Media began with the action of human senses and expression of them. Media denote expression of us using words and pictures to share our ideas. All that make our living convenient and produce tools are media. The word ‘communication’ that we always associate with the word ‘media’ is nothing but a property of media. It is media that tell us that human living has evolved throughout scores of centuries. The concept of media is so extensive that it is very hard to understand it.

In primitive tribal society, men communicated and protected each other through words. As words developed into letters, paper was needed. The paper on which letters were written was kept as records. With the spread of paper among tribes and appearing of roads, money and figures, tribal society developed into urban society. The invention of printing by Gutenberg in the fifteenth century and the consequential spread of printed letters brought about great changes on human living. Propagation of printed letters allowed men to think individually, produced standardized logic and brought forth a system of state or society. From this time, an unwarranted prejudice of the Western society, the tendency to attach importance to records through written language or books came into being, according to Macluhan. He also asserts that individualistic and nationalistic tendency has been reinforced since the invention of printing, as from that time, men tended toward visual senses – to think looking at letters – in contrast to tribal men who made all judgments based on animal senses (a synesthesia such as the sense of sight and the sense of hearing).

He holds that with the advancement of electronic media in the twentieth century, media, such as TV and Internet, remake men to be synesthetic from being visual. TV and Internet belong to the ‘cool media’ as he refers to. The media that require participation rather than standardized information are referred to as “cool media” by him. He refers to such media as newspapers, magazines and radio as “hot media’ in opposition to cool media. Cool media make men aware of standardization latent in them and help them sound their own voice. “Automation” of the society has made it possible. Through the media of Internet, we came to know that men think and express in really diverse ways. Media made in the process of human civilization are partially evolved to be re-created and partially destroyed. In the context, can’t we say that media are another form of men? We are suggested to accept and express information proactively rather than view the world in a domesticated and standardized way. We need to open the mind and think flexibly for the future.

This book awakened me to shortcomings of mine. It led me to find closed mind and standardized thoughts latent in me. On the other hand, while this book helped me much understand media, it made me skeptical of the classification of media into two categories of hot and cool media. I think that media is a relative concept, as the system of media continues to change and advance. Further consideration and studies are required for this part, as I have been always and will continue to be in a time of transition.

Blood Complicated

Chapter One of “Understanding Comics” is entitled “Setting the Record Straight,” but I would like to put another chapter entitled “Looking back over the past” ahead of Chapter One. “We have comics breathing alive in our daily living and we can look back on our past through comics, or can long very much for our past at least.”

I like comics. For people of my generation, comics make a part of life. For me, comics are laugh for the most part and tears once in a while. I learned the world where I belong from comics, and the world where I desired to live was in comics.

The generation that accomplished the miracle of economic rehabilitation of Japan has treated Dezuka Osamu who drew ‘Atom’ as a hero. For the generation, Atom was really a hero. The children, who dreamed to be a scientist in an aspiration to make Atom, grew to be the electronic generation of Japan later. Comics are a dream. And to be proud of the dream of comics, comics should be precisely defined.

What are comics and why are we indulged in comics? Most of us, once at least, have felt the urge to be indulged in comics. Stereotypically we think that comics are funny, comics are childish and comics don’t make any sense. People feel like reading comics stereotyped in such a way and at the same time, feel contempt for them. It is an irony. What makes such an irony?

Scott McCloud says “traditional thinking has long held that truly great works of art and literature are only possible when the two are kept at arm’s length.” Comics, which have words and pictures mixed, have been therefore regarded as an entertainment outgrown from commercialism for the masses rather than an art. What made then comics of such an inferior quality to be the axis of cultural industry in the twenty-first century? The author says that combination of words with pictures demonstrates huge power in narrating stories. It is comics that make it possible.

The author attributes our obsession with comics at early days to symbolism. Characters in a comic are drawn in simple lines. Readers show much more reaction to symbolized cartoons rather than to realistic representation, as they identify themselves with them. The author refers the identification as conceptualization. With the simplification of matters, we are absorbed deep into abstraction. In this abstraction, or universal identification, readers have empathy with ease. In other words, all things surrounding characters through visual symbolic words are subjectified from an objective view. In the comment about Marshall Mcluhan’s “Cool Media: Two Media –TV and Comics- where audiences may participate, McCloud suggested another possibility of comics. Distance between words and pictures, symbols and use of sounds in comics may be used as necessary factors in the study of interactive media.

