Project 2

At this stage late in the game I am still unsure about what my second project will actually end up like. I have played around with the idea of making a video with my camera that will look at different point of views of the same thing that will illustrate how events can be perceived differently based on the POV. I have also thought about creating a comic strip of sorts, not using my own drawings, but pictures and such to tell a story. At this time I am still undecided, and face a lot of work either way this afternoon to get something done that I am comfortable with.

I am not sure how I want to put a complete project together with these two ideas. With the video, I'm not sure whether or not I will be able to convey a message properly. With the comic strip I'm not sure I how I will integrate sound/animation in a way that will make sense to the reader. Thus I am at a crossroads. I don't know whether I should just select on project and work on it, or whether I should scrap both and start fresh. Either way the clock is ticking.

Poem Response

As of about 11:20 am I am still unable to get my microphone from my headset to work. I think it may be broken. Hopefully I can get this working by later today so I can post something.

Edit: Hopefully this works.

The poem I chose to record was the first two stanzas of the poem describing the condemnation of Guy Fawkes. The first stanza became very well known with the release of V for Vendetta.

The entire poem is as follows:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and plot
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes 'twas his intent
To blow up the King and the Parliament
Three score barrels of powder below
Poor old England to overthrow

By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match
Holler boys, holler boys, ring bells ring
Holler boys, holler boys, God Save the King!

A penny loaf to feed the Pope
A farthing o'cheese to choke him
A pint of beer to rinse it down
A faggot of sticks to burn him

Burn him in a tub of tar
Burn him like a blazing star
Burn his body from his head
Then we'll say old Pope is dead

Hip Hip Hoorah!
Hip Hip Hoorah!
Hip Hip Hoorah!

I don't know why I really chose this poem, other than it's always seemed interesting to me since the first time I heard the first stanza in V for Vendetta. My recording sounds alright to me, but who am I to judge. I haven't yet played around with it using audacity, but perhaps I will have a go at that later on.


http://www.clc.wvu.edu:8080/clc/Members/center/V.wav/download

Thoughts on Project 2

Project 2 is an interesting one. The idea of meshing a comic like narrative with sound and maybe some rudimentary animation is an appealing one. I don't know yet what direction I want to take, as my artistic skills are severely limited to say the least. I will most certainly have to make use of "amplification through simplification" as it is really the only option available to me. I like the idea of telling a story to get a point across to the reader. Now I just have to come up with the point I want to make and tell a story to get there. Easier said than done, I think.

Project 2 Link

Here is a link to my second project blog.

McClouds Amplification through Simplification

McClouds Amplification through Simplification is an interesting concept because it allows people to apply their imaginations to any simple image and make it what they want it to be. It allows for much more freedom when reading/looking at the these unique works. You are not constrained by the artist's image of what a character/thing should look like. In explodingdog, this is especially true as the artist uses very simple stick figures, and yet you are able to get a lot out of these pictures anyway. Despite how simple they are I was able to gain a whole slew of emotions from humor to empathy. Explodingdog is truly amplification through simplification.

For todays works (9/16/08) the work's that probably best use Amplification through Simplification are The Night of Melvyns Murder and Landscapes. Both works use simple and crude artwork to get the point across. The Night of Melvyns Murder perhaps uses more detail than is needed, but it is still simplistic enough that you can use your imagination to hone the image of the characters. In landscapes, all the shapes, sounds, and colors are very simple and it does well to get the point across.

Project 1 Metatext and Image

With this project I wanted to have a fade from blackness to a lighter shade. I wanted to do this as I believe that it helps describe the past year for me in a number of ways.

The first way, I believe that this dark to light fade describes this past year is the way that I have come out of a self-imposed "darkness" and have become more socially outgoing than I ever have been in the past. It was very difficult to do, and I wanted to convey a kind of ebb and flow of the darker shades and the lighter shades, as if they were myself going back and forth on whether or not I made an effort to go out with friends.

The second way that this image and concrete text describes the past year for me has to do with the different feelings that going out on a weekend with your friends can evoke. The ones I chose to focus on were emotion, power, and faith. When I first started going out, the only thing that I could think of was how suffocating it was. The darkness, masses of people, and cigarette smoke made for a suffocating environment that I was not comfortable in. Power, was the second feeling that I decided to focus on, and that had to do with responsibility and independence from anyone but yourself. You alone are responsible for your actions, and with this brought a certain sense of empowerment. The third feeling was that of faith, and I chose this because of the way people feel when the night has been a horrible one. Where everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. I'm sure most people have experienced nights like these, and often times the only thing that makes it better is the faith that the sun will rise again.

For this concrete text/image I started out using power point. With power point I created my base of having a black background with a circle in the center that was a lighter shade of grey. The text was also created in power point. I then saved the slide as a jpeg and manipulated it with gimp, mainly using different brushes and smudging tools.

Concrete Writing

I'm not entirely sure what I am going to write yet, but I have some ideas.

I was thinking along the lines of a fade both visually and through the meaning of the words. From light to dark or along those lines. I'm still not sure on the shape, or how I am going to impliment the fading of light to dark yet.

I am also planning to use italics and use of lower/upper case letters to emphasize certain words or phrases.

Edit for in Class Writing:

This is the first project of the class and I like the fact that direction is given, but freedom to write how you want and about whatever you want is granted as well. This project seems like it will allow me to exercise my creativity that often lies dormant with being a Biology Major.


A trial with power point