mzhong1 Assignment1

This particular piece of media was taken on Saturday, at 12.  With Adblock on, I did not view the ad, which is interesting, because ads are really everywhere.  Even with Adblock on, the fact that they once were there and that one might have had to view it is interesting.  What I was doing at the time was watching Detective Conan, an anime (animated cartoon) while playing Brave Frontier.  What interests me is that while watching and playing, I noticed that there is a bar to the side of he video player displaying new episodes of various cartoons.  Usually I ignore them, but I find that they are probably a way to generate interest in new anime shows. Sometimes I even find myself browsing shows that look interesting in the sidebar.  Another things that shows up daily which I usually ignore is a bar at the top which allows for the sharing of videos to google plus, twitter, and Facebook.  Since I don't use google+ or twitter, nor post anything on Facebook often, I usually ignore the bar.  However, I can see how enthusiasts might share their favorite shows and episodes or favorite moments via twitter, google+, and Facebook by using this option.  

Of course, on webpages such as Facebook, we get bombarded with messages.  Who did what?  Event notices, friend requests, what new thing happened today that a friend or organization did, messages sent.  It seems like pretty obvious media, including the advertisements that pop up everywhere.  But do we pay attention to them of subconsciously notice them?  Do advertisers even design the ads with the idea in mind that most people will probably overlook them?  Some are flashy to catch attention, but most are skipped over for the sake of other media.  

At 9 p.m. on Saturday, I ordered pizza to have with a group a friends in Gates.  Normally when you order pizza, you're mostly focused on just eating the food.  What I didn't notice that the advertisement for the store we bought the pizza from -Pizza Care, on the box.  Nor do I usually pay attention to the words on the sides of the box.  But the store number and "Thank you for your business" were on the box, which leads me to to wonder if that is done on purpose to generate a hopefully good relationship with customers while advertise to passerby that "this group of people ate our pizza and enjoyed it -you should too!" It's certainly something I usually overlook, the box displaying the name of the restaurant, simply because its so common and usually the display is facing the table so people don't see it.  However, the person picking up the box and those who pass by the box once it's been placed in the trash will.  

One of the many posters in the halls of the GHC that I pass by, this one was on the 8th floor, taken at 10 p.m. on Saturday.  While I usually don't look at these posters on the way to class, it is an interesting piece of media, chock full of data, graphs, and other images and explanations.  Many of these posters are on the walls and hallways on CMU campus, but many of us pass by the posters without reading them.  Some of them are advertisements for clubs and other activities.  Some, like these, display data and theories of the people here who have created them.  It displays the achievements of the people who created them, sharing with those interested the ideas of the people who go to CMU, while also piquing the interest of those who take the time to read them.  

This is a shelf in my house filled with the glass items that one of my housemate and I have made.  I don't really pay much attention to them -we made them at a glass-blowing class, and most of them are hers.  However, they are quite pretty on display, and some are functional cups and bowls that we use.  I don't really think much about the glassware and pottery we use often as bowls and cups, but they too are works of art.  Someone spent the time and effort to shape these pieces and design them, filling them with color or not.  Do they necessarily give a message, no, but sometimes art is made for the sake of beauty and/or functionality. I took this picture Sunday morning, at 11 a.m.  One thing I hadn't noticed until my roommate told me was that most of the glassware on the top shelf was cracked, but they were all training pieces so that she could refine her glassblowing technique, trying to get the right thickness in the glass.  Sometimes, media is a means of refining skill to create more media.  

This is a piece that sits next to my desk all day, and I don't really pay much attention to it except to note that its very pretty.  My other roommate made this piece as a means to hold her jewelry, but its really quite a beautiful piece of work, looking like a tree.  The main point of this piece was simply for function -she needed a place to put all of her jewelry, but she arranged it so that the display of the jewelry was in itself a piece of art.  Its grounds in nature, the tree shape the stand took, is always a soothing and interesting piece to look at, and I personally wonder at how such a simply created piece can look so beautiful every once in a while.  

The books on the shelf behind are also wonderful pieces to read, whenever there is time.  Words are just as easily considered sculpted art as a statue, after all, and each book always leaves behind an impression or idea.  While I don't have the time to read them as a used to do, and sometimes electronic books are more convenient, there is something to be said for the experience of hand-turning pages and the sentimentality which comes with it.  Not to mention, each and every book contains a message from an author, which a reader will experience whilst reading.  

  There is a lot of media around today that we don’t think about. We don’t really think about what we see everyday, the various pictures, text, and physical media we see everyday. Often most of this media goes ignored, many advertisements skipped, messages lost because we don’t pay attention to them. There are pictures and other media which subconsciously attempt to convince us to buy things, like the pictures on the cereal we eat each morning, or the billboards we pass by in cars. Sometimes there isn’t always a message to be heard though. Sometimes a piece is just practice by the maker for something better or more refined. But oftentimes there is a reason for the creation of media, whether we see it or not. Whether we analyse a story, a news report, a song we listen to, a painting, or the signs we see on the street. There is usually a reason for them if not a message. Though we sometimes ignore them, media which we actively interact with tend to have a lasting impression on us. We receive the message communicated to us through the medium, and in this age, we can share the message with others through social media.