Jul 30, 2011

McLuhan- Luke Warm?

The following is a response to reading McLuhan's theory of Hot and Cold media as found within his 1964 work, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man



Reading McLuhan is like a meandering journey through ADHD territory with so many tangents and a complete preoccupation with comparing hot and cold media in countless immeasurable examples. Ideas are started and yet fail to follow through and his complete over simplification and generalisation of some examples to fit within the hot to cold paradigm is troubling, I refer in this point to the reference about the collapse of Indigenous Australian tribal culture based on axe distribution- unless this use of the word axe is a metaphor of some kind then his assessment of the situation seems to have trimmed down this event to fit within the parameters of his argument. He’s definitely a man of his time, noting his reference to ‘backward’ countries as cool and to ‘us’ (by us I’m assuming he is referring to Westernised developed and more specifically capitalist countries given the political climate during which his study was undertaken- the height of the Cold War during the 1960s).


The central point of his study of hot and cold media seems to be that hot media like movies enhance a single sense (high definition) in this case- vision, indicating that to participate in the media is a passive experience wherein the individual does not need to exert much effort in filling in the gaps on screen. In contrast at the other end of McLuhan’s spectrum is the notion of the Cold media such as a comic book which requires a higher level of participation by the reader in determining and extracting meaning from the media.

However, McLuhan’s assessment of media consumption and in turn his classification of a media as hot or cold disregards what the individual brings to the media, the depth of understanding the individual wishes to take from the media and the content of the media itself (which he seems to believe can be separated and discarded in favour of the type of media). In gaming for example a game such as Minecraft could be classified as a cool example (requiring greater participation from the individual) within what I am sure McLuhan would see as a hot medium (ie: Gaming predominantly provides information to a gamer and enhances a single sense, the visual sense). Yet it is possible to also find a Hot media for example an online facebook ‘game’ such as Farmville which is mind numbingly hot requiring very little individual input with only a single sense enhanced, the visual.

With so many medias now performing a duality of functions and enhancing multiple senses, McLuhen’s Hot to Cold scale seems to, although historiographically important to the study of media, be largely irrelevant as a method of measuring a medium such as Games that contain within it such a diverse range of genres and sub genres that determine participation levels and this is without even considering how the individual chooses to approach and participate in each individual game.

Illustration for Design

Doing a new type of subject this semester- an entire semester of drawing to specific briefs, just what we need. This week's assessment was to create a series of instructional diagrams stepping through a process with illustrations. Here's my version.....

Jul 19, 2011

Kung Fu Panda II


I recently went to see Dreamworks latest animation offering, Kung Fu Panda II. This is the latest instalment of the Panda franchise and sees us revisit Po's early childhood in an attempt to understand how he became the panda that he is today, for a full synopsis please click here.

It seems that with a lot of these animation films being released lately, the technology and the animation is exceptional, but the storylines and character development seem to be left behind. I loved this film, this was one of the first CGI animation films I have seen where I actually forgot I was watching CGI animation- odd but true, quite often the rigs and unnatural movement can be distracting- but not in Kung Fu Panda II. Now that the technology of CGI animation has been advanced there is a return to and application of the classic actions, 'rules' of animation and guidelines to creating convincing movement on screen. I also enjoyed the number of animation styles used throughout the film from 'fake' shadow puppets to 2D Flash animation- all of which served a purpose as plot device in the narrative (usually to signify a leaving of the now to return to the dream world or memory).

There were lots of really cute nawwwwwww moments with little Po- his relationship with his adoptive parent and the story of how he came to be the son of a noodle making goose- were well rounded and engaging. The panda movements were very natural and VERY cute!



Also love the inclusion of Van Damme- bit of a nod to 80s westernised martial arts movies.


The plot seemed to grind a little with the repetition of the flashbacks inspired by the villain's feathers and the other Kung Fu characters seemed to serve no real purpose in this sequel, unlike in the first film where they were key in creating Po's experience. The peacock as a villain was less than convincing and his character seemed 2 dimensional and repetitive.


Concept Art- Backgrounds

Scene from Kung Fu Panda II:

Loved the backgrounds and the variety in settings, fantastical and colourful. I preferred the strength of story and character in the first film, however this film surpasses it in visual style and animation execution. Yep I have the Art of Book and I can also recommend that as well.

The Art of Kung Fu Panda II- Worth a look
To preview the book click here

Jul 13, 2011

World of Warcraft Warlock

Latest work is a commission piece based on an individual character from Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Azulla of Frostmourne. Photoshop CS3 and Wacom.

Jul 4, 2011

Title Cards

In keeping with the vintage feel of our film Draco, these are the title cards that will appear at the start of the film. Just like a vintage cartoon they will fade in and out and the accompanying music will be ragtime played on the piano by me.