It seems the theme of the week seems to lay here:
instead of here, in the words... Though from the McCloud reading last week, I'm not so sure the two are drastically different. Wolf brought to the conversation the idea of computer simulation, and the effect of images (and their validity) on human interpretation. She surmises: "Computer simulation's speculative nature blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction a complicates the question of how far an indexical link can be stretched and displaced and still be considered valid in society, as facts get skewed, left out, misinterpreted, or filled in by theory and speculation" (Wolf 429). In particular, she mentioned that in court, often black and white images could be references but color images were thought to sway the audience. If this theory is accurate, then does color make a difference here too? Immediately our eyes are drawn to color, and naturally we are more apt to remember something that is distinct like the above phrase. But why is it then that we don't see more freedom of 'manipulation' in the ethos of traditional writers? Think of almost every book you've ever read- can you think of one that was not printed on ivory paper with black or greyed ink? Why as writers, are we not able (or not willing) to play into the tools we are given?**When I google searched this, I found absolutely nothing- no discussion, no forum, no other contemplation of why this happens to be the case. Though I feel it may have originated as an economic decision, and of course has its historical contexts (because printing is expensive) but I can't help but ask- haven't we evolved past that yet?
Color in photographs is one of their main attractions, and artists avidly use this to distinguish their work from other artists. McCloud talks about the flagrant use of color in comics, and from his chapter 8, it is easy to see the moves that color can make for that industry. I think back now to hyperreading, and wonder if the use of color and the heightened sense of freedom in format has anything to do with this generations tendency to prefer online media versus book in hand. Would this pattern change if we incorporated more technique associated with these mediums?
It is so interesting the effect color has on us humans. I was really intrigued at McCloud's statement saying that humans see color, so we're drawn to it (or something like that). Though it is attractive to the eye, I am curious as to how people could be swayed in the court of law due to color. Sure it's appealing, but THAT appealing?
ReplyDeleteYou hit it on the head when you said that perhaps economy kept us from experimenting with color and text. The cost of color put it out of reach for generations, now that barrier seems to be breaking down in print and it’s totally dismantled with the digital age. There is much research on color both from the graphics side of the table but also from the receptor side. How we physically respond, our retention and emotional buy-in with all things color is a huge part of all research done in the name of marketing, to just name one discipline. When print books decide to update their look I think it will be as revolutionary as when Apple chose to make their computers colored and then white. Who would have thought to move away from putty???
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