoy reading image less books... on occasion. In school we were forced to read all the "classics" which I am grateful for, but sometimes I longed for an image. Maybe that’s why I became fond of the arts.. who knows.. I guess that’s another story. As I continued through school, images became even more important to me, coinciding with taking my art classes I became interested in how an artist presents things to a viewer and what we get out of the images, the story they tell. When browsing the internet, I find sites which have visually stimulating graphics and design are sites I would prefer to look at over a site with just words. On the other hand, I did not read any Harry Potter books until after I had seen the movies, but was told I would enjoy them. As I was reading the first book I couldn’t believe her ability to describe things and the images and events it put in my head. I mean, not that books never did, but just the degree of her story telling and how vivid things were, it made me a believer that books can still be very important. There are always going to be those that feel images ruin books, or those that enjoy comic style stories... like myself, or those that enjoy a good balance of both. So I guess any answer would be correct. —Meri
After reading about the new ways in which graphics are working with text, I think it is great that we can now embellish our texts easier than ever before. I think that adding graphics to both print text and web text has to help with reading comprehension and keeps the reader interested as well. I think that the author of this book is really too harsh on how technology is evolving. I think that it is exciting that technology keeps advancing, even if we are getting out of the way things have been done for many years. Print today needs to keep up with the ever-changing web or else print will become the lesser of the two. The internet is all about graphics and iconography and if the newspapers, magazines, etc. don't keep up with this standard, everyone will turn to the internet instead of anything in print. —Nicole |