REFLECTING ON THE OVERALL DMA COURSE
At the beginning of the term, I considered myself a technologically capable person. I came in with satisfactory skills in the usual: word, powerpoint, internet efficiency, photo editing, etc. However, even coming in fairly adept with technology, this course broadened my horizons in digital media. I had never worked with editing video on this level, and I had not been an avid blogger before this either. My view of media did not change: I still think it is a useful, ever-changing, force to be reckon with. What did change, however, was my perspective; like I mentioned before I have a much broader understanding of digital media. I would have liked to maybe learn more about computer generated graphics, for instance instead of taking a picture and uploading it, learning how to create a graphic. That being said, I think that in order to stay up to date on new media technology, one must constantly be up on the new trends. As soon as you fall behind, catching up is going to be trickier and trickier at the rate that things are changing these days. I'd like to think that I'll stay up to date on new trends because I see the value in them, I just have been lucky this semester because I had a class that allowed me to do so... Without this class I do not know if I'll have a whole lot of time while I'm in school to really stay up to date on technology.
INTRODUCTION
In this unit, we have been asked to take all of the information from the other units (which has been very introspective) and turn it around. We now are looking at the world with a similar level detail that we have been using on ourselves. Out of the different topics, I chose to dive deeper into new media and commercialism, specifically the correlation between media and the effects on a woman's body image. To keep my range of research broad I posed the question: How does the media effect a woman's body image/sense of self? To start off the project, I brainstormed some possible subtopics for research and organized them in a concept map.
WHAT I LEARNED
How does the media affect a woman’s body image and sense of
self?
In today’s culture, the expectations that have been placed
on women about their appearance are extreme and unattainable. Even though the
desired look for women is mostly unattainable, they still attempt to achieve the
unattainable which leads to eating disorders, depression, and a variety of
other mental imbalances. How do these ideas come about? The media. As beauty
products, clothing brands, etc. are advertised using models that are way too
thin or photos that are more edited than they are original, they are passively
asserting that this is how all women should look when in fact the women that
are being portrayed are either not real or unhealthy.
Unfortunately,
it’s not just older women feeling the pressure. According to a study published
in the article “The Media’s Effect on
Women’s Body Image”, “the correlation between media image and body image
has been proven; in one study, among European American and African American
girls ages 7-12, greater overall television exposure predicted both a thinner
ideal adult body shape and a higher level of disordered eating one year later.
Adolescent girls are the most strongly affected demographic.” There are
programs and studies being conducted that look to reverse the effects of media
on young women. “An intervention for the
negative influence of media on body esteem” outlines an experiment and
results of such a program. The article acknowledges that is nearly impossible to
distinguish what factors are affecting the women for the better, but it also
discusses how some improvements in body image were noted amongst the
experimental groups. After being shown what the average American woman looks
like compared to the models, some of the subjects became “enlightened” and
realized that the models in advertisements are nowhere near normal.
Another negative
impact on women, due to media, is the acceptance of violence against women.
Neil Malamuth and James Check address this in “The effects of Mass Media exposure on Acceptance of Violence against
Women: A Field Experiment”. These two men completed an experiment amongst
males and females that exposed them, and essentially desensitized, to violent
movies. Interestingly enough, the desensitiziaion happened more amongst the
males, while the females became more sensitive about the fact of violence
against women. This is where the sense of self comes in because many women base
their success off of men and a man’s acceptance of themselves and their
appearance. Unfortunately, many women put up with abuse from a man because they
are afraid that no other man will want them, and on the other end men becoming
more and more okay with abusing women because the media is saying that it is
okay.
While there
are plenty of arguments against the media and its influences on culture, it would
be unfair to mention the upside of idealized advertisements. The fact that many
Americans are severely overweight is no secret, and we wish to change that. If
models all of a sudden were all obese, that would become normal and society’s
weight would just continue to spiral out of control, as stated in “The Effect of the Media on Women’s Personal
Identity”. In conclusion, the media is a powerful standard needs balance in
order to promote healthy habits for its followers.
