Examining a comic (AKA what I usually do in my free time)

Personally, after having the TOK lesson on the many different meanings of pictures and words, I thought to myself - "Doesn't this apply a lot to my comics and drawings?" I hate (not really) having to relate this to art (again), but its simply one of the very first things that comes to mind when doing a subject on TOK on both WORDS and IMAGES. Because, funnily enought, comics are very mainly done out from these two.

A year ago I went to Philadephia (some part of it which I don't remember) to go to my cousin and her husband's house to stay over for the night. When I arrived I was flabberghasted (really) because of the enourmous quantity of books they possesed, but I was even more delighted to find out that my niece's husband shared a common like with me: comics. He had bookshelves, stacks on the floor, on top of the fridge - everywhere! I could have spent the rest of the summer right there reading away - but I only had one day. I coincidentially picked this fantastic book about comics. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It really was one of the best comic theory books I've ever read (actually, its the only one I've read -.-)

This book was just so fantastic at explaining the very tight connection between words and pictures - especially in the scan above (my favourite bit) where it mentions Rene Magritte's "Treachery of Images" (another fitting example of images and words working to make you double think if what you are seeing IS a pipe or just a drawing/painting of a pipe). 

So enough with that, I picked this comic below to see what i made out of it by just seeing at the images on it.

Panel one: Title page. A guy crouched over a piano, playing it/fixing it/sneezing/looking at it for no reason whatsoever/scratching his head/ect. A girl is watching him resting on the piano/she fell on the piano/sniffing the piano/trying to break the piano/etc.

Panel two: A girl walking to a house/ walking towards a brick wall/ hopping on the spot/brushing her feet on the pavement/playing musical statues/etc.

Panel three: A girl gets in a house and shuts the door behind her/she is admiring the door's texture/she supported herself on the door due to dizziness/she is just standing there/etc.

Panel nine: A dog demontrates his plan to attack the other red headed girl/a rabbid dog is attacking the girl/the dog pretends to fly/the dog has been kicked out of his house/etc.

Panel thirteen: A fight between the red headed girl and the girl occurs/their moving so fast around each other it can't even be drawn/a mini storm has appeared on the middle of the room/the artist randomly scribbled the panel/etc.

For me, as a comic artist, I always have to take care on the different poses and faces that I give my charecters so that, when i mix the images with my written script for the comic - it will make some sense for whoever sees it. Sometimes I'm not too successful and people often comment their own take of the comic - which is sometimes quite different from what I initially meant - but its definately a good thing that the people who see it have different views on it. (That, or i really need a lot more practice on it.)

Songs on right now: Crystal Ball - Keane, Supermassive Black Hole - Muse, Every Tear is a Waterfall - Coldplay

Indeed: Words have their way.

So, about this last class (28th Oct. 2011 ;P), we further examined the importance of the mix of words and images or symbols in order to convey an idea or show a situation to a person (inform). So, we began the lesson examining a small comic strip and we were asked to interpret what the images were trying to say (by the way, there were no words included in the comic strip). My partner (Isidro) and me came up with this sentence for it:

"A war has broken out somewhere in an African village and the villagers are being attacked by invading troops."

After writing this and sharing our sentence with all the other pairs, we found out that we all had slightly different outlooks on what was going on in the image. Some of us said that people were being killed, others that it was in the middle of the savannah, others said that the soldiers were coming to help them, and even one pair described the emotional aspects of the image. However, when we were shown the comic with the panels in different order, we found out that it could get a completely different meaning (In this case, the troops were coming to help the villagers from some previous attack or disaster they had...who knows really?).

Following this, we had to pick a question from one subject (Biology, Chemistry or Physics) and answer it with scientific terms. In my case I had to describe what light is:

"Light is a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. it is composed of three different colours - red, green and blue - all which combine to make white visible light. Light can be reflected, refracted, scattered and absorbed by different components and objects that it finds on its path. It travels with wavelenghts and its speed is of 3x10^18 ms-1." (A whole mouthful of scientific terminology.)

After this we were asked to list words that came up to our mind when hearing the word "light".

Life, creation, day, hapiness, hope, warmth, blinded, strong, powerful, invigorating, ect. 

