Homework #8

So, the above is my sound collage where I used Audacity to layer the sounds I collected, including door slams, piano keys, nature ambiance, and wood pecks. I am not really interested in making sounds for the purpose of making sounds. I like sounds because they are a part of our lives. I don't like John Cage although I respect him. Music is sound, and sound is music; however, I very much prefer listening to music. Perhaps the sound collage I made is a reflection of my dislike for collecting everyday sounds. It's kind of discordant and asynchronous. Paradoxically, discordant asynchronous sounds can be beautiful ironically. Like all medium, sound is one outlet of expression that could express what it means to be human in its own unique way. The speed of sound is much slower than the speed of light, but sound affects the brain as much as does the visible things in life.

Kafari is one musician who I admire very much. He is a sound artist as well as a jazz pianist. His music has the power to transport listeners into another world. The below are some of his tracks that I love. Kafari creatively uses the sound by manipulating, exaggerating, dragging, cutting, swiping, and blurring them with the melodies he creates using keyboard.



I have use the following image as the cover for my sound collage assignment, but it is the digital sound collage painting I made using Photoshop based on the sound I created. I love translating things into visuals, so I decided to work on digital painting again.

Homework #7

So, according to the podcast (NPR TED Radio Hour) I listened to recently, the x in algebra is translated by the Spanish scholars... through an intentional mistake. Anyhow, I had some materials around to explore this concept, and had a lot of fun exploring the "unknown" using the scanner and manipulating the scans with Photoshop. The series are also published as a FlipSnack (http://www.flipsnack.com/jbirdkim/scanning-project.html).

For the scanning artist research, I selected Nick Thomm. He's an Australian graphic designer/ media artist who seems to capture the post-post modern irony in a very aesthetic pleasing way... at least for me. He primary moves his object when he scans, I assume, or uses Photoshop to create the kind of moving image-still effects. I have been looking at his work often recently, and I could see that I was influenced both unconsciously and consciously.

4/9 new media integration interview:
For my new media integration interview, Hannah L. and I observed Ms. Abby Harkey at the High School for Law and Public Service in Washington Heights. Ms. Harkey is a veteran art teacher who has taught in that high school for 9 years, and she also has graduated from the Teachers College, Columbia University. While Ms. Harkey currently only works in traditional media, she talked about the neighborhood video project that she has worked with students last year. For this project, students went around their neighborhoods and interviewed community members to know more about their cultures and traditions. The majority of the students who attend this high school is of the Hispanic background, and the students made short clips of videos that told the stories of their lives. Ms. Harkey also remarked that this project was sponsored from various corporations. The HSLPS currently do not have a new media lab, but it is located within a larger building that houses four high schools. The first floor in the George Washington Educational Campus is the High School for Media and Communication. Therefore, students participating in this project with Ms. Harkey used the media lab on the first floor, collaborating with students from the neighbor school. Overall, she remarked that it was a great project, and I thought it was an awesome way to integrate culturally relevant pedagogy and new media for students who do not have regular access to art technologies.

Homework #6

From what we had explored so far, I became ever more interested in the aspect of storytelling. Telling stories is an ultimate human endeavor that just happens naturally. Whether it be a digital storytelling, or a paper/traditional oral storytelling, the concept of storytelling could be taught and investigated for the purposes of learning about everything that we can learn about the world. 

To tell my story is my goal as an artist. There are many media to express this wish, but for this assignment, I decided to make little thumbnail digital sketches to keep them as reference for my work on canvas, photography, or video in the future. The depth of using this digital painting as a medium, I believe, comes from the ability to conjure ideas more so than the execution. Execution is important, of course. However, I was interested in exploring the possibilities of using the technology to tell stories that really matter to me as an individual. 

The theme is specifically on the self-- identity. Identities are fluid, and within fluidity, we run things according to the rules that we set for ourselves. To try to express this notion of interchangeable identities, I made a storyboard draft, which includes sketches that could fit within the storyboard. 

Specifically, I used the Autodesk SketchBook Pro for Galaxy to create a story about this girl-- me. The following are the sketches, which are arranged in order.

Sample lesson on digital storytelling: creating a narrative self-portrait for middle school students (20 8th graders). Adolescents go through a secondary sensory-motor phase to re-interpret their changing selves in the world; creating self-portrait comic strips would create a meaningful opportunity for students to explore how they would like to present themselves and further explore what they are like as human beings. 

Time needed: 4 class periods (40 minutes each)

Materials: photo of self, computer/ iPad, printer

Goal: Students create a one page comic by inserting the self, or an alter-ego using one of the apps listed here (http://www.teachthought.com/apps-2/11-storyboarding-apps-organize-inspire-young-writers/). The final two class periods will consist of printing their works on a 11 x 17 poster paper, and sharing their outcomes with their classmates.

The images below are from the Storyboard Studio app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brakefield.storyboard&hl=en), which I found gave most freedom in drawing.

Through this activity, students will learn that the self can be re-presented in many ways, selected actions and emotions can be captured in a drawing to tell stories, and spaces can be explored in different perspectives.