WHAT I'D LIKE TO LEARN
In learning about the specific effect of the media’s
influence on women, there are many related topics that I would like to explore
in the future. First of all, I’d like to differentiate between the different
age demographics, and how the age of exposure affects a female’s body image. I would
also like to expand my research to the male gender. I’m sure that women are not
the only ones feeling pressure from the media about their appearances and role
in society, but I think that it affects men in a different way which is why
there is not as much research readily available on the topic. Another aspect of
this research that I think could be expanded on would be what parts of the
media tend to correspond with various psychological disturbances. For instance,
there is supposedly heightened aggression in children who played violent video
games, but is there a point in time where the effect the video games has on the
children is greater? The combinations of media and demographics are infinite
because the media grows exponentially every few years, and humans have such
complex diversities. I am also very curious to look at data from beauty supply
companies that show their client demographics as well as gross income over the
past twenty to fifty years. I predict that the age of clientele has expanded in
both directions over the past few years because girls want to wear make-up
earlier and older women are wearing make-up longer. All of this talk of media influence
also brings up an interesting point of human psychology and why these powerful
franchises can convince a bunch ofwomen
that they are not beautiful without make up, or shiny hair, or a size zero
waist. Are there psychologists out there responsible for the mental unraveling
of millions of young girls all over the country, or world even? There’s another
topic: are countries all over the world experiencing the same pressure from
culture to be aesthetically appealing? Back to the psychologists though, why haven’t
more people raised hell about this? Why do we let trained professionals trick
us into buying products that we do not need? Speaking of things that we do not
need, another industry that benefits greatly from the general insecurity of the
American culture right now is the clothing industry. Everybody must have the
hip, new clothes- all the time. Therefore, people are buying clothes before the
old ones wear out, just because of the fear of looking “outdated”. I think that
for all the good the media does for our world, we really need to pick through
it with a fine toothed comb to weed out the negative influences before they do
too much harm.
VIDEO EXERCISES
With these tasks, I really centered my attention on video literacy: which is the idea of being well-versed in all aspects related to video and video composing. I started by exploring the Internet Archives with an eye for any footage or sound clips that I thought would be an interesting blend. After finding content and watching tutorials, I was finally ready to start creating. I definitely see the parallels between working with sound and with video, but I found video to be significantly more difficult. There are so many more aspects to think about and to coordinate with video, but that being said the final product is much more rewarding than an audio assignment. I personally enjoy experiencing the result of visual and aural intricacies, as opposed to just aural or just visual.
Double Exposure
Parallel Edit
RESEARCH ORIENTED VIDEO COMPOSITION
To compliment my research project, I am thinking about having a comparison of models vs "real" women/the effects of media on humans. (before/after pictures of plastic surgery/eating disorders, etc). As far as music, I haven't decided if I want it to be a happy-go-lucky women empowerment video, or if I want a somber mood as to inform the public of the severity of this problem and just how serious it is. Both are valid points, in my opinion, so I think I"ll make that decision based off of the content I am able to find.
PROJECT VIDEO COMPOSITION
To complete this project, I used a variety of public domain resources: the internet archives and creative commons( which led me to places like youtube, soundcloud, spinxpress, and google images). For this project I explored a little bit more of what the software has to offer like transitions and the text capabilities. I also experimented with the voice-overs, but they didn't make the final cut. Most of my composition is parallel-cut. The process took me much longer than I anticipated..finding material was actually very, very difficult! I didn't have a crystal clear idea of what I wanted, but I thought I would be inspired by what I saw, rather it took me hours to get going on an idea that I liked. Once I had a clearer idea of what I wanted, I could maneuver the public domain websites a little better, but without a clear and concise idea of what I wanted, I found the search engines on these websites to be insufficient. Once I had most of the material I thought that I was going to use, I composed it in what I thought would be my final edit; however, I stumbled across one final video that inspired me thus I reconfigured my entire composition. I still struggled a little with the technical aspect of Camtasia, but I feel myself becoming quicker and more well-versed with the software, and I'm sure with every practice I'll become more literate.
WORKS CITED
"The Effect of the Media on Women's Personal Identity." The Effect of the Media on Women's Personal Identity. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. <http://en.articlesgratuits.com/article.php?id_article=437>.
Everybody Knows That Mass Media Are/are Not a Cause of Eating Disorders: A Critical Review of Evidence for a Casual Link between Media, Negative Body Image, and Disordered Eating in Females (2009): 9-42. EbscoHost. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=428642fb-7c6a-4417-aac3-634a2846001e%40sessionmgr13&hid=104>. Gross, Liza. "Invisible in the Media." EbscoHost. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=e6778393-ce17-48d4-866f-24939ef62882%40sessionmgr110&hid=106>.
Haas, Cheryl J., Laura A. Pawlow, Jon Pettibone, and Dan J. Segrist. "An Intervention for the Negative Influence of Media on Body Esteem." EbscoHost. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=428642fb-7c6a-4417-aac3-634a2846001e%40sessionmgr13&hid=7>.
Malamuth, Neil M., and James V.P. Check. "The Effects of Mass Media Exposure on Acceptance of Violence against Women: A Field Experiment." UCLA, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. <http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/comm/malamuth/pdf/81Jrp15.pdf>. McCabe, Marita P., Kelly Butler, and Christina Watt. "Media Influences on Attitudes and Perceptions Toward the Body Among Adult Men and Women." EbscoHost. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=9&sid=e6778393-ce17-48d4-866f-24939ef62882%40sessionmgr110&hid=3>.
