Spore-ality

The "long zoom" is a topic I find myself pondering quite frequently. Educational programs on the Discovery channel about the universe have always fascinated me, and I think this is because I really just can't fully process the scale of it. Will Wright, a video game designer, is creating a game called Spore that takes place on a universe-size scale. In his eyes, Wright says he believes that "the game deserves to be seen as a work of art first and foremost, a way of seeing and making sense of the world." This is a fascinating way to look at a video game. With so many video games being labeled as destructive and time-wasting, Spore taking on the identity of a work of art is unheard of, especially when thinking of the game as a combination of scientific theories and entertainment.

What makes this game so unique is the idea that you can create any creature your imagination can come up with and send him out into the universe to try and survive. Establishing new homes on different planets, flying spaceships through the cosmos, interacting with other creatures in the game; their are no limits to the possibilities. Wright describes it as "the computer as an amplifier of your imagination." In a society where creativity and imagination have fallen by the wayside to games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, this opens up a whole new realm of an experience that is both educational and addicting.

Wright says the beauty of Spore lies in the fact that it is "massively single player." Most games that are popular right now rely on other players logged in to a common network that can interact with each other. Spore allows you to be with other creatures that people have created, but they are fully automated. Your character is out there on his own, not at the mercy of the whim of another player. What makes this so "massively single player" is the powers of 10 train of thought. The scale to which your creature lives is similar to the scale in which we as humans live. The game instills a sense of power because we have seen the scale of the universe in which the game takes place, but because of the scale, it can, in a way, make players feel insignificant.

In our digital culture, the universality of this game is what is going to take it to new heights. Players of all ages can enjoy the game equally, and for different reasons. Spore shows us the "fragility of life, connection between micro and macro scales, complex ecosystems and food webs, the impact of new technology on social systems," and all these aspects culminate into a very real experience. The long zoom perspective is impossible for us to fully grasp, but it is important for us to give it our best shot.

Art can be a manipulative tool, but what constitutes something as art? In Victor Burgin's essay Art, common sense and photography, he investigates the meanings people construe to art. He gives an example of people questioning cultures different from their own. Why is it that in America, we don't question things like a "no shirt, no shoes, no service" policy. In other cultures, it may be completely acceptable to walk into a store wearing nothing but pants and buy whatever you like. It is just the way things are, so we don't question it. This can be a problem when thinking in the arena of art. "Art with an ideological slant can be manipulative," Burgin says. If someone does not take a critical stance when viewing a work of art or a photograph with an intended message of ideology, then they themselves can adopt the philosophy as their own. In terms of photography, it seems that it would be difficult for someone to construe meanings out of something that is simply a reproduction of what the eye can see. However, a photo is a complex of signs used to communicate a message. "While the picture before us may have depended on luck for its existence, it does not depend upon luck, or talent, for its meaning." An image can carry a large number of meanings, especially when it is parodied with linguistics. This is especially apparent in advertising. Most advertisements contain some sort of visual basis, be it a photograph or a work of art, along with words for anchorage. A cigarette ad depicting a lovely mountain scene with a river running through the valley suggests much more than what is actually behind the product they are selling. A cigarette may be described as "cool as a mountain stream," but this statement is deceptive. Nowhere on the advertisement would the company like to put a slogan such as "deadlier than car accidents" even though that is another aspect of the product. The ad can "suggest pleasure while rejecting that of unwholesomeness," as Burgin says. Photographs and other forms of art, to put it plainly, need to be taken with a grain of salt. Burgin sums up his essay with the words "We need to treat the photographic image as an occasion for skepticism and questioning, not as a source of hypnosis." It is easy to be captivated by the beauty of an image, but beauty alone is not justice for unwilling persuasion.

Big Brother: Panopticism

The idea of the Panopticon is fascinating as much as it is disturbing. From the perspective of a sane human being, being enclosed in such a structure would certainly challenge the person to maintain sanity. Constantly knowing that at any moment, someone could be watching you while you are unable to watch back. As terrible as this situation may seem, digital advancements have enabled high forces all over the world to engage in the practice of panopticism. "our society is one not of spectacle, but of surveillance" says Foucault. With closed circuit cameras being installed in major cities all over the world, how is this different from being subjected to the Panopticon? At any moment, an employee of the state could be watching every move you make. Some cities even have the ability to speak through a loud speaker by the camera to penalize wrong-doers. For many reasons, this sounds like a good idea. The only reason the FBI was able to track down the Times Square car bomber was through CCTV cameras installed on the street corner. But how far are we willing to let this kind of surveillance go to give up our right to privacy? These CCTV cameras do not extend behind closed doors, but there is still surveillance thanks to digital technology. Every time I go on the Internet, a record is made of where I went, what I did there, and how long I was there for. With all the social networking sites available, there is no reason that if the powers that be were so inclined, they could find out any little detail of my life. This type of tracking was no possible before our societies transition to a digital culture. People were so fast to embrace all these new technologies when they first came out, but now many are questioning whether or not this really was for the best. Digital culture has changed the way we live, but it has also taken away some of our privacy. Foucault says prisoners of the Panopticon were like actors constantly visible on a stage presented to the guard in the tower. A lot of similarities can be drawn between panopticism and our countries current surveillance capabilities. All of this surveillance is simply a means to ensure the hierarchy of power. One who does no wrong is still subject to abuses of this power, and as we have seen from instances like the school in Pennsylvania who gave out laptops installed with web cams to students and proceeded to watch the students at home, things can get ugly. Privacy is a basic right, and although digital culture has been a blessing, for the most part, privacy has been lost.

