“The meaning of a particular thing is enabled by the web of implicit meanings we call the world” (170). I believe that this is in relationship to how we as people see things in the real world and the connections we make to the unfamiliar to the familiar. If we see something in the digital world that doesn’t make sense we will connect it back to what we know to make sense or to figure the problem at hand out. Trying to make the web have meaning and this can also be said for other art forms. People connect what they know to make sense of what they don’t. In songs, visual art, poetry, the web even—people find underlining meaning. This is a great example of metaphor. Metaphor is used to disguise another meaning, for the super cliché, reading between the lines.
I thought it was interesting how Weinberger explained the start button in Allston gas stations. However the button was not raised and people got confused. (pg.153). I believe this is because people took what they knew and related back to what was in front of them. Trying to make sense of what was presented to them. We put “implicit” meaning to items to make full sense of that item. Like the gas station buttons, people tried to put implicit meaning to the upraised button to understand but failed. This lead to confusing for the consumer and there for was not proven to be a failed concept.
I chose the song “People Say” by Portugal the Man. I find patriotic meaning in this song and I find a different view of what that means. I have made a Photoshop image that I think a computer would have composed to make sense of this song. The image showcases protestors which is a right for Americans and there is also patriotic colors displayed within the image. This is not only how I believe a computer would see this song but me also.
Save me,
I can't be saved,
I won't.
I'm a president's son,
I don't need no soul.
All the soldiers say
"It'll be alright,
we may make it through the war
if we make it through the night."
All the people, they say:
"What a lovely day, yeah, we won the war.
May have lost a million men, but we've got a million more."
All the people, they say.
Share with me
all of your pain,
I won't share your love,
I need all your love.
All the soldiers say
"It'll be alright,
we may make it through the war
if we make it through the night."
All the people, they say:
"What a lovely day, yeah, we won the war.
May have lost a million men, but we've got a million more."
All the people, they say.
Save me,
I can't be saved,
I won't.
I don't need no love.
I'm a president's son.
All the soldiers say
"It'll be alright,
we may make it through the war
if we make it through the night."
All the people, they say:
"What a lovely day, yeah, we won the war.
May have lost a million men, but we've got a million more."
All the people, they say.
It'll be alright,
It'll be alright,
It'll be right now.
Your statement, "People connect what they know to make sense of what they don’t" is right on. We do this everyday to make sense of the littlest things, whether we are aware of it or not. Is Portugal the Man actually from Portugal? I'm Portuguese and I'm totally curious. I like your image a lot, it's powerful even without having read the lyrics.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alaina - your statement about people connecting what they know to make sense of what they don't is absolutely right! It's interesting how we gather information every single day and often times we won't use that information for weeks or months but eventually we can connect something we've learned ages ago to a current situation. I really like your image. It's cool to look at and it seems like a very accurate representation of the song!
ReplyDeleteI like how you said a lot of phrases for a computer to understand your picture. Mine was just stick figures because I originally thought that we actually had to draw/draft in photoshop. I was mistaken haha. Nice work though man, I was also amazed at the gas station situation. Crazy stuff.
ReplyDeleteMake sure to go back and read this section, paying close attention to the connections he makes between the implicit/explicit and the 3rd order (why does it matter if we make the implicit explicit on the web? what does tagging have to do with it? what happens when thousands of people tag instead of hundreds? etc). You've got the gist, but will need some specificity for the midterm. Your example is nice, and like the others who took a creative route, it wasn't quite metadata in the way computers might understand it, but that's not to say they couldn't if we trained them.
ReplyDelete