"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. 

"Working Online" Reflection

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.