Final Project

 
Artist Statement
  I had a couple ideas for this project. A couple of my ideas included the Mirror Lake tradition, Beat Michigan Week, Thanksgiving Traditions, or the chaos of Black Friday.  Black Friday didn't turn out as hectic as the previous year so I took video of my Thanksgiving and The Ohio State Michigan Game.  After viewing my video footage, I decided that I would base this project off of Beat Michigan week at Ohio State using the footage I got from the game.
    As many of you know Beat Michigan week is an exciting week for Ohio State students.  The week consists of a beat Michigan pep rally, craft nights, a blood battle, and of course the legendary mirror lake jump. I am a huge fan of Ohio State football and have grown up around it, therefore being a student and being able to partake in these activities is exciting.
  This project was an attempt to tell the story of Ohio State traditions.  I used three photographs as the background while a soundtrack from the game is playing.  The first picture is from the mirror lake jump, the second was taken during the game, and the third was taken after the game when fans rushed the field with excitement. These pictures tell the story while the audio gives you insight on what you hear while at the game. The audio includes many interesting things such as famous cheers and chants from fans, people discussing the game, and many other things.
   
The Process
I took several videos during the game in order to get a wide range of audio.  I merged all of these videos together and edited them in Garage Band.  Garage Band allowed me to edit and shorten the audio in order to emphasize what I thought was most important. Then I moved the edited audio on top of the photographs in imovie.

Failure Blog

1.What was your biggest failure this semester?

I think my biggest failure this semester was with my map to class and video project. I don't believe the ideas I had in my head came out in these art forms the way I would have liked them to.

2.What did you learn from this failure? (This could be a technical issue or a conceptual issue)
I learned that not everything turns out the way you would like it to. Whether you have a technical issue or a conceptual issue an idea doesn't always look the same once you get it out as it did in your head.  With that being said every project I did in this class has been a learning tool for me.  The micro projects have helped teach me different way to execute ideas in different computer programs (such as Photoshop and Garage Band) and several other things.

     3.What was your biggest success this quarter?
     I think my biggest success this semester was my last micro project.  In the project I was assigned the verbs to split and to suspend.  At first this was a difficult project for me, I couldn't come up with anything. I think this was my biggest success because I worked on this project without any expectations and I ended up liking my final project.

     4.What did you learn from this success?
      This has taught me that sometimes going into things without expectations can leave you open to many possibilities.  Since things do look different on paper it is hard to make a project look exactly like it does in your head therefore there is more room for disappointment.

     5.If you could redo one project, what would you change and why?
     I would redo my map to class project or edit my video.  I would change one of these two because I was the least happy with them.  I don't think my final projects met my expectations. I would try to go into these projects open minded and see what I could do to make them better



 

Blog 10

Final Project Ideas

• Ohio State Michigan Game
• Mirror Lake- Video/Sound
• Richard Serra verb list
• Black Friday-Video/Sound
• Thanksgiving traditions

Mirco Project 5

My object was an old cord/cable. My two words were to split and to suspend.  I tried to use both of the words in my project.  I thought it wold be interesting to split open an old cord and see all the wires that it is made up of.  It is kinda of cool how complex this object is.  It was also cool to see the complexity behind an object that we don't really think much about and sometimes take advantage of.  A lot of the things we use everyday are powered by some sort of cord/cable
First I cut a piece off of the cord (surprisingly much harder than it looked).  Then I split open the cord, and continued to split what was inside until everything was spread apart.  Although I used a couple of tools to use this, a knife is what I used the most. Since a knife was my main tool, I tried to suspend a knife with the newly designed cord.

Micro Project Four

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU7_XRfRR30&feature=plcp

The video takes place in my car.  I spend a good amount of time driving on a daily basis, whether its going to and from work, classes, or other random errands.  Driving can become so much of a habit that you don't always realize all of the other things going on around you. There are always a countless number of things going on in the background when you are driving. For example pedestrians, people on bicycles, polices sirens, the radio, etc.  Not that you can close your eyes while driving but if I were to close my eyes these are the sounds that would make me aware of where I was.

I took video footage of me driving and added a soundtrack to the video.  In the soundtrack I tried to emphasize all the distractions that can occur while driving. Like many other people I am guilty of trying to multitask while driving. Therefore I tried to add some of those noises into the soundtrack.  For example I will talk on the phone on my way to work.  So I added in a cell phone ringing. Sometimes I also use my time in the car to think and simply have time to myself.  Therefore there are points in the video where there isn't as much going on.

Carver Cathedral

      Although I enjoyed reading this article it was tough for me to follow in the beginning.  The guy does have strong stereotypes of blind people.  I do agree that people look at them and treat them differently.  It is hard for many people to believe they can live a normal life just like we do. It is cool to see how the blind man and the women were able to keep in touch through videos. This art form allowed them to maintain a relationship for many years without seeing each other.  Although the man is blind the audio was enough to keep their friendship strong. 
       It was also amazing to see how the guys views slowly changed as he spent more and more time with the blind man.  He even got to somewhat see what it was like to be in his shoes.  The man went from not wanting to spend time with the blind guy to allowing him to hold his hand while he drew a picture of a Cathedral in order to help teach the blind man what they looked like.  The guy said
"it was like nothing else." I think its amazing how a little bit of time with somebody different than you can change the way you think.

Wallace This is Water

I enjoyed the speech given by Wallace.  I think throughout his speech he made a lot of great points.  For example he says your education is not so much about "filling you up with knowledge as it is teaching you how to think". I agree with this to an extent.  I and probably most other college students feel like I am "learning" a lot of stuff in college that will not help me in my career field. Which can be frustrating and make it hard to stay motivated. Although with that being said I don't agree that college is teaching me to be patient when waiting in line at the grocery store after a long hard day.  I also really like his didactic story about the christian and the atheist. It makes you think and I think it proved how the same experience can be taken differently by two different people.  I think a lot of things in life are this way and the way you think does play a big role in life.  Therefore I agree that is it important to know how to think. Thinking in a positive manner can improve life.