The proliferation of imagery

These days, there are many images that have universal meanings to which everyone can associate. You know which bathroom to go in because of the symbol on the door. A cigarette with a circle and a slash over it obviously means your not allowed to smoke there. But is it really so obvious? These images have been presented to us constantly since we were born. If you visit a secluded tribe out in the middle of a jungle they probably wont associate a tree with lights and bulbs with Christmas, even if they did know what Christmas was. Images are used so often that many times, you don't even realize what your looking at, you associate it with what it means.

I want to say its a good thing. Imagery is such a powerful and convenient tool. It has made it a lot easier to communicate general ideas and concepts. Besides communication, it gives people a way of expressing themselves. They can put their own twist on any image to convey or induce certain beliefs or feelings. With the basic knowledge of a general image, the viewer is able to then interpret the actual meaning or content. I searched mickey mouse and this is one that i found. Everyone associates mickey with childhood, cartoons, amusement parks, innocence or whatever. Someone put this twist on him and just at a glance, you can tell exactly what the artist is trying to communicate through imagery, good, bad, stupid, funny...its up to the viewer to decide.

Proliferation of Imagery

Humans have always been visual. The early cave paintings show that people found value in visual communication. In the New Testament, Thomas needed to see before he believed. What makes today different is the mass quantity and speed at which images are thrust in front of our eyes. It’s hard to find a place in the world that does not have some sort of signage – a message of some sort or another. Even an experienced hiker follows trail markers. When does our brain truly rest? When do we rely on our other senses to provide information?

Today we can look at an image and our brain instantly recognizes and identifies the image. We don’t have to make a conscious decision to think about it. Instead of just listening to a presentation, students, executives and even parishioners are given Power Point images to help explain the message. The brain is rarely given a chance to process the information on its own. This way everyone walks away with the same idea. It can be good if you’re trying to spread a single message, not good if you want to promote a discussion about those ideas. Also, it doesn’t really promote use of the imagination. I love movies made from books, but the images my imagination created while reading the book disappear once I see the movie. In fact, everyone walking out of the theater leaves with the same images.

Our different cultures still have a huge impact on how our brain processes information. However, just as television changed our lives, the use of the internet and digital communication is changing the world. Will our individual cultures become less important as we become global citizens? Maybe the "universalism" the graphic designers were striving for in the modern era will become reality. Time will tell what the impact will be.

Proliferation of imagery.

How do you think the proliferation of imagery in the world at large, has changed the way people think and/or process information? I believe that in some ways, the art of visual communication is coming full circle. Think about this, the earliest written languages, such as those developed by the Sumarians, were made up of easily recognizable and universal symbols. These universal images were used in order for people of various linguistic capabilities to be able communicate with each other in a non verbal way.

Once again, thousands of years later, it is becoming more and more important for people of various linguistic capabilities to be able to communicate. Todays reasons are certainly different from those of the Sumarians, yet the techniques are still very similar. Today, people from every corner of the earth are exposed to one another's cultures on a daily basis. Hundreds of languages are spoken by travelers, business people, and humanitarians that need to be able to understand the basics when they are away from home.

Another important factor in todays visual communication is in advertising and product branding for a global market. Each and every day, more and more products and companies are being exported globally. If these products and companies hope to thrive or even survive in a global market, they absolutely have to have a universal recognizability and appeal. I've only scratched the surface here, but as you can see, visual communication through imagery is perhaps more important now than ever. Has imagery made a global community possible or has the global community pushed the proliferation of imagery?

Imagery in the World at Large

How do you think the proliferation of imagery in the world at large, has changed the way people think and/or process information?

The rapid or proliferation of images in the world at large, has changed the way people think and/or process information greatly. For starters our world has such a fast paced rhythm to it that people do not have time to really read much of anything at one time. We are programmed to a certain kind of image that possibly resembles something to know what that something is. For example the bathroom door signs. Bathroom signs are little illustrated abstract symbols for a man or a woman in order for a person to know at a glance that he or she is going into the right door to handle their business.

