Hakuna Matata.

Coming into the course, I had almost no experience with multimedia communication. I had never blogged or created a video. I had minimal experience with Photoshop, and no concept of how to compose a visually appealing graphic. I would have to say that the two multimedia concepts I enhanced my knowledge on the most were image and video.

As I already mentioned in a previous blog, “The Futures of Literacy” by Gunther Kress gave me a great amount of insight on how the concept of image can be used to its fullest capacity. Kress talked about how image is packed with meaning naturally, whereas meaning is left to a reader’s interpretation with text.  I kept this idea in mind during the text/image project by making sure of two things:

1.  That my images were bold and expressed the meaning I desired

2.  That the text I included did not just literally describe my images for their face value, but rather provided potential alternate interpretations for my images.

Kress also talked about how important placement of an image is to its meaning, and that because there is no set “reading path” to an image, strategic placement could facilitate the audience in seeing things in the desired order.  In my infovis project, I tried to convey the importance of my main image by making it large and central. I was able to ensure a smooth visual flow through the use of lines to point out particular areas in my graphic.

The video project was the most challenging for me, but I learned a lot about the concept of video by going through the entire process of creating and editing one. I learned that a swift progression from one idea to the next within video is paramount to its success. Kress talks about how image is not bound by time the way that writing is. Well I quickly learned that this couldn’t be extended to video; video is sequential and therefore very much adheres to the logic of time. The initial draft of our video project had some very long scenes that could have bored an audience and caused them to drop in attention. By learning to edit down to only essential parts of the video, we were able to convey humor better. I also learned through doing the video project that one can capture so much more in a video than in writing. Video is able to capture personality and humor. With writing, humor can often be lost in translation.

Another aspect of video that was new was the audio component. I learned that appropriate sound and music enhances the meaning of a video a lot, and inappropriate sound can confuse a viewer. One of the biggest challenges during the editing process was timing the music so that it synergized with whatever footage was being presented. It was also a challenge to find different music for different scenes that did not clash when someone watch the video as a whole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhLRRoYo274

Out of all the assignments within the text/image project, I have to admit that the letter drawing was the most intimidating when I first heard about it. In general, I a not very artistic, so thinking about creating an entire image using only letters and punctuation was overwhelming to say the least. So I decided that my starting point would be to find an actual image to attempt to recreate. I came across this popular wall poster (called "The Lovely Zebra"), and I really like it because it reminded me of my recent trip to Africa and went with the theme of my text/image project:

  I started out by trying to create a general outline of a zebra. Since the zebra has a curvy figure, I used some of the curviest letters and punctuation: “S”, “C”, and parentheses. I created text layers in Photoshop and adjusted them by using the transform tool (Command + T) to stretch, rotate, and flip the letters.

Once the outline was done, the stripes were filled in much the same way. I used the same letters for the stripes as well. I played around with the fonts a little bit depending on the size and shape I needed for the stripe. I also copied the layers a lot during this process. In order to make efficient use of layers, I would often save a version of my work and then flatten the image. Then I would add layers according to what I needed. Without doing this, it would have been time consuming to look for the layers I needed while constantly stumbling on layers that I was sure I would not be moving anymore. 

I did the details in the face and legs last. The ears were made from Q’s, the eyes and nose from periods, and the facial stripes from “<” and “>”. The hairs of the zebra’s mane were made from layering the letter “E” on itself many times. I used “J” to make the shape of the legs and “~” to make the stripes. Lastly, the hooves were made from lowercase w’s.

Finally, I had one zebra that looked like this:

  At this point, I simply copied and pasted the zebra four times. I created the middle (backwards) zebra using similar processes as the first one. I used a few different letters and punctuation including “V” and “!”.

When I lined all the zebras into the correct positions, I got something that looked like this:

  Though I was happy with this outcome, I wanted to add a little color to the image and so I changed the drawing from being black to being a dark green color. 

This was the final result, and I have to admit I was quite pleased :)

In “Futures of Literacy,” Gunther Kress presents his ideas about how the development of  technology has created a shift away from books and writing as the dominant means of communication, and replaced them with visual images on screens.  Of all his points, I found his analysis of the difference between words and images to be the most interesting.

