One paradigm shift brought up in class that I found very interesting was how the treatment of mental illness has changed through history, especially through the 20th century into today. It was near the end of the 1800s that asylums were beginning to fall out of favor, as the awful conditions in them were revealed to the public. Since then, new treatments have been developed for patients, and the designations of what constitutes various mental illnesses have changed as well. Overall, the shift appears to have been one away from viewing people with mental illnesses as people to be kept separate from "normal" society to one where people of all mental states deserve treatment and an equal chance in society (although it seems that every time I get to thinking that this change is close to complete, a reminder of the work that still needs to be done gets slammed directly into my face). This change has been precipitated by both a shift in the mindsets of people overall and the increasing presence and power of people with mental illness.
Another major paradigm shift I have noticed is one that is probably a lot simpler and less serious. We've all heard stories about the Saturday morning cartoons that were apparently ubiquitous in the 1960s. These were generally simplistic affairs full of slapstick violence and visual gags. Nowadays, such cartoons are the exception; their place in animation is taken by "adult" animation, young educational shows, and the increasingly popular genre of cute shows about small children who inadvertently cause the apocalypse. Clearly, something has changed about the way that animation is treated by both producers and viewers, and the main result of this seems to be that animation, particularly in television, is more respected now. As for what caused this change, I would guess that it was because of the improvements in technology, especially the development of CGI, along with several important experiments in animation that served as examples of what the medium is capable of.
I think that both of your shift examples are quite interesting. I like the cartoon one because it is very visually evident, comparing between older movies and newer movies.However, I think this would be a hard shift to research. It may have to many parts because animation has changed so much. I think your first idea is a great one for both research and an interesting paper. It has spark and is a somewhat faux pas issue that no one really talks about today. I think that you will be able to get a lot of breadth from research.
ReplyDeleteTotally go with the shift in animation! This was the most creative paradigm shift mentioned in class today and I believe you can develop this extremely well, plus, its uniqueness will carry over very well into our live Ted-Talk. Also, you seem more passionate towards it and I've always believe in doing things with passion or not doing them at all.
ReplyDeleteYou have two very interesting topics and I would enjoy reading about how you delve into either of them; however, for the sake of replications, I would choose the second option. It is nothing like the other ideas put forth by other students, so you immediately have an opportunity to engage readers creatively with as essay/TED Talk unlike the others.
ReplyDeleteSide note: your title was genius