Panopticon, The Big Brother of Prisons

Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon Prison, may well have been born from the idea of syndics during the black plague in Europe. Michel Focault explains how this system was put into place and how it worked when the plague was discovered in a population in the opening paragraph of his essay “Panopticism”.

“First, a strict spatial partitioning: the closing of the town and its outlying districts, a prohibition to leave the town on pain of death , the killing of all stray animals; the division of the town into distinct quarters, each governed by an intendant. Each street is placed under the authority of a syndic, who keeps it under surveillance; if he leaves the street, he will be condemned to death. On the appointed day, everyone is ordered to stay indoors; it is forbidden to leave on pain of death. The syndic himself comes to lock the door of each house from the outside; he takes the key with him and hands it over to the intendant of the quarter…” (61).

The idea behind the lockdowns was fear and threat of death. Syndics may not have even been present during some of the times when stepping outside was forbidden, but for fear of being killed, the townsfolk never took the chance to venture outside to find out whether or not the syndics were actually there. This is the same idea behind Bentham’s Panopticon Prison, which is essentially the “Big Brother” of all prisons.

The prison is described as having “at the periphery, and annular building; at the centre, a tower; this tower is pierced with wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring; the perihperic building is divided into cells, each of which extends the whole width of the building; they have two windows, one on the inside, corresponding to the windows of the tower, the other on the outside, allows the light to cross the cell from one end to the other” (63). The idea was to place inmates in all of the cells and light them, while only putting one watchman in the tower, whom the inmates cannot see. It is the theory that the constant light and fear of being exposed will prevent bad behavior and actually keep the inmates in their cells because they have no idea how many watchmen or people can see their actions. It was the same idea with the syndics in the time of the plague. Townsfolk simply listened to the rules for fear of being seen, even if they couldn’t see the syndics, they never wanted to take the chance that they were there and would catch them sneaking out. As Focault describes it, “Visibility is a trap” (64).

Society's Panopticon

The concepts that eventually led to the creation of the Panopticon prison may have had their origins in the era of the black plague. When the plague was seen in a town, the residents would be forbidden to evacuate – with the consequence of death if disobeyed. Besides that, the residents would often be subjected to a lockdown, in which they were not allowed to go outside their own homes. Syndics kept watch over every street, and anyone they caught trying to venture outside their house was killed. The syndics may not have been on constant guard during these lockdowns, but the townspeople could not risk taking a step out of their homes for fear that a syndic would happen to be watching.

This strategy of basing fear on the notion of being watched is exactly how Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon prison worked. The prison was designed so that the levels of cells ran in a ring around a large tower where the guards were. The prisoners would be clearly seen from the tower, but, using backlighting, the effect was created of the prisoners being unable to see clearly whether or not anyone was actually in the tower. As Foucault states in his essay “Panopticism,” the prisoner “is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication.” The prisoners, in this position, became very conscious of a lack of personal power. In the Panopticon, the prisoners never needed chains, bars, or heavy locks to keep them docile and in their cells – the threat of being watched was enough. This, along with a decreased need for guards, made the Panopticon prison very efficient.

The Panopticon design relates to today’s society in that people often are under some kind of surveillance. With today’s technology, cameras have gotten smaller and more precise, and images are heavily relied upon. Our computers act also in a way that is similar to the Panopticon; most of us have been warned that our activities online are being monitored – we all see this when we get pop-up adds on our computers advertising items that we had previously searched for.

Is this surveillance causing a similar response as that in the Panopticon prison? Would people behave differently if they weren’t reminded that their actions may be recorded? There are positive benefits that come out of the knowledge that people are being watched. Stores that set out security cameras where people are sure to see them tend to have fewer shoplifters – the cameras remind the customers that they are seen. But, are there negative consequences, also? Our country places much emphasis on being seen. Most U.S. citizens carry at least one form of identification with their picture on it. In a way, it seems like your picture proves your existence as a citizen. Authorities frequently use pictures to identify people; at routine traffic stops, the police officer will first ask to see a driver’s license, and will then check the picture to make sure you are who you are supposed to be. As a citizen, your face is in various records so that you can be identified. This is not as extreme as the Panopticon prison, but sometimes it is disconcerting to know that you are always seen.

