Welcome to my Project Info Page! This page contains links and brief introductions to all the websites I’ve made as a student at Freestyle Academy. As a Freestyle Junior, I made a website for our Self Portrait, Narrative 1, Documentary, and Experimental Units, plus an original project info page that this current project info page is replacing. As a Freestyle senior, I will be making websites for our Profile, Music Video, Narrative 2, and Portfolio Units. On my websites, you will get to see my writing from English, and also various art pieces that I created in Design using Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. You will also get to see and hear different pieces of media created in Web-Audio using GarageBand, Photoshop, Flash, Pro Tools, and Reason.
Please check back often as the school year progresses to check out my new projects!
Arlene Oriel
Self-Portrait
Our first unit at Freestyle was the Self-Portrait Unit, where we set out to answer one question: “Who Am I?”. We started this unit off by each listing off "10 Things I've Learned So Far." We then used this list to write a personal essay and a personal poem to be used in our other classes. Based on our writing from English and ourselves, we were to create an illustration and a diptych in Design, using Illustrator. A diptych is comprised of two seemingly unrelated things, but can be tied together with a central idea that can be expressed to viewers with an artist statement. In Web-Audio, our task was to create a podcast on our "10 Things I've Learned So Far" list. All of our little projects during this unit were showcased in our website.
Narrative
Our second unit at Freestyle was the Narrative Unit. In English, we brainstormed ideas for stories, and eventually turned some of those ideas into short narratives, focusing on improving our narrative arc-writing skills in order to improve our whole project. In Web-Audio, we learned how to use an audio program called Pro Tools. Although challenging at first, Pro Tools gave us the valuable power to control more elements of our sound projects than GarageBand offered. We also learned how to use an animating program called Flash. Although incredibly frustrating, we all prevailed in the end and each person in the class had completed an animation based on one of the narratives we had written in English.
Documentary
Our third unit at Freestyle was the Documentary Unit, where our first task was to select a location and reach out to it and ask if we could do a documentary on that location. My location was my church, New Hope International Church in Sunnyvale. In English, we connected our location to an issue that it helps address, and develop a stance on the location based on that issue. Then, that essay from English was used as print in our books that we created in Design. In Design, we learned how to use a program called InDesign to lay out and create our book digitally, placing our print and pictures that we took at our location, as well as adding graphic design elements to each page. Once finished with our books, we ordered them to be printed, then each of us very eagerly awaited their arrivals. In Web-Audio, we created an audio slideshow, incorporating photos of our location and audio clips we recorded, talking about our location to viewers.
Experimental
Our fourth and final unit as Freestyle Juniors was the Experimental Unit, which the current seniors at the time claimed to be the funnest unit of Junior year. Our whole unit was to be based on a concept statement. Half of the statement was chosen out of a hat, and the other, out of a bucket. The full concept statement I had drawn was “ the feeling of adoration when I stand up for myself.” In English, we were exposed to meditation daily, to channel our inner peace and relaxation. We read and analyzed numerous poems, and eventually wrote poems of our own, based on our concept statements. Many of us initially thought it would be difficult to create various projects based on a randomly drawn concept statement, but as we did more brainstorming and meditating, we all eventually got a good grasp on our statements, and went on to create great pieces with them. In Design, we used both digital media and mixed media to create conceptual art pieces centered around our concept statements. In Web-Audio, we learned how to use another audio program, Reason, and were free to use either Reason or Pro Tools to create an original piece of music. We also created another animation, but this time our animation was for one of the poems that we wrote in English.
insert Profile Graphic here
Profile
My Profile Website will be available in late October. Please check back then!
insert Music Video Graphic here
Music Video
My Music Video Website will be available in late October. Please check back then!
insert Self-Portrait Graphic here
Narrative 2
My Narrative 2 website will be completed in late April. Please check back then!
Portfolio Showcase
For our Portfolio Showcase, we had to choose at least two pieces we created at Freestyle to present in front of a panel. Two panelists were experts in the field we chose to present for, one panelist was a Freestyle teacher, and one panelist was a choice panelist that we brought in. This presentation was a great opportunity to reflect on our two years here at Freestyle and present it to people in our community.
