#lin pai

Sofrware Takes Command

-Cultural software (p20)

German media and literary theorist Friedrich Kittler wrote that students today should know at least two software languages: only “then they’ll be able to say something about what ‘culture’ is at the moment.”

Somehow I think he is right because the software has gradually become the medium of people life, and it is always better to know how our present life is formed. Educational institutions throughout the world seem also agree with the theory. At least in Taiwan, the government has planned to add software language in elementary and junior high schools’ general education syllabus and it will be conducted in 2018.

-Digital culture tends to modularize content. (p25) Though it seems isn’t the main point that the author discusses, I still think the fact is interesting because I haven’t thought of (or realized) it before. Especially, the users such as me are so easily to obey and be content with the only formats and forms that are provided by the software. Plus, I guess the popularity of the using of templates is based on the same logic and I assume it will lead to inflexibility and less fun. For instance, the OSP website takes me some time to explore its website pages because the website designer apparently didn't use the popular templates offered by Wordpress or something else which I am really familiar with.  

- Classic communication studies and cultural studies both took for granted that the message was still something complete and definite. (p35) This little point is also interesting to me because it shows that the human behavior of using medium and receiving content have changed and yet those studies perceive that the characteristics of the message and the way people receive the message are still in the old way. As a designer that is also a sort of content (message) producers, this significant change is worth remembering.    

-“Secret history” of culture software (p39-) The fact is interesting and the author’s explanation of the fact is interesting and convincing as well. In my opinion, one reason why the history of this cultural software is missing, comparing with the rememberable history of the printing press, perspective, cinema, modern architecture, modern dance and motion graphics, is because the cultural software is more like the tool rather than the content to most of the people. It serves as a kind of functional and practical tool rather than something is noble enough that people want to learn its history actively. And that is why people won’t easily pay money to the old version of the cultural software.

OSP.

Open source actually is a quite new thing to me and I originally think it is only used in programming and for programmers. So it is really informative for me to know that there is also an open source platform for graphic design; and I originally think open source community is something that the participants of it are all secretly uploading, downloading and pasting materials as well, so it is surprising for me to know the scale of the OSP is beyond my expectation.  

In Defense of the Poor Image 

This article takes me much time to understand it because there are so many unfamiliar people names and academic concepts such as neoliberal radicalization（新自由主義激化）, culture as commodity（文化消費）, visual bonds（視覺連線）, nation states（民族國家）, The Aesthetics of Resistance and the list can go on and on. Even I found a Chinese version*, I still need to reread it several times for better (not fully) comprehension.

Before the content itself, I am more interested in the purpose of the article. The title is In Defense of Poor Image and thus I guess the aim of the article is to argue with the devaluation or misunderstanding toward Poor Image. Maybe every time when new things and models come out, there are new values need to be recognized and set a new standard. The author seems to want to persuade his audience those new values of poor image such as the higher speed ( instead of much matter ), dematerialization（去物質化）, de-stratification（去階層化）, file sharing, Resurrection（復活）of rare or marginalized images, triggering the production of independent images and experimental films, the privatization（私有化）and participation of media productions and it’s popularization. I wonder if he success or not, because we are exactly in the age crowded with poor images and I haven’t recognized those features as “values” but more about convenience.

Besides, I guess the concepts and the phenomenon of poor image response to post-modernism?

-Dematerialization

“The history of conceptual art describes this dematerialization of the art object first as a resistant move against the fetish value of visibility. Then, however, the dematerialized art object turns out to be perfectly adapted to the semanticization of capital, and thus to the conceptual turn of capitalism.”

One thing, I have never thought about the liking of fine images can be related to the fetish（拜物） value of visibility. And I think it is good to understand the theories behind the phenomenon. Another thing, I understand that the author wants to compare the similar situation of Poor Image with conceptual art but I cannot fully understand how poor image integrates with the information capitalism（資訊資本主義 ）. Does it mean that the existence of poor image itself shows that it integrates successfully in the information capitalism?

*Chinese translation : http://etat-heath.blogspot.com/2011/10/hito-steyerl.html

The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading

- Downloading, uploading and cultural diabetes People downloading more than uploading which in terms of receiving more than providing, consuming more than and producing. Based on the book, the negative consequence of the Imbalance between consumption and uploading turns out to be cultural diabetes. The pyramid of production still remains. True. And I guess the pyramid will keep remaining. It is really obvious because the production of anything especially culture products requires something more than productive tools. The ownership of tools is merely a threshold. I remember that the author states that the cause of the imbalance is due to the previous television period. Nevertheless, I also think the problem is not about what type is the culture machine, but more about who is the one owns the productive tool and fulfill the conditions to produce at the same time.    

-Slow Food movement This section is informative to me because now I finally know that the goal of the movement is against the concept of food as a commodity not just only something like ”Let’s eat healthier and slower!” movement. I guess it is the inevitable destiny that everything in the consumer society can be a sort of commodity. Or if the thing cannot be a commodity and then it will gradually extinguish?  

@About the book

It looks like the Internet/ computer version of The Medium is Massage, and especially in its editorial design and the way authors expresses their ideas. It is less cool to see the same method twice. Besides, I would say the density of the content is less than The Medium is Massage. But maybe authors just do it on purpose because depth may not be the feature of the generation that The Age of Earthquakes refers to.

@Points which interest me

-Stories and Linear perception

Does it mean people lives are no longer linear and sequential because of the Internet? The statements remind me of the changes of advertisement. At the age of TV, the medium of the advertisement was to tell a good story. And now it seems storytelling is not that important and dominant in the nowadays advertisement. I am not sure if the television or other linear mediums caused the custom, need, and liking of stories or not. Somehow I feel the young people don’t like to watch stories that much comparing with the earlier generation. But maybe my feeling comes from the much more diverse choices of entertainment in the present time and watching stories is just a choice.

