Visual Communication: history, theory + contemporary debates - Essay Example

This particular graphic is almost impossible without current digital technology. It could be done, but not as well, and certainly not easily. The digital medium is only possible with the invention and widespread adoption of the personal computer and could only be offered to us via the Internet. We react to the graphic differently than would someone in the year 1910, simply because we accept its medium. The graphic is one of the offerings of Punchstock, an online company which offers royalty free digital graphics in a variety of resolutions.

The very existence of this company is also due to this medium. There would be no need or possibility without the Interst and all its underpinning technology. It is a new reality that is accepted more and more as the other media popularize it. We feel as if we are looking down on this whimsical figure, like a giant examining a figure in a playhouse. Our playhouse is both real and fantasy at the same time. Digital objects exist in real time, but their existence is not the same a non-digital objects.

However, we can see them, hears them and influence them, which testifies to their reality. But in the sense of the physical multi-dimensional world, they do not exist, but are simply perceptions of someone’s ideas. McLuhan would be absolutely fascinated by the online world which exists only until we turn off the switch, or does it? I am reminded of the old question concerning a tree falling in a forest with nobody to hear it and whether or not it makes a sound. The world on line is vast and wonderful, and, for many, it is more real than the real world, but how real is it?

It is as real as this graphic. In truth, graphics like this one go far to spread acceptance of the medium, because it makes the audience react: we feel good and marvel at the way it looks. He looks so friendly and happy. His glasses have a sparkle where the reflection shows, and his quizzical smile is quite solicitous. We like him. We also, by