This, from what i have learnt previously in my English lessons - is called a denotation. A denotation is when a word is described for what it means in a very precise and often scientific way. For example: 

"The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite. Its distance is three times Earth's diameter and it moves around the Earth as this one spins around its axis around the Sun - hence enabling different faces of the moon to be visible at different stages of the month." (Another mouthful)

However, if you were to describe the moon or a word with a connotation, then the description would be totally different:

The moon holds a ghostly silver woman, perched upon a sea of blackness and stars, its faces gradually unveiling themselves for the human eye to admire (that was quite... bad :( )

So the point about a connotation is that ideas of emotions and relations to the word are brought up to describe it rather than describing it with the exact definition of it. This is why such language it commonly used in poems and novels that try to use literary devices such as similies and metaphors to convey a idea or feeling on the work (the advanteages of English A1 xD)

For me this lesson was really intresting as one can interpret an image in a million ways, but at the same time words can also have the same attribute as they may have a lot of different ways of seeing them depending on the person.

On the last TOK Class: Connections between Words and Symbols/Signs

Starting off, some definitions (straight from notes I took on class x) )

Sign: Characteristic of the species - fixed in meaning and immediate place and time.
Symbol: Created through convention (agreement)

So, to resume (not really) what happened in last TOK lesson, we simply saw how words and symbols connected to each other. This was quite intresting because: what if you went to a totally different country that had a symbol you recognized? The only trouble would be,... well, maybe the people of this country might have a different meaning to this symbol (hence, your perception of what it means is wrong in the context of the coutry you're at). This was really interesting as it made me think on how language and culture can affect the way in which visual references are seen in.

After this we were put on pairs to do a quick exercise in which we had to act out a situation to another pair and they would have to figure out what we were trying to say through our gestures and actions.

Isidro and me had to act out a situation in which a really bad maths student is doing a test. This student finds the test really hard and complicated to do, so he finishes it but already knowing that his mark is going to be low. Then the teacher comes over, marks the test and shows the student the really bad grade he got, leaving the kid real dissapointed and worried.

This mini-scene wasn't too difficult to act out to the other pair, so it was quite easy for them to figure it out. However, the other group was given a similar scene to play. The only differences were that: 1. There were abstract concepts involved such as emotions and thoughts - hard to be conveyed simply by gestures & 2. This scene was rather positive (the student was quite good at maths and not pessimistic xD) So, kidding aside - the other pair did find it a lot more difficult to explain only by using acting and no words to support it (nevertheless it wasn't too difficult to figure out because it was really similar to our scene - only more positive and stuff.)

The next thing we did in class was very intresting as I never had put any thought into it until that day. It naver occured to me how certain things couldn't be explained by either words or a set of diagrams alone. Even simple things such as explanation of how to tie your shoelaces has to be done by explaining visually (ie. showing how its done with an actual shoe) and by explaining textually (ie. First you have to grab the laces and....) Whilst doing my set of intructions on how to tie shoelaces I struggled a bit to find appropiate words and sentences to explain what I meant to the others. You can often see how things are explained by joining words and images to give the person a very clear view on what they are supposed to do. This even applies to manuals and cooking books, which commonly join both images and words. This is why I consider that words and symbols couldnt exist without the other as they are very important to support each other when transmitting messages, instructions and ideas to other people.

Noticing words and symbols/signs

So, I thought about what we had learnt at the last TOK class we had. Thinking back to last year (Year 11), I remember doing very similar exercies to the ones we did in class. Mr Sanderson (our past English teacher) would encourage us to pick a scene from a play (in that case it was Absent Friends) and make silent acting or still frames of the scene and have the rest of the class guess. We often used hand gestures (symbols) in order to convey something. For example, if the person had a fist held in front of the other charecter it could be used to represent confrontation and trouble between these two charecters. 

Body gestures also fit into the symbol/sign rules as, you can use them to give the other person an idea of what you're trying to mean without having to say a single word. Someone nodding with their head will tell the other person they agree or that their saying "yes", a thumb held up can be interpreted as a sign of support, an eyebrow raised could mean confusion, and many other things can be held from this point. All in all, images and words (read) are taken in through the eyes and the sense of sight in order to fill in the blanks in case that words aren't available. 

So, back to the actual pictorial symbols and signs, lately when going around the town I've been noticing more and more of these. Some of them aren't even too visible - not because their hidden, but because they seem so normal to our daily lifes that we alreadt overlook them and we immediately react upon seeing them. For instance, if  someone sees a red traffic light flash on, it means that cars on the lane have to come to a halt to the the other cars pass. A green light means to advance and keep on going, and a yellow line means to have precaution when crossing. These are very common to people's lifes, but like always, people aren't born knowing - so indeed symbols and signs are created through agreement and passed down to newer generations by education depending on the place where this takes place.

