Culture and the media

Culture around us is changing drastically and this then changes the way we perceive things through art and graphic design. Technology is becoming more advanced so that everything is starting to be more accessible. 

Why Colour Is Important

Colour is one of the most powerful tools a designer can use and to do so you need a high understanding on how colour affects us, this is key in communicating messages effectively. Colour is all around us and it effects us in our day to day lives. For example, in nature we a know that red is a warning colour and that yellow can be in certain situations a danger colour. Over thousands of years we have interpreted colour to mean things, in a way we have learnt to read the world around us using colour. However, living in a modern society people think that this development has been lost, but it has not. Understanding the power that colour holds over us and using this effectively is what designers strive for. 

A Different Response To Media

There are many different ways to interpret media and I feel that it doesn't just have to be set by one artistic skill to represent that. After I had researched into gaming and how violence can be shown through, I decided to broaden the ideas on you can represent an idea through using alternative techniques. 

Through the use of movies its all about composition and how you move and change the angle of the camera to represent how mood can be expressed. There are no limits with a moving image because you can have an actor show emotion as well as using shots to express their feeling. Also adding in music sets the scene because you can express the strain or happiness the moment has. This allows the intensity of the scene to further come through and it starts to really engage what the audience should be feeling within this particular scene. 

Not only can a movie can show and express emotion but photography can as well. This is slightly harder to set the scene however, because you don't have music or a moving image to follow the story in its intensity. All you have is a single image and it needs to capture your eye within the first few seconds for you to understand the intensity of the story. 

There are two ways you can create a still image. Through a digital camera and through a film camera. A digital camera allows you to recreate a scene over and over again so that you are able to re-try capturing a particular still that expresses how you feel. You are to freely experiment with the ISO and shutter speed to create the perfect image and for any that don't come out how you want you can just delete. What I like most about film is that you have one chance to capture the essence of the scene. I like the idea of this and how it can make the person taking the photo to work harder on getting it perfect first time. I also like how different film canisters can create different colouring effects. I feel that using film the colours come out more vibrant and intense. 

How Technology Affects Us As Children

Technology effects the brain in different ways than if you were to just read. Nicholas Carr uses an interesting metaphor to represent the ideas and differences between the two. 

Book reading is like scuba diving in which the diver is submerged in a quiet, visually restricted, slow-paced setting with few distractions and, as a result, is required to focus narrowly and think deeply on the limited information that is available to them. In contrast, using the Internet is like jet skiing, in which the jet skier is skimming along the surface of the water at high speed, exposed to a broad vista, surrounded by many distractions, and only able to focus fleetingly on any one thing.

Through using this idea researchists have found that a child that plays video games and any other media such as watching TV e.c.t., can increase reaction times and the capacity to identify details among clutter. This doesn't necessarily make children stupid, however just makes their process of thinking different from others. For example, using the internet to search in search engines is causing children to not remember things a such but more skilled at remembering where to find it instead. 

With the information that is now available to us 24 hours of the day it is becoming less important for children than to know where to look for something. Through this the information that you once needed to retain in our brains allows our brains to start and engage in more 'higher-order' processing such as contemplation, critical thinking, and problem solving. 

Pros and Cons of Technology

Pros

• You can save money with using the later technology. Larger companies use conference calls from different branches to host meetings. This reduces costs on traveling.
• Technology saves time, you can now email someone for a quick response. You can fax someone documents. 
• You can be more sociable, you can get to know what you're friends are doing all the time and can arrange a quick meet up. 
• Education, you can learn more about the world, it makes it easier to research or revise for exams. 
• We can all be globally connected to one another. 

Cons

• Distraction, you have access to games or social media which means you are constantly getting distracted by what is actually happening around you. 
• Companies use cookies to collect our data without us knowing. They find what we're interested in and try to advertise to us. They then can sell on our data to other companies leading into unwanted calls or junk emails. 
• The need to upgrade. When new technology comes out you want to get the latest technology. If you hold back on old technology you might not have access to certain updates. Games are constantly upgrading which means you have to buy the next game to get newer and cooler items. 
• We may start to depend on the technology. Not being able to get around anymore without a satnav. Or needing to know things straight away. Companies may depend on technology to do business and when failure happens they may not be able to do their job.