The final submission is over, however i still think that there is something missing and i want to find out about information overload. Very lucky that one day i went to library and picked a book called ‘The Book of Probes’ by Marshall McLuhan and David Carson.
this is a very insightful book to read:-
‘Literate man, civilized man, tends to restrict and to seperate functions, whereas tribal man has freely extended the form of his body to include the universe.’
‘All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perception and arbitrary values.’
‘The role of artist is to create an anti-environment as a means of perception and adjustment.’
‘The new science of communication is percept, not concept.’
‘Light is information without content, much as the missile is a vehicle without the additions of wheel or highway. As the missele is a self-contained transportation system that consumes not only its fuel but its engine, so light is a self-contained communication system in which medium is the message.’
I’ve heard ‘medium is the message’ for many times, but never really understand the core meaning of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message
McLuhan describes the “content” of a medium as a juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.[8] This means that people tend to focus on the obvious, which is the content, to provide us valuable information, but in the process, we largely miss the structural changes in our affairs that are introduced subtly, or over long periods of time.[7] As society’s values, norms and ways of doing things change because of the technology, it is then we realize the social implications of the medium. These range from cultural or religious issues and historical precedents, through interplay with existing conditions, to the secondary or tertiary effects in a cascade of interactions[7] that we are not aware of.
Another good read, “Information Anxiety’ by Richard Saul Wurman, it is about information explosion and also how we can deal with it. it is not a step-by-step book, and that is why it allows me think more. Nowadays it is hard to find a book i can concentrate reading for long time, but this book makes me want to keep reading. very inspiring. Although it is a book about information explosion, however i think it is also about lifestyle. Information actually affect our lifestyle a lot, especially now with smartphones and tablet.
‘I rather worship the space between things, the silence between good friends, the time between the notes of music, the break time during a conference, the space between buildings, negative space. I love the space on my desk better than the object themselves. It makes me see clearer.’
I think those theories are very useful for my career as a graphic designer/ illustrator/ artist in the future.
cc.kua 