Kress explains that both words and images are inherently bound by certain parameters. He states that writing, like speech, is organized according to time. One word must be read before another can be read. Additionally, the author has to set a sequence in which the words are presented; this arrangement of words can influence the meaning perceived by the reader. For example, if a person were to say, “Santa and Rudolph ate the treats,” this could be interpreted differently than, “Rudolph and Santa ate the treats.” The fact that the words naturally have to be sequenced could affect the interpretation by imposing a sequence of events that might not actually exist within the intended meaning of the sentence. Another example is the sentence, “Mom baked pie and the air smelled amazing.” Though the two events- the baking of the pie and the air smelling good- could be unrelated, the sequencing of the sentence could make the reader think that the air smells good because Mom baked the pie. This implication of causality according to the ordering is a limitation of writing in general. Another limitation of writing is the fact that most languages use verbs to relate parts of a sentence. For example, if someone says, “The tree has an ornament,” the sentence implies possession of the ornament by the tree. The sentence, “There is an ornament on the tree” has a different meaning.

Images are not bound by these limitations, but they have limitations of their own. For example, in the tree example, an image of the tree with an ornament hanging from it does not make any statement about whether or not the tree possesses the ornament. The image is not bound by having to claim a relation. On the other hand, the image would be bound by the fact that a location of the ornament would have to be depicted. In this way, images are bound by their locations within space. Because images are organized according to space, meaning is attached to placement, color, shape, and size, rather than to sequence. In writing, putting one word before another might make the first word “superior” whereas in images, making an item bolder, bigger, or more central might establish its superiority.

Another point that Kress makes is that though a reading path is set in writing, the words are empty of meaning. For example, the word “Grinch” by itself does not have any inherent meaning according to how it looks or sounds; if you had never heard the word before, you would not be able to imagine what it means. On the other hand, if you saw an image of a Grinch, and had never seen a Grinch before, you would have an indication of what a Grinch is based on the image. In that way, images do not have set viewing paths, but they are inherently filled with meaning on their own. Kress also talks about how writing can never be completely unique. You have to use words that already exist within a language to create sentences, and in that way they are never truly one’s “own words.” In contrast, images have the potential to be created from scratch and entirely unique.

In “The Data Driven Life,” Gary Wolf illustrates the value of using data to reflect on one’s personal life and habits, and how the development of technology has influenced the popularization of such data collection. I can relate from personal experience to many of the points he makes. Furthermore, some of his examples have opened my eyes to how the collection of personal data can be applied within my field of study.

Wolf talks about how numbers have long been seen as valuable in the business and academic spheres, but crunching numbers about one’s personal experiences has been viewed as strange in the past. He jokes, “A journal was respectable. A spreadsheet was creepy.” However, without concrete data to reflect on, certain notions about our lives are often skewed. Wolf mentions how apps on smartphones have made it easier for people to collect data about themselves. He also discusses the fact that social media has normalized and encouraged this type of data collection; people not only have a means of sharing data about themselves, they also want to have data to share.

Wolf’s ideas are all very valid in my personal life. I use the apps on my iPhone to keep track of and share everything from where I’ve been (Facebook), to what I’ve seen and experienced (Instagram). I realize that I have more data about myself in my phone today than I could have even imagined collecting 5-10 years ago. It is so normal to have such data in today’s era that I did not even consider the information on my phone to be data until after reading this article.

One app in particular, FitnessPal, has made me aware of how skewed my personal estimations about myself can be. FitnessPal allows you to track everything you eat in a day, and computes the calories for you. It also allows you to scan barcodes of your groceries to get a more accurate calorie count. Before this app, I used to approximate my caloric intake in my head and I usually estimated 1000-1500 calories per day. Over the time, my eating habits have not significantly changed, yet with FitnessPal, I have been made aware of how many calories I would forget to include in my estimation. The little snacks, the condiments, the beverages. By physically keeping track and getting an accurate count, I realized I was underestimating by a good amount, which is exactly the type of phenomenon Wolf explains in his article.

Wolf also makes points that can be applicable to psychology, which is my field of study. He mentions how collecting data about a person’s mental state has moved away from being anecdote-based (such as during Freud’s era) to being objective and quantifiable (such as preliminary questionnaires). He also talks about how almost every form of “therapeutic prescription” involves asking clients to pay attention to or notice aspects of their lives that could influence their thoughts and behaviors. As a student, I have become familiar with this concept of “mindfulness” used in therapy, and can agree with Wolf in that the implementation of data collection within a client’s life can greatly facilitate mindfulness. Wolf gives the example of Morris, a man who started to keep track of his mood at different parts of a day. Morris noticed that his bad mood started at the same time every day. Through analyzing this data, he came to realize what events at this particular time of day usually influenced his mood, and he was able to create new habits to change his situation. If the encouragement of personal data collection became normalized within psychological therapy, perhaps more clients would be able to pinpoint aspects of their lives that are pivotal factors in their mental states.

