For the Conceptual Project, I had to answer the question “How can I use unconventional forms to express myself?” through developing abstract thinking and communication skills.

This project challenged me to use a personal aesthetic to express my opinions by taking creative risks through poetry, music, web production and experimental film. I also learned to use professional equipment and applications such as DSLR Cameras, Tascam Audio Recorders, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Pro Tools, WordPress and Google Apps, which all helped me to develop technical communication skills.

From this unit, I have learned to how take abstract thinking and make it into a tangible product. For the most part, I was working with a single concept statement that was turned into a haiku, a video performance of said haiku, and even into a experimental film. I’ve learned that a lot of ideas can stem from a single statement, which will help my creative process in the future.

Poetry

In our poetry unit, we learned how to write different forms of poetry based on concept statements, art and personal stories. In this unit, we wrote haikus, ekphrastic poems, and free verse poems.

From the poetry unit, I learned how to tell a story in a new way. Poetry gave me new restrictions on how I could and couldn’t express my ideas, which was really challenging. This pushed me to find new ways to explore these ideas both when writing the poems and producing the photos and audio for them.

Photo Haiku

In English, we drew a concept statement out of a hat and used it to write a haiku. We had to take that haiku and pair it with an original photo that we took that captures the message of the poem. In Digitial Media, we took that haiku and photo and made a video out of it. In the video, the photo and haiku text were shown with my voice reading it. My concept statement was “I am exploring the feeling of disgust through experiencing the search of companionship.”

From writing the initial haiku, I learned to create something with specific parameters. The stuructual limits of a haiku and the concept statement challenged me to think in a new way. I learned to conceptualize an indepth idea in a just a few words. From the production of the Photo Haiku video, I learned how to use the basics of Premiere Pro. I learned how to make a video with simple audio and text transitions. These skoills will be helpful for me in the future when I use Premiere Pro for other videos in Digital Media and especially in Film.

Elements & Principles of Art

In Digital Media, we learned about the basic Elements and Principles of Art. We learned why they are effective and how to identify them in different forms of art. To demonstrate this new found knowledge, we had to find images that demonstrated each of the 13 elements and principles in photography, traditional art and modern art.

Experimental Film

In Film, we were tasked to make an experimental film based off of the same concept statement we used to write our photo haiku. I was challenged with the task of visualizing the concept statement, “I am exploring the feeling of disgust through experiencing the search of companionship,” into a short film. After brainstorming with the rest of my class, I decided to have my film focus on compost.

In order to shoot my experimental film, I had to sit in front of my compost bin and capture the rotting food and bugs that crawled around. To help me really capture the disgust factor, I even took a few shots where the camera was sitting on the actual compost to make it seem like the camera is apart of the compost coming together. After a few hours of shooting the gross compost, I had enough footage to use for the final film.

From this experimental film, I was able to learn how to visualize my ideas in a new way. I was able to figure out how to take something that is visually unappealing and make it interesting to watch. This really challenged my thinking and process while producing this film. I was also able to learn new skills regarding my camera and Premiere Pro through this film. I will be able to take all the new skills I learned from this production to help further develop my creative process in the future.