I researched the topic of the popular arts in contemporary Islamic culture: the role of graffiti and/or street-art during the 2010-2012 Arab uprisings and ongoing. From the research I conducted I chose my theme to be self-expression. The Arab uprisings influenced the explosion of street art and human expression. The graffiti that was produced was a symbol that represented the citizen’s freedom of speech. In the revolution, the Arab graffiti was also a way of self expression and a means for the youth to be heard. Self expression is a universal human need and everybody does it but it can be demonstrated in different ways. Many different countries such as Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Tunisia, Syria, and Libya all have used graffiti as a means of communication as well as compensating for their anger by painting and painting all over the walls. The citizen’s vision for the present and future are plastered for all to see. Different countries with people speaking different languages are all trying to communicate the same message and somehow they are united by doing the same thing and using graffiti. My piece represents this by a mixture of all different graffiti art from different countries but they are unified by coming and blending together on one page. I am satisfied by the way my project came out and I learned a lot in the process especially the researching aspect. Enjoy!

Unit 4: Service Week 3

1.) From this new unit-of-study I have learned about how new media is affecting international countries and bringing people together for a common cause; such as what happened in the Tunisian Revolution. The social media had prevented chaos by connecting the citizens together. I have also learned and thought about empowerment more deeply and that the internet supplies empowerment to an extent. Social media can allow the Tunisian’s to grow and develop as a country which is empowering for the citizens. Also, the internet gives society many opportunities to learn and gain knowledge which is also empowering the way people take advantage of it. In addition, I have learned about the Arab uprisings and how the citizens expressed themselves and communicated through graffiti. In Egypt the internet and mobile connections were shut off so the confrontation of rage exploded through graffiti. Through the Islamic graffiti, it transformed and unified cities and also empowered citizens through their artistic self-expression.

2.) Basic academic learning centered on real world problems is a very practical idea, especially for college and higher education such as college and professional degrees. This concept would not work very well for elementary school learning, but high school students may benefit from an introduction.

‘Experience is a great teacher’ is an old cliché that applies well to this concept. I would imagine that many students have known someone who was “book smart” but could not apply their intelligence to real-world situations. Those students who were trained with practical skills have a fund of knowledge that can be applied to everyday tasks. I believe it is good to learn theory and some history by reading from books, however business, arts, health care and many other disciplines learn best by facing real world problems.   

Ballet Careers and New Media

For this week’s project I teamed up with Alayna Acosta and Lisa Meek to create a video demonstrating through new media the three ways to audition for a ballet company. The first way is to audition live where all the dancers stand at the barre and take class doing exercises that the instructor gives. The school or company that you are auditioning for will evaluate you and chose to accept you or not during that live audition. The second way to audition for a company is to send a video of yourself doing barre and center combinations. This way is helpful if you are unable to attend the live audition and is still an excellent way for the ballet instructors to see you as a dancer. A third way to audition is to record yourself dancing a classical variation that in order to show your strengths to ballet companies. Either way of auditioning is acceptable, and through new media dancers have advantages to get into their chose of company.

Overall, collaborating with Alayna and Lisa worked nicely and smoothly. We planned earlier in the week how to create the video and when would be a good time for all of us. In the middle of the week we all met and recorded the audition video. We developed combinations together to dance in the video and talked about who would do which parts of the video. We recorded our dancing on a laptop with music playing and then edited the video to add descriptions throughout the video. Throughout the process of this project I learned more about audition videos and it will help me better prepare for a future audition video I will have to make when I audition for companies.

Here is the link to the video. Enjoy!

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

New Media Career Project Plan

New media is practical and can be used to beneficially help advance someone’s career in dance. For my project I would like to create a promotional video of my dancing with two of my ballet friends, Lisa Meek and Alayna Acosta to share on the internet. By creating this video, it will help promote ourselves as dancers so there is a likely chance that someone will see it and hire us for a job or like us to join their company. Through new media we are promoting our careers by allowing people on the internet to see our dancing.

Timeline:

In the beginning of next week Lisa, Alayna, and I will plan what we want to show in the video such as what barre and center exercises we wil do. We will talk about our strengths and weaknesses and what we would like to show as what is required from companies to show. We will talk about where we want to stand in the video and which studio we should record. In addition, we will review how we would like to properly and professionally introduce ourselves as dancers on camera. We will also need to ask someone to help record us and hold the video camera. After recording the video of us dancing we will talk about the best place on the internet to display our audition promotional dance video for directors of companies or other professional hiring people to see us.

I anticipate encountering some problems with recording the video and deciding whether which shot is better for one of the three girls dancing. We will address this problem by warming up before shooting the video and practicing what we will show in the video to make it look perfect.

I have recorded an audition video before so I already know how to properly introduce yourself before dancing. However, what I do not have much knowledge is what dance exercises to include in a promotional audition video so I hope to learn more about creating a dance video through research as well as talking with Lisa and Alayna.

