The ULAB Logo

Below is the official logo of University of Liberal Arts. Logo is a symbol of an entity which in this case is ULAB. The symbol may be the representative of something bigger than the very obvious. The logo of ULAB upfront is a very normal computer generated image. But it stands for something more perhaps. Now I will attempt to deconstruct this symbol and extract its denotative and connotative meanings.







Denotative: the obvious as it is. The official logo identifies the university. Notice that there is anchorage both in English and Bangla text.

Connotative: time to bore through the mundane. The color blue and yellow is actually the official color of ULAB to my observation. In the heart of the image there is an icon of a nib. Now the pen is an object that has ‘soul-connection’ with the profession of being a student. Right behind there is a yellow circle. May be it’s imitating the sun. The sun is a source of light but here the analogy could be that knowledge is light. The blue fill-in inside the image could make me think of two things. The vastness of the sky and the view from up there. Knowledge is supposed to open our eyes and help us look objectively and critically. From the sky everything looks different than on ground, much more holistic. On ground things appear obfuscated because we can’t see everything. And thus we don’t see everything. Our biasness, inclination and judgment is formed based on little that we know or see. Perhaps an educated mind tend to see things from all aspects and then make an assertion. Lastly notice that outer yellow part has the shape of a U as well as the inner blue part. That someway further emphasizes the name of the institution. The little star was deliberate and doesn’t add I suppose.



VERSE OF THE WEEK

Society, you're a crazy breed.
I hope you're not lonely, without me.
Society, crazy indeed...
I hope you're not lonely, without me
Society, have mercy on me.
I hope you're not angry, if I disagree.
Society, crazy indeed.
I hope you're not lonely...
without me.

(Song: Society; Artist: Eddie Vedder; Film: Into The Wild)

Do You Believe What You See?

Wag the Dog is a satirical film about the American politics and its media. It displays how the media plays a pivotal role for deluding the American people and diverting all their attention towards something absolutely fictitious. The consumers of mainstream media are nonchalant enough to not notice how the media is opening gaping holes of delusion and fantasia everyday. We humans are constantly constructing meanings from anything that come into contact of our senses. The mass media is one of the most traditional and trusted sources of information in any society. That is what the common belief is. It’s a cardinal duty of the media to reflect and make an account of the society it operates in. In doing so the media reforms, distorts, empowers, creates, terminates and does all kinds of stuff to influence how we make meanings out of everything. In doing so media infuses more construe into our perceived reality. Or think in line with the Plato’s cave theory. Reality is all that is projected in front of us. We don’t know what it absolutely is that we hold to be true and what is beyond. This film is a perfect example of how media can constructs the world of meanings around us.

Quote of the week

"It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness"

(Ancient Chinese Proverb)

On Reading Media Text

What are your thoughts on this course (Reading Media Text)?

I’m doing this course at the last hour of my undergrad and I’m glad. When I zipped through the list of topics that this course intended to cover, I thought I got the deal right then. I like the way we are encouraged and incited to stir our thoughts and react to topics such as reality and culture. Not to forget the classroom drills. It’s important for us to realize that society is a complex place. Reality is a construction of the human mind but consciousness is a gift. To see more than there is, we should see differently. This course reserves the potential to facilitate that.


What do you want out of this course?


How real is the reality? I remember studying debates concerning the argument whether or not film should be considered the ultimate art form because it captured reality verbatim (Film Theory). If reality is truly unknown then how can we claim that it’s real? Ask someone to describe a tree without language. Language is a construct that we utilize to describe and communicate. Now language is a social construction that is verifying reality to be real which in fact surpasses our comprehension. What the heck?


The media of today is a mass hysteria factory. It dictates, deludes, purveys and reinforces beliefs and values while debunking others. It chisels the mediation and perception of ‘our’ reality. I believe this course would be able to demonstrate how ‘is’ is actually ‘is’ compared to what is mediated and imposed and how we perceive it. It is imperative that I realize more than what is there to realize. I want to feel greater than what is there to feel. I would like to emancipate myself as if I did not belong. I would like to know and so tell me what you don’t know. That’s all.

P.S – From now on I am going to put a selected quote or song verse in each post. They will be like my quote or song verse of the week!

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking

And racing around to come up behind you again

The sun is the same in the relative way, but you're older

And shorter of breath and one day closer to death

(Song: Time; Artist: Pink Floyd; Album: Dark Side of the Moon)

Thinking...........Busy.............Away

I wish I could see 'thoughts'. Analyze their chemical and physical properties and perhaps try to figure out how thoughts can be so overpowering. It is with thoughts that a mortal can become a God. My thoughts are like random extreme. Funny when I say that it is like a rubber ball shot off from a 'hydron collider'. So it travels fast and does not follow a certain trajectory. Thus my thoughts bumps on almost everything under the sun and beyond.

DEFINE THESE

1. Objectivity - fidelity towards facts rather than associating any judgments over something.

2. Subjectivity - a scenario where the object of issue is treated with judgments, bias or opinions.

3. Consensus - an opinion or position reached by a group as a whole (http://www.answers.com/topic/consensus).

4. Status quo - the present condition or situation of something. (Bangla - Prekhyapot)