-Memory and the Internet

“But the more you offload your memories onto hard drives and into the Cloud, the more your memory becomes, in a very real sense, artificial. Technically, someone who spends all day in front of a screen has no memories of their own except for going to the fridge for a Coke .”

I don’t fully understand the connection between two sentences. I am not sure if the statements mean to put memory into some kind of formats on the Internet, and the action makes the memories artificial. In my opinion, memories are always artificial in fact. But the statements are still interesting to me. And I do agree that if I spend all day in front of the screen, I have no memory of that day. I guess it is because the sense of time changes when we use the Internet or it is because the memory is too flat to remember.

-Offline=Loneliness?

Actually, I think the more time I spend on the Internet, the more I feel alone. Maybe the loneliness relates to the no memory topic. I think the reason why people don’t want to disconnect from the Internet is because it keeps them from boredom. And the feeling of boredom is similar to dead.

-Individual

@About the Book

I like the book, especially my intuition and sensory side like the way the book was presented and designed. The book was like some kind of prediction, announcement, murmur or a collection of poems. The words implied something and the images were strong. Though the book was released almost 50 years ago, the ideas in the book seemed still could apply to nowadays society.

@Specific points which are interesting or questioning

－Is medium more powerful than content?

The title of the book reminded me of the relationship between form and content in artworks. In terms of artworks, the form changes the content of an artwork and vice versa. There seems to be an equal mark between the formula of arts. However, based on the evidence which the author showed us, it were the medium that reformed the content and so did the outlook of the world.  In my opinion, this is probably because physical objects are still a big matter in the present society.

－Hear and See, Pre-alphabet World, Printing World, and Electronic World This topic was extremely informative and inspiring!!! I didn't know that in the tribe era people mainly used acoustic communication until people started to write down words and thus transferring into a whole new way of living, thinking and viewing the world. Besides, I think the theory greatly explains why I am more inclined to express myself by writing instead of speaking. That is because I am really a resident of the visual world, to me, writing can force me to express my points rationally and continuously. The topic demonstrated how the leading medium formed a society. The invention of alphabet created a linear and rational world. The popularity of printing medium encouraged isolation which probably led to individualism and specialization. On the other hand, in the electronic world people retake their acoustic sensor and balance with their visual disposition. The way Internet and television conveys message also created a new social structure different from the era of printing.

The Medium is the Message, p156

I really like the last two pages of the book as well and they indeed were the utmost proper ending to me. One of the pages clearly displayed a scene of a conversation between residents from two different worlds: the son from TV world was telling his Dad from the printing world the changes of the society and asking him to join the new world.    

@About the author and the book

I admire the self-awareness and sense of social responsibility that the author has. He knew that he and his audiences all come from a relatively privileged culture and background, and he pointed it out several times in the introduction of the book. I suppose that he did it in order to show readers that they should also be mindful of the existence of their own ideology and try to be neutral while reading the book. Additionally, as a book title with design,  just as he said in the last paragraph of the introduction, objectivity and universality in design are the assumptions in Western design education. I believe the assumptions are trusted undoubtedly and naively by many young design pupils such as myself. I think these assumptions are a form of ideology as well. Now he uses the book and those amazing examples to debunk these assumptions and prevent designers from being trapped in a single ideology, which is dangerous nowadays.

@Examples that attract me

The author organized examples by design elements, and almost every category presents design works which interest me a lot. I would like to give my responses to those works and they are as follows.

In the Language and Typography chapter, I am especially drawn by the examples which demonstrate the obstacles and misinterpretations when western international brands imported their brand and products into other cultures which do not share the same or similar language. Because in the generation of globalization and the consumer society, those problems are really practical and would directly impact on the image and income of an international firm. Moreover, the book also provides workable solutions to the problem. That is, to cooperate with local design companies and emphasize the importance of design research and testing before design. These examples show the powerful influence of the improper visual communication and designers should be aware of it.

The Politics of Design, Language and Typography (p58)

As for the Color and Contrast chapter, the section of Colour and Gender answered a question I had had for a long time since I was a little girl. Plus, the answer also surprised me that it was pink representing boys and blue for girls originally until the market research in U.S. reversed the combinations in the 1940s. And I am surprised that the customers were so easily manipulated in the case. I assume that even nowadays, there are still many Taiwanese parents would dress their babies in the “right” color with the corresponding gender.

The Politics of Design, Colour and Gender  (p80)

The third example is about Symbol and Icons. The section Voting for a Clock or an Airplane showed several examples about illiteracy and how to vote in  illiterate circumstances. Those examples are somehow ridiculous to me. It is a paradox that illiterates couldn’t even read the policies proposed by candidates, and I am not sure if they had enough money to buy radio or television since they could hardly afford education. I bet if the parties spent more time and money on education and decreasing illiteracy population, there were no need for them to specially design the ballot for illiterates. But I guess the cost of popularizing education is far more than designing a good ballot, and that is why these examples existed.

The Politics of Design, Voting for a Clock or an Airplane  (p146)

The last example is about Information Graphics. The section Misinformation Graphics is also the most interesting part for me in the book, because those examples manifested the techniques that the designer may use to alter the truth and mislead audiences. I have not known that infographic design has such a magic power till I see those pictures. If it is necessary, I may want to utilize these evil skills some day, as a design student; on the other hand, as a visual audience among daily life, those examples prevent us from being misinformed by the same methods and I would like to see more samples about the topic.