I was on board with the ideas initially presented in McCloud “Chapter 2: Vocabulary of Comics.” Icons (or symbols, which is apparently too “loaded” for the author) are used to communicate ideas in various aspects. These icons rely on visual characteristics and social/historical knowledge.
On page 36, McCloud makes a point that “When you look at a photo or realistic drawing of a face… you see it as the face of another. But when you enter the world of the cartoon… you see yourself.” While I do believe this could be true in some aspects, it wasn’t true for myself as a child. I think people grow up on cartoons because they are so simple to comprehend. Most young children start off only drawing simple, caroon-like characters, and some never graduate this level of artistry. So the image of two dots, a line and a circle remain forever a face because that is where our knowledge came from. IMO, the simplicity of cartoons allow the customization of content by the consumer.
Bolter and Grusin’s “Immediacy, Hyperimmediacy and Remediation” on the other hand advocated the saturation of detail and imagery to create a seamless transition to an alternate reality. Both ideas have validity, however I think the idea of using computers and digital media as the supreme interface leave little imagination, or to-do, for the consumer; it all rests in the creators hands.
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