Author: jc8017

            The most interesting element of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is the medium is in comic form. The narrator himself is a character and the information about comics are drawn in a frame by frame style. While the author presents a discourse in history of comics and the semantics of comics, he manages to incorporate it in a comic style fashion. This effect enables readers to feel drawn in the information presented. This style feels like the reader is in a room and a person is given a presentation on understanding comics. Therefore, the reader is not only getting informed about comics but also immersed in the feeling of a comic.

             Comics in the western world has been associated as a “nerd” or “geek” culture. Anyone who reads comics or writes them are wasting their time. Even the author himself has been berated and ridiculed before for pursing a “childish” passion. However, he hopes that by writing this comic, he will allow those who are not familiar with comics to understand them. What is interesting is that he discusses the semantics of word comics, comparing it to other medium such as cartoons. Then he continues to discuss the difference between the message and the messenger. For him, comics are the messenger or medium to carry the message.  What he is implying is that comics have the same legitimacy as say novels or art works. In relation to last week’s reading of The Medium is the Messenger, the stereotype of comics as intended for children is the perfect example of how the medium is the message. The fact that comic has certain stereotypes to it enables people to think a certain way. In this case, comics are associated with childish elements and anyone who reads or writes comics are also stereotyped to be of a certain way. But, by taking a step back, comics are simply just a medium to convey a message. Nevertheless, comics in the past has been part of “nerd” or geek” culture. McCloud hopes to change that mindset by writing this comic.

           The argument “the medium is the message” in which Marshall McLuhan discuss in his article is interesting to consider. What McLuhan seems to hint is that medium itself is what shapes and warps our perception of information rather than content delivered by a medium. For the most part, people today see a medium as a tool to convey messages. What most people, as McLuhan argues, failed to realize is the content of medium is simply another form of media. He describes that the content of written language is speech while speech’s content is in the form of thoughts. Thus, this brings back the argument that the medium is the message itself.

            One of the implications of such an argument is that medium can shape one’s perception. Most of the time, people seem to focus more on the “content” of the medium. Yet the content is tied directly with the medium. For example, in the digital age, social media is a form of medium that allows users to post about their personal lives. In recent years, people have used this platform as a way to highlight the best parts of their lives. Thus, the medium of social media has been associated with people with glamorous lifestyles. This in effect alters the perception that nowadays everyone is doing something unique. The medium of social media has altered this perception along with the content. This argument has some legitimacy in today’s world as people need to understand the implications of a medium. With technology progressing and different mediums coming into existence, each specific medium has an underlying message that controls the actions of humans.

Link: http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~jc8017/Photo/index.html

I first got three images that I would want to put together in a collage. The first thing I had to do was set one of them as a background. The other two I had to use the lasso tool and wand tool to get the figures I want.

While trying to manipulate the images, I found it was difficult to get smooth edges. Thus, the figures in the collage are noticeably grainy. 

Link: http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~jc8017/HW/index.html

One of the major challenges of this assignment was to position the navigation bar in the same line as the content bar. I was able to accomplish this by encapsulating both the content and navigation div under a single div. Then, I applied the flow on the encapsulating div. The rest of the positioning had to be done by either altering the width and margins.

Link: https://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~jc8017/website/index.html

For this website, I used heavily on the div tags to separate the content in my webpage. While the outward appearance does not seem to change if I remove those div tags, this is more a organization purpose. If I choose to change a certain part of the my web page, I will know which specific section through the use of the div tag.

Furthermore, changing the size of an image can be done through the adding extra elements within the img tag. While I have downsized the image on my webpage, I had to find the right ratio of height and width. If one of the other is too long or too short, then the image itself will appear disproportionate.