Author: Yumin Cai

Final Version

Sources

Working Process

Step 1

Get the objects I want.

Step 2  

Adjust the position of the objects, eg, the cat, twist the road with transformation tools.

Step 3

Put them together to get the picture I want.

Step 4

Add some shadow, edit the picture. And finished!

Screenshots of the layers:

Reflection & conclusion

It’s my first to use photoshop and thanks to the tutorial online as well as the help of my classmates, though I still not get the final version as what I hope 100%, I still find I learned something and the process is quite fun! Instead of the quick select tool and magic pen, I found that mask would also be a good way to integrate different pictures.

Several steps and skills to improve in the future:

The way to adjust the position and shape of the objects. As I initially would like to add some foggy effect but failed, it’s also a good chance to learn how to do it. Learn how to use panels to get object selected (as the cat’s fur were not selected completed).

As Mcluhan gives out his idea in his book that “the medium is the message”, he argues that the medium itself is more important than the so-called information it conveys, which means the effect of the medium itself should be taken seriously rather than the “content” it carries. He brings us a brand new view of the“medium” and “message” to our culture.

 According to the traditional dominant view, as Mcluhan describes, “A chicken is an egg’s idea for getting more eggs” (157). Nothing is meaningful beyond the medium — the message transferring machine. However, this discourse definitely fails to be true, as the examples of existing in the current age prove it well. The rapid revolution of technology nowadays refreshed the way and the container of the information quickly. “If it works, it’s obsolete” (159) The most popular medium (eg. smartphones, wi-fi…) even do not exist ten years ago. People’s habits and minds of receiving the information has been totally changed compared with before. This just fits Mcluhan’s thought that the medium itself is also a kind of message that greatly influences human society and our culture. This idea forces us to review the history of the medium culture and also its relationship to the general human history: ratio, as well as the internet, turn our reception of information from five senses into intangible waves and data; printing changes the weight of visual sense in the culture learning, as a result, several human philosophy theories have been gradually changed: individualism, nationalism…; TV provoked the revolution of sounds and touch…As for today, for instance, the AR and VR redefine the idea of reality and virtuality…The transition of the medium has always been closely tied with the way of human thinking. “Interaction”, “visualization”, “internet”… all of these new concepts burst in the new age of human civilization with the constant new inventions of the medium.

Though it’s not an easy topic to make clear the complex idea that how to analyze the effect that medium has on the culture transformation. It’s still necessary for us to think about what’s beyond these mediums and where will they lead us to.

Here is the link to my about_me pages:

https://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~yc2966/week01/about.html

I’m sorry for the link above does not truly work as there’s unknown error appearing and I’m still working on this problem.

The correct file should be like this:

about page

who am I

where do I from

know more(joking page 404)

Basically, I include four pages in this assignment: about(first) page with links to the other three, who am I page to introduce my basic information and hobbies with some pictures, where do I from to introduce my hometown, and know more page to make a 404 joke. Each subpage contains a link to go back to the about page.

“Long Live the Web” by Tim Berners-Lee let me reconsider about the internet: like, should we regard the internet as a new form of the human society in the modern world or simply a tool for information?

It’s very interesting to learn how does “internet” and “web” be different from each other, as the web is applied for all kinds of uses and is only accessible with the internet, which is an open supporting system. Making clear of this concept would be important for us to understand how the internet function. Just like Berners Lee emphasizes “freedom” of the web and internet, which means “Freedom from being snooped on, filtered, censored and disconnected” (82). Although we have free access to the internet, the truth is that we are actually influenced or even controlled by some important figures such as the government or some internet related companies. Just like the examples that Lee argues in the article: Apple’s “itunes:” replacing “https:” or information monitoring by the government… In fact, similar examples are not hard to find besides the mentioned ones in the article. For instance, the isolation of internet and web services in China would be a famous case to support this argument. The Internet has no longer been a place of freedom.

However, comparing with the universal standard for free internet that Lee supports, my consideration is that how we define or, in other words, to regard the internet for the current and future society. Following Lee’s logic, the internet still plays the role of an information exchanging tool rather than a new form of human society. Like it is described in “A Network of Fragments”, the effect of the internet exists everywhere in our life. Also as Lee says, the internet is an open way for us to access the web where information is available for communication. The way that the internet deal with data and information just changed our traditional view of social activities and understanding of the world. It has deeply rooted in the current world, which makes it form up part of the essence of modern culture. Should it be still just a tool? If the internet is a tool, then we’ll probably set up proper rules to regulate its usage. But if not, then fragmented methods like laws to protect privacy or allocation for free speech would never be enough to regulate culture or society.

Fiber lines, mobile phone apps or “http:” websites; physical or intangible…the way that internet appears do not really matter. The internet will not die, however, “what would it be” and “what would we human be” are the questions that matter. Thus, I think the question I asked, in the beginning, is quite important for us to think about is not only because we are now sitting in comm lab, but also because we are now living in a culture that will die without internet.