Wikipedia the Network

In Radan Martinec and Teho van Leeuwen’s article “The Language of New Media Design: Theory and Practice”, they lay out the five website structures that are often seen on today’s internet. They include the given and new, ideal and real, star, tree, and network. Though some are more commonly used than others, certain websites may even choose to use one or more of these layouts together to create a complex and visually interesting site for their visitors.

The network is the most complicated of the designs, though it may incorporate some of the other layouts within its links and informational pages. It is designed to present the view with as much information as it can, which is not always centralized around a starting point and does not always follow linear hierarchies. It instead connects bits of information that are related to one another via links, which connects that information to still more related content, in an seemingly unending web of linked connections.

Wikipedia, as we discussed in our webcam lecture, is a good example of the network layout. It consists of not only the network models, but also the star model on its opening page, which features a fractured globe surrounded by language links for the viewer to choose from. This centralized image surrounded by the links forms a bond between the image and the things around it. It represents the site itself and all the languages it can be accessed in, even without explaining this connection.

When someone accesses a piece of information on the site itself, say they are researching ponies and horses, a linear model page is brought up, with words highlighted in blue. These are the links that define a network. They connect the immediate search page to other related information that may be explained further on another page. For example, one may research ponies and find a link to a certain sport in which ponies are participants such as polo. From the page on polo, a link may appear to the British Monarchy who are avid polo players, and take the viewer to a page about the British Monarchy. This is the essential function of the network, to connect pages to display the greatest amount of information in not always a linear, centralized or hierarchical structure.

Reality Isn't Always Real

In Norman Bryson’s “The Natural Attitude”, he quotes an old anecdote, which says:

“The contemporaries and rivals of Zeuxis were Timanthes, Androcydes, Eupompus, Parrhasius. This last, it is recorded, entered into a competition with Zeuxis. Zeuxis produced a picture of grapes so dexterously represented that birds began to fly down to eat them from the painted vine. Whereupon Parrhasius designed so lifelike a picture of a curtain that Zeuxis, proud of the verdict of the birds, requested that the curtain should now be drawn back and the picture displayed. When he realized his mistake, with a modesty that did him honor, he yielded up the palm, saying that whereas he had managed to deceive only birds, Parrhasius had deceived an artist” (Bryson)

This, in essence, sums up his article very nicely. He focuses on how painters, like the two rivals in the story, long strove to outdo each other by presenting the world as we saw it in everyday life, and whoever could paint reality the most perfectly was often yielded to by their rivals as the best painter. But, as the centuries stretched on, an emphasis was placed on painters such as Picasso, who didn’t paint reality, and if he did, it was a skewed view which made interpretations of the image different from that of a painting presenting a landscape.

All of this adds up to how, if images are credited with attempting to present reality, how we often give them great sway in society, how we take what we see as what we get. This is especially prevalent in tabloids or gossips magazines. If a celebrity is seen with a sweatshirt that perhaps has a bulge in the front, they are determined to be pregnant, even without finding out the facts, because images are credited with representing reality. There can be a lot of issues with seeing images as total reality, as one can imagine. And there is also the artist or journalist’s influence to be considered. Perhaps the photo was taken from a specific view to get across the message the taker wanted the viewer to see, not the actual reality.

Though the artists of the renaissance, like those in the anecdote, strove to outdo one another by presenting reality as real as they could reproduce, images today do not always strive for the same ideal. They are often influenced by the motives of the creator, and though are credited with presenting reality, they more than often do not.

The Three Levels

Advertising relies heavily on not only the images it presents, but the connotation of those images and how well the receiving audience is to perceive them. In Roland Barthes’ “Rhetoric of the Image”, he argues that images have more than just spontaneous meaning. There are, in fact, three levels to the image which can be broken down and analyzed to find what the image is truly saying, or its creator is trying to get us to see. They are linguistic (connotation and denotation), coded iconic, and non-coded iconic.

The linguistic meaning is simply thus, the text in or on the image, such as a brand name in an advertisement or a slogan on the bottom of an image. For example, in the Panzani advertisement, it is the labels on the products and the text on the image which evokes a number of different perceptions. First, it helps the reader to understand that it is an advertisement for a specific product, and in order to understand only that much, all the viewer requires is “a knowledge of writing and French” (Barthes). This is true for ads in all different languages, as long as you can read the language, you are essentially able to understand the basic message. But though the ad is in French, the word Panzani itself gives “by its assonance, an additional signified, that of ‘Italianicity’” (Barthes). The ad, through the use of the brand name and the text, is trying to persuade their viewers to buy their product on the basis that it speaks of “Italianicity”, or authentic Italian cuisine.

