Documents
leave fallacious footprints,
the produce of hungry politicians
who harvest texts
to feed the mouths of unrooted masses
“The powerful don't listen”
to the blind
the gaps
the un-wholly bodies
the disposable
they cherry pick their way
towards the present
accumulate archives
the infinite determinate of
the industry of knowledge
Celebratory fireworks
muffle the sounds of coal diggers
the tactics of power steerers
who construe calendars
turn time around itself
straighten its curves
flatten its layers
mark the noteworthy
in the process of remembering
We will march towards progress
a presumed origin
agents of the nation
we will construct memorabilia
fuel it up with neat narratives
and a profusion of bibliographies
to cover up the traces of silence
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In class today, we talked about stereotypes surrounding artists. We talked about the romanticisation of mental illnesses and how it is harmful to society. Then we got into groups and talked about the questions of the week. We started off by discussing what we think the art world is. Most of the group defined the art world as anyone who creates or consumes art, which was contrary to what I view the art world as. I agree that anyone is an artist, however to me the art world is more exclusive and determined by money. Then we talked about how if the artist of a work we are consuming is a Christian or not. I think we all agreed that it is not necessarily relevant depending on the content and context of the art piece. We talked about how sometimes knowing the artists background can negatively affect how we view an art piece.
Because what we learned was quite basic, I will be using everything for the rest of my career. I can see the connections between the units because you couldn’t have gotten to the 3rd one without knowing what we learned in the 1st. There weren’t many frustrations because everything was pretty much second nature to me. Of all 3 core classes, I liked this one the most.
I don’t know if I can quite wrap my head around everything that we discussed and learned about in Theory and Pedagogy of Electronic Texts. We discussed so much. A great deal of it really blew my mind. At the beginning of the semester, my mindset was still very much in the traditional composition teacher category, even though I really wanted (and still want) to make my classroom accessible to my students. Multimodal Composition still seems relatively new despite the fact that it is probably over twenty years old.
By having our class present different kinds of digital and technological tools, such as activities for our classrooms, and tools that we as instructors can actually use. At first, I was incredibly intimidated by this. I kept asking myself, “What kind of tool can I show my class? Do I know any tools?! What’s an actual activity I can present that’s digital?” I almost had to dumb it down for myself in a way. So much of the tools that we had learned about in class, I had no prior knowledge about (Storify? What’s that?). Prezi still intimidates me quite a bit, and I do get frustrated with Canva. However, I felt confident with Tumblr. I can navigate Tumblr. The one thing I always liked about Tumblr is that I can do more than just word processor blog entries, but also video, pictures, audio files, and more! Word Press restrained me to mostly just text; if I had wanted to use more than one medium, I would have to start paying for it. Presenting my tools and activities in front of everyone in class about Tumblr was a little unsettling. Tumblr is not widely known for its academic and educational blogs, even though there are plenty of them out there. Most people think of Tumblr as a place where teenagers and young adults go to post pictures of their favorite television shows and actors. However scholarly databases such as JSTOR, museums NPR, PBS, TedEx Talks, all have Tumblr blogs. I wanted to prove in my presentations that Tumblr can also be a welcoming place for academia and a place where students can learn and compose using multimodal tools.
I very glad to find out that everyone else in the classroom was just as lost as I was in regards to what and how we should present things. But honestly, I really appreciated that vagueness. It allowed me to go places in my presentation that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to if I had been given stringent or structured guidelines.
In regards to the readings we did in class, I am so glad that we did them. It was a lot of reading, but they helped me better understand multimodal composition and digital literacy in the classroom. The reading is necessary for instructors who have little to no prior knowledge of multimodal composition. I personally plan to use Hawisher and Selfe, Palmieri, and Jody Shipka in my own teaching. These sources helped me better understand composition in classroom beyond traditonal methods.
As this reflection - that talks about the overall feel of class, assignments, etc - is 1000+ words, I will put it under a read-more. This helps the webpage load faster.
Brenna Yelenich
Allison Hitt
Writing as Information Design
25 April 2016
Class Reflection
Introduction
First, I want to clarify that this paper will not have information about previous assignments. I have already voiced what I had done and why in their own reflections. This reflection will be about my final portfolio and what it is about and why. It will also be about how I feel about the class, what I learned in class, and how I know it will help me in the future. This reflection was written in Microsoft Word and copy/pasted from said format to Tumblr text post format. If indentions do not transfer, I cannot do anything to fix it, unfortunately. I have tried in the web browser Firefox to tab-indent, but am unsuccessful to do so.
Assignment/Class Reflection
This assignment was quite a bit tricky to me. Making a website can be quite difficult. From choosing a platform to “simply” choosing color scheme, the making of a website is no easy task. There are many website to micro-blogging platforms to first choose from, many of them being free. Some places, such as Wix or Wordpress are “free” in a few aspects. They both can have a free subscription, but with this there are limitations. A person who wants to make a website for free with these places cannot have their own URL with a simple .com after the beginning. The websites require a name.wix or name.wordpress and then a .com afterwards. To get your own domain, you have to buy subscriptions, which are not cheap in any aspect and all “contracts” begin at one year to sign on. After this, one can buy a theme or pick from simple free ones. I chose the platform of Tumblr.com because I knew the layout and how to fiddle with ready-made themes, which are in abundance if you just Google them.
