"Explaining Magic"- Edward Tufte, due Sept 18
"To create illusions is to engage in 'disinformation design'. An inventory of conjuring methods consequently provides evidence about 'what not to do' in the proper arrangement of information- where the point is not at all to baffle the audience but rather to unveil and explain complex data clearly , accurately, mistakably."
"...in work on 'visual masking', 'the reduction of the visibility of one stimulus, called the target, by a spatiotemporally overlapping or contiguous second stimulus, called the mask.' In conjuring, The Mask makes the magic; elsewhere, The Mask makes a lie."
~ Explaining Magic, Tufte
Aside from magic tricks, briefly describe and outline another scenario which uses a target and "The Mask".
posted by Stephanie @ 10:21 AM
10 Comments:
One scenario which uses a target and "the mask" would be the Surgeon General's warning on all tabacco products. The target is the actual warning on the box, the words, and what the warning is meant to say (heart conditions, cancer, etc). The mask is the large thick stroked box surrounding the warning with all of the letters mashed and jumbled inside, which makes the label difficult to read or even to look at. A company actually deliberatly decreased the kearning of the letters as well as the leading of the lines in the label, to make the message as difficult as possible to read. This is an extremely well thought out plan in how to "mask" an object so the viewer is blind to the target.
Aside from magic tricks, mass media also uses the scenario of target and “the Mask.” What we see on television and what we read in newspapers or magazines is what the media corporations want us to be exposed to. Our perceptions and viewpoints of world events are shaped by what is reported by these large global conglomerates. The media giants directly influence what we think about. Media coverage on the devastation of Katrina overshadows the deaths in Iraq. The general public is often only aware of what the top story. From this masking effect public opinion is shaped. Our perceptions and opinions on a topic are too often formed by the fraction of information media giants report. That information is bias many times, which then leads to a bias public opinion.
Another scenario which uses a target and "The Mask" are food advertisements. For example General Mills cereal advertisements advertise how all their cereal is good for you because its made from real whole grain and could lower your cholesterol. Insome cases, like cheerios, this could be true. But when comparing to the cereal Lucky Charms, although it is made with whole grain, the marshmellows and the sugar coating on each whole grain piece changes the whole idea of a healthy choice, whole grain cereal. This is a mask to people who have trouble eating healthy and for parents who want feed their children something they like while eating something good for them at the same time.
Aside from magic tricks, the scenario which uses a target and "The Mask" are often used in the arts of propaganda, strategic intelligence, and politics.
An example of how it was used in politics and propaganda was during the Presidential election in 2004. The target is the American public. The mask in this case was the news reported in Iraq. The presidential campaign was heavily reported on the news, distracting people from the fact that there was a war still going on in Iraq and the increasing number of US troops casualties. Furthermore, it was believed that the news about Iraq was also screened--footages of caskets coming home from the battlefield to the US soil were not shown to the general public. This created the impression that the war was less devastating than it really is and probably so the public would not consider it as a bad decision by the government.
Although we may not realize it, we are exposed to “masks” every day throughout our lives. We are transformed into the “targets” every day when we turn on the TV, go on the internet, or read magazines, amongst other things. In the excerpt from Edward Tufte’s Visual Explanation, Tufte uses the example of the surgeon general’s warning from a billboard advertisement for cigarettes. Although it is intended to be a warning, and should be a more prominent piece of the advertisement, it is designed in a way that causes the viewer to overlook it, or have more difficulty reading it. The thick frame around it “activate[es] the negative white space between the word and the box”, and “[t]he sans serif, capital letters minimize distinctions among letters and words, contributing to the difficulty of reading”.
Another source of “disinformation” is the government. Our current administration has masked many important things over the past several years. For example, the people who run our country wanted to reassure the American citizens that the war in Iraq was going well, even though it really was (and still is) not. We were always hearing about all of these “triumphs” that our troops were having overseas-“toppling regimes”, and “helping free the Iraqi people”. What the government refused to let us see was the multitude of caskets draped with American flags that were being shipped back to their final resting places from Iraq. Only recently did the government let any photos be published of this sight, probably because they are realizing that we, the “targets”, are seeing through the mask they are attempting to wear.
An example of "the Mask" would be any fine print in a contract, credit card application, etc. Also, when watching television commercials that have amazing offers and great deals, there is always that guy who talks way too fast for anyone to understand him in the end. That would be another example of a mask. The audience gets so excited about the offer that they disreguard the man who talks too fast in the end of the commercial or do not even see the fine print at the bottom of the contract to realize that they are, in fact, getting screwed over so to say. It is the same thing with products "Made in the USA." Chevrolet claims that they are an American made car company, but most of the parts that make up everything under the hood come from different parts of the world making Chevy cars assembled in America but made everywhere else. Consumers see that the car is made in America and think they are supporting their country but never actually look closer at the parts that make up the car and realize they have those little words like "Made in China" for example on them.
There are many good relations regarding scenarios concerning targets and masks. One being the way casinos target customers. Each have a monetary goal, but it's generally the casino that reaches said goal. Casinos are able to contain the belief in their customers heads that if they stay long enough, they will actually win something bigger than previous wins. Casinos mask the truth that the customers are actually losing hundreds of dollars (depending on how much they play) while they are profitting. All the while the casino pushes ideas of "winning big" with all their flashy lights and buzzers as an obvious distraction to the truth that you're losing this weeks paycheck instead of taking it home to feed your family. In that respect, their disinformation design (disguise and attention control) is incredibly strong and incredibly successful.
Another scenario which uses a target and "The Mask" are magazines and newspapers representation of the entertainment industry. The media, as well as the corporations with they work with and for, show us exactly what they want us to see, nothing more. Our perseption of the entertainment business as well as the people involved in it is formed for us before we even see the articles ourselves. However, because the media has become such a big comodity in our society, corporations have to skew public opinion to shape a general perception witch fits the topic. Photographs of famous people are a staple in our everyday lives and they are often if not always some version of the truth or not. We the public have been brainwashed by this for years and the "mask" of false information we see forms a blinded and often false public opinion.
Another scenario which makes use of "The Mask" to cover up a target is our countries News coverage. Over the last year or two I have started whatching and reading the news a lot more often. I always knew what was going on, but I would only whatch or read the news every week or two, and otherwise learn from discussions with family and friends. I have become more news savvy recently, but the reason why it took so long is because I always feel like the news is very filtered. The Government and Media have many "targets" anc a ton of information that we want to know or should know. They use a "Mask" and only tell us what they want us to know, or how much details or specifications they want us to know, or can let us know. I believe that in some cases this is neccessary though, because with out it we would probably have mass chaos or an overwelming fear in our society. Though it is hard to swallow when you think of how much is going on and how much is effecting our lives, that we have no idea about, or only have tidbits of allowed knowledge about.
Actually “visual language” is a metaphor to represents some idea and replace words. Visual language is to help people to recognize written words.
“Perception at expose of interpretation”; some areas are organized a sign, but doesn’t mean is it a universal sign.
There are three example of how signs are culturally specific;
1. The “no food allow” sign in American are recognize as fork and knife, but there may be different in some area. For example, Asian does not use fork and knife. They use chopsticks and bowl to represent food or eating.
2. The sign for college is a head and hat in American, but some people use a building to represents college in some other places.
3. The “stop” sign that’s a word stop in the sign. However, in some countries there’s a big hand to represents “stop”.
In my opinion, my rebus for the sign of “God” that would be a cross because there many many religions are use the cross to represents their God.
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