I chose to make a gif of an Apple commercial that shows footage from different parts of the world, in a variety of environments and cultures. Although it was impossible– at least to my knowledge– to add audio to the gif, the main reason I chose to make a gif of this was because of Robin William’s monologue. In this monologue Robin William’s elaborates on the meaning of poetry and romance, and is a monologue in Dead Poets Society. The shots are important in that they express my plans to travel and have adventures. I think the footage is also a reminder of the beauty of the natural world. Despite the blatant advertisement for the Apple product, there is a message about the wonders of the world and the importance of enjoying those wonders. This message was important to the gif, in that it shows that the university experience, and really any experience, should be driven by the need to learn and to experience. It is a symbol that there is a difference between experiencing and seeing. To travel is not just about traveling, just as attending university is not just about attending university. There is a larger purpose and a larger meaning behind the small everyday events that transpire. The gif makes me think that it is easy to walk through the normal secessions in life, but it is much harder to question what you are doing and why you are doing it. Being university means that push towards, that exploration of new topics and new ideas. It is the questioning of everything one knows, just as traveling is a quest for new experiences and new understanding. These first couple of months in university have been a reminder of that inevitable step towards adulthood, but also towards a life of new understanding.
Gurneet (Neetu) Dha
November 21, 2016 — 9:33 pm
Your Gif reminded me about, like you said, “the beauty of the natural world,” but what caught my attention was that your Gif is from an Apple commercial. It brings to my attention that many commercials feature a use of the beauty of nature. If you look at car commercials, most of them take place in vibrant new places and different landscapes instead of on a normal city road. If you also look at the commercials for athletic clothing you can see that they also feature the nature and its beauty. I wonder if the use of nature in commercials is to excite us into buying their product by connecting nature with our own desires to travel the world or like you said, moving “towards a life of new understanding.”