Humans have long attempted to portray the natural world as reflections of ourselves, whether that’s giving names to natural disasters or dressing animals in human-like clothing. Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human characteristics, traits, and personalities to animals and inanimate objects, has been a consistent and enduring feature in our society, and it is evident in children’s and adult media. We tell stories for many reasons, and anthropomorphizing allows the audience to identify with the characters they’re seeing and practice acknowledging different perspectives. The media is one of the most prominent forms of exposure individuals have to societal issues, and the reader identification that is evoked can prompt them to become reflective …show more content…
We see ourselves in everything. We assign identities and emotions where none exist. And we make the world over in our image,” (McCloud, 32-33). Anthropomorphism allows humans to identify with the familiar while learning about the new, and it is often synonymous with cartoons in media. While some individuals dismiss and misjudge cartoons as “crude, poorly-drawn, semiliterate, cheap, disposable kiddie fare,” they can be used to deliver insightful interpretations of social and historical issues. In Fantastic Planet, René Laloux uses a surreal medium and narrative to address social and political concerns. The Draag are massive blue-skinned aliens who possess human characteristics, while the Om, who are tiny humans, are animals. This unique animated science fiction film allows the audience to identify with the Draag and Om, which makes it an effective medium to discuss issues such as genocide and power struggle, and other historical events and relations. The prevalence of anthropomorphism in media has been used as a instrument to create some emotional distance between the reader and the message of a story when it is powerful, difficult, or evokes strong emotions. The use of assigning human traits to inanimate objects awakens us to the reflection of ourselves in others, and fosters …show more content…
In The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan proposes the idea that humans see extensions of ourselves in inanimate objects. “The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act- the way we perceive the world,” (McLuhan 41). Our identities and awareness are invested in inanimate objects on a daily basis and it can cause us to transform how we see ourselves, others, and the world. We can be more receptive to icons than to realistic and detailed drawings because of something McCloud calls amplification through simplification. “When we abstract an image through cartooning, we’re not so much eliminating details as we are focusing on specific details. By stripping down an image to its essential “meaning” an artist can amplify that meaning in a way that realistic art can’t. (McCloud 30). While we may see others’ faces in great detail, our general awareness of our own faces when we are not looking at reflections of ourselves is simple and abstracted, similar to cartoons. Thus, when we see cartoons, we can identify with them because they are extensions of ourselves in media. McCloud says, “The cartoon is a vacuum into which our identity and awareness are pulled...an empty shell that we inhabit which enables us to travel in another realm. We don’t just observe the cartoon, we become it!” (McCloud 36). The reader identification that occurs is one of the primary
Imagery is used by many authors as a crucial element of character development. These authors draw parallels between the imagery in their stories and the main characters' thoughts and feelings. Through intense imagery, non-human elements such as the natural environment, animals, and inanimate objects are brought to life with characteristics that match those of the characters involved.
Having such an image before our eyes, often we fail to recognize the message it is trying to display from a certain point of view. Through Clark’s statement, it is evident that a photograph holds a graphic message, which mirrors the representation of our way of thinking with the world sights, which therefore engages other
In society today, we are conditioned to believe certain sets of ideals. We use these ideals to interact and get along with the other people we surround ourselves with. These ideals are often the societal norms that form common ground amongst individuals. However, living life based off these basic and unchanging beliefs is not beneficial to humanity, nor does it make life any easier to live. In fact, holding on to the most accepted beliefs holds back society as a whole. Judith Halberstam, in her essay “Animating Revolt and Revolting Animation” challenges these societal norms through the analysis of animated movies and, in doing so, carves a path for a new way of thinking.
People tend to views an image based on how society say it should be they tend to interpret the image on those assumption, but never their own assumptions. Susan Bordo and John Berger writes’ an argumentative essay in relation to how viewing images have an effect on the way we interpret images. Moreover, these arguments come into union to show what society plants into our minds acts itself out when viewing pictures. Both Susan Bordo and John Berger shows that based on assumptions this is what causes us to perceive an image in a certain way. Learning assumption plays into our everyday lives and both authors bring them into reality.
The arts, as interpretations of reality or even the creation of new ones, constantly inform a society’s perceptions of what is real or plausible and what the experience of the individual entails. This is done through a series of perceptions that begins with an artist’s perception of reality. In literature, the author translates this perception into a text that can be as whimsical as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as outwardly observant and insightful as Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, or as straightforward as Nathaniel Hawthrone’s The Scarlet Letter. It is then the readers’ interpretations of a text that provides individuals and society with new understandings of reality. It is this basis of understanding that is continually added to so that reality is further defined and redefined and there is a greater comprehension of the human condition.
