Media that Matters

Honestly I really took it to fulfill my writing requirement. But I definitely learned more than I expected. Not just things like PhotoShop, DreamWeaver, PremierePro, all of which I had no idea how to use before (still low-key don’t). But I learned to express feelings and experiences with more than words on paper. I specifically picked this class after scrolling through all the options because it sounded like the best one and had more applicable skills. I wasn’t disappointed. This was a great class and I actually believe my writing has improved and it wasn’t due through writing mindless papers all semester.

Throughout all my work this semester, my goal has always been to create a connection or some type of understanding between my work and the audience. And for me, that’s what’s most important. I always wanted to create media that mattered. Stories that mattered. I wanted my work to reflect the question of “why?”. It didn’t always do that, but I hoped it at least piqued the interest of most people.

For the subjects of my projects, I always wanted to choose something that was important to me and incorporate my experiences into my work. Everyone has unique experiences and is able to turn them into art or media, just something tangible. It somehow validates those feelings and experiences. And it’s reassuring to know that I’m not alone in what I’m experiencing. Someone else can see what media I’ve produced and might go “oh my god, me too. I’ve experienced that too.” Find the missing information for someone else and you might find your missing information too. Share the love.

I’m totally scatterbrained with this post. I think my endnote is make media that matters to you. There’s a chance that it will matter to someone else as well. It doesn’t have to relate to your experiences exactly, it might be a topic you’re interested in exploring, but it still matters. I came up with so many ideas for my projects that I thought were completely ridiculous, but with some help I found the beauty of those ideas and they blossomed into some pretty cool projects.

This sounds so cliche, but just bring your passion to life. Give it life. Create it. Destroy it. Change it. Rebuild it. Mold it into something worthwhile.

like I said, scattered.

Super Personas!

Superpowers! uses the affordances of sound to create compelling characters. From Zora to Evil D, the podcast is filled with characters that are not only relatable but thrilling to hear. All of the audio elements work to forward these colorful personas.

John Hodgman, author and actor

Even in a more subdued character like actor John Hodgman, his tone of voice makes him a trustworthy speaker. His voice is cool and even when he says, “Flight versus invisibility. This questions is only for you. Whichever you pick, you’ll be the only person in the world to have that particular superpower. You can’t have both. Which do you choose?” When he first spoke, I thought of the listless (and nameless) narrator from Fight Club; his voice rarely lilts from its deep timbre. Plus, Hodgeman’s diction makes me feel like he’s speaking directly to me: he repeats “you” in short, simple sentences. I felt like I was listening to a peaceful and extremely educated doctor, albeit one who was asking me about superpowers. This contrast between tone of voice and subject matter makes Hodgeman a complex character who keeps my attention.

Glynn Washington, radio host

In Act 4, background music establishes the setting. Evil D, played by Snap Judgement radio host Glynn Washington, tells a story with a nearly constant soundtrack. The music establishes the scene: booty-shaking hits for the club, hip-hop beats on the city street, and ethereal synths in the afterlife. This segment also puts silence to good use: during the most intense moments, especially when Superman visits the afterlife, the soundtrack fades, and only the narrator speaks. The silent background pushes the character and plot (instead of the setting) into the forefront, which these peak moments necessitate. In my podcast, I’ll use music for both transitions and establishing the setting, but I’ll also carefully use silence, a powerful tool.

Movement That Captures

For this post, I choose the site http://conference.awwwards.com/

It is hard to show via screenshot, but the things that draw me in to this site are the movement and simplicity. The designer kept the colors relatively simple, making sure that any pop of color did not become the focus of the page. The moving images behind the text caught my attention before the text, which provoked my interest in the site as a whole. The image below is the first impression I had of the site, and the movement of this geometric tunnel background drew me in.

The background of the page changed several times, with the text changing to give the next part of a message. The images below were several from the progression of changing backgrounds. Though the same general design scheme is constant (the text colors, fonts, and sizes, etc.), each background conveys its part of the message with a different ‘feel’.

After taking in the movement of the changing backgrounds, I got curious and began to explore what the site was all about. Looking at the text more closely, I realized that only one of the largest lines of text had been changing to display a different message. If all of these different lines of text had merely been listed on one page, it probably would have turned me away from the site. Let’s be honest, a page of text – or even a paragraph of text – can feel daunting at times; therefore, the designer’s use of multiple pages kept my interest. Whether it was the changing backgrounds, changing colors, or changing lines of text, the constant variation of the site content maintained my attention and curiosity for the entire time I explored the site. This page is created for an audience of web designers, so it makes sense that the site would be complex and composed in the art of digital media.