Sight

So I must confess that I have lately (in 1 week) I have gotten quite excited with a new... ermm... TV show I discovered. To put it plainly I've been seeing quite a lot of Doctor Who during the past days as its extremely intresting. Sci-Fi, mixed with facts here and there, history, astrophysics, Sherlock Holmes type of mystery and of course funny overall. Still, the point I wanted to make across with this is that just yesterday I was watching the episode "Vincent and The Doctor". This episode to me was very shocking as it showed a lot of relationship to the sense of sight. 

Not to give any spoilers or anything, but the protagonist and his companion travel to the past to talk to Vincent Van Gogh as he believes he sees a face in one of Van Gogh's paintings. As the episode continues, we are introduced with the main facts of Van Gogh's life which includes his depression and mental issues, his artwork, the villager's distrust of him, his little success as an artist and others. However, the part I thought that was quite intresting is how, at one point, Vincent begins attacking at something the other's can't see. It turns out its a beast that only he can see and from that point on the protagonist and his companion help him to get rid of it. This is a very nice explanation as at the end its discovered that this beast is blind, alone and as it dies it is afraid. Later, Van Gogh says that the beast just attacked out of fear. He says that villagers are unable to see that he's not a bad man like they think he is, this lack of knowledge turns into fear, which consequentially turned into the villagers' agression as they began insulting him and children began throwing rocks at him. Which this I mean how people tend to use their sight to just judge a person for the first things they see on the outside, but they don't take their time to actually look carefully and realize there's much more than what it seems at first sight.

Additonally, as the episode includes an artistic icon, there are many parts in which he talks about the way in which he perceives the world.

Vincent Van Gogh: It seems to me there's so much more to the world then the average eye is allowed to see. I believe, if you look hard, there are more wonders in this universe then you could ever have dreamt of.

The Doctor: You don't have to tell me

Vincent Van Gogh: (Explaining how he sees the world) Look at the sky. It's not dark and black and without character. The black is, in fact deep blue. And over there: lighter blue and blowing through the blues and blackness the winds swirling through the air and then shining, burning, bursting through: the stars! (the sky gradually transforms into van Gogh's painting Starry Night) And you see how they roar their light. Everywhere we look, the complex magic of nature blazes before our eyes.

These two quotes of the epsiode are really relevant to be able to partially explain why I consider sight as an important sense, as it allows people to really focus on whats around them in terms of people or sights. There's always much more hidden to what the eye looks at first sight, making the world be full of meaning and new things to discover and explore, which is why I think that personally sight is very important. 

Listening to: Chances - Athlete, Night of The Hunter - 30 Seconds To Mars, Our Lady Of Sorrows - My Chemical Romance 

5 senses in place... or not?

So last class we discussed the ways in which we adquire, take in and analyze primarily the world around us. The basic ways in which we are able to do this are through the 5 basic senses: Sight, Hearing, Touch, Smell and Taste. All of these often work in colaboration or not entirely separately to be able to understand the different obects around us. All of the senses are equally important to some extent, but it really depends on the person invoved in what sense they give priotity to. 

To continue with what we learnt in class, we did a quick exercise on how little we focused on things on our daily lifes. People could get divided into 4 types on the way they pay attention 1. Either zone out submerged on their own thoughts and plans 2. Taking in detail and external sounds non-related to what they should be paying attention to 3. The ones that pay 100% attention all the time to what they are supposed to be paying attention to 4. All of the above merged. I would consider myself as a person who pays attention in the surroundings and my thoughts as well as largely on what I'm supposed to pay attention to. I tend to oscilate between these three states, but I mostly focus on what I should be doing more than anything else. This is why the excercise of closing our eyes and taking in the sounds of the school was an extremely intresting one as I was able to separate the focus of the current subject onto one that focused more on the external environments.

Its quite curious how people often ignore the feelings of pressure all around us, as the body seems quite accustomed to all of these different pressures and senses being constantly present. This is why the brain just omits them, making the irrelevant anymore. I never really thought about it until that day.