I enjoyed making adjustments to my blog and google site and I found it rewarding. The colors and formats now successfully display more personality that I would like to convey to viewers. I am learning more about navigating new media as I did not know how to change the format on blogger or the google site however, with help I found enjoyment in playing around with the different templates and figuring out which one I liked the most. Enjoy!

DMA New and Traditional Media Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m176IQbtaJE&feature=context-cha

Originally my goal was to create a new media from a spontaneous flash mob mixed with visual art and music. However, my plans slightly changed for my video as the final product is a dance party. As originally planned, the dance party video still includes spontaneous fun mixed with different lighting, visual effects and music. The dancing happened in a casual dorm room setting with fun music and familiar popular tunes in order to create excitement.

My new media that I used was Camtasia. I have never heard of or worked with this program before so it was challenging as I had to watch many tutorials. However, the process was very rewarding because I was able to play with and add many effects to create a video that I initially envisioned. In Camtasia I was able to change the color of the video’s background to purple and green which I think adds an exciting dimension to the video. I was also able to change the lightness and darkness of the colors while also zooming and panning in different ways to add to the excitement of the spontaneous dancing. With Camtasia I was able to follow the new media’s principle of Automation where I could take media elements such as images, sounds, shapes, or behaviors to manipulate the video and automate the operations involved in media creation.

In this project, I was challenged with decisions of filming the dance party such as: whether I should be in the video or be the camera-man, which angle of filming is best for optimum viewing, room and mood lighting, and lastly which songs should be played for spontaneous fun. In the end, I chose to be in the film and dance so I had another person film. However afterwards, watching the video I realized that if I had control of the video camera I could have added another dimension to the dance party by zooming in and out or moving around the room to shoot from different angles. For the lighting in the room, I chose to turn off the overhead light and leave a lamp light on. I was pleased with this decision when transforming the video in Camtasia because the lamp light added an extra brightness and effect to the film. Furthermore, I chose familiar upbeat songs that my friends and I enjoy listening to and know the lyrics of in order to have a good time dancing with each other. Overall, I had a good experience working on this project as it represents the combination of new and traditional media. I am pleased how the visual effects and music blend together to compliment the dancers’ dancing. Whether my video produces aesthetically pleasing results is in the eye of the beholder, although I hope that my viewers enjoy watching. 

Combining New and Traditional Media

New Media Flash mob

Framing and Gathering: To create new media from a spontaneous flash mob mixed with visual art and music.

I plan to organize a flash mob in the school grounds with classmates using minimal choreography. After a few minutes of dancing, bystanders will be encouraged to join the mob to create an atmosphere of spontaneity and fun. I will use a mix of popular tunes that everyone will be familiar with to create excitement as everyone joins the mob.

Create and Reflect: I will have help from others in the technology aspect experience, as well as help from other dancers to create the flash mob. Next week’s blog post will include my interactions and experiences with all my plans and whether anything had to change. Although I will need a lot of help from fellow students that have technology experience, I would like to mix the filmed flash mob occurrence with visual lighting effects, music and voice-over to create a spontaneous new media experience.

Aaron Koblin artfully visualizes humanity and I think his work will be similar to my ultimate product. As Koblin specializes in data and data-visualization, I specialize in dance and movement so I will gear my visualization part of the project towards art and light.

I will be using Automation as my Principle of new media. In automation a modular structure (media elements such as images, sounds, shapes, behaviors) of a media object allows to automate the operations involved in media creation, manipulation, and access. I am unsure of which new media I will be using whether it is Windows Media Player, Camtasia, or Moviemaker. All of these programs are new to me, so any that I chose I will learn about and experiment with. In the learning and planning process of this project I have already learned about Camtasia and the interesting aspects of it as new media.

I like the excitement of a large group of people dancing in the fun of an impulsive moment. The energy served by a large group of people and others watching and joining in with the dancers. I want to create flashes of light in different colors to influence and symbolize all kinds of moods. The lighting effects will be increasing the energy through the new media just as the observers joining the flash mob will increase energy.

Talk: I will share my project on the Facebook group for others to view and discuss any comments.

DMA Week 4

My theme is truth in social media connections. Connections offline and online can work when the truth is upheld. It all comes down to being true to yourself which will reflect on Facebook posts. This theme still pertains to relationships: Veritas Vas Liberatum (the truth shall set you free).

My poem is to the tune of “On Top of Old Smokey”

A freshman in college

It would all be so new,

I needed a roommate

But didn’t know who.

I filled out a survey

And hoped for the best,

They mailed me a contact

Now this was the test.

We first met on Facebook

We typed back and forth,

She came from the South

And I from the North.

The chats were so friendly

We found out so much,

This online bonanza

Was a personal touch.

It was orientation

They day we first met,

Our online connection

Seemed like a sure bet.

We now room together

Each day has been great,

A Facebooking frenzy

As if it was fate.

I guess we were once young

An innocent view,

But now techno savvy

We all must stay true.