As I clicked through the navigation system on the site, I found it to be surprisingly simple. There were only a few links and drop-down menus (like the one seen below), and they appeared as illuminated text in front of the background, which had been shadowed.

With the simple choices of text, colors, and easy navigation, this site excels in grabbing its readers attention – and more importantly, keeping it. In creating my own design for a site, I will attempt to keep certain elements simple while still keeping the viewer visually entertained (like the image below).

The Photographer’s Role in the Archive

Derrida’s statement that “archivization produces as much as it records the event” (23), is exemplified in Erika Larsen’s Photograph Not Taken.  At first I began thinking of how computers, cameras, and other photography equipment have changed the way we archive images, but then I realized none of this technology had any effect on the situation.  In this instance, Larsen is the only factor effecting this particular archivization.  In other words, I think the photographer is far more influential on the archive than equipment or technology.

Denis Wood’s quote on the process of archiving is very broad.  To me, it seems the goal of most art forms is to take something unreal (an idea, image, story) and make it real.  It helped me to think of this in terms of writing fiction.  An author comes up with an idea or story that is entirely in his/her head, or entirely invisible and unnattainable, and translates this onto a medium which makes it real.  (For now I will not debate whether fictional stories are real or not).  The photographer’s role is not much different from the fiction writer’s in the sense that they are both trying to ‘narrate’ some event for other people to experience.

Larsen says, “…the photographs not taken are the photographs not given.”  This seems to fit in with Wood’s idea that we strive to make the invisible or unreal into reality.  The photograph Larsen didn’t take was “not given”, or not shared or experienced by anybody else.  In my opinion, this would make it unreal in a sense, because only she experienced it.

This brings me to my question for the class, because all of us actually did experience this moment that Larsen didn’t capture with a camera.  We experienced it through her story.  Is that perfect moment for a photograph that she imagined completely gone?  Is there some sort of redemption because of the story she wrote?  Do we want the image?  Or the story?  Or both?

The Photographer’s/Writer’s Role in the Archive

Derrida’s statement that “archivization produces as much as it records the event” (23), is exemplified in Erika Larsen’s Photograph Not Taken.  At first I began thinking of how computers, cameras, and other photography equipment have changed the way we archive images, but then I realized none of this technology had any effect on the situation.  In this instance, Larsen is the only factor effecting this particular archivization.  In other words, I think the photographer is far more influential on the archive than equipment or technology.

Denis Wood’s quote on the process of archiving is very broad.  To me, it seems the goal of most art forms is to take something unreal (an idea, image, story) and make it real.  It helped me to think of this in terms of writing fiction.  An author comes up with an idea or story that is entirely in his/her head, or entirely invisible and unnattainable, and translates this onto a medium which makes it real.  (For now I will not debate whether fictional stories are real or not).  The photographer’s role is not much different from the fiction writer’s in the sense that they are both trying to ‘narrate’ some event for other people to experience.

Larsen says, “…the photographs not taken are the photographs not given.”  This seems to fit in with Wood’s idea that we strive to make the invisible or unreal into reality.  The photograph Larsen didn’t take was “not given”, or not shared or experienced by anybody else.  In my opinion, this would make it unreal in a sense, because only she experienced it.

This brings me to my question for the class, because all of us actually did experience this moment that Larsen didn’t capture with a camera.  We experienced it through her story.  Is that perfect moment for a photograph that she imagined completely gone?  Is there some sort of redemption because of the story she wrote?  Do we want the image?  Or the story?  Or both?

Digital Producers

     As artists, we record our emotions and the emotions of others around us in a tangible form that the consumer can see, hear, and feel. We take moments of time that would have been forgotten and never felt, and transform them into a tangible medium that will withstand the sands of time in the archive. It is our choice and our choice only, and as artists it is our decision if we want these moments and feelings to become felt by everyone else. As Derrida was trying to say, once a piece of work is in the archive, it is produced into the world for everyone to see. In Erika Larsen’s ‘photo not taken‘ story, she chooses not to have her audience experience the moment she witnesses. She realized that the father crying in his deceased daughters room was his moment that belonged to him. That amount of emotional power that he possessed at the moment greatly surpassed a photograph to be shared in the archive and with the rest of the world forever.

   As digital media makers we must realize that we are just not saving our work into the archive, we are creating pieces that could have an impact on countless of people. With the Internet, we can touch the entire world in an instant. That is why it is such solemn duty for us to choose what to capture and what not to capture.  I also find this a little bit scary, because we are constantly exposed in the digital world we live in today. Every status, picture and video we post says something about us in that moment of time. Our emotions are left on the table for others to dissect, and sometimes we go down this road blindly and leave parts of us that we may not have wanted to been archived forever.