English served as the root for many projects, as usual.
Research
Our first English unit was focused around research. We were encouraged to find a controversial topic, and find multiple perspectives before building our own argument. Then, in our paper, we were able to present a well-rounded narrative to try and convince the audience on our own conclusions. We read They Say, I Say by Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff, which taught us how to react professionally to other perspectives in our own writing in a way that also includes our own.
I decided to research social media and censorship, given free speech implications and political finger-pointing. Some of the policies it examined were since reversed. While I’m not commenting on these changes, please keep in mind that this work is not up to date. However, I believe that my paper has enough breadth to cover relevant information.
Surreal Composition
Just like for Reflections in Design, I was to composite images in Digital Media to make a surrealist image. In this case, it was meant to be related to our English research paper. Mine, still about social media and speech, is titled “Say No More”.
After starting design off with a surrealist image, I got to try again in digital media with more skills. This time, since I wasn’t learning, there were not strict requirements on what to put and I enjoyed the freedom to make something with a theme I set. In my case, since my English research was on the potential for censorship on social media, I decided to try and capture a world where it’s prevalent.
I started with an image of a phone, using a layer mask to remove the background. One of the main symbols I wanted to use was speech shattering, so I took an image of broken glass and used another mask in Photoshop to make it the ground. I then made a broken speech bubble shape in Illustrator and used that. Since my research analyzed the law, I put a government building (the White House) as the background, and then imagining a world where Big Tech is in control, used blend modes and yet another layer mask (they’re useful!) to overlay a computer chip pattern over the building. Finally, I used adjustment layers to try and make the colors as even as possible. While I wasn’t able to really emphasize the speech bubble while keeping it translucent, the color shifts helped it be visible.
Behind the Scenes: Surreal Composition
Here is a snapshot of how my surreal composition looks in Photoshop.
The surrealist image was fun because I got to imagine a figurative, hypothetical scenario, as opposed to the research which examined the past and present with limited speculation on a more realistic future. I enjoyed playing with the colors and perspective to make it all one image, and of the details I added to the background image instead of just overlaying the foreground elements.
World Building
Our other major English endeavor was the World Building project. In small groups, we created our own fictional scenario and fleshed out the premise for a narrative work. We read Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler to appreciate its expansive world building from settings to scenarios to causality for world events. My group decided to make a science fiction TV show with an interplanetary setting. We then had to present a pitch as if we wanted to get the show produced, and you can watch that presentation below: