For web this unit, we created a single page website exhibiting all the work we did this unit. This was supposed to be a quick and easy summary of the website making basics we learned over the year, focusing on contrast, repetition, alignment, and usability. In making my website, I focused on the abstract aspect of experimental and that’s the explanation behind my background. I tried using Spry Tabs for my content window for this unit because it was something new and I wanted to experiment with how well it organized all my information.

 

Aside from that, we also created two music files that we made in Reason. One that went into an animation of a poem we created ( ours is in our credits) and the other one was a song. For the flash animation, I used a shortened version of Sandra S’s poem called Carried to Dust and together we illustrated an animated it to create the final composition.

 

 

 

 

 

For audio, we created two original music pieces in Reason. For both of these pieces I worked with Sandra Song. The first piece that we worked on was for the piece of music we needed to play at some point in our animation. We decided on a guitar instrument and wanted to play a mellow country sounding melody to reflect the mood of the poem she had written called “Carried to Dust”. We worked on this in Reason using the Midi Keyboard. The second piece was a song of our original composition. We decided we wanted to create a techno-sounding mix. First we created a slightly repetitive, electronic beat and melody with the instruments in Reason. Then while we were looking at other techno music for lyric inspiration, we found that most lyrics for that genre were generally a small verse (not always making sense) repeated in different, hypnotic ways. So we tried to mirror that by creating a small verse of not many words and saying them in different ways so that they matched up with the music we created, and recorded this through Reason and Protools.

*click play to listen to music*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In English, we were assigned to create a poetry packet with a minimum of 125 lines, including poems with the guidelines of:

1 poem between 3-5 lines
1 poem focused on a central image/metaphor
1 poem with an identifiable stanzaic structure.
1 poem with a consistent meter
1 poem with a speaker who is not you.
1 poem inspired by your Design project
1 poem inspired by The God of Small Things

In this process we experimented with different writing styles and techniques and learned how to differentiate and judge bad, good, and great poetry. We also learned how improve our poetry writing through testing word associations, metaphors, hyperbole, showing not telling, rhyme, and structure.

My Poetry: click on paper to read my poetry

 

Sandra's poem that we used for the Animation:

Dirt encrusted leather worn from walking
endless circles
around dusty Texas and Tezoatlán,
littered with strange ghost towns
where the sun dried everything up.
They’ve walked many miles
through back alleys filled with filth
and the sweat of the city,
and none of that can ever compare to
the blistering heat of the brush,
desert sand and chaparral shrub.
Intricate stitching like wingtips for the Westerner
far away from the ranch,
on a stage in soggy San Francisco that turns it all to
mud.
A sea of unfamiliar faces staring at what is placed under
hot, bright-eyed spotlights as bare feet lounge in the back,
But in the end none of this matters
for it is all
carried to dust.

 

 

In Design, we were assigned to create a project incorporating the design elements that we learned in freestyle and whatever other artistic elements of our choosing. The theme that should’ve directed our project was the word nostalgia. In the process of brainstorming and working on our project, we experimented with word association and in pairs students would taught the rest of the class an artistic technique that they found interesting or useful. Something that we were meant to gain through this unit was bringing together the techniques we’d learned over the year and to try to incorporate or experiment with new artistic skills or genres. In my project inspired b the word nostalgia, I chose to focus on the contradictory aspect of human nature of desire for adulthood but also for adolescence.

 

Experimental Artist Statement

*click on image for larger version*

 

My piece is tryingto convey the struggle between the desire of youth and maturity. It’s about people, or commonly teenagers’ constant desires for adulthood because with age comes more freedoms and independence. Though on the other hand with more freedom comes more responsibility and awareness of the burdens of life. For that reason, they want to go back to times without cares or responsibility; times where ignorance is bliss.
My idea came from what we were studying in history about the emergence of the teenagers as their own distinct generation of rebels and their struggle between adolescence and adulthood. I found that I could relate to this struggle in my own life with all the responsibilities that burden me as an older sister of two and being the baby among all the cousins in my family. In my photograph, there are three mirrors. The middle is the image of the teenager as he is and the other two show the opposing sides of himself that he struggles between; his childhood and his future. I tried to show the appeal of the younger version; with his more colorful clothing and the way his expression shows his happiness and complete bliss in his world. On the other side, the older man reflects the darker, more burdened aspect of life. The two opposing sides show the unattainable and the inevitable.