Anyhow, the question that was of most interest to me was "If I had to lose 1 of my sense, what would it be and why?" This was a very intresting question. I first thought about sight. Even though people say that losing sight would be better than losing any of their other senses, I wouldn't like to lose my sight. This is because personally for me (as a person who loves art), sight is one of those things that really allows me to see things - literally of course. Its quite difficult to explain the way i see it. For example, every day that my dad drives me to school I notice the colours and the strong vibrance and wonder of the landscapes I view. Even thought I've been travelling back and forth from the school to my home for the past 11 years of my life, each day I discover new things. Once I noted that there were lots of bluebell-like flowers all the way down the road, in other ocasion I saw how there were some light ripple effects underneath the car bridge over the river, in other times I see how the sun causes the clouds of the evening to turn of different shades and of colours that seem impossible in your mind. So to me, sight is a way of seeing and analyzing a lot of things beyond first sight. Everyday things hide too many things, but they're all at plain sight - you just have to learn to be patient and  truly observant to actually realize beyond first appearances. I would be the most afraid to lose this sense as, even though I've seen colours and I know them already and all, there's still so much to see and be discovered -  from colours, to landscapes, to people and others.

Moreover, I would be almost equally uneasy of having to lose my hearing sense as one of the things that really takes a larger part in my life is music and sounds all around me. The sense of hearing allows me to be aware of my immediate surroundings, probably better than sight, but it doesn't allow me to immediately notice a lot of things like I would with sight. Still, if I didn't have my sense of hearing then I wouldn't be able to locate myself in relation with other people and surroundings. Additionally, music and playing guitar is one of the many things that really intrests me and that I really love having in my life. This is because music is able to evoke many strong feelings and thoughts on me whenever I hear it or when I play a song. At times I sort of randomly (not really) end up playing different chords just to practice or relax after school, and there's times where I end up doing complete invented riffs that usually reflect the mood I'm in at the moment. This is why for me music is a way of expressing what I feel and to get knew emotions provoked by other people's music.

The sense that  I really wouldn't mind losing could be the sense of smell as I consider it less important to all of the others. Its not like "I wouldn't care to lose it" - its more like, in comparison to all the other types of senses I see it as a very limited way to perceive the world. The sense of touch and taste can allow us to know about objects in a much broader way than the sense of smell.

I was going to write about...

...the relationships between Peru and Ecuador after the "War of CENEPA" and about the fact thay the GOVERNMENT (the people are not to blame) of Peru took a great piece of our territory not many years ago. Nevertheless, after taking a look at Vale's blog, I can see that she already wrote about it - so I will write about other thing instead. Its also related to the sterotypes and ideas that people have about countries and how these affect their views on their habitants. For example, it can be commonly heard lately how people link Colombian people to mafias and drug producing and to FARC and all of that. Its quite common to hear how people think that the USA is full of overweight and overly consumist people that are damaging the climate with CO2 emmisions. Its quite common to relation people living in the Middle East to the events of the twin towers and to terrorism. All of these imposed stereotypes found in relation to the countries show how people often tend to categorize individuals by the country in which they belong and the things they generally say about that type of people.

This often happens because of the lack of informantion given to students from an early age, which limits their knowledge of the different cultures and people in the world. I myself could prove that this was indeed, sadly enough, true. Last summer holidays, when I went to the exhange programme to Cheltenham, we were invited to one of the girls houses in Bournesmouth. That night we stayed over at her parent's house we had dinner with them and they began asking us about our country and its features. All of the sudden, this girl's older brother asked us how it was living in an African country. An AFRICAN COUNTRY. It was rather shocking how his knowledge of countries outside of his own were quite limited. He even said with full confidence after that how he had learnt that our country had been invaded by Chinese people from early days (Ok, we're not invaded - there's only a lot of chinese people that have been migrating to Ecuador to open their own little shops and all xD). He didn't realize he was wrong until we explained that Ecuador wasn't in Africa and that he might have confused it with Equatorial Guinea.

Additionally, lately, every time someone talks about Ecuador they link it to all the FARC and drug selling activity that takes place in Colombia, which shows how the "stereotypes" have been filtering through to the country's own image, making that immigrants in countries such as USA and Spain are often treated badly and discriminated. This shows how the name of a country can adquire a significance based on the actions of few.

Song's I'm listening to: Fairytales - Jon Walker, Clocks - Coldplay, Creep - Radiohead