The second meaning is coded iconic. That is to say, that depending on the target audience and the context, the image holds “icons” which help people form connotations within the image. Following the Panzani advertisement, someone in Italy would brush off the ad, noting its French brand and creators, and also not get the connotation perhaps that a working American parent would. As they have authentic food in Italy, the scene of a string sack tossed among fresh ingredients would smack strongly of stereotype and hold no real meaning, as they eat actual authentic Italian food for most of their lives. A busy American parent, however, may see the image as a representation of a company’s products which are authentic and provide a well balanced meal as the product is depicted with fresh vegetables.

The final level is the non-coded, or, to put it simply, that it’s the literal image. That what you see is essentially what you get. That all the messages combined, that of the linguistic and coded, come together to form the overall perception of the image, which allows the viewer to truly understand what the creator was trying to present to them.

The Network

"The Language of New Media Design," a book written by Radan Martinec and Theo van Leeuwen describes the different types of simple non-linear models in terms of website layouts. The types consist of given and new, ideal and real, the star model, the tree model, the table, and the network. These models structuralize the website layout and impact how the reader will take in the information presented there.

The most complicated web layout, when speaking of simple non-linear models, is the network. Networks strive to present as much information as possible. Unlike the star and tree models, the network is not centralized or set up by hierarchies, but rather it resembles a web - with related pieces of information being accessed by links. However, models of star, tree, table, etc. can be included in a network, but they do not dominate.

An good example of the network layout is the website http://wikipedia.com. Wikipedia also features non-linear models, for example the first page displays different language options situated around the Wikipedia logo. This arrangement of a center element (Wikipedia logo) surrounded by other elements (the different language options) demonstrates the star model.

Once a search item is typed in, the next page features a given and new layout. On the left side of this page, there are links that navigate back to the main page, to the contents, etc., and it also features the box to type in a new search item. All of the search results appear on the right side. This vertical splitting of material where the info that the audience expects, or the given info, is on the left and the info that is unknown to the audience, or the new info, is on the right signifies the given and new model.

When one of the search results is chosen a new page comes up that could be described as partly following the tree model, which puts different pieces of information into a hierarchy of sorts, because of the table of contents near the top of the page. This page is also where we see the network layout. Interspersed in the information on this page are links that are relatable to the topic. Each link will bring up its own page of information, which will have its own links that will lead to other pages. This design is like a web because there is no linear direction that the links take, and certain links can bring you back to previous pages.

This network model is very useful when looking for a wide variety of information because the links can any kind of relation to each other. For example, if the search topic is the actor Haley Joel Osment, the page of information that would come up would include links to movies he has appeared in, links pertaining to personal characteristics (such as featuring a link to information on a vegetarian diet in describing Haley's eating habits), and links to different geographic locations found in describing Haley's place of birth, etc. The network model allows you to move very quickly through a lot of different information. If you start out with the search topic Haley Joel Osment you might end up on a page with information on an evergreen after a mere five links.

Ideal and Real Bucks.com

There are five structures used for website design discussed by Martinec and van Leeuwen in The Language of New Media Design: Theory and Practice. The five website structures include the given and new, ideal and real, star, tree, and network. Some websites will decide to use one of these structures, while others will combine more than one structure to create a complex website.

The Milwaukee Bucks website (http://www.nba.com/bucks/) is a perfect example of the ideal and real structure. This particular structure is a top down information system where the top information (i.e., ideal) is general or broad. Then, as you move down the website, there is more specific information (i.e., real). Martinec and van Leeuwen state that “the company logo is usually found in the top-left corner of the web page, indicating the importance of the company’s image and elevated status in the mind of the company’s executives, and consequently designers” (p. 22). The Bucks website follows this guideline of the ideal and real by having the logo and simultaneously the link to the home page in the top-left corner.

The ideal information, or the general, is located at the top of the Milwaukee Bucks website. There are links to Tix, Team, Stats & Standings, Schedules, News, Digital, Bucks 2.0, In The Community, and Fan Fun that never change. Each and every day, these links are the same because they are same broad information the Bucks want to have available. Moving down the website, there is the real, or more specific, information. Daily news stories including past scores, injury updates, and upcoming games are all real information that is more specific. These stories change from day to day.

Further down on the website, there is even more specific information and links. There are links that include specific ticket sales (e.g., single game tickets, promotions, groups and discounts), follow us links (e.g., bucks mobile, facebook, twitter), game night links (e.g., hoop troop, energee, rim rockers), archives (e.g., press releases, features, game recaps), teammates links (e.g., bucks buddies, bucks radio network, sponsorship site), and general information links (e.g., roster, front office, careers, parking, maps). All of these links are the most specific information available on the website.

