Visual Symbols

I am yet again reexamining visual symbols in my life.

Since my last post about visual symbols, I believe that my understanding and awareness of the visual symbols in my life have increased. These visual symbols communicate with me and produce an emotional response that is automatic. Here are just a few ironic symbols that I’ve noticed or thought of recently.

Heart: symbol of love and emotion, although it looks nothing like the heart in our bodies...

Envelope: picture representing that I have email (or a voicemail on my phone), although they don’t actually travel in an envelope...

Dollar sign: represents the idea of money, although it seems to be used less and less today...

Just a few visuals symbols that I’ve noticed in my life lately. This class has definitely changed how I look at the world around me.

Images from: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/119017, http://www.openclipart.org/detail/12471, and http://www.openclipart.org/detail/75181

Stealing Lightning

I recently watched Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.



Having read the book in the past few months, I was excited to see how it compared and followed the plot. While the movie was fantastic (and incredibly visually pleasing), I was disappointed by the lack of similar events between the book and the movie. Despite this fact, I really enjoyed the movie itself. Looking more into deleted scenes from the movie, I found a lot of the book plot (and what I thought were important events) had been filmed, but taken out.

I especially enjoyed what the creators did with the use of water and movement of it in the film. The special effects looked realistic and fantastic.

As a library person, I’m incredibly excited about this series and how it will introduce some kids to Greek Mythology past what they get in the classroom.

Videos from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xko1Mx5w4tg&playnext=1&list=PLEA171DD3C6065FA9 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-7jqIwHDlw

Barbie in Real Life

I ran across the following article the other day: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42595605/ns/today-today_people/

In this article, a girl who has battled with an eating disorder describes how she took a Barbie doll and “built what she believed to be a life-size version of the doll she played with as a child.” I was baffled by the picture in this article. While the proportions of the “life-size” version of Barbie aren’t quite accurate, it still gets a lot of conversation started about how girls are portrayed not only in the media, but in the toys that many kids play with.

A Mattel spokesperson is quoted in the article as saying, “Girls see female body images everywhere today and it’s critical that parents and caregivers provide prospective on what they are seeing.” While I agree that girls need parents and guardians to help them realize that all of the images of females that they see are disproportionate, I can’t help but image having this type of conversation with a three year old who just loves her Barbie. At that age, the Barbie doll herself is real, so trying to explain that not only is the Barbie not real, but it doesn’t look like a real girl, doesn’t seem like something that’s going to fly!

Spurred by curiosity, I did a Google search for real life dimensions of Barbie. BBC news graced me with an article addressing this very thing, including a very powerful image to accompany the statistics.

It all depends on how tall you make the life-size Barbie, but according to the BBC, a 5 foot 6 inch tall Barbie would have a 20-inch waist and 29-inch hips. While there are a few ladies that have these dimensions, this is an unrealistic and appalling image for little girls to think they need to look like! The idea that we aren’t ever perfect the way we are starts at a very young age!

Images from: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42595605/ns/today-today_people/ and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7920962.stm

Visual Aesthetics

I was watching Alice in Wonderland (2010) last night for my Young Adult Literature class. I hadn’t seen it before, and yet I was really impressed with the animation presented in the film. However, there was a specific scene that as I watch, I thought, “Wait... What?” There was one part that didn’t seem to look right. I couldn’t quite pick out what was wrong, but I knew that it wasn’t the way it should look.

This made me think of all of the visuals that we see every day that make us stop and take a second look, maybe even making us go “Oooh, ew!” We notice things that don’t look quite right, but I definitely don’t know how to fix whatever it is, let alone specifically tell you what the problem is! It amazes me how our minds work with visual aesthetics. It impresses me that there are people that are able to do so. It makes viewing visuals that much better for the rest of us, since those issues are targeted and fixed.

And even more amazing is how far we've come in movies in the past 100 years! Watch the video below to compare!

Videos from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9POCgSRVvf0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeIXfdogJbA

Gaming in the Classroom

Tuesday in class, we saw a wonderful presentation over games and gaming. I learned so much from this presentation, including my own ignorance of the topic. This presentation and discussion, coupled with the topic of using simulations and games with gifted students in another class of mine, brought this whole idea into new light for me.

Especially influential in the presentation was an activity that we did: We were given a game and asked to connect it with the Iowa Core Curriculum. I initially thought this was going to be hard, perhaps a stretch to make it “fit.” I was so incredibly wrong! Once I examined the parts of the game and what the players were asked to do, “academic connections” starting jumping out at me! My group was looking at Rollercoaster Tycoon, a game in which you build roller coasters and manage the amusement park in a number of ways. In an elementary science class last year, we built “roller coasters” with foam tubes and tape using little toy cars to test our construction skills. Rollercoaster Tycoon would do a similar thing without wasting tape and even providing students with a more realistic reaction of each piece of the puzzle!

How important gaming has become in our world today! Why not use these helpful tools in the classroom with students?

Images from: http://www.openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/generic-game-desktop.png and http://www.openclipart.org/image/800px/svg_to_png/brunurb_Retro_Joystick_002.png

Ignorance is NOT Bliss

The other day in class, we watched Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk over the danger of a single story. In this video, Adichie gives her personal stories on the “single stories” that she heard and read growing up. This resulted in her having a generalized skewed view of children’s books based on her experiences. This made me think a lot about how much I didn’t know growing up and still don’t know about other people and other cultures.

The town I grew up in was not completely without diversity, but the cultural and racial diversities were lacking. This skewed my view of other cultures and other people in general. My experiences with other countries, big cities in the United States, and different cultures around the world were limited to the few places I had visited as a child, the books I read, and the movies and TV I watched growing up. Coming to college was a fantastic part of my education of the world, as it allowed me to venture from my limited, ignorant views of people. I have been able to meet all different people with all different backgrounds. My college experiences have allowed me to go beyond my “single story” about many different cultures and come to a better understanding about life.

Video from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

Books into Movies

I have been reading a great deal of Young Adult books for a class I am taking this semester. The other day, our class was discussing what it was about books like Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and other such books that are so interesting. The emotional connection with the characters was mentioned as a possible reason for this attachment over the movie versions of these books. I completely agree with this assessment. I really enjoyed reading the Twilight series, but found the second book my absolute least favorite (Bella’s whining about missing Edward made me so angry!).

However, I did not find the second movie my least favorite thus far. I liked the movie much more than the book! I think this had to do with the level of emotion that can be packed into a 2-hour movie versus a lengthy, descriptive book. This may be the first time that I have had the preference for the movie over the book version!

This discussion of books also reminded me of The Hunger Games trilogy that I have read the first two of (and can’t wait to read the third).

As a reader, I became emotionally connected with the characters, incredibly invested in relationships among the characters, and the action packed scenes (which they all seem to be) keep me on the edge of my seat, absolutely devouring the books! I am a little nervous about these books coming out as movies, however. My mental visuals based on my readings might come out perfectly on the screen... or it might ruin the whole experience for me! How much risk producers and authors take on when they’re trying to put such an influential book into film!

Videos from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TnxXoMpF3c&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q58iQSHhZGg&feature=related