Thanksgiving Narrative

Before I started this project I had no idea what I was going to do. When I realized I’d have Thanksgiving break to work on it I came up with the idea of doing a narrative of my families Thanksgiving dinner. Every year my family travels to Indiana to celebrate Thanksgiving at my grandmas. There is always lots of delicious food and lots of people around. I decided to document this through taking pictures. I then had many different ideas of what I could do with the pictures. The first idea was a collage. Another idea was a slideshow with music. I was also thinking about showing it in the perspective of the food looking really good at first and then slowly fading the pictures out to show when you get sick of so much food and just want to take a nap. I could have also just simply shown the pictures in an order that tells a story (the food being prepared, the food being ready and the food after it has been picked through.) In the end I just started adding all of my pictures into a photoshop document and the end result ended up being a collage. I ordered the pictures in a sort of circle around the middle picture of the turkey, since that is what Thanksgiving dinners usually center around. I have pictures from when the food is being prepared, when its ready and after its been eaten. To make my collage more appealing I added shadows to all the pictures to make them stand out. In the end I really like the direction my project took. I had not imagined it could have turned out like this.

final project brainstorming

For my final project I want to create a narrative out of my families Thanksgiving gathering. I want to use pictures that I took and show them in a way that they tell a story. I have not decided yet how I want to do this though. I have a couple of ideas how I could turn it into a narrative. The first idea was a collage. Another idea was a slideshow with music. I am also thinking about showing it in the perspective of the food looking really good at first and then slowly fading the pictures out to show when you get sick of so much food and just want to take a nap. I could also just simply show the pictures in an order that tells a story (the food being prepared, the food being ready and the food after it has been picked through.) I have thought of many ways to create my narrative, but I cannot decide which way I like the best. 

Failure Statement

I think my biggest failure this semester was the second Micro Project where we created a map of our journey to campus. This was one of the first projects and looking back on it now, I feel I could have been more creative with the way I chose to show my journey. I feel my projects have become more artistic throughout the semester and I am thinking outside of the box now. I did not realize it then, but now I see that I learned from this failure. Seeing my classmates final projects of their journeys to class helped me to realize that I could stray from normal conceptions in my art work. I think my biggest success was the fourth Micro Project where we created a sound clip of our favorite place. This was the ultimate showing of how I learned to be creative in my work and think outside the box. From this success I learned and more or less proved to myself that I am capable of creating interesting and creative artwork. One project I would redo if I had the chance was the second Micro Project. Instead of just using the concept of an ordinary map, I would add more pictures of my journey and distort them in a way so that they are from my every day perspective. I feel that the first version of this project is too simple and uninteresting. It does not bring together all of the senses I use to get to class in a relatable way for the viewer. Overall I am surprised by myself in some of the art work I have created. At the beginning of the semester and every project I could have never dreamed I would accomplish so much.

Identity at Play

Identity at Play project

I choose to use my shoes, my rain boots in this video, to represent my action words to bend and to impress. I wear shoes everyday and do not put much thought into what they do. Sure I take into account if they are stylish and look good with my outfit, but I do not usually think about how they work to move me from place to place. They protect my feet from the weather and other harsh environmental factors and bend and grip surfaces following what my feet want them to do. When thinking about an object I use everyday that both bends and impresses shoes came to mind. They bend when you transfer pressure to the balls of your feet and they make impressions on surfaces when they grip for traction. To show this visually I decided to make a video showing the process. I also took a picture of an impression from a shoe. I put these visuals together in a clip to show the complete process, altering the speed here and there to create a more entertaining piece. I also added sound effects of splashing in a puddle and leaves rustling to show the sounds shoes can create with the surfaces they come in contact with.

TV in a New Perspective

A place I have spent a lot of time at and enjoy going back to is my parent’s house in Cleveland. When I go home I spend a lot of time in the family room watching TV and catching up with my family. We have two dogs that are always making a lot of noise, making it sometimes impossible to watch TV. We also have two cats, who also like to join us on the couch. You can occasionally hear a purr or two over the noise of the dogs. What I want to show in my sound clip is what I hear when I watch TV.

MP4 video

For my project I first recorded my dogs barking and fighting with one another. I also recorded one of my cats purring. I imported these videos to iMovie and then transferred them to itunes as sound clips and edited them in Garageband. I mixed each sound up to create what I hear when you put all these sounds together. I then decided to find a clip of white noise on the TV to use as my video clip to go along with the sound I created. I decided to use white noise to show that without sound you cannot really watch TV.

Carver Cathedral

I enjoyed reading about the blind man in Carver's article Cathedral. I think he has a lot of important things to teach us. Even with his disability he does not give up hope and lives every day to the fullest. It is impressive the things he is able to do and how much he knows. Having no eyesight, he makes up for it with his other senses and intellect. I think there is a sharp contrast between the husband and the blind man. The blind man is caring and motivated while the husband is rude and could care less about being productive.

The husband bothered me a lot in this article. From the way he talked and acted it seemed as if he did nothing with his life besides drink, smoke and sit on the couch all day. He came off to me as annoying, insensitive and was very negative about everything.  I feel bad for his wife and do not understand why she would stay with him. I guess love overpowers in this case. The sad part is that people like this do exist in our society. I hope one day these people will come to see that they can make an impact on the world if they try harder. Maybe this article and others like it will help them to mature into better people.

Wallace This is Water

I think David Foster Wallace touched on a lot of important ideas in his commencement speech “This is Water.” I liked his suggestion of trying to focus on others around you and not just yourself at times. His explanations of the reasons behind why a person may appear and act the way they do are somewhat stretched but not impossible. You never know what may be going on in someone’s life and it is only fair to give them the benefit of the doubt. Of course we are not perfect and Wallace makes sure to mention the fact that we are all self-centered because that’s how we view the world, from our own perspective. We cannot avoid this fate no matter how hard we try.

One thing that troubled me in this article is that it is about commencement and entering the work world. This thought frightens and excites me at times, but Wallace’s article makes me dread it by how boring and awful he makes the working world sound.  His description of working and repeating  it all over again give no insight into the enjoyable moments of working, he makes work sound like something we should dread.