Jessie Nie/ 失控（Out of control）/Tizzy T

 Concept and Design

I mainly want to express a feeling of being out of control and I design the main part as something exploded, which consists of some “w” in the same shape. And I use a lot of “I” which are very narrow in width to enhance the feeling of loss of control. Then I use several “x” to create the sense of falling which is also a kind of loss of control. And the main image is divided into two parts of black and white, and there is a concept of the collision inside. For the bottom part, I use some white designs, which are soft and rhythmic, inside the black background, and this represents the rest part of this song which is not that burst and more rhythmic.

The gestalt theories I applied are similarity ，closure. I applied many same letters to compose my work, such as the “w” for the main image and the “I” and “x” as I mentioned. For the closure, I create some “v” that are not filled fully. And from the bottom to the top, the

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change of background color creates a flow of emotional change.

Process

The most significant step I have taken is the design of the main part of this project which consists of several “w” and is like something exploded and moving. This is the most essential part I used to express the feeling of loss of control and is also the core of this design. Every line seems the same, but they are arranged at different angles.

I deem that I partly convey the feeling of being out of control in a successful way. But there are still a lot of problems that remain in my project. While I convey the feeling I intended to successfully, the style of the design is a little bit messy, and according to the feedback of some viewers, when they first saw this picture, they don’t usually have the idea of where to look first. And it is crucial to have the sense of composition which this work lacks. I would better use variation and apply more theories to make the main part and use lines to connect the separated parts.

Conclusion

If I have more time, I will re-arrange every part of this work to make the main part clear and not that messy. And to focus on the composition more, to let different parts connect but easy to be recognized at the same time. Use more variation to add vibrancy to this design as well.

1. What does Ritchin mean with the “fluidity of the digital”? Give an example of digital imaging/digital photography that exemplifies this.

According to Ritchin, “the fluidity of the digital” means that digital stuff is easy to change and spread. For instance, since digital images can be easily altered，the myth of photographic veracity was being utilized more frequently by those in power to establish their own versions of themselves and events. Therefore，the authenticity of digital images is replaced by fluidity. Additionally, the digital stuff spreads very fast, reaches a wide audience, and has a big impact.

2. Reflect on the extent to which photography is capable of capturing reality; and compare it to other media (technology) (e.g., text, video, virtual reality, books).

Compared to other media, photography captures reality to a greater extent. It records images of what is happening right now, therefore it has greater authenticity. It provides much more information than text, and it’s harder to make fake images while the text is easy to spread false news by mistake or on purpose, though nowadays photos are also easier to change. When compared with videos, photography is not that continuous，and not able to catch the whole process. Photography is a digital form about one moment while the video is about a period. It takes time to watch a video but it’s intuitive to see a photo in less than one second. When it comes to books, it’s essential to recognize the type of the book. Some books can capture and record reality while some books are just fictional that have no reference value.

All in all, photographs have a great ability to capture reality, but only if they have not been altered.

That’s all for my brief understanding of the 2 questions related to this book.

The thing we would like to explain to the aliens is how humans ride a bicycle. We mainly use two forms which are pictures and videos to help them comprehend.

For the picture part

First, we would like to draw the bicycle image. We first want to draw the separated parts of a bicycle. The brick, the saddle, the front wheel, the back wheel, and the pedals are the five parts we draw separately which are also the most important compositions of a bike. Then, we draw a complete bicycle shape to show how these compositions connect to be a vehicle. Since the image is a plane, we will then draw bicycles from several different angles to let them better understand what a three-dimensional bicycle looks like.

Second, we draw a human body to let them know what humans look like.

Third, after we use images to explain the structures and appearances of both a bicycle and a human body, we draw steps of how a person gets on the bike and starts riding. We use different images to draw different steps. The first step is the person holds the handlebars of the bicycle, and the second, the person straddled the bicycle seat. Then, the person puts his/her feet on the pedals. The three steps are something a person needs to do before bike riding.

Then we draw an overall picture of a person riding a bike, we use some signals to show the movement.

The picture can show the detailed compositions of a bicycle and a human body, and how they connect and cooperate to move from one place to another. But to better and vividly understand how the time flows and the bicycle moves, we would like to then provide a video.

For the video part

We plan to provide a bike riding tutorial video that we found on the internet. In this video, a person is first showing the different compositions of the bicycle; then he gets on the bike and starts to ride. He rode slowly for some distance so that the aliens can better comprehend how the whole process of riding a bike is. With the form of a video, where each step has its own strict order, and time shows in a linear way, aliens can better understand the movement of time.

By combining the images with the video, the aliens could understand the structure of the bicycle and its effect on people well, as well as the movement of time implied in it.

• How do aliens in the story language and communication style different from the human language (oral, pictographic, phonetic, etc.)?

First, in regard to their oral and written language. Their (the aliens’) oral language sounds like a staggered current sound, and because they need to use sound to express the meaning, so using oral language takes much longer time than the written one. They prefer to use written language which is much more effective to them. 

This is totally different from human language habits. It’s convenient for us to speak, and writing usually takes us more time.

Second, their written language is a kind of non-linear arrangement of text. They know what will happen in the future, so they don’t use the letters to form words and sentences. They make the whole “text” into a picture and output the “text” at the same time. 

Our human language all consists of different letters, words, and sentences. We use different small parts to form the whole meaning, while they just use an entire visual text.

To sum up, the aliens’ written language is spatial which transcends the concept of time, and ours’ is linear language which is limited compared to theirs.

• How does the physical structure of our body inform the way we communicate? How about the aliens?

The structure of the human body gives us the ability to speak which is the main way we communicate, and also we apply a more formal way to communicate which is writing. Speaking can give quick and direct information to others and writing can keep the information for a longer time which makes remote communication possible for us. Mainly, for the written language, we write on the paper or type due to the physical structure of our body.

For the aliens, because it looks like a barrel suspended at the intersection of seven limbs, which is radially symmetric, and any of its limbs could serve as an arm or a leg. They use four legs to walk and there are three non-adjacent arms at their sides. They have more body parts than us, and this equips them to use more ways to communicate. And that also could be a reason for why they use written language more frequently.

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