With Tumblr, one can choose the free themes or Google them, or one can pay $50+ to have access to “elite” themes. I chose a free theme by a simple Google search. I did not have to “reblog” (a way to share posts) the theme from the original maker either, as a link to their blog with the title “theme” is in the homepage buttons on top of the welcome banner. I also knew the theme from my separate personal Tumblr account as well.
After choosing my theme, I fiddled with the HTML to get it perfect for myself. First, I changed the font style to something I liked. I changed it to “Comfortaa” font, as it pleased my eye aesthetically. It is rounded and much like my own handwriting. The size of the font stayed at 12 point because if it was any bigger, some images were pushed off screen and one was unable to see them. I also added a bit to the HTML as well, changing up the blank background and colors that were initially given. I also added about three more additional links from the three original given to tweak. I also added a title, making it cute so that it seems welcoming. I also wanted to make it cute because I like cute and am cute.
The colors of the blog are “spacy” and “beachy” as I like blues, greens, yellows, and brown colors together. I also like the concept of space and the numerous stars that one can see in the night sky. The beach is also has a very nice and nostalgic feel for me. I like the colors that go along with the beach and am an avid shell collector. The background is dark blue to so that it is easy on the eyes and batteries of computers. Blue is also known as a calming color, so I have various shades ranging from almost black to a “baby blue.” The yellow color is to reflect the colors that can be seen in stars. I also liked how the light yellow stood out easily on top of the dark blue background. One shade of green is in there to compliment colors as is the brown. Green is also known as a calming and creative color as well. The brown is meant to reflect the color of sand on the beach at night or when it is wet.
The order of my posts are random. All of my class Tumblr posts can be seen first. It was easy to simply reblog them from the class Tumblr to my portfolio Tumblr and tag them as such. After that I began to upload class assignments from the semester. At first I wanted to put them in order, but accidentally uploaded assignments three before assignment two. I did not fix this mistake as I still have all of my assignments in one place and tag, making them simple and easy to find. This does not hinder any one, except for maybe the small annoyance of the assignments being out of order. I put my resume in its own tag so that it was easy to find, though.
I was unable to put ALT text because Tumblr’s upload system did not allow it.
Going through the semester in this class I know I have learned a lot. I leaned what it took to make an infographic, which is as easy as I thought. I also learned a bit how to use Photoshop! This I feel is a big accomplishment because now I can add it to my resume! I also learned a bit of HTML, where things go, and how it works.
Conclusion
Overall, I feel as though I have learned quite a bit in this class on all levels. I know that I can be successful in my future because of this class as well. I am confident in my abilities and my “own website” (it is hosted on Tumblr’s web forum/blogging platform). I am also very happy with how colors and formatting turned out as well.
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✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
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From todays class I learned that Jane Austen has been often interpreted into the confines of the heterosexual/homosexuality binary while it was unlikely she was inside this binary at all.
A question I still have is how we, in our current mentality might train ourselves out of it.
So, if you guys wanted that cheesy thing recipe it’s simple!
Baguette
Shredded cheese of your preference
Mayo
Green Onion
(I suggest Havarti and Edam with oregano on top also!!!!)
Preheat oven to 425, Bake for 10 minutes then let it broil until its bubbly, let it cool for a few minutes on a tray!
So, I had a really fun time in class today! We played two games that pretty much drilled the names into everyones head (those of you who attended there.... guys c’mon. You missed a fun class in Massey!). I think it was definitely a productive day in that sense, also that it really got us out of our shells. I really liked that todays class was much more of an ‘activity’ day, so to speak. It was really interesting playing the identity games and seeing how other people’s perspective will change what you might think of as one thing to be another. So like, the ‘feminist’ ideology. Some people had very different justifiable reasons for why they chose to stand where they stood.
Also, the privilege game was interesting, as well. I thought I hadn’t played it before, but we did this once in High school before and I remember the results being a lot more different. I know I am ridiculously privileged compared to many people in the world, however in high school with all your angst and resentment, the world seems a little bleaker I think, and puts you in a certain ‘cry for help’ situation thing? In other words, it was a lot more of a social status game in high school, versus the social economic awareness it brings now in University.
Shows maturity. Maybe I should have moved closer to a ‘10′ for the maturity question.
This past Thursday was a studio day in the RISD Nature Lab, which I found to be really nice and refreshing after so many days of class lecture. Not only was the Nature Lab absolutely amazing, but I found that being able to use art and design in such a practical way early on in this class really helped me grasp the concept of translating my studio practice into visual aids in teaching.
I have never done much graphic design work, but doing the logos was a lot of fun, even though it was really challenging, in my experience. I also thought the method we used, with the post-it notes on the logos we liked, was a great method for seeing where we stood with our projects without forwardly offending anyone. It really helped me clear up what I was doing right, and what I was doing wrong.
Many of the basics of design that we learned in this class were also very helpful to me because they are things, that as a fine arts student, I need to make sure I keep in mind now that I am creating art for my audience, more then I am creating art for myself.
I look forward to continuing these logo projects, and hope to use these tools to create meaningful work in the future.