"The Media's Effect on Women's Body Image - News, Sports, Events - Hamilton College." The Media's Effect on Women's Body Image - News, Sports, Events - Hamilton College. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2013.
At the beginning of this unit, the idea of the 3-D professional was introduced... After the first read I thought, "...yeah! we're different than a trade school... highly trained, highly focused conservatory," then I read it again and had a different thought: technically, all professions are three dimensional, or "dimensional" for that matter. Even being a cashier at the grocery store, you have to remember things such as customer service, self presentation, bagging groceries, etc. Being an artist just adds another dimension. I think that the moment you let yourself think that you have a one dimensional job, or role in anything, you've let yourself settle. One dimensional job leads to a monotonous day, friends, relationship, life.. Spice it up a little! Speaking of dimensions, this unit similarly expanded the the dimensions of my composition projects and not just creatively.. All this talk of copyright law reminded me that copyright laws aren't "big scary things for when I'm older", as I used to think, they effect me right here and right now and will for a long time. I felt that I stretched myself in terms of creativity and skill this unit because I am completely out of my element in audio editing. I have had little experience with audio material other than putting songs on my iPod.
Now that I know a little better how to work with audio, I ended up choosing the creative route with this week's assignment. I figured that since I'd be spending some quality time with these sounds I would choose an uplifting theme: happiness. In my composition, I feel that I touched on the living, composing, perceiving, and representing contexts. I chose sounds that I felt "meant" happiness in one way or another. I composed them to fit attractively together, I perceived them to be happiness, and intrinsically many of them represent happiness in stereotypes. With this type of assignment I believe that the principle interactionism plays an especially important role because in an audio setting the composer plays with how the sounds interact with each other and most importantly the listener. A sound may be beautiful played simply by itself, but when combined with another the result could be absolutely horrid. A successful project of this nature has mastered, at some level, interactionism. I used a program(Audactiy) to create this composition. This time around I did not have any DIY aspect, other than the composing; however, last week when we created our own recordings I engaged in the DIY aspect of composing.
After doing this project, I have a new appreciation for sound editors because I got frustrated easily when things wouldn't line up how I wanted them! Also trying to work within copyright "safe" material was very inhibiting. That being said, this has sparked my creative eye and I can't wait to collaborate with dance and combine these two composition skills. Overall, this work probably isn't my life masterpiece BUT this is where I'm at with this skill right now. I plan on continuing with audacity, or other sound editors, in the future and this project is simply a mark for where I'm starting.
The challenge for this week involved taking a minute of sound from my daily life and from my art life(although, let's be real they're not really separate) and compose them in two different ways: one "double exposure", or playing at the same time and one "parallel", or interweaving the two. I have never worked with audio material in this way before, so I was a bit scared starting the assignment to be totally honest; however, I was pleasantly surprised. After becoming familiar with some of the tools in Audacity, I found that I very much enjoyed experimenting with the sounds, even on this very basic level. I think that as a dancer, to be able to manipulate audio material is an invaluable skill.We spend so long in the studio manipulating our bodies to move exactly how we want them to, but if the music does not compliment the body that hard work could go unnoticed. If I ever decide to choreograph, to avoid copyright infringements, I might fall back on these skills to create something that would be 100% my material. For next week, I am having a hard time deciding whether I want to do an experimental/playful project or a practical one. On one hand I always want to be playful and try new things BUT that being said my time is limited and if I could do something art-related while still fulfilling the assignment at the same time, I'd be making better use of my time.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
"New Media" Reflection
...What I learned In these past three weeks, we have built upon our knowledge of working online and used it to begin creating our own new media creations. The coursework has promoted learning in many areas such as: actual skill work in new-media settings, opening our minds the the online work space, tips on how to manage working with such a ginormous work space, how to look at work created online critically and with a similar eye as the one we use to look at our work within our respective art disciplines, etc. Because we are all artists many of us are visual learners, thus we learn by example. Four prime examples of new-media artists are Katerina Cizek, Aaron Koblin, JR, and the Sacrificial Poets. Each of these artists use a combination of new media and "old" media in a unique way (this collaboration constitutes the "new media" emerging art form): Cizek and Koblin are based more online, while JR and the Sacrificial Poets use new media, but share their pieces in a non-cyberspace setting. In the curriculum these past few weeks, I had the opportunity to try my hand and new media composition, combining ideas like adding text and transparency to produce a visually-appealing image. Learning about the art of composition influences how I look at my website and blog differently, and prompted me to rethink some visual aspects of both. Also prompting thought were the conversations that I had with my peers via Facebook. More than ever, this week everyone had a lot to say about the content of the videos, most likely because we all directly relate to the artists, at least I know that's how I felt.