Therefore, the Milwaukee Bucks use the ideal and real structure of website design to appeal to a basic audience who may not want to read about press releases or the Bucks on twitter. The more average fan and reader of the website will see the general information first such as past scores, injury reports, etc. first and then can find more specific information if necessary. Overall, the Bucks website designers chose a very good structure for the average audience that visits their website.

People Want to be Seen

The Panoptican Prison was designed to make the need for bars, guards, and any other security tactics obsolete. A tower with bright lights on top blinded the surrounding rows of cells. The lights were so big and bright that the prisoners in the cells could not tell if any one was actually in the tower, whether or not someone left the tower, and hindered the prisoners from seeing into other cells. Essentially, prisoners could not tell if or when they were being watched.

Foucault relates this same concept in his article “Panopticism” directly to our society. People tend to act like they are always being watched. As a person, you have to decide whether you are the seen or the see-er. As a result, the seen behaves like they are always on camera. They change their behavior that makes them appear in a more favorable light. The power the Panoptican instills in the seen creates a fear that forces them to alter their behavior. Focault writes, “But the Panoptican was also a laboratory; it could be used as a machine to carry out experiments, to alter behaviour, to train or correct individuals” (pp. 66-67). If people assume they are always being watched, their bad behavior will disappear and we will be left with better people.

Although the Panoptican may change behaviors, it also creates a society where people think they don’t exist unless they are on film. For example, when you go vacationing and don’t take pictures do you feel bad? Do you feel like you missed out? Images actually classify reality, in particular how people should behave. Furthermore, images classify reality. For example, everyone you go you need a photo ID. The image gives us reality. The picture on the ID is you, you are legal to drive, drink, etc. If you lose the identification, you essentially don’t exist because you can’t do anything.

Focault gives us the idea of Panopticism, but it leads to today’s society obsessed with wanting to be watched. Youtube.com is a way people can post videos and see how many people view them. The recently popular chatroulette.com created another channel for even more people to become the seen. The Panoptican may be a utopian ideal, but it’s not perfect because creates people who are obsessed with images and being seen. Instead, people should be concerned with what is going on in the world rather than who in the world is watching them.

Reality and Images

Norman Bryson says "In its perfect state, painting approaches a point where it sheds everything that interferes with its reduplicative mission; what painting depicts is what everyone with two eyes is his head already knows: 'universal visual experience'." In other words, an ideal image would show reality just as it is, nothing added or left out. Since the first painting and up to a certain point, the artist that was able to create the most realistic works was considered the best. Creating something just as it is seen is what Husserl called "natural attitude." Even a certain style that an artist might demonstrate in his or her works detracted from the art if it didn't capture "natural reality," the world as it appears to us.

However, artists such as Picasso became very popular in their time with art that did not necessarily reflect the world as we see it. Still, it can be argued that the imagination is a part of human reality, and transfering an image from the imagination to canvas exactly as it is imagined counts as containing natural reality.

The idea that images have been forever created to portray reality means that images hold quite a lot of sway in society. When people look at images, they tend to give them credit as true representations of reality, especially since the invention of photographs. The truth is, though, that images, even photographs, hold the mark of the artists and photographers - images are always influenced by their creators in some ways. That's why it is always important for us as a society to consider what images we use to portray certain ideas; and it's equally important for us as individuals to be aware that no image is reality. One much used example of an untrue, yet extremely popular, image in American society is that of super thin , beautiful women. American females are exposed to these images day-in and day-out. It is often discouraging to the majority of women who do not look like models to see these unattainable pictures, even though they know that that kind of beauty is extremely rare and often fake. Images can never reflect reality as it is, even if that is their purpose.

Chicken or the Egg

Do images reflect reality or is reality created by images? Did the chicken come before the egg? For example, are Americans pressured to be skinny because the media places a high value on images of unnaturally skinny people? Or perhaps the media takes a lot of pictures of skinny people because Americans have an obsession with being skinny. What is reality anyways? The only true reality, according to Bryson in “Natural Attitude,” is when it is from the perspective we like. If we don’t like the perspective the image is from, it is not real. Bryson argues our culture’s role of the image is to become a substitute for the real.

As a whole, we judge the value of an image by how real it seems to bed. For example, video games have evolved since the first ColecoVision. Video gaming systems have become gradually more realistic with their images. The PS3 can easily trick the untrained eye into thinking it is real. Who knows what the next video game system will look like? All we know is it will look more “real” than the PS3? Because of this assumption of substituting the real, we devalue paintings from the past.

When we look at paintings, images, and photographs of the past, we capture only surface change. However, we don’t think about why. These past images give the impression that it happened, that it was there, and it just existed. The question why it was that way never crosses our minds. Therefore, our culture today lessens the value of history’s paintings and photographs.