I say “…certain kind of image that possibly resembles something…” because the image does not always resemble the something that it is referring to. For example the trademark for NBC is a colorful peacock symbol. NBC is not a peacock but if a person were to glance at this trademark everyone or anyone who has seen or watched a TV knows that it stands for NBC. This reference is made even when the image or trademark is seen with out color. It is just amazing how a persons mind recalls these images so quickly. Our mind is such a powerful tool. The NBC trademark can be found in our textbook on page 408 if anyone is interested. Along with many other trademarks that are prime examples of the effect the proliferation of imagery has had on the way peoples minds think and/or process information.

There are so many examples that it is hard for me to choose which ones to talk about. People’s minds work at such a fast pace these days in order to keep up with the latest and greatest would be overload for a lot of people who did not grow up in such a fast pace world. Some days it is harder than others to keep up with everything that is going on in the world around us. For designers it can give opportunity with all of our software and gadgets available. And the ideas that can be made real are out of the world.

And for the everyday individual we register things faster which in turn gives people that many more seconds of our day to be with family, friends, and to be more productive. It can be a positive reality if a person lets it. It can also be bad a times when it causes a person to neglect something of importance. Just do not rush threw those special times and always stop to smell and feel things around you, because other wise all is lost.

Misty J Slavens

Smarter or Stupider

Few weeks ago, I read an article named “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in the Atlantic magazine July/August Edition. The writer merely concerned the overloaded information in the Internet is damaging our brains. Without knowing, the process of thought in our minds are no longer same as the old days without Internet. People are getting impatient when they process information. In the past, before the invention of radio and television, the only way for people to get information was through reading. When people read, they had time to gather and digest the information from books, newspapers, and magazines. Through deep reading, people’s ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections is being trained. Reading is not an instinctive skill just like writing for human beings. We need to train our brain to convert the symbolic characters into certain meanings. However, the proliferation of imagery in today’s world, leave less and less opportunities for people to practice this skill. As the result, more and more people depend on visual images to interpret the information they receive daily. The newspaper industry is declining, but the Internet industry is booming. People are getting lazier to think. Instead, they passively receive parts and pieces information through the images and short articles from Internet. I wonder the proliferation of imagery in the world at large makes us smarter or stupider.

 

 

Imagery Has Changed The Way We See Things

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and we see that every day. Our advertising is more image-based than ever. The advent of television has had a profound effect on how we perceive advertising. Now it’s a beautiful woman that invites us to buy something, not a drawn image. If you view ads in magazines, most will be photographs. They may have some enhancement that has been done, but still the ones that have the most impact are photos.

We have cell phones that take pictures, digital cameras for instant pictures, and are constantly bombarded by television and the internet. We process information faster than our grandparents because of this imagery. Our digital age has brought many changes. Now we expect to see an image instead of just words. A new study says that children that learn to sign have higher iq’s and learn faster. Why is not known but this is an indicator that we are image based in our learning.
Our grandparents read books and magazines, we watch television and surf the internet. Instantly, we can see a picture from half a world away, or we can catch the news 24 hours a day. Images are an everyday thing now, we’re not only used to it, but would be lost without it. During the presidential race, we say the use of holograms as a way to instantly communicate with someone.

As time goes on, we’ll find ways to use images and information to communicate ideas even more. Our book has brought us from the cave paintings through pictograms into the digital age. Isn’t it strange that we started out with imagery, progressed through written words and now have come full circle to end with imagery again?

Proliferation of Imagery

Images have consumed our current day society. We have become so accustom to images that there are at times too many images to take in. At times it may seem like a “Where’s Waldo” maze but rather than crowds of people and inadament objects there is nothing but images.
One reason why images have developed so rapidly is the advancement of technology. As a society, we have leaped through history with the advancement of our technology. From the invention of the photogram to the Kodak camera to the current day digital cameras and computers we have today it’s easy to take for granted these items that we have grown accustom to in our everyday lives.

To imagine a world with out all of our current technology would be rather quiet. Reading would have to be a more common pass time. However, even books are covered with images. Whether it is a novel or even the bible. Images encompass many books as well.

Without television and radio to change the way, we see things we be a very different society. Our lives would be much less absorbed by mindless hours of television. Could you imagine what we as a society we could accomplish without the television?

In today’s society, we use writing techniques such as technical writing to adapt your writing to the busy readers that need to cut to the chase as soon as they view a document. Without the use of graphics and images, this would not be possible.

Before this so called image, explosion people saw images entirely different. This could be due to the lack of images that were available. However, just as the video “The Day Pictures Were Born (film discussed earlier in the semester) the film discussed a Turkish man would had never if you have never seen an image of a horse he had just seen an actual horse in real life. He stated that this was not a horse; he could not walk around it. It was not a three dimensional creature it was flat and lifeless.

Could you imagine to have never seen a picture or image? All I can say about that as a graphic designer I am very thankful for the graphic image and pictures. Without either of these I cannot imagine creating an advertisement or design for anything. Graphic Design as we know it wouldn't exist. WOW! A world without graphic design! That sounds more like hell than a world.

Imagery - new world communication?

I am afraid I cannot say anything new about the use of imagery at large for visual communication purposes. For example Roman Empire stretched across then known half of the world. There were about million residents in ancient city of Rome. At that time imagery was widely used for brining together people of numerous races, religions, traditions, cultures and tongues. Roman artists back there, just like the artists nowadays, depended on modern technologies and chose to create eclectic art. The major difference is in rapidity of information traveling across the globe.

People, including artists, are overwhelmed by the information coming from different sources every minute. It is hard to evaluate the primary cause and the secondary effects of the informative era we are living in. Whether imagery changed in order to capture busy minds of modern people, or artists having much sources of inspiration and wanting to talk modern, globally understood visual language came up with new symbols of the era. Ima

gery has impact on people and people have impact on art and artists these are all subjects of dualistic nature. Whatever was the first reason people definitely think with images or symbols today.

Images of Today

I think the images that we see today have radically changed our outlook on life. And in some cases our lives have changed the images that we see.

Our lives today are more about doing the most we can in the time we have. This means moving at breakneck speeds. Its get things done, and get it done now. So the images that companies and others have created have fit this need. The designs we see today are so simple that it only takes a fraction of a second to recognize what it is for. The images and what they stand for have been burned into our brains so many times we don't even need words or an explanation to recognize them anymore.

Take the "golden arches" of McDonald's for instance. If you drive down the highway and you see those arches the first thing you are going to know is that it is McDonald's and that they serve burgers. You dont even have to have the words anymore. Or take a look at Apple. When we see that apple we instantly think of Mac computers or even the iPod.

Our society depends so much on simplistic images that its a wonder that many people can read anymore. If we went back to images that were more about content in words then our world might crash. People wouldnt want to take the time to figure out what a company is trying to sell.

Although our world depends on the simplistic design there is a fine line that I feel like needs to be met. A design needs to be simplistic, but also needs to have some content to it.

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Too much information!

i just did an experiment that has got me thinking (not to mention sick).  i just counted the logo's i can see from my desk chair.  anyone want to guess? 

without moving anything and just what i can see enough to recognize, i saw over fifty individual Logo's!  thinking about it makes my head spin.  thats just it.  i don't think about it.  if i can see over fifty just from my seat,  how many am i exposed to every day?!?  what about death?  i bet in a single news brief there are five or six references to the subject.  famous faces?  i  have no idea how many we see. they find there way on to tee-shirts,  handbags,  posters, and every other way you can imagine. what does it mean for the rising over stimulated generation? 

if i had to guess, i would say Lots more ADHD.  we can now (if made correctly) watch a movie such as lord of the rings, and absorb in just a few hours what would have taken weeks to read a few hours a day.  when you think about it the potential is really amazing.  we could see impressive leaps in science and technology due to an increased capacity to absorb images so rapidly and effectively.  i believe that has already started to take place.   the trade off is of course that we can barley get thought a multiple-page letter, and you can forget about us writing one ( i mean legible hand writing).

the written word has become augmented with image in the vast majority of cases.  perhaps, the most difficult thing about this phenomena is the manipulation of imagery in the news media.  how are we to know what is or isn't.  is this how it is or a self serving agenda of the author?  i a personally have become quite skeptical of news sources.  in the day of photoshop and desktop and internet publishing. i really don't think we have scratched the surface of this amazing new frontier.

-grant

p.s. if you thought that was bad, my initial idea was to post an artical with ridiculous amounts of eclectic images and simply say, what did this just do to you?  i just didn't know if i would get credit for doing the assignment.

How do you think the proliferation of imagery in the world at large, has changed the way people think and/or process information?

That is a relatively simple yet complex question. We have become a visual culture, granted we still read books but most of our information has some kind of an image to go with it. Let’s say you go to the store and buy a desk or a TV stand or anything that requires assembly. The instructions will come in written form yes but 99% of the time almost everything that you need to know to assemble something is shown to you in picture form. Everywhere you look there are images. Hek, images are what make or brake a news paper. You pick up a newspaper, front page, A tornado hit someone’s house. You might read the article yes but what is going to stay in your head is going to be the image of that persons torn up house. Same thing when the towers fell in 01, and when the bridge went down, and just about any other important thing that had happened in our lives. When a person grows up they may see an image that triggers a childhood memory that had long been forgotten. It was thanks to the advection of the TV with its moving pictures that did away with radio dramas. You no longer had to sit by the radio and imagine what was happening. Now you could see it all. Hell even this Pepsi that I am drinking right now has an image on the can not just the logo. That another thing I have not touched on yet. Images allowed for the creation of logos which over time led to a person not even needing word to identify some things.

During World War I, propaganda and visual persuasion was used to boost and maintain support for the war effort. After World War II, visual persuasion turned toward consumer goods and with all the technological advances visualization became increasingly popular. Today we are overwhelmed with the technology and imagery of the world.
When television first came out there was not many families that owned one. In the world today there are many families that own at least two televisions for their home. Many people spend so much time watching television that I think they become addicted.
How would people today be able to cope without the use of computers and cell phones? We rely on the everyday use of these items. After having the capability to call, text or send a picture to someone at any time are we now servants to the phone company? It’s our life-line to our children, family and friends. Computers are used for many reasons, but the one that I was thinking about is many parents have started taking their children to childcare centers that offer online viewing of the center so they can check in on their kids at any time. Imagery of the world today is not all bad, but have we let it go so far that we let it run our lives now? Do we see so much now that we learned not to trust others? When the world did not see everything that was going on everywhere did we trust better?

The Power of Images

The world has changed so much in such a small amount of time. At first, images were used chiefly for communication. They served an important purpose to the civilizations that used them. These days, it seems that a person cannot go anywhere without encountering images of some sort, but the need for them is not the same. Life in this day and age is so fast-paced that we don’t have the time to enjoy reading anymore; we only do as much as we need to. That is part of the reason why images play such a big role in our lives.

You could say that we have become slaves to technology. Billboards, magazines, advertisements, and television affect us everyday, and we might not even realize it. It is just the way we are used to living. Our feelings and opinions are swayed by things we see on T.V., particularly on the news. As we discussed in class, the news of major events reaches us almost as soon as it happens, and it is presented in ways that have a profound impact on viewers. Not many people are likely to forget the Oklahoma City bombing or the tragedies of September 11 because of the images that they saw on the news in the days following them.

How do you think the proliferation of imagery in the world at large, has changed the way people think and/or process information?

From this .....



To this ....

I think that the reason why graphic design has changed from being more about information, to being more about a simple symbol someone can recognize, is the fact that we don't have time to sit and read things as much as we used to. Even in that past 10 years, people have gone from reading newspapers, to getting their information on the Internet. This means that we are desiring a quicker and more simplistic way of finding out more about things, the easiest way possible.

In the early 20th century, people did not have televisions, computers, or any kind of way to get information other than by simply reading. I believe reading is becoming a lost art, because of this. Even now, we can buy books on CD to be read to us, while we are driving in our cars to work, school, parties, etc. I think, though, we also are giving more information to process. I have seen a shift from going to school in 1998 to now having extra things to read on the Internet, extra assignments and extra information, today. Back then, people would take the time to read an advertisement, because it was the only way that they were going to get any information about what they wanted information on. Today, we have the gift of repetition. If I see a swoosh, I know that is Nike and that they sell clothing, shoes etc for athletics. It's because I have seen countless Nike commercials with the swoosh symbol my entire life.

The same might not have gone for back during that time period, where printing and artwork was harder to make, took longer, was much more expensive and had to be passed around, instead of put somewhere quickly. People would have to hand out information about an event months ahead of time, instead of weeks ahead of time. When it all comes down to it, the more access you have, the less information you will need. Logos have shifted from being intricate designs to simple, so people will remember the brand along with all the other information that is swirling around in their heads.

