Here is a trash can that best represents me. Overflowing with junk ideas.
Introduction
I chose to take introduction to contemporary media cultures because it had the word ‘media’ in the title and I want to learn as much as possible about different kinds of media so that I can create well rounded projects that pull inspiration from all kinds of different sources. Something important that I learned from this class is that I can use media created by other people as long as I heavily edit it so that nearly nothing is the same as it was initially. This knowledge is freeing because previously I was thinking I had to make everything alone.
Critical theme images
The first image displayed is a representation of the critical theme “space and media” from my perspective of the term. In class we discussed the importance of a piece’s setting and this image is all about the setting of the piece since it is simply a doll in a closet.
The second image displayed is my take on the “surveillance culture” theme. It is a camera pointed at a toilet. The idea is that this surveillance is invading even the most private of activities, such as the activities that take place while a person is (supposedly) alone in the bathroom.
The third image displayed is a portrayal of the “experimentalism” theme that we discussed in class. I thought that a bong with flowers was the perfect angle for this theme as ‘experimenting’ with marijuana is a common idea in the college environment and the flowers act as a drug stand-in.
The first photo I chose to represent the eye change that I experienced during the course of this semester displays the chaos of a completely unedited and unplanned photograph. Within the same section of the still image project, I decided that the messy jumble of random junk was less than ideal for capturing the image. This is shown by ‘Kevin’ which can actually be seen first in the bottom left of the initial image but was refined and put against a monochromatic background to display it properly. The next two images are from the hue stage of my editing process where I changed the colors dramatically to look even odder than normal. The last two photos are when I finally allow the natural coloring to take front stage as in the dart picture the vibrant reds and yellow stand out while the football sits apart from the bland gray background.
When I made the Social Media Short Story, I decided to use Instagram and a collection of three vaguely ominous photos taken at a home decoration store. I wanted to let the pictures be connected but also speak for themselves which is why I used greyscale on all of them and did not add a host of unnecessary text to accompany the images. By keeping the vagueness that I perceived initially intact, I hoped to pass on the ominous feeling that I had when I found these choices for home décor. Whether it actually worked is yet to be seen.
To visualize the collection of the images, it was only appropriate that I use the key aspects of each image in a homemade craft of my own creation. As you can probably notice by looking at the coloring of the letters in ‘scam’, I hoped to dye the letters darker than they came which worked to varying success. The flower was difficult to create, but I think its low-quality look helps it better represent the fakeness of the flowers in the original picture. Overall, I think this representation effectively mirrors the poor quality of the initial products that were photographed.
Metaphor and Found Footage
When I made my found footage project, I took a lot of time trying to match visual cues to audio cues which is a painstaking but fun process. In the end it works fairly well but some of the cues are off by a bit still. The metaphor of self project seemed too vague to me so I ended up with a chaotic mess that I am not a huge fan of. The process of creation was actually similar for both as I started with a song so old it was public domain and from there, I altered the speed to fit my needs. The metaphor of self project is purposely chaotic as it was meant to represent my own chaotic mind, but it does not stand alone as a video in the way that my found footage project does. Both projects are made in the same way, but the found footage project is actually something I enjoy upon rewatching. Both projects ended up being created fairly last minute as I procrastinated and struggled to find a way to complete the assigned task while also mixing in my own style and flare. Semi-fortunately, one works while the metaphor falls flat.
The biggest difference in the two projects was that I actually had a vision for what I wanted the found footage project to be while the metaphor of self still does not make sense to me. The found footage project actually had two versions as well while the metaphor rough draft was also the metaphor final draft. The first version of the found footage project was criticized for having audio that fit the visuals too well which did not make sense to me but I was happy to create another more cohesive version after the fun of editing the original.
Locative Media Project
For my locative media project, I went for a simple hallway in an apartment building approach. By doing this, it allowed me to put the odd assortment of audio files that I needed to use into a semi-coherent narrative. The reading could be coming from conversations overheard behind the doors of the residents while the sound of a bicycle with a playing card became a lawnmower and the sound of a fan became audio of high-speed wind outside. The hallway visual acts as a skeletal structure where the audio organs can safely and logically be housed without too many issues.
The space in which a project takes place is incredibly important because setting plays a key role in any narrative. Harry Potter would be boring if he stayed in the cupboard forever, but instead of staying in the cupboard, he travels to a fantastical realm of magic and mystery where he learns along with the reader. If my version of the locative media project took place in a crowded room, the audio would overlap and become jumbled. The idea of putting it in a hall and moving through it allows the sounds to individually be heard and make sense logically.
Final Response
My experience in how I take media has not changed significantly during this class because I have been looking into creating media for a while now. The major difference between how I enjoyed media as a child and how I perceive media now is that I do not just passively watch the media, I pay attention to the editing cuts, the audio changes, and the way that the story is portrayed on screen. The new media ecosystem allows people from all over the world to make their ideas visible and not just the ideas of the rich people who run the television networks. This allows for the true cream of the crop to rise above the rest and be enjoyed by whichever audience that it was truly meant for. No longer is there the constant flow of cable television that can only be turned on or off like a faucet with tap water. Now people can sign on to the site of their choosing and watch anything at anytime for any length of time. Crowd sharing allows for niche creators to find their perfect audience and even profit off of them enough to do what they love as a full-time career instead of just a money-sucking hobby. The time and focus needed to make media is daunting to anyone starting out, but there are now many free programs for people to start out on and cheap hardware for people to start out on. If a project or idea is popular enough, the budget and quality will naturally increase as the creator grows and the creator’s audience becomes larger. The most subscribed individual on YouTube started as just a weird Swedish kid playing video games and screaming but as he grew, he became a different character altogether and while he might still play video games and scream like a kid from time to time, most of the content he creates is night and day different from what he started out making and the quality of his videos are leagues ahead of where he started. The magic of the internet and new media is that people are on a much more level playing field than ever before. You do not have to live out of a car in Hollywood and hope to get a big break if you want to be a huge celebrity. You can get a following on nearly any platform by just combining the right mix of quality and quantity for you. This also means that the amount of media out there is much more than any single person could ever hope to ingest and nearly any wild idea has a way to reach a dedicated and attentive audience.