“Who am I?” That is the quintessential question that students have been asked to examine throughout this unit. In Design, Digital Media and English, we have been asked to reflect on ourselves, our values and sense of self as tied to our world views and sense of self. Then we were asked to express this through prose or imagery. Our goals in this unit were to uniquely and creatively express who we are. Throughout this assignment I have been forced to consider experiences vastly different from my own as well as confront and come to terms with my own ‘inadequacies’. It is important that we examine our thought process and our hidden biases in order to get a better sense of who we are and who we want to be in the future.

One of the first projects that we worked on was the Personal Essay, a response to a college prompt of our choice. Through this essay, we were able to explore various interesting topics as much as we wanted. Click here to read my personal essay.

What are some of the things that you’ve learned so far? This was the question asked in english class, that sparked this video. In this video I examined 5 statements of things that I hold to be true in life, whether they are true for everyone else is another story entirely.

Have you ever heard the saying “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his shoes”? That is the essence of Claudia Rankine’s book of lyrical essays Citizen, that detail the experiences of black Americans. In writing the lyrical essay, we were asked to interview someone who is distinctly different from us in one or more ways and then write about their experiences. Essentially, it is important to understand the differing experiences and struggles of the people around you.

She sits prettily, golden curls arranged just so, poofy pastel pink dress enveloping her small frame as she sits, waiting for mama to come so they can leave for church. The high pitched screeches of the boys playing ball in the yard drifts through the open window. “But Mama, why can’t I play too?” “You don’t want to play with the boys they’re doing boy things, besides you’ll dirty your nice dress-- now don’t you look absolutely darling!” She wanted to play, but she wanted to please mama too, so she’ll sit pretty as you please until they leave …… yet the boy’s hollers still draw her attention to the yard. In middle school, when she is done being pretty and avoids pink like the plague, the girls giggle and fret over the boys, and she is confused, apparently Jason was ‘hot’? Whatever that meant, she supposed he did have pretty eyes. She is fine with just letting things lie, though sometimes she feels cracked, split in some way, hairline fractures that none but her can see or feel. Different. Difference in the way that ivy creeps over stone, entwines itself bone deep until they are inseparable, except it was always this way, she just didn’t know the name for it then. And the ivy blooms bright and vibrant in the sunlight. The day that she finds the word she is struck silly, it is effervescent, uncontainable glee spilling over the corners of the pages and filling the world. An explanation for why “hot” was nothing more than a measure of temperature. She is not some strange unknown in-between thing anymore.

HDR or High-Dynamic Range Photography is a technique in which the photographer takes multiple ‘exposures’ of an object, usually one that has interesting texture or shadows. These different ‘exposures’ are images with a different amount of light let into the camera lens, resulting in a brighter image that enhances highlights or a darker image that highlights the shadows. After all of these images with different amount of light exposure are put together, they show a varied range of light and dark. This variance in light and shadow is best highlighted in black and white photography to better show the differing shadows and textures of the subjects.

The two sides of my diptych show an open door, focusing on the doorknob on one side and a cup of art supplies on a windowsill on the other. The side that focuses on the doorknob of an open door speaks of beginnings and choice. It is meant to show that metaphorical “first step” or a diverging of paths. The other side of the diptych, focusing on the handful of art supplies suggests creativity and art. Together, they show that beginning is hard- to take the first step is a choice you must make for yourself and the things that you really want. In this sense, the image of the doorknob, open but not stepped through is the hesitation and the art supplies representing a career in the arts or just becoming a better artist is the decision that i must keep making. Whenever you set out to do something, it is a continuous string of decisions that you must make, first to begin, and then to continue to work at whatever you have chosen until you’ve reached your goal.

In regards to taking the photos, I thought of images or objects that represented something that I valued and took photos of them. In creating my compositions, I adjusted contrast, clarity and the blacks and whites of the photos. Some of the issues that I encountered in creating this composition was in obtaining a tripod to take the exposures, and finding interesting ways to represent my ideas through the subjects I photographed. I might change the subjects that I photographed,or attempt to photograph those subjects from different angles than I did in the original.

In this video, we examined an issue, topic or question that needled at us. A subject that we had a strong opinion on and then explained our position on that topic through image and text. Specifically in my video, I examined a question that plagues us all at one point or another in our lives, “Why do we dream?”

In producing this Perspective Video, we worked in Adobe Aftereffects to create the animation and Pro Tools in order to record and edit the audio voiceovers. As it was my first experience working in Pro Tools and Adobe Aftereffects to create a video, I had a lot of fun learning how to use everything in the production of this video.