In a way, the change is good and bad, because while we are having easier access, we have more to process now. Simple is better in many ways, but i do miss the beautiful designs that seem to be a lost art.

Close your eyes and breathe...

I agree that imagery and technology has added some benefits to our daily lives and most of us would loose our minds and finally be forced to face reality if all of this stimulation was to suddenly disappear. There is an overload of information in all forms in the world today. Not only do we suffer from uncontrollable distractions, we use them to distract us from what ever it is we wish to escape. What happened to the days when we could jump in the car, throw on some great music and spend some time with ourselves? Instead I look around and see people glued to their cell phones. I will admit, I can not ignore my ringing phone when I am traveling. What I find interesting is that the images that are reaching us through advertising and marketing today are making an impact on you in ways you are not even aware of. The people developing these ideas are trained and put a lot of thought into what it is they want to get across. With so much of this around us, I believe we have grown a tolerance. People are not even aware of how all of this information is affecting them. There is a lot shooting at us at all times and I think some of us are more sensitive to it than others but it affects (infects) everyone. This goes for promotion, media, and simple advertisements alike.   I feel like I am on overload sometimes and I watch maybe 3 hours of tv a week at the most. My thoughts? Even with the lack of television, I can not escape it. Stop The Noise and let us think!!! As a graphic design student... this is the only problem I have: Do I really want to contribute to useless noise that is contaminating the minds of my fellow society goers? I think we all have to figure out how far we are willing to go to make a buck and if what we are asked to do fits into our "business belief system." But that's a subject for another time.

Since the invention of the first production camera, the Brownie, the world of the picture has grown at a feverish rate. Up until the mid-1800's images were relegated to the artist. Once negative film was perfected the use of the camera, still and motion, has been a key in capturing moments in time. From the Civil War through the first flight at Kitty Hawk to the first steps upon the moon, images were key in telling the story. Without them many important moments would have been lost forever.

We in today's society are bombarded with imagery. Images of life, images of death, images of family and friends, and images of historical events are some of the ways we see the world around us.

For American images of one of the most bloody pieces of history where adoring the newspapers of the times. This was the only way many Americans could see the Civil War. The horrors of war. The same is true for World War I. Only the images of that war was not just confined to the U.S. This was a global conflict and the brutality of war was seen by the millions. In World War II the image was expanded to include a growing new and exciting medium, the motion picture.

During the Vietnam War another new medium was feeding images of brutality and death world wide. The television was inundating the public with images of death and destruction on a nightly basis. Americans could not escape this night bombardments of not just the war but of society coming apart in this country. Yet millions of Amercians were glued to televisions and newspapers waiting for the latest installments of information from around the world.

With the coming of the digital age and the Internet people all over the

world could capture and process billions of images of every conceivable

kind. Now instead of the little trickling of images we received during the

1940's and through the early 1980's, the world at large is being bombarded with information in seconds instead of hours and days.

Images are everywhere now. They are not confined to the newspaper,

television, news reels, and movies. they encompasses our every being. Walk into a friends home and look around. You will see images on the walls, on tables, in photo albums, on computer screens. Your friend wants to show you his child's first steps. What does he do? Turns on the T.V. and VCR and plugs in a tape made of plastic. Pow! There it is, a movie of his kid walking for the first time.

Look in Wal-Mart sometime. What do you see? Images of some sort. Images to show how a product works. Images that sell. Images that point the way to something. Even images of how much your bill will be. Images everywhere. Yet take all the images away and see what will happen. Back into the dark ages we go.

We, as a global community depend on images to communicate. The way we process this information is key to the way we live. Society as a whole is imaged based. From the moment we wake up we start processing images in our brains. Sometimes there is an overload of images that can drive a person to do stupid things. But we need to process this information to get us through our daily routines. This is a fact that will stick with society forever and will never changes. As long as there are humans alive, images will continue to rule our existence.