According to Bryson in Natural Attitude, reality doesn’t give us images, but rather images construct reality. On the other hand, reality is different from person to person. We assume that photographs and films capture reality, but someone still had to take the picture or video. The perception of the photographer or the video’s director comes into play. Style and perception come into play. Essentially, style gets in the way; it takes away the purity of the image. As a result, just as the chicken or the egg argument continues so will the images reflecting reality or images shaping reality argument.

The Image Speaks

Advertising relies on the ability of the audience to decipher the messages amidst the pictures and words. Barthes points out that, like most advertisements, the Panzani advertisement has three different levels of meaning. The first is the linguistic meaning. The Panzani logo on the products, the text at the bottom of the page; these words help the viewer to decipher the intentions of the advertisement. These words add anchorage to the advertisement. From these words, the viewer perceives a sense of Italianicity, giving the product a more authentic feel. To interpret this message, all the viewer needs is the ability to read and a basic sense of world languages. The text in the ad allows the viewer to uncover the denotative meaning. No serious thought is needed to put together that the company Panzani wants you to buy their products because they are authentically Italian. The text serves as a guide through signifieds of the image.

The second level is the Iconic level. This allows the audience to form a connotative meaning for themselves. Although an Italian would notice the French basis of the company's name and probably think nothing of seeing a fresh tomato, the intended audience of people outside of Italy get the message. The subjective terms by which the audience forms their perceptions allows for some flexibility, but when most people in the target audience see this image, they think Italian food. The old-world feel of the image gives people the hint of authenticity, and the simplicity of the image reinforces this idea.

The third level of meaning is the Literal meaning. This level is nothing more than "what you see is what you get." The text and the image combine to form the total ad, and what is there is undeniable. All of these things are occurring at one and the same time in this image, the literal level supports the Iconic level. The symbolic level allows for connotative interpretations, and the literal allows for denotative. When the three levels of meaning are seen as once, it allows the reader to view the ad with the correct level of perception.

Roland Barthes' Ideas on Messages in Images

Roland Barthes says in his essay "Rhetoric of the Image," that the word image can be linked to the ancient word imitari, which means imitation or copy. However, as Barthes explains, images do much more than simply duplicate objects and settings; they incorporate certain meanings and ideas into their subjects, sometimes without intending to. According to Barthes, there are three messages that can be present in an image - linguistic, coded iconic, and non-coded iconic, although he later argues that the last message is unachievable.
The linguistic message comes across in any written words that appear in the image, whether they be captions or labels. Barthes says that the linguistic aspect of an image serves two purposes - anchoring and relaying. Anchorage, in relation to text and image, helps to narrow down the broad connotations for that image. Barthe writes that anchorage helps the viewer "to choose the correct level of perception" (37). There are thousands of meanings that could be attached to a single image; text that anchors hopes to lead the viewer's thoughts in an intended direction. In advertisements and newspaper photographs especially, anchoring is a very common technique.
Text that relays in an image is less common than anchorage. Barthes gives the example of a comic strip to depict relay. In a comic strip, the text and the images work together to bring about an understanding of the whole piece. For example, if all the text were taken out of a comic strip, it would most likely appear as a confusing set of linked images. The situation and motives of the characters would probably be very diffficult to understand without the text. Likewise, a comic strip with only text and no pictures would also be disconcerting as some of the characters' actions are only understood from the images. In instances of relay, Barthes describes the text and the image as having a "complimentary relationship" (38).
The coded iconic message in an image is a culture-bound one. Objects, shapes, colors, background settings - anything that an image could possible depict can stimulate a variety of thoughts in people, but they all depend on each person's own experiences. For example, an image of a rose would likely call to mind thoughts of love and romance for most Americans. However, a person living in China would probably not associate the rose with love, because it's not seen the same way in Chinese culture as it is in American culture. Parts of an image don't have to be as obvious as a rose to conjure up certain ideas, either. The same effects can be gotten from much smaller details, such as color. Most Americans see pink as a female color; any advertisement that has a lot of pink in it will be approached with the mindset that it is geared towards females. Again, we can see that this is a culture-bound idea because Chinese culture does not necessarily see pink as a feminine color.
The last message Barthes writes about is the non-coded iconic. Simply put, the non-coded iconic message is what is left after the linguistic and coded iconic messages of an image are shed. The non-coded iconic message is not culture-bound and does not have the purpose of directing the thoughts of the viewer in any way. Barthes describes it as a pure image. He goes on to say that such an image is impossible. Every image holds some bias that will draw the viewers attention away from the direct subject. An image might come very close to achieving a non-coded iconic message, but the fact that it does appear as pure would have it labeled as such and associated to other cultural ideas of pureness. So, we can see that our culture and experiences make it possible to see the linguistic and coded iconic messages in an image, and impossible to see the pure, non-coded iconic message.

