Author: Cara Elizabeth Chang

Generally, comics have this stereotype in society that labels it as something bad, or not useful in comparison to books or novels. The generic reasoning as to why comics are not knowledgeable is because it is seen as a book of “fun” or a series of mostly images with very little text, therefore having others believe that there is nothing to truly learn from comics. But McCloud sees comics in a different light: as artwork of another medium. A series of pictures with little to no text leaves the reader to their own imagination on how the artist’s story unfolds. The artist creating the comic may have their own interpretation of their work, but unlike many other artistic mediums, comics are pretty open to interpretation, allowing many different perspectives of the same story to take place. Many people undervalue the worth of comics simply because it is not detailed enough, but in McCloud’s argument, less is more. Pictures offer a narrative point of view, while the color and detail within those images portray the mood of that specific scene. Comics offer much detail, but unlike texts, the detail is within the images. It is a visually captivating art form that gives the reader a chance to become the character within the comic, as McCloud describes. This can be related to our own class, as we all have different art forms that we choose to express ourselves with, where our classmates may interpret our own work differently than how the original artist sees it, but the point of these art forms is that there is no right or wrong answer, because everyone has their own opinion and their own way of interpreting certain components of art. Comics give plenty of room for one’s imagination and creative side to explore and venture, whereas typical books or texts are so defined to the point that there is no room for the reader to form their own thoughts on the piece they are studying. No two people are the same in regards that their interpretations of one single art form would be identical, because the way that one person views a certain color, expression, or motion, will not be the same as another individual. I believe that within this class, similarly, we as students are able to create anything we feel expresses our own creative side, able to receive multiple perspectives on our own work. 

this is the link to my portfolio site:

http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~cec717/Portfolio/portfoliosite.html

http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~cec717/week1/index.html 

The required reading “Long Live the Web” relates highly to our course because we are both discovering the freedom of a platform that can create sites on the web as a way to express one’s creative ideas. Using the web can be connected to millions of other sites, which is something that we are already learning by experimenting with the fundamentals of HTML. Like speech, everyone should have the right to express their inner thoughts, which can be mapped out into one single platform that is a website for all to see. People have the chance to browse around each component of a site, giving various perspectives on how the creator of the site wishes for their site to be seen. To create a basic site, like it discusses in the article, it only requires three fundamental components: writing a page in HTML format, naming it with a URI convention, and serving it up on the internet with an HTTP.  These are all things that will be covered in our own class, relating it to Lee’s article. Any website is universal to the world, and there are no barriers from viewing a creator’s site. The Web is essentially one large platform for people’s art, containing any type of information, being uploaded for the whole world to see. Because the web is so open ended, the possibility for innovation is endless for anyone and everyone. Websites are not locked like apps, because apps, on one hand, limits the user to x amount of options, whereas sites on the other hand, can be linked to multiple other sites, allowing the user to jump from one location to the other. The other article, “A Network of Fragments”, educates the reader by informing them that their internet/wireless connection to the world is not solely based from large buildings that supply these resources. The internet does not exist in just one location, but rather, in constant motion, like their users. As Burrington says, the internet comes in fragments. Similar to what we learned in class, images do not transfer as a whole piece, but instead, get divided into small bits and pieces, are rearranged, and then put back into order once it reaches its final destination which is, the user’s screen. These images, videos, etc, are also, like Burrington says, fragmented just like the internet. There is a common misconception that these resources come in whole forms, but the matter of fact is that they are highly segmented and apart from one another in the process of transmission. The internet lives underground and in the ocean, never just in one single location such as a building. The internet lives just as we do, always on the move, whether that be from a tower, underneath the highways that we drive over, or beneath the seas in which we sail.