Proliferation of Imagery

The amount of images that we are bombarded with daily has become overbearing. In the past 50 years technology has advanced so quickly. We went from print, to photographs, to radio, to television, to the internet and beyond. We have advanced much farther technologically than, in my opinion, out brains can handle. I try to imagine what my life would be like without my TV, radio, and computer. I can some it up in one word. Quiet. I'm sure I would have written letters often and would have had more visitors at my house than friends on my myspace page. I think that it would be much less stressful to live without all of the imagery we see today. Much of it is useless. And there is far too much to sort it all out. I think it has affected the way humans think in general. Our thoughts are much more crowded with not only our daily lives, but with information from all around the world, all the time. We can access the weather from our phones. Which means we check it more often than before. Just like our email. I feel like in my life, I have to ignore half of what's going on around me in order to think straight, and I think many others feel the same way. Our demands increase because we can easily multitask, and therefore feel it necessary to pack our schedules full. We don't want to miss anything. We have tivo for when we are not home. Away messages, text messages, and a billion other ways to talk. I think the best example would be walking into wal mart after a really busy day at work. It is so overwhelming for me to go into that store. I want to get in there and get out as soon as possible because I feel like I'm going to have a seizure from all the advertisements. I think if there wasn't so much visual bombardment  that we would all think a bit more clearly. 

How do you think the proliferation of imagery in the world of at large, has change the way people think and/or process information?

Reading, a pass time no longer a way to get the information we need or crave. Show me a book without pictures and I will show you a tree without trunk! This is the way most people feel about no images in most of the book they come in contact today. They need to be able to get the information fast and clear. To do this they need a image that don’t leave any empty space to be fill with imagination or random though.
Radio was a faster way to get information before the TV was invented. But they still couldn’t see it so they had that extra space to fill with fantasies. This is how radio was keeping listeners by broadcasting story telling times. TV came along and now there it is full image of what is going on out there. Before was control people had a hart time facing the reality of this images. The Government and TV networks use this for their advantage to now manipulate the images that we even get on TV.
The news papers and magazines are doing the same thing just to compete with the other media and similar competitors. We pay the price the viewer, the ones processing the information. If you feed bad food to a cow, you will end up with a mad cow! This is why some people chose not to believe in most images they see. And as technology advances and more and more are introduce to the public it becomes harder to take most of it seriously.
But at the end of the day it has become second nature and we can preaty much handle it. At the same time not even noticing that influences and the things we may do just because I saw it on a billboard or a magazine.
If it look cool, I wanted! Graphics and images are as much as part of our lives as breading is so. Good luck, Hope for the best! And don’t buy it…
If you can’t handle it. Just turn the Stupid TV off! Later…

People have changed the way they think with the proliferation of imagery

Years ago, human beings were not persuaded or affected by images the way that the world is today. It would be a difficult task to go even a small amount of time without seeing an image or a symbol that has influenced the way that we think as people. Even for people who don't own televisions or computers are impacted by the image of something frequently. With the progression of technology and our reliance on the media to provide us with information we have unknowingly allowed images to control the way we think.

For most people, a day or even an hour or two without seeing an image would seem almost like a form of sensory deprivation. Images are wired into our brains so that we see certain images even while we sleep. When someone sees a universal symbol of something, they don't even need to think about what it means. That is because we are so familiar with tons of images and see them so frequently that we don't even have to contemplate what they mean. If someone changed the bathroom symbol for the ladies room to a symbol with pants instead of a dress, we would be forced to think about which restroom is designated for which sex.

In a way, I think that the overabundance of images in our world is making us lazy thinkers and we are being manipulated unconciously to think certain things that we otherwise wouldn't at the control of others.At the same time though, an image is a very powerful tool and when used correctly, they inspire us to further our thoughts. That is the purpose of art many graphic designer's work...to inspire us to think further into images and what they mean and develop our own ideas about what a picture is saying.

Imagery and People

Proliferation of imagery is diverse in ads, cartoons, packaging products, TV, magazine and so on. In today’s world we seem to abundantly process so much information that we don't notice that is overpowering us. Thanks to the television we see ads in every channel and cartoons animation. Some images that people see can manipulate you. Children get manipulated from TV commercial all the time by friendly character they seem to know and fond on. These are the types of images that give bad examples to them.

In history Proliferation of imagery has progress for people. From the cave painting walls, to scrolls, Later on we had the invention of books, then the television, and now the internet. With computers and the Internet the information there is limitless. The cyberspace where anything you want to know and have is just of few clicks away. The Internet has evolve over the years. Now people can read news, watch videos, and look at some pictures all in an instant. Today it seem that people seem to fascinated technology. And thats what the future is heading too.