{"id":121,"date":"2012-02-23T12:21:39","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T12:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edublog.me\/shapingmedia\/?page_id=121"},"modified":"2012-06-09T11:47:44","modified_gmt":"2012-06-09T11:47:44","slug":"5-comics-and-closure","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edublog.me\/shapingmedia\/starting-points\/5-comics-and-closure\/","title":{"rendered":"5. Comics and Closure"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Blood in the Gutter”<\/strong>
\n– Title of chapter 3, on closure, in Scott McCloud (1993), “Understanding Comcis”, p.60<\/p>\n

Why do I prefer using (analog) games and comics to take an introductory look at the concept of a medium, instead of, say, turning directly to networked-digital media (a.k.a. “new media”)?
\nNetworked-digital media are extremly fluid and polymorph, they can simulate any other media and can add networked (shareable, referenceable, distributable), digital (easy copy and modification) or interactive functionality (representing latent\/dynamic processes), thus making it quite hard to take a look at the ‘basic’ functions of a medium.
\nA medium provides a defined and confined space for the generation of meaning out of a selected pattern of noise and vice versa.<\/p>\n

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\nWriting and reading, with different types and on different canvas.
\n(Photos (CC) by i_strad, SpratMackrel, MrRandyPuppy)<\/p>\n

(Analog) games and comics share specific aesthetic traits of a medium in quite a pure form – unless they are artistic tries to break up<\/em> their medial confines.<\/p>\n

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\nBoardgames, and boardgames without the boundaries of a board
\n(Photos (CC) by Feggic and Jason Langheine)<\/p>\n

For comics, these medial traits may be closure, simplification, abstraction, separation from the ‘real’ world by being overdrawn. For (analog) games the traits may be their use as an accessible, clearly artificial medium to play a game in, i.e. to express oneself through meaningful moves, though there is always a connection to ‘reality’; explicit medial rules; and using contextualising narratives on how to behave in their confines.<\/p>\n

We are closed\/open<\/h2>\n

Text to read<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the best books – in fact, medium – to explain comics, is Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comcis”. The title is a hommage to McLuhan’s “Understanding Media”, written three decades before. McCloud not only explains comics, but also aspects inherent to all media and human cognition, aspects like closure or amplification by simplification.
\nFamous game designers like Chris Crawford and Will Wright (“The Sims”) recommend McCloud’s comic. How come?<\/p>\n