Reflections
Reflection 1
"In Plato's Cave” chapter 1 from On Photography by Susan Sontag
I’m interested in landscape photography that focuses on nature, architecture, and objects. I am interested in the relationship of the world through the lens. I want to use photography to find tranquility within the chaos, especially in the city where everyone is busy and rushing. My photography focuses on the flowers, corners, and places within the city, interacting between people, space, and light. With the advancement of modern technology, people spend less time looking around, being curious, or meditating. I want my work to reflect life and encourage people to slow down and to enjoy the moment, to forget stress, overthinking thoughts, and plans, to pause, admire, and reflect. Currently, I couldn’t explain a deep topic through photography due to my lack of exploration, skills, and experience. I do hope I could use this power to empower smaller groups of people that need a voice, where I was inspired by others who found ways of using this power like news media, social media, and advertising, for smaller groups. However, I believe not every art, photography, and film should be limited to only advocating and educating. The genres should be various, and I want to focus on the small joys in life, where they are often overlooked and not given credit to keep us steady on the race that is called life.
Some eye-opening acknowledgment about photography that has reshaped my perspective through the reading was the tension between actuality and manipulated truth in photography. Although photography portrays a realistic image, they are often influenced by the photographer’s bias and style. Oftentimes, we see photography used to portray realism, whereas on the other hand, these images of our world could be very likely staged. Since the advance of photography, such as filters and color grading, many have used these skills to blur the line of realism and create a fantasy distinct from our world, whereas painting used to try to achieve and portray realism. Examples such as tourist trap photo, where editing is heavy on color grading to advertise and romanticize the traveling location as a dream location to travel. However, the reality is that the location is far from the Instagram-worthy pictures. Furthermore, each artist has a personal style and a way of portraying the world, which means each person sees the truth in various perspectives, so their art should not be seen as the entire truth but as a creative point of view that could touch the heart and be related. This further leads to my question: Would it be possible to focus on realism without the influence of an artist’s style? If so, how could it be done? Another point that touches my heart from the reading is that photography could be a type of art where the line between normal people and artists is blurred because anyone with a camera can take pictures; however, only under certain situations, the skills of a photographer could benefit those who don't possess the skills. It could lead Photography to be an underestimated art where phones make cameras more accessible.
Reflection 2
"With 'AI slop' distorting our reality, the world is sleepwalking into disaster" by Nesrine Malik
I agree that AI not only distorts reality but also politics, relationships, and our lives. Politics has been chaotic in its own sense, and now AI, with its fake videos, tops the chaos. Past studies I read present that people, especially the new generation, are not kept up with politics due to overwhelming information and news, which many aren’t positive about, which increases the anxiety and distrust for the government. However, even those that closely follow politics are mostly engaging in their parties and hold polarized views against other parties. With AI increasing the struggle of grasping the truth with its biased and fantasized right-wing videos. It is feeding the issues that humans are fighting for, rooted in history, like white supremacy, racism, and women’s history of fighting for female rights. I resonate with the author to fact-check politicians’ responses and question whether they made the response or were created by AI. Furthermore, the article reminds me of a fake AI video of AOC, which brought attention to mainstream media by Chris Como, who is a TV host. At first glance, the video looks legitimate, and no signs of distortion of faces and voice. But, the video is figured to be AI put together through focusing on the speech and by checking if other news outlets reported the video. Hence, questions emerge whether Chris Como's inability to realize the video is fake or if he is using it to mislead people into being against AOC. As the audience, we will constantly question the truth and whether the video is AI as it advances. AI is not just involved in our politics, media, and life; it is getting involved in human relationships. An increase in people who felt lonely turn to AI for comfort and therapy which could led to bonds of emotional attachments. News Article of people having AI partners, when in reality they also have a real family or partners. Newer question spark: Does it count as cheating if your partner engages in a relationship with AI? I would consider it to be cheating because relationships are built on loyalty and if that is broken there would be no connection. Hence, it would lead to an increase of divorce rate, which is questionably high already, due to a lack of communication and a lack of engagement in the responsibility of maintaining the family, as toxic traits were built into AI to attract one’s attention and money for business. AI is breaking up human interaction, which may lead to a decrease in socializing and social skills, which could lead to isolation, making people vulnerable and easier to manipulate. From a personal perspective, I see AI would be heavily involved in our life which makes me question if we get to a point so used to AI that we stopped questioning the difference between reality or AI. Also, laws regulating AI and holding AI accountable will increase.
