Monday, January 17, 2011

Perceiving Media

When I read this first chapter I could greatly relate to the various thought-provoking media that is contained there. In Ode to an Orange one sees that description of every detail of an object (in this case an Orange, obviously) will create different feelings, thoughts, and memories depending on each individual reading the piece. When I read this I thought of my experiences with an orange, especially those that were in childhood. I thought about how it was when I was a kid and would taste an orange for the first time. The description the author uses becomes similar to that experience because I also ate oranges and never would they not squirt out juice as the piece says. This is another way we can all analyze media, using reference to our own experience and going back to the piece so it becomes more relatable to us. The more description one adds to a piece the more real it becomes to the audience or reader. 

The Wu Family photograph seemed very interesting to me. I don't think I've seen a picture like it before.  I thought about what the purpose was for this. I thought it was just the way these people lived with so many things they couldn't hold them all in their house, until I read the facts about the photo and what it really was about. The same thing happened when I saw the pictures Mom Ironing and Central Savings. In the first, I thought it was people that mean something to the photographer or are related to her experience because there is so much detailed contained in it. As I look at it I feel there is a sense of familiarity because my house can sometimes be a place like this, mom irons while the kids watch TV or do something that is part of their age like listen to music, read an interesting magazine, etc. I was brought back to my experience so I can determine this. Surely enough, when I read what it was about it said that the photographer's purpose was to capture a familiar experience in her life growing up in New York. The second was really surprising; I found out that it was not an actual photograph. It seems very realistic, and that goes back to the details the painter put on canvas. There is much to take in, but the details are very well portrayed. I would go back to pictures I would see in the past where the camera creates the illusion of things coming together like that. So it had me fooled until I read it was not a photograph. 

-Melissa Marquez

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