The last point that I want to mention is Wolf’s notion that the goal of data collection is not to figure out something about humans in general, but to discover information about oneself. He says that though this lowers the validity, the data is far more relevant than results from a large-scale research experiment.  This is very interesting to me because when I think about common therapeutic techniques, they all derive from psychological research. After reading Wolf’s article, I can see how there might be value in combining this top-down approach with data derived directly from a client’s individual life. By taking Wolf’s ideas into account, psychologists might be able to implement therapy that is more effective on an individual level.

http://cb102.tumblr.com/

I wanted to review Caronne's text/image project because as a psychology major, I too have a passion for the human mind. The mind is something that is abstract, so it was interesting to see a person's visual portrayal of the concept.

The first image in the slideshow, the purple brain, was my favorite. It reminded me of the types of images you see on Psychology textbooks, which made it interesting because it made me think of how the image could be applied in real life. The best part of this image was the illegible yellow font that represented thoughts. It was the perfect font to convey the lack of tangible structure and randomness of thought processes. I also loved how the image harmoniously represented two dimensions of the brain- chemical reactions, and the subsequent thoughts. It was busy, but it did not feel like too much was going on in the image. The font used for "mind" conveyed the scientific feel of the image well.

The letter shape image with the neuron was edited nicely through the use of filters. However, I felt like it could have been edited further in a way so that the letter being shown is prominent. I am assuming the letter is supposed to be a Q, but because of the number of lines surrounding it, it is not as obvious.

The word cloud was done very well. I learned a lot from this image. Word clouds are often imposed on a solid background to make the words stand out more than anything else. Caronne did a good job of adding subtle texture to the background without impeding on the boldness of the words. Caronne was also strategic in choosing a background concept that enhanced the meaning of the word cloud. This is something I can keep in mind when using word clouds in the future. 

The last image was the one that I felt could use the most improvement. I think the image was a little bland and typical of images people see about the brain in documentaries and textbooks. To make it more interesting, I think the image could have been edited more in Photoshop. I think the fonts could also be changed to be more memorable.

I decided to review Nicolette's infovis project because I thought it was one of the more eye-catching projects out of the ones done this quarter. I wanted to analyze why exactly it was so catchy and visually appealing.

The first thing I like about this project was that it had a lot of personality to it. The font captured the romantic vibe that many European destinations exude. The picture cutouts of the different countries added personality by allowing the viewer to relate to the experience of traveling in Europe. Because the image was easily relatable, it would make the viewer more likely to be interested in the data.

I also like the juxtaposition of the large bold numbers and the script style font on the right side. I felt like this was a clear way of being able to represent the data while also incorporating a script font (which is typically considered more difficult to read). I also like how the theme of the green numbers was used throughout the project, even in the two paragraph-like captions. I think this brought the data to the reader's attention easily.

One thing I thought was a little confusing was the way the paragraph captions were presented. When I first saw them and started reading them, I couldn't understand what city was being discussed. Then I finally saw the twirling line of dots and realized they were connecting the caption to a city. Initially, I thought the dots were just decoration. I think to be clearer, the font for "Munich" could have been bigger to match "Rome" so that a viewer could easily see that there are two "most important" cities throughout the image, and therefore those cities must be what the captions are talking about.

I also thought that because there were a lot of words on the page in general, the map items (cities) should have been accompanied by dots (like it sometimes is on a map) to make it obvious from the get go that the words on the map are not explaining anything, but just part of the map visual.

Over this summer, I spent four weeks in Kenya with my family. Prior to that, I was never much of an animal person. I thought the safari would interest me about as much as the zoo, and I was excited, but not nearly as much as I should have been. After witnessing some unbelievable moments amongst animals and getting the opportunity to immerse myself in Maasai culture, I am absolutely obsessed. For this reason, I created an African theme to my slideshow.

Visually, the slideshow has an African ambience. However, many of my pieces also circle the idea of motivation, success, and happiness. As a student who, like many, has ample concerns regarding my future, I thought that this slideshow would be a good opportunity to express some positive concepts to be kept in mind through my life.

In this course, I learned many new Photoshop techniques as well as techniques for visual presentation. Kress’s article about “The Futures of Literacy” had a significant impact on my work. I really began thinking about the idea that words, counter intuitively, can be empty of meaning. He described how images, in contrast, could be loaded with meaning. Keeping this concept in mind, I strived to incorporate words that would not be redundant with the images, but rather propose a new perspective on the images. For example, in my piece with the ridiculous-looking ostrich burying his head in the sand after being startled, I used the word “fear” to propose the idea that perhaps many of the inhibitions that hold people back could be just as ridiculous.

Even though this project was made for a specific class, I actually got into it quite a bit! I had a lot of fun working with the images, and I hope you enjoy the final product as well.