“What happens between these panels is a kind of magic only comics can create.” says the author at Chapter Three. The space between columns is referred to as “blood in the gutter.” There are active participation and association included in the gutter. He compares American comics with Japanese comics, and states about the role and difference of association of the gutter. Comparing American comics where the connection of a scene to the next scene is mainly focused on ‘actions’ with Japanese comics that connect apparently unrelated scenes together to convey atmosphere, he gives an explanation about characteristics of Western culture that has strong directivity and Eastern culture that has strong circularity.

Everyone perceives the world as a whole through his/her own experience, but our senses are rather narrow. To try to perceive the reality through narrow senses is to try to perceive the whole based on broken fragments. We call the perception based on fragments an association. Associations happen at the space between columns, which is frequently referred to as “the gutter” by comics aficionados. The gutter changes two different scenes into a notion using imagination. Columns of comics, which split time and space, get in the rhythm that disconnects actions. Association, however, connects actions to make a continued and unified reality. If visual symbolic words are vocabulary for comics, association is the grammar for comics. As great importance is attached to the arraying of factors, a comic in the true meaning is association. In comics, association produces strong intimacy that any media but words can’t exceed, thus making a secret, silent agreement between the cartoonist and readers.

Comics are another form of arts that emerged at the postmodern age. Comics are therefore should be considered in the domain of arts. The concept of cosmic form that was pursued at the modernism changed to the concept of chaotic form at the postmodernism. The change has enormous possibility for creation. In the world of comics is always something unseen under the cover resisting our efforts to understand and great possibilities are in the things unseen. New generations will continue to reject past definitions of arts and make new definitions through movements of new form. Will Eisner called comics sequential art when describing comics. This expression is, however, unreasonable, as there are many types of arts in the art of continuum. How about defining comics as a visual art of continuum? We associate visual art with movies and animations. Comics are, however, different from movies and animations that are continued only in time, but are not arranged in a line in space, unlike comics. In other words, as movies and animations exist in a given frame, the situation for them moves according to the given frame. For the reason, audience should view the movie or animation as intended by the director and are not allowed to adjust the situation at their pleasure. The same is not true of comics. Readers can read comics as they please at their desired speed.

How then can we define comics? The author defines comics as “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence.” While ambiguous definition makes it difficult to present to the public, too definite definition blocks the indefinite possibility for future growth of comics. Until the appearance of multimedia, the definition of comics as an art of continuum was sufficient to present to the public. Picture stories that we used to enjoy at our early days are also comics, according to the author. Comics were too narrowly defined to accept all works made of images of the past as well as the present into their domain. Present controversies over comics don’t exceed the level, for example, whether muscular characters should wear blue tights or not. We can actually find comics anywhere our daily living, from Monet’s stained glass to automotive operation manual. There are no restrictions in genre, materials and character for comics. Any ideas and viewpoints are accepted. The definition that comics are pictures or images arranged in the intended order gives comics indefinite freedom.

We have long drawn and read comics. What is important is that we should not forget the possibilities of comics. No one can define comics definitely, as comics are not a finished outcome, but a living art. To distinguish what is different from what is common is the assignment of those who dream of comics.

Technical aspect of reproduction has kept on advancing. Reproductions have been traditionally made by artisan method as we can see in the case of prints and paintings. A new technology of reproduction using machines appeared around the nineteenth century under the influence of the Industrial Revolution to exert much influence on art. The new technology began to exert influence on the production method of art and changed thoughts of people.

In the book, the author considers materialistic ideas brought forth by technological reproduction and advancement of modern aesthetic sensitivity. The author is optimistic about the changes resulted from the replacement of art with technology. He takes notice of possibilities of technological reproduction implied by modern technological media, such as movies and photograph. I think that “Simulacres by Jean Baudrillard” should be considered together with technological reproduction of Benjamin. “Simulacres” mean the reproduction of copies that cannot be said to be copies any more, as the difference between the original of the copies and the duplicate has become indistinct. Such reproductions are displayed and socialized in volume through numerous media. Media, however, is not a conductor of socialization. To the contrary, they absorb and eradicate something social from the masses. This means that all contents with meaning are absorbed into the form of media(Simulacres by Jean Baudrillard). Benjamin asserts that, in the media representing Simulacres, such as movies and photograph,there are no original copies. Rather than that, there are only copies that surpass the original.

