Azaadi

Introduction

The Narrative Unit asked us to tell a story through the use of dialogue. In English, we wrote a short story in a genre of our choosing. In Design, we created a book jacket for our short story, took portraits for our author bios, and got to write author bios about how we visualize ourselves 10 years from now! In WebAudio, we created book trailers for our novels in After Effects.

English

In English we were asked to write a short story using dialogue. Azaadi is the feminine form of the word 'freedom' in Hindi. My protagonist, Aisha, is a young woman struggling with her identity as a Muslim American. You can read my story or listen to the audio version below.

Design

In Design, we designed a book jacket for the short story we wrote in English. Part of this was writing book jacket text, including a synopsis of our story and an author bio about ourselves as we hope to be in the future. You can read about and see my book jacket below!

Azaadi (the feminine form of the Hindi word for ‘freedom’) is the story of a girl struggling with her identity as a Muslim woman in America. When my protagonist, Aisha, goes off to college, she views it as a chance to start over, a chance to be a different person. After a fateful encounter with a stranger, she realizes that her identity is a huge part of her, something she is not willing to leave behind. The story ends with Aisha at the airport, a ticket to Jeddah (home of Mecca, a holy place for Muslims) in hand, ready to rediscover her roots.

In Photoshop I was able to combine two images to create a double exposure effect. I photographed my model looking to the side with her face covered, a bit apprehensive, suggesting an internal struggle. I used an image of a mosque because that is iconography that is easily tied to her Muslim identity. Birds are often thought of as free animals so I felt the juxtaposition of the birds and the mosque symbolized the freedom and peace she finds in her religion.

The surrealist project was challenging because there were so many options. It was interesting to learn about the various photo manipulation techniques and to experiment with HDR photography. I enjoyed the surrealism project.

WebAudio

For WebAudio, we were asked to create a book trailer in After Effects.