Illustration: Japanese Influence of Western Design

Information has its way of spreading throughout the world, just as through language, writing, printing, electronic mass media (which includes radio, film and television ), and electronic-information (which includes the internet, electronic mail, world wide web, newsgroups, chat rooms, teleconferencing and telecommuting), art is also a way of distributing information. Given that the form of transportation changed with time and the distribution of information, trade between countries also increased and different countries started to adopt certain parts of their cultures. Part of these cultures include art, the Japanese has influenced other countries at the Western with its use of space, drawing conventions, subject and colour in art. This influence of the Japanese art is known as Japonisme.

Anime:

(Japanese)

(Western)

Japanese anime dates back from 1917, anime is animation in short and it is basically that which has been hand-drawn or designed in a computer. These designed moving images include television series', short films and full-length films. Looking at the image above of the Japanese style anime, one would realize that it consists of vibrant characters, colourful graphics, and fantastic themes. Western style of anime dating back to the 1960's was never actually seen as anime at fisrt by referencing 'Astro Boy', in the 1970's and 80's production companies then outsourced the Japanese studios in helping production of many original animated series' including Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. By looking at the Western design of the anime culture, it can be seen that the colours are rather dark than that of Japanese and the characters do not seem to be 'innocent' but in a pose that shows that they are ready for anything that comes their way.

Manga:

(Japanese)

(Western)

 Manga are comics which were created in Japan by the Japanese, these are not created for a specific age group as different people of different ages may found them fascinating, knowing that most animation is for children's interests, by looking at the images above, the one which is Japanese shows a woman on her underwear and that is not something one would introduce to a child. Manga has a broad range of genres which includes: action, adventure, horror, romance, sexuality, comedy, drama, business/ commerce etc. When the Western adopted the art style it was known as the Amerimanga, and today that different cultures merge and that manga evolved, the term that replaced Amerimanga as a non-Japanese manga is Global Manga. The 2 images above show the difference between the Western style and the Japanese style, the Western show suspicious looking characters with weapons portrayed in darker colours whereas the Japanese show bright colours and calm characters.

Otaku:
(Japanese)

(Western)

Japanese used this "okatu" term to refer to people with obsessive interests such as anime and manga. Okatu can be related to being a fan of something, with so many things that capture our interests in the world we therefore try to imitate those things we see as to be "cool". Most girls used to own barbies from a young age and even when grown up they still find teddy bears cute, and some even own "Spongebob" teddies which they so much adore.The images above show how this can be explained, first image of Japanese Okatu is of an anime character holding a toy, the second is of another character playing a video game, which may be normal unless one is obsessed of it or tries to imitate it. The third and forth picture is of how this culture influenced the west, where the third image is of an animated bear called the "Dropout Bear" which was just a college mascot at first but then an American rapper going by the name of Kanye West in the fourth image, used it to represent himself on his album covers and it is now known as his trademark.

Kawaii:

(Japanese)

(Western)

Kawaii is what the Japanese refers to as the quality of cuteness. This cultural context has become a prominent aspect of the entertainment, clothing, food and toys. This art style was used by the Japanese to enhance the appearance of different things, the first image above show designs of sweets, and the second image show clothing, The third image shows how the Western people implemented the designs on their own clothes, wrists and and even nail colour to go with, the fourth image shows how kid's meals' containers are made attractive to the with these designs.

The collapse of the Space and Time Contunuum

The railway developed and used worldwide was the urban underground. This was followed by the first passenger-carrying underground railway that was opened in London between Paddington and Farringdon on 10 January 1863.Steam-hauled and built on the cut-and-cover principle beneath the streets, this was the start of a rapidly expanding network which, by the 1880s, served much of central London and its financial heartland in the City, connected most of the major railway termini and was increasingly serving the expanding suburbs via conventional overground connections.

The cut and cover technique was fast becoming a main use trend by other underground networks cities such as Paris and New York. The deep-bored tunnel railways was becoming a much more demanding technically, following the examples of which were the steam-powered Mersey Railway of 1886 and the cable-hauled Glasgow Subway of 1896. However, the most revolutionary was the City and South London Railway, now part of London Underground's Northern Line, whose first section was opened in 1890. From the start this was wholly electric, with hydraulic lifts linking the surface stations to the platforms, a pattern rapidly followed by other early tube lines, for example the Waterloo and City Railway of 1898 and the Central London Railway of 1900.

Although the public railway and the application of steam power to transport were pre-Victorian concepts, the widespread development of local, national and international railway networks was a Victorian phenomenon. The combination of great public enthusiasm, massive investment, highly skilled engineering and the application of modern technology ensured the rapid growth of railways in Britain and abroad. By 1850, 6000 miles of railway were in use, and throughout Victoria's reign British engineers were involved in railway construction and operation in many parts of the world, which in turn created new export markets for British locomotive and vehicle builders.

Nowadays, many forms of transportations, such as airplanes, bicycles and automobiles, have been introduced into the society. Though people’s views vary from each other, I believe that it is the
automobiles that changed people’s lives. Because automobiles could give people more convenience, save everyone’s time, improved communication and increase the efficiency of the world. Automobiles have given many freedoms to ordinary people. For the working people, the car enabled them to work in the city and live in suburban areas many miles away. The more transport was developed more people could travel at the same time. They used to travel per horsesand baggage was limited

Contemporary Cultural influence

Imagine waking up in the 17^th century with no cell phone, computer or a car to transport you around, for us people living in the 21^st century it would be difficult to cope with the surroundings of that era. The reason I say that is because somehow our lives are dependent on those three objects and we see them as necessities for communication. Nowadays I doubt there is someone who would want to write a letter, send it to another town and wait for days to get a reply whereby he or she could send an E-mail or phone the person and get an instant reply.

 Communication is in our everyday lives and due to our lifestyle it puts us in different situations that people in the 17^th century never got to experience, situations such as exchanging money for petrol and complaining to the petrol attended about the petrol price. The way communication is so advance these days. We can know what is happening in other countries or continents in a matter of minutes or hours whereby back in the other passed centuries they had to send sailors for months on end to find out what is happening in other countries and only then the rest of the community would know the news.

The historical form of communication took place rather slow, for there was no necessary tools that could help the inventions to take place faster, for example; what is known today as printed books, was written with hand at first, therefore the process of producing information took place slow because paper also took long to produce. As time went by, printing was invented, it made it easier for more information to be distributed, but the information was still limited for the printing was made of carving out characters on the woodblock and pressing them on paper after inking the carved out part.

Gutenburg then invented a printing machine with movable/replaceable letters, and this made it easier for information to be distributed to rather more people than what was used at first. This shows that everything that is invented will keep on being improved and made better to accommodate and be user friendly to even more people. 

Nowadays, many forms of transportations, such as airplanes, bicycles and automobiles, have been introduced into the society. Though people’s views vary from each other, I believe that it is the
automobiles that changed people’s lives. Because automobiles could give people more convenience, save everyone’s time, improved communication and increase the efficiency of the world.
Automobiles have given many freedoms to ordinary people. For the working people, the car enabled them to work in the city and live in suburban areas many miles away. The more transport was developed more people could travel at the same time. They used to travel per horses and baggage was limited.