I chose to analyze Despicable Me, an animated film geared towards a younger audience, because I was interested in examining underlying theories and messages that this film would be relaying to its viewers. Often times, when watching animated films, children are not aware of these messages, as they are absorbed by the characters, special effects, and humor. But as we have learned throughout this semester, our brains are subconsciously primed by the various surroundings we are exposed to. Since we also studied the impacts of entertainment, such as television and video games, on children, I wanted to see how a popular children’s film might also affect them.
Because popular culture is widely accessible, artifacts easily affect the way human beings perceive the world by shaping the collective view. The opinions and representations presented through popular culture artifacts are accepted by the collective and thus become real as they inform the basic assumptions of soci...
Through the use of personal experiences and intense psychological analysis, these artists have stripped away the fake shell of ourselves we present to the world, exploring the relationship between the human psyche and reality and ‘…the journeys we take to find ourselves’ (
Emerging artist Wyatt Mills, who just finished up his solo show Phantasmagoria, has certainly displayed that he is one to watch. His work takes on a life of its own in its whirlwind of traditional technique coupled with powerful messages that are sure to beg an interpretation from every viewer. These interpretations may be similar, or they may be radically different; but the point is that his art provokes a strong emotional and thoughtful response through its movement, composition, and personal style. Phantasmagoria is Wyatt’s commentary on the over-stimulation of media. The idea behind his collection is displayed in the powerful affect the images have on their viewers. His images are over-stimulating themselves, but we are forced to face this over-stimulation and see the harm it causes in our society. When coupled with his use of hardly subliminal messages from the media, his point of the affect of over-stimulation flies through and nearly knocks its viewers on the floor.
The world of animation of all varieties features characters that can be recognized to have feelings and emotions, even though they are objects which in the real world would merely be inanimate; The Brave Little Toaster, The Annoying Orange, Luxor Jr – these are all characters we watch and can relate to because they have been given feature that humans have.
Between five different frames displayed in the gallery, as I walked down the aisle, this artwork caught my attention. Just looking at this artwork, I could easily tell that it was broken body parts flowing all across the space, colors are nearly identical, and gold wrap surrounded as a frame of the artwork, as well as a light bulb falling next to a dolphin shaped element. Once I got closer to the artwork, I started to think deeply into what I can see in a connection of what I identified by looking. The artist Kayla Daniels used different unrelated elements in her artwork to make the viewer see the artwork deeply rather than looking at it. As I saw this artwork deeply I began to think that there is meaning behind the broken body parts flowing around with different elements, which could describe a certain experience the artist had gone through. After a minute of observing, I could see that the artist used the method of movement to show that the floating body parts and elements were falling into a different world or space
My body stood stagnant while my eyes stared at the LOVE mural in Highland Town. My facial expressions showed concentration yet my mind was a revolving door of words formulating into questions and incomplete thoughts. This simple four letter word made me feel so many emotions that never wanted to stay suppressed. “Hey kid, you know I created this to make people happy right?” I looked over at the well-known street artists and gave him a slight chuckle “Yeah…funny isn’t?” Michael gave me a quizzical look “That something created out of genuine joy, makes someone want to cry.” “It evokes emotion…you’re feeling what this city is crying for — love.” I nodded my head and continued to allow the revolving door to spin thoughts in and out of my mind. I diverted my view from the mural I saw on basically every hipster's laptop and back at the man who created this art. Michael nodded at me as if silently saying, “Go ahead and say it.” “How do you validate your art as true art?” I cringed at the way I had worded the question. Michael gave me a small smirk “You feel something in your chest right?” I nodded “Then its art kid.”
In order for a model to create attentiveness in a image as well as drawing attention towards the image, they constantly depend on playing on different forces that are able to create a constant desirable image of appeal, envy, as well as a need to always feel wanted, insofar, they produce networks for affective coverage and flow, and in doing so creating a community. In addition to this, they also create affective images by adjusting to a more felt sense of liveliness or engagement that doesn’t need to take a particular form of labor, but still manages to grasp into a affective energy that results in the conversion of a human contact of the image
“Reeves and Nass credit the slow pace of evolution as the reason that the human race responds socially and naturally to the media: “The Human brain evolved in a world in which only humans exhibited rich social behaviors, and a world in which all perceived objects were real physical objects. Anything that seemed to be a real person or place was real.” So we haven’t yet adapted to the twentieth century media that only depict images, but which themselves personify the characteristics of human actors.” (Griffin, pages 375-376)
Media has a huge impact in today’s society. From television shows, to movies, to the constant exposure to advertisements for things we know we don’t need but always end up wanting. In the society that we live in, it’s generally easy to relate to what we see in the media. There are people that look like us and that have the same problems as us, and so we are able to see these people and say: “Wow! That is so relatable and cool!”. But as cultures grow and become more diverse, there are more and more people who are unable to relate to these characters. The current lack of minority representation in media is a real issue for people in real life, for example women, and people of colour, and it can have many real life consequences.