Objective Images do not Exist

Images are worth a thousand words. We have all heard this throughout our lives, but it may just be an understatement. In the Rhetoric of the image, Roland Barthes argues that images polysemous. In other words, images are not spontaneously important. There is no pure, naïve image; there is no objective image. Barthes agrees that there nothing is not constructed. All images are always cultural implying that culture distinguishes what images mean. Images, Barthes states, get their meaning from three different levels.

The first level is that of linguistic or literal message of the image (i.e. the text that goes along with an image). In order to decode this linguistic message, we must know the language. Within the linguistic message there are two parts: anchorage and relay. Anchorage is making sure the meaning is anchored down. An image is over-saturated with meaning; however, when text is attached, the meaning is understood. In addition, relay directs the reader to the correct meaning; it makes sure the reader does not misread the image.

Simultaneously with the linguistic message, we are attaching meaning by the coded iconic which is the second level. This is what the image displays without the text in terms of the cultural connotations or associations. We are decoding the coded iconic by essentially decide what the image signals to us.

The third level which Barthes argues does not actually exist is the denotation of the image. Barthes states, “We have seen that in the image properly speaking, the distinction between the literal message and the symbolic message is operational; we never encounter a literal image in a pure state” (p. 38). Even photographs which are a recording of reality, they are still coded with meaning. Readers understand that photographers have styles in terms of where they were standing, what they cut out of the image, etc.

Therefore, even if we stripped away the linguistic and coded iconic meanings, the image is still not pure. No image can speak for itself. Culture determines an association with the image. For example, even if we create a perfectly naïve and pure image, culture would immediately code the image as pure and naïve. When selecting an image, we have to be careful. Choose an image that will be understood by all readers. Keep in mind that images convey many meanings; we are never going to get an objective image.

When considering language, the basic concept seems to be that different symbols, e.g. words, represent different things, actions, concepts. This is a very vague notion of language, though, according to the ideas of the late Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. Instead, according to Saussure's Arbitrary Social Values and the Linguistic Sign, "The linguistic sign unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image. The latter is not the material sound, a purely physical thing, but the psychological imprint of the sound, the impression that it makes on our senses." I took this to mean that the sounds and movements our mouths make when producing a word tie in directly to the concept we are trying to convey by using that particular word. Or, to try and make the idea a little clearer, a word has certain characteristics because we associate them with similar characteristics found in the thing that the word represents. Because of this bond between word and idea, Saussure suggested that it would be more accurate to label them respectively as signifier and signified.

Suassure also pointed out that the relationship between that signifier and the signified is arbitrary, evidenced by the fact that there are many, many languages in the world - all with their own signifiers and signified. This almost seems to contrast with the previous line of thinking, that a bond exists between the signifier and the signified. However, we must realize that different cultures that produce different languages often have differing attitudes and behaviorisms from each other. These differences in psych will lead cultures to recognie and develop their own connections between signifiers and signified that are unique to them.

The "Art" of Reproduction

Walter Benjamin provides great insight into the idea of reproduction and how it has impacted art in his essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. To be able to reproduce something has not always been easy. Before such inventions as the printing press, it was not possible to have an exact copy of something. The earliest forms of reproduction were founding and stamping. These methods progressed into lithography. This was the first time that there was a new, direct process for reproducing something. The big breakthrough in reproduction, however, came with the invention of photography. This advancement totally shifted our perception of reproduction.

If a photograph is taken of a work of art, whoever views this photograph will gain a great sense of what the work of art looks like, even if they have never seen the original in person before. The one thing they will lose, however, is the presence in time and space. Benjamin uses the example of a Cathedral. If you were to make your way to a Cathedral, you would be able to sense the aura, or uniqueness of this Cathedral. You get a great sense of the size of the Cathedral, how far away it is from other landmarks, etc. If you were to take a picture of this Cathedral, you would be able to capture nearly the full essence of it. You could display this photograph anywhere you choose and it surely would give anyone who looks at this picture a good idea of what the Cathedral looks like. They would not, however, be able to sense its presence this Cathedral has in time and space. A photograph of a Cathedral changes the “tradition” of viewing it; hence, reproduction takes away from the authenticity of a work of art or experience. Benjamin sums it up by saying “instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice-politics.” A reproduction can free a work of art or a moment in time captured in a photograph from ritual, but it also introduces a whole new perception as to what the actual work of art or moment in time stands for.

What is "Digital" Culture?