Benjamin sets a positive value on “destruction of aura” of technological reproduction. Arriving at a certain level, reproduction technology wields influence on the production of the original works. To be specific, it passes the phase of copying into the phase of subversion to cause changes to art, and the situation endangers the authority of works of art, which is called “destruction of aura.” In the world of art, the atmosphere that seems to surround the original works is called “aura,” to designate the uniqueness of the works. In the age of technological reproduction, however, this concept of aura vanishes away. Traditional arts had been performed by readers in the form of contemplation. Rejection of tradition is the beginning of modernism and the destruction of aura is the most important feature of modernism. Destruction of aura converts ritual value into display value. This means that worship value for works of art has decreased, while display value for them has increased. Visual media of modern times cause changes to our sensation, typically to our sense of touch. The sense of touch signifies a synesthic, wholistic sense. The movie is the typical example of it. The movie is a collection of many individual works. Endless changes of images in a movie give impact to viewers. The impact effect is the tactile effect. Benjamin says that to see a movie is “a drill to train sensation.” He admits the effects of modern media as a desirable outcome.

People today inattentively process innumerous information. This “inattentiveness” has changed the way in which people receive art and caused them to have the attitude of a critic, according to Benjamin. Especially movies produce new receivers of art, i.e. the masses. Benjamin expected that movies would cause changes to human sensation as a “dispersed sense in dual meaning.” The ultimate possibility of movies, however, was used by fascists for their own purposes. Fascists used the affirmative property of movies as a means for “demagogy,” and furthermore, for the strengthening of fascism. They were used in the making of larger aura rather than destroying it. Benjamin’s advocacy of “politicization of art against artistry of politics” was made on the basis of perception of such situation.

All matters have linguistic essence, according to Benjamin. From uncertain times, however, people began to give names to matters as occasion demanded disregarding the linguistic essence contained in matters. From that time on, language has been regarded as a means and a sign, thus failing to reflect proper value of matters. His statement that all matters have linguistic essence conveys his intention most clearly. He observed linguistic essence in movies and popular culture, and read the times from it. Art especially values linguistic essence above anything else. Language of art lacks voice, but it can play the part of a universal language that all people over the world can understand. Art is a sort of “translation” that translates linguistic essence left silent in matters into another language.

I gave a thought about the aura of art works while reading Benjamin’s writing. Aura of the original copy collapsed with the appearance of reproduction technology. Benjamin takes an affirmative position about the destruction of aura that plays an important part in advancing new doctrines. With the destruction of aura, the concept of aura has continued to change.

I was anxious to know what meaning the aura has in plays (a form of an experimental tool for the study of materials and the audience). I wonder if a play can composed mainly of materials without content of story on the stage. For most of stages, property of matter is generally one of material forms to express a given story. Depending on the story, the space is determined, clothes are dressed and necessary materials are used or made. When you fail to adjust the sense of material existence, the story is disturbed or a completely different story breaks in. In a play, discord of the seen stage with the story may be an outcome of staging that failed in understanding the story properly. There may be also a case where the material property of the space was not properly understood and the story could not be narrated. I wondered if each property of matter could determine their relative importance in a play while making aura for each of them in the setting of a stage. To take an instance, their relative importance in a play would vary depending on matters and location. Properties of matters don’t mean properties of matters only, but mean the most essential property of all matters including man-designated matters as well as god-created matters. They may be a name or a color. They may be a purpose. Each of all matters has unique essential property. It is important to know their fine properties. Reproduction technology has made a new form of society as well as new meanings and aura. These changes play an affirmative and progressive part in our living. There is, however, something unchanged. It is deep impression and essence. The adjustment of impression and essence would be the key to achieve the most fundamental purpose of creation whatever media you may use.

