Modality and Reality

This idea of reality is something we have discussed in MAPC classes before. Kress and Van Leeuwen essentially say the same thing: "What is regarded as real depends on how reality is defined by a particular social group." In other words, reality is socially constructed. This was pretty simple for me to understand, but once the authors went into modality, I began to get confused.

The section on color made sense when I applied it to the work I did with the digital remix project. I was trying to combine bodies, and I had to play with the color hues and saturation to make the skin tone match (or come close to matching. I don't think I ever got an exact match.) I understood representation, illumination, and brightness fairly well, but the short section on depth confused me. I thought I understood the concept of depth fairly well (for someone who has not taken art classes since 8th grade), but the terminology was difficult. What is an angular-isometric perspective and how does it differ from a frontal-isometric perspective? Also, I have no idea what a fish eye perspective is. Could anyone help clear this up for me?

This chapter also made me think about reality when it comes to the media. People we see on TV tend to be far more attractive than those we encounter in real life. Female actresses, in particular, are often very skinny. Does this make their beauty unreal? In a sense it does, when you consider the airbrushing and digital remastering that is done. This creates an ideal that is impossible for a regular person to achieve.

In response to this, Dove has launched a campaign for real beauty. They depict larger, curvier women in their underwear in an attempt to show us that there is beauty to be found in different body types. Here is an example. Is this picture more realistic than the celebrity shots we see on the covers of magazines? What do you think?