Though I wanted the post about New Media to be more specific and analytical, it came out as a flow of words and since this is a weblog, not a term paper, I left it that way.
It did kind of veer off the subject into Susan Space, though.
What I intended to write about is the changes that this course in particular made in me, and give some concrete examples of what topics in particular caused the deeper thinking, the looking under the carpets, the testing of the blade edge to insure its cut.
Perhaps one of the reasons that I more readily accepted the perspectives of the new media course is that it closely aligned the future with the past, tracing a historical record of narrative through art, language, literature and cinema. This (as has oft been seen here) is the manner in which I personally absorb new material—by relating it to the past or what is known and familiar, and building it up from there as well as applying it backwards in time to get at the roots. Snips of films, artwork through the ages, comic books, and computer generated productions such as video games and movies where computer animation was of primary importance were shown and explained in their use of media methods established by both the story and the particular advantages of their nature. The basics were throughout each medium; story arc, plot points of conflict, scene change, environments, and resolution, yet each was dependent upon a different means to get there.
Breaking down the story into segments of time and environment, lifting the layers to discover how they were interleaved to make it whole, seeing the work in its barest form and fully clothed—this is what impressed me most; this and the fact that it did not rob the story of its impact by seeing the parts disassembled.
From there, I took the learning back into my own world of what I consider reality—the trees, my home, the people I run into daily—and could look beneath the surfaces with some sort of x-ray eyes that penetrated to the core of common sights that otherwise are just existing without special notice taken.
To learn the nuances of one means of communication is to better understand the others. To learn them all concurrently is to understand the human mind itself a little better than before, and to question where it can go based upon where it has been.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
I wholeheartedly agree with your statement, “To learn the nuances of one means of communication is to better understand the others.” I believe that the fragmentation of forms of media mirrors other kinds of fragmentation in our culture and our psyches. I am fascinated by the idea of trasposing one thing into multiple forms of media and discourse. Maybe it’s some sort of alchemist-like impulse, LOL.
I like that idea–alchemy. The mixture that produces gold.