“Digital” culture refers to the movement of information and the written word from a “print” era to a “post-print” era. This means that information is no longer fixed in one place at one time, only available to the person that has the book or newspaper in their hands, but it is available simultaneously across the globe to all people at all times whether it’s a newspaper, a novel or a magazine. To be a “digital” culture not only refers to the switch from a printed, physical page to a digital one (analogue to digital) but there is also a shift in the way that information becomes published, transferred, interacted with and stored across multiple languages, continents and servers. This is best described by Mark Poster, author of “Authors Analogue and Digital” who says that “the change from print to computer writing requires a material change in the trace, in the way writing enters the world, circuits through it, and is stored in it” (78).

Information was long printed in analogue form, meaning it was a physical thing, able to be touched and handled by people. It also meant that the information stored on those pages was only available at one time to the person holding the book or magazine. No matter how many copies were printed of that specific piece of literature, the only person who could access it at one time was the person holding it in their hands. “There is no escape from this characteristic, one that drastically limits the inscription of print in time and space” (81). Switching to become a “digital” culture means that information is no longer available in such a fixed and limited form. The information is suddenly transcribed into binary and sent around the world to be accessed by people in all parts of the world, all of whom, if they wished, could read and absorb the information simultaneously rather than waiting to check out a book or borrow it from the person in front of them.

But not only is information made completely accessible world-wide, it is also made available to people who wish to interact with the texts. Websites allow anyone to post news or blogs to their pages, people can jump in and edit such informational sites as Wikipedia.com, and text can be revised by its authors indefinitely, rather than existing in one, unchangeable analogue form. Poster describes this interaction as one that “…loses the assurance of their spatial continuity. Pages of digital text have the stability of liquid” (92). This means that texts found on the internet or in digital form can be repeatedly and endlessly edited, giving no assurance that a text will truly ever be finished.

However, this fluidity that Poster mentions, is another result of the switch from analogue to digital. Authors are suddenly springing up everywhere, posting stories to such sites as Fictionpress.com, Fanfiction.net, Blogger.com and others. Suddenly becoming a published author is no longer a painstaking process of mailing out manuscripts, waiting for rejection or acceptance and then if accepted, the costly print fees with no guarantee that the book will even make money. Instead, anyone can post their stories anywhere, with no cost to them and instantly knowing that their stories could reach a global audience, as it is available to one the moment one puts it on a website. This also highlights the problem of authorship. What is there to stop a person from “copying and pasting” another person’s words into their story and claiming it as their own? What happens when two similar stories are published at the same time under no copyright laws?

Though digital culture does allow infinite access to multiple levels of information, it also has to deal with a few issues, such as re-writing copyright laws, the problem of authorship and the fluidity and ever-changing nature of digital texts.

What is a Digital Culture?

Digital culture is the state of our reading, writing, publishing, distributing, production, and consumption of information today yet no one quite understands it. There are many working definitions of what it means to be in the new digital culture. However, Mark Poster best distinguishes what exactly is a digital culture in his 2001 article “Authors Analogue and Digital.” Poster explains the differences in how our culture was based upon print and now we are moving towards post-print or a digital culture.

Poster explains a paradigm shift in the way people think about information. In the print culture of the past, people perceived information as fixed in time and place. For example, Poster (2001) argues “There is no escape from this characteristic, one that drastically limits the inscription of print in time and space” (81). A book is fixed in one place at one time. Although there may be thousands of copies of the same book, they are still fixed in space. But now in our digital culture, it shifts to having information available to anyone and everywhere at one time depending on the technology. Digital culture means having information available to every person’s computers, iPods, smart phones, etc.

Another aspect of a digital culture is the more participative actions of the reader or consumer. People aren’t bound to making the same thing over and over. Information may be and probably will be changed from the original. Authors and song-writers alike are sampling from other books or music to create new material. In fact, the readers are becoming the authors by having the ability to change whatever they would like. Poster (2001) admits “The author of digital texts loses the assurance of their spatial continuity. Pages of digital text have the stability of liquid” (92). Now, the reader’s and author’s intent are equally valued. In the past during the print culture, people focused on similarity. Copy and print was about making analogous configurations which meant the print culture’s authors wanted objectivity and transparency. In today’s new digital culture, we could care less about what the author intended. Therefore, digital culture means shifting away from the reader taking in and trusting the author and moving towards readers being able to create what they want by changing the author’s material.

With these two main shifts from the print culture into the new post-print or digital culture, we can create a definition. The digital culture today is one where information is readily available to everyone no matter where or when. Furthermore, it is a culture in which the reader’s intent is valued equally as the author’s. Although there still may be printed texts, people are moving away from these and using digital technology to get their information. The emergence of Amazon’s Kindle as well as Apple’s newly introduced iPad makes it easy to see the shift to a digital culture. Physically speaking, books and newspapers are no longer needed. Anyone and everyone with internet capabilities have access to them. Just as easily as they can access them, the readers can alter them. Therefore, a digital culture is when information is not restricted to time and space and can be easily changed by the reader.