The Global Flow of Visual Culture (Chp. 10)

The summer before my junior year of college I took an intensive Japanese course at Clemson. For five weeks, 24 hours a day, I spoke nothing but Japanese. The task was more than grueling and there were days that I didn't think I would be able to process all the information without my head exploding. That was before we were assigned Skype partners -- students from Japanese Universities that we conversed with on an almost daily basis. I had conversations with Mari-san over the internet as easily as if she were sitting in the room next to me. She was of course, in Fukui, Japan.

It's amazing that with today's society how easy communication has become, not just on an individual basis, but on a global scale as well. I can instant message my roommate, sitting not 10 feet away from me as easily as I can instant message my boyfriend five hours and two states away, again, just as easily as I can communication with Mari-san. The expansion of technology has lead to the decrease of border prominence.

Cross cultural visualization is noticeable in more than just internet presence, too. Take for example, the recent movie Slumdog Millionaire. The movie is directed by a British director, based on a book by an Indian novelist and diplomat, and based on an American game show. The film, though many of the concepts themselves are foreign to American audiences, still appeals to a grander scale of people than simply those in India. Digital hasn't only made communication easier, but it's also opened up the world to cultural differences and instead resulted in cultural blending. I may be from the states, but I can still appreciate the concepts gleaned from other cultures. Somehow, watching them in film makes the concept seem less foreign and more our own.