...What stood out?
how to compose
new media as a new art form
...How does this help me? These past few weeks showed me a lot about how what I learn in my dance composition classes could be applied in this setting, and vice versa. Actually, now that I think about it, throughout the majority of this course I am finding situations where the coursework benefits my daily life, and how my daily life encourages my coursework. Eventually I hope to take these skills to create an appealing and fully functional website and blog. The concept that we used in making our images and layering them, using the transparency function in Pixlr can be compared to adding layers to composition in dance. Say you have two phrases (images), and you want to mix them perhaps you do the arms of one and the legs of the other, or one step of one and one of the other and keep switching between the two.. I would compare that process to making one image from two. Also, in my music perspective class we talk about ways you can compose such as adding embellishment, repetition, changes in time, changes in level of intensity; while not all of them have direct equals in new media composition I think the principles remain the same. The fact that new media is emerging as an art form all on its own is monumental, and it is SO important that as artist we latch onto this idea and embrace it. The idea of new media, I think, has already begun to find its way into dance. I have been to performances where instead of music, the choreographer projects a video on the backdrop, and the dancers "react" on stage, or where a piece incorporates more media than just music. ...My Strengths I think my strengths in the past few weeks lie in the technical skills area. I have a little bit of experience /enjoy playing with photo editors, so I feel that I shine brightest(in comparison to my other work, not saying I'm the best in any way shape or form) in those instances. ...What's next?
I think in order to progress in this course I just need to keep diving deeper and deeper in to the coursework, and not let the craziness of the semester effect me. There is always a possibility to be better, more creative, or more thoughtful about a composition... I think that by placing a "finished" stamp on any creative work you are prohibiting any type of further growth.
The past few weeks I have been learning about and practicing
skills necessary to work efficiently online. For example, learning the skills necessary to use
websites such as Delicious and Stumble Upon now offers me useful alternatives
to the traditional, and probably overused, Google search. My education the past
few weeks has been supplemented by discussion with my classmates
on the pros and cons of the perpetually expanding internet, which
goes hand in hand with personal web presence. A brief summation of these posts:
the internet is a tool, that if used properly, can be beneficial and exciting
for its users... but at the same time any type of misuse is permanent i.e.
Facebook posts, tweets, etc., so usage should be carefully monitored to protect
one’s reputation. The final accumulation of all of this information learned
resulted in the creation of my personal pre-professional portfolio and blog.
Making a personal website sounds easy, right? In theory, the idea of making a website all about yourself should be easier then say, doing a research paper on the theory of relativity. However, when handed the task, I found it extremely difficult. The technical side of creating a website, adding tabs, pictures, etc I didn't find too difficult; with the help of the step by step video tutorials, I was able to figure out exactly how to do what was asked. I found the difficult part of the assignment to be deciding how exactly I want to portray myself through this medium, especially after spending so long discussing web presence. The only solution to this was to sit down, and really think about what I was doing. What would I want an employer to know about me at first glance? I believe that, had I not taken this class, I would have eventually thought about making myself a website, then I would have had the same thought process, but for all I know that could have happened in ten years when it's almost too late. This assignment is perfect for any emerging artist in the 21st century because in this day and age employers evaluate potential employees from all angles. Would you want a simple Google search of your name to yield promiscuous pictures on Facebook OR a nicely put together, thought out e-portfolio of your work? Should that even be a question? After figuring out how to simply create and set up a website/blog, I plan on expanding on these skills with a goal of perhaps always keeping an updated e-profile of my work that I can use to promote myself as a dancer/future choreographer/teacher or for whatever pathways I end up following. I approached this task with my usual attitude of trying to keep an open mind and diving right into the work, until I hit a road block; then I usually (and did this time as well) stop, re-read and and ask questions either to myself or to an instructor, until the material makes sense. By inquiring the simple who, what, when, where, why(my personal favorite) questions I usually am able to figure out most information. I think I did a good job following directions and followed, to my knowledge, all of the requirements. For myself, I want to work on taking everything a step further ie following all directions and then take the initiative to individualize my work within the guidelines of the assignment. Next time around I will look for more opportunities to be creative, while also keeping a specific eye for accuracy in all of my work. For my website and blog my goal is to create an aesthetically pleasing, informative, yet creative space to share my craft and experiences in this class with the cyber-world. Applying my ideas on what I could improve upon in this assignment, I dove a little deeper into my pre-professional portfolio. I explored a little bit, and found out where I could adjust the template, fonts, font colors, etc. These types of settings are under manage site>colors and fonts and manage sites>themes on the google sites platform. I then had to experiment a bit and figure out what the different parts of the website were called ie the sidebar, page content, and the different navigation bars. Thus, the past few weeks have yielded a good amount of valuable information regarding the internet and its capabilities. I am confident that this knowledge and practice has set up a strong foundation to build and grow upon in the coming weeks of my digital media experience.
