Author: jl9546

http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~jl9546/about-me-page-2/about-me-page-2.html

I tried the Overlay effect in my portfolio. At first the overlay was not in the middle of the page, so I adjusted the left and right padding of the container to 25% and the overlay was in the middle. also, the overlay was not the same size as my photo, so I adjusted the height. I tried to make the QR code smaller by adjusting its width and height, but failed because I found that only the height could be adjusted and the width couldn’t. 

In my understanding, McLuhan’s view is that the medium has more value than the message at a certain time since it is medium that changes the way that people work, live and think. Is it appropriate to say that “the medium is the message” simply because the medium is more valuable or has more long-lasting meanings? What does “message” stand for? Is message equals to value? Also, message depends on the medium just like thoughts depend on a thinker. But can we say that “the thinker is the thought”? After all, what really matters is thought itself even if it may be proved wrong and be replaced by newer thoughts. What’s the value of a thinker without thoughts? Is a thinker still a thinker without thoughts? Is a medium still a medium without messages? Does this mean that medium can never be separated from message? Can we say that “the medium is the message” because they cannot be separated? Well…I don’t think so. Medium cannot develop without those precious thoughts that contain in the messages. It is never the medium that is pushing the development of human society. It is those ideas in the messages that are pushing us forward.

http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~jl9546/week2/website2.html

I watched a video about css on YouTube before doing this exercise, which helped me a lot. 

I used three paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, who is my favourite painter.  I put his Self-Portrait and Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette under the Starry Night. These two faces, in my opinion, reflect two sides of Van Gogh’s personality–there’s sadness and dreamy and there is also despair and darkness. Starry Night is one of Van Gogh’s most identical works and it can really set the tune for Van Gogh’s whole life. Since the original picture is too large, I screenshot it and send the screenshot version.

Enlarge

When I was little, I enjoyed reading comic books a lot, most of which were Japanese comics such as Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan. As I grew up, comics seem to be getting farther and farther from me. I became more into motion pictures. McCloud’s book reminded me of how imaginary comics can be. They can easily achieve things that couldn’t be achieved by films even with the help of visual effects. Comics generate our imagination. As we are reading a comic book, we see motion, hear sounds, feel the environment (heat of the sunshine, coolness of the breeze……), smell the scent…… All our senses are activated when we are reading comics. And I think that is truly amazing to burry myself in the universe of imagination. Just as McCloud believes, it’s really hard to predict what comics would be like in the future. It is beyond our imagination and at the same time, it is calling for us to break the boundaries of our mind.