RGB

In human society, the steps of communication media have been changed from oral culture to literal culture based on writing, and toward digital culture based on electronic technology. Walter J. Ong compares the difference between the orality of people who do not know writing at all and the literacy of people who are influenced by writing in this book. He defines that speaking and writing are very different media. He regards that writing is to visualize words. Through these comparisons, he indicates that it is a very different mode of expression and the law of thinking between orality and literacy. He defines that orality is more sensitive and communal than literacy. Also, he says that literacy is more rational and individual than orality. He regards ‘The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer’ as a representative text of oral expression. These texts are related with the role of Homer’s hexameter in his epic. These texts are examples of orality changing to literacy as stories are passed down from one generation to the next. By mentioning these texts, the author refers to thinking and expressive characters based on orality. Systematically recognizing orality is comparable to conversation between people, the ability to recall past conversation is essential. Speech should have a strong, rhythmic, repetitive pattern of phonology in order to be recognized effectively. The most important thing in an oral society is the tone of communication. The tone used in an oral society drastically different than that in a literal society. The ability to communicate feelings, ideas, humor, irony, and more is very different in the two forms.  In orality, communication is a more communal and extroverted experience than in a literal society. The author explores the relationship between orality and literacy and their influence upon one another. He defines that orality is the mother of writing; and writing is unable to communicate all of the expressions found in speech. Speech especially allows for greater use of the imagination. (A story can change from one telling to the next; whereas, a written communication stays the same.) What effect does writing have on our ability to think and express ourselves? The author insists that writing not only expresses oral communication visually, but also transforms the meaning of language and has a great influence on one’s way of thinking. Writing reflects the writer’s thinking. The writing itself becomes part of the thought process.  The medium of writing influences the way of thinking. There is a distance created between the writer and his/her thoughts when they are written down. The advent of plagiarism and the development of intellectual property only came about after the advent of printing. It is to convert speaking into writing as an object. We can know this change through a story of a novel. A heroic person is replaced by an ordinary person in a story. The development of narrative has the structure of four steps; introduction, development, climax and conclusion.  These changes are caused by switching from orality to literacy. Also, speaking is visualized and objectified according to a technology. A technology is used as a method of changing one’s mind. There are lots of technologies available to visualize speaking, one of the most influential of which is the advent of electronic technology. These changes as a tool of knowledge product are started by the advance of a visual code system. When writing, a writer can define a text using this code. When a reader knows the code, the transformation from thought to electronic media can be more effective. The shift from the oral or the written word to electronic media allows for greater interpretation of the message. This change in thinking allows us to have a greater range of understanding of the information presented. The development of electronic technologies such as radio, phone, and television has allowed us to use both oral and visual methods to express our thought, creating vastly more detailed methods of communication.  

The present digital culture arises from these changes. The author points out that digital culture is the second oral culture. In addition, digital culture is highly similar to the previous oral culture. In this context, we can understand why sensitivity is emphasized in a cultural and industrial society where digital culture is present. The digital cultural community is an emotional community, and these emotions can be conveyed in our digital culture. The reason is that if text is rational, images based on digital contents requires more emotional and intuitive senses. The most important thing in digital culture is the Internet. There is a relationship between orality and literacy in the Internet. I believe that communication via the Internet is converted again from written to digital. Historically the way of communication has been changed from oral to literal. However, changing from ‘speaking’ to ‘writing’ changed not just the way of communication, but the culture as well. Orality being familiar with literacy means ‘the Internet’. We can move from a literal to conversational situation on the Internet by immediate feed back. In our society, many decisions are made based on information on the Internet. However, ‘writing’ in the Internet is actually nearer ‘speaking.’ We misunderstand that the language we use in the Internet is writing because it is expressed as a text. Writing is to represent with using very refined words raising the segment of our thought. However, there are lots of cases expressing our thought directly without the process of refining. For instant, messenger is one of the examples. The text exchanging in the place is not refined writing, but conversational speech. Communication in the Internet is similar to speaking but not mimicking real speaking because it lacks the face-to-face interaction making very difficult to deliver the emotional message. Also, when communicating through the Internet, there is a discrepancy between speaking and writing. It is the shift from hearing to visual communication by the medium of texts that lacks humanity of a voice. On the Internet, it is not important to know the person whom I am “talking” with because people can create a virtual identity. What is important is what they “talk” about, and that they can exchange their feelings with each other. On the Internet, to communicate by text causes the type of human relationship to change. On the Internet, it is the message that defines the human relationship not the medium. It is very different from a real human relationship, lacking the subtle interpersonal messages reduced from face to face contact with a subject. I think that Internet communication should be defined as a different medium not a traditional method as Walter J. Ong described in Orality and Literacy.