Reflection 3
Graphic Novel: Motherhood in crisis
I chose Story number two, “My Stolen Future”, the story revolves around a young woman named Heela who realizes she was pregnant through a sexual interaction with a man without her consent. This story is presented through Illustration, text, photography, and video. Illustration makes this story more approachable, especially, dealing with sensitive topics. The story presented through arts and text made it easier to process and share within a short amount of time. The Color and the art style help carve the culture, exposition, and present the difficulties of pregnant women in Sierra Leone in a serious manner. In addition, Arts and Imagery help add colors and lightness to this topic. The use of photography is limited to pictures of the counsellors of the Rainbo Center that offer help to women. Compared to illustration, photography, and video focuses on present realism and directness; however, this story may be insensitive to include pictures of Heela and her experiences. Moreover, victims of this incident may often choose to stay anonymous to protect their identity and their family. Hence, Illustration is a better approach to present his story without showing their identity. If the story is presented through text, the story would feel too heavy and limit its readership, as it would cause triggers to a group of people. The story would turn into a length of a book where illustrations could be shortened and still be informative. Illustrations help portray the background and culture through the arts, which shortens the need for text. The use of illustration also embraces the rapid pace of media, especially where people have short attention spans. Although the story is brief, it is detailed enough for readers to understand their situation and difficulties, and express empathy. Furthermore, it is a graphic novel and its interactive art opens up a larger group of readership. It does not limit the age range; each age may understand the story differently.
Reflection 4
"The Rising Risk, and How We Stop It" by W. J. Hennigan, NY Times.
The belief that a possible nuclear war may happen has been on the rise, with increased tensions between countries. This acknowledgement may lead people to feel desperation and helplessness about the situation. Many memes circulate online responding to the possibility of World War 3 for the future generation. This also reflects the attitude of the future generation, where they are situated in an uncontrolled situation, they would opt for joking or make a meme out of it, challenging the supposed reaction of helplessness and anger. In addition, the art and the narrative in the news uplift the possible feeling of worry and stress when reading this topic. It makes reading this topic of news more interesting and interactive. The art and the narrative in the beginning could set a curious tone, and drag the viewers into a storyline before providing the facts. The article uses different typography for the narrative and the content. The narrative uses more of a display font and a little transparency. I do question why the font is chosen to be transparent? Moreover, the content is using serif font to emphazie the serious tone and modern. Furthermore, the art is a great way of representing the destruction of nuclear weapons. It makes the realization of the destruction more approachable and lightens up the tone of this topic. Compared to using pictures or videos to represent the destruction, it could make some viewers feel uncomfortable or even prevent them from continuing to read. The art is sort of an animation as it plays when viewers continue to scroll. It keeps unfolding, adding a thrilling emotion to keep the viewers continuing. It make viewers feel like they are fallen into a rabbit hole and everything keep on unfolding as they scroll. The art also act like a transition between content. The style of the art show more of a comic style where the colors of the aftermath is more muted tones. Another cool detail about the art would be a transparent black square behind the text make it easier to read when there is lots of colors in the background. The design and font of the text, along with the halo light highlighting it, are also cool. This addition of the art is a great advance for the journalism industry as it transforms into an animation, making it easier for the future generation and their short-term attention span. I would love to ask one question to the author or the editors behind the article on how the process came to when they decide to use the art as a representation. I believe this factor of incorporating art add on to the entertainment facter for newspaper in compared to tv news. It could be a great advancement for the journalism industry.
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