Reflection on each exercise followed by a final reflection on the whole experience
I choose to follow the twisting path because I felt that it would be interesting to mix between readings, analyzing and doing fun exercises. So I finished 4 tinkering pah assignment and one theoretical assignment. I will be analyzing each one of them and concluding with a final analysis including connection between the assignments and a reflection on the whole experience.
- Tinkering Path one: GIF of Tarzan fight scene ( Animated GIF Assignment)
Assignment description: Make a GIF out of your favorite scene in a movie and tell why you did that scene.
From the moment I saw the option for a GIF assignment, I was sure that I will pick it because I find it very satisfying to create one . I have done a GIF before for my design courses but it was not the same way as this one which was more about telling a story through a set of frames. the movie scene/ story I wanted to tell was one of the scenes in the movie “The Legend of Tarzan”. The backstory behind the GIF was that Tarzan was having a fight after a long battle with the a strong leader of one of tribes in Africa. The reason of this battle was because the leaders’ son was killed by Tarzan years ago when Tarzan saw him killing an ape ( the ape that was a mother figure for Tarzan). The fight then continues until Tarzan and the leader talk about it in an emotional scene where the leaders said ” he was just a boy” (referring to his son when he killed the ape) and we can see the regret and sadness in both of their eyes when such phrase came out. Going back to the idea of the GIF, I was interested by two main aspects in the creation process a conceptual one and a technical one. The GIF tools only allows you to select few frames to tell your story which made me very selective when choosing the screen shots from the movie scene as I focused on the expressions that was delivered by the actors. As for the technical side, I used online sources to learn how to create the GIF using PS and then to create spacing between the frames. Overall, the experience was really helpful in understanding the composition of such type of GIF and I also learned that there are online websites that you can upload your photos in and it automatically create the GIF which I’m looking forward to use it in the future.
2.Tinkering Path two: Elon Musk Mini-Docmentary ( Video Assignment)
Assignment description: Create a mini-documentary about someone who is fascinating.
This assignment was very fun especially when I watched the product ; however, it took a longer time than I anticipated. I was excited by the idea of a short documentaries as I like documentaries a lot. I started thinking about which person should I choose and which parts of their lives do I want to highlight as the assignment stated that the video should be between 2-3 minutes. I choose to create the video on Elon Musk and I choose to highlight three main elements in his life which are the struggles he faced, the success he reached, his logic and thoughts that can help us follow such great example of hard work. I started gathering different video clips that help me deliver my message which was basically going through old and new videos of him. Then I started combining them together using IMovie. The editing part required me to adjust the sound played and which parts do I want to come first and vise versa. The experience was definitely enjoyable as it includes a lot of different aspects from coming out with a concept, gathering clips and editing. I learned a lot about the smoothness of the video after I finished it as I kept going back to edit some stuff that I found unfitting. Video editing is one of the strongest ways of creating content; however, it may feel difficult than the other ways of content creation but through out the years I found that technology and new apps makes it way easier than it used to be. IMovie is one of the examples of easy video editing which is something that I’m very pleased by.
3.Tinkering Path three: Covid-19 poster ( Visual Assignment)
Assignment description:Color splash is a technique to emphasize details- you remove all color from a photo, and then restore original color to a single object.
This assignment was relatively easy for me as I’m familiar with PS and the technical aspect of it was not as hard as the rest, so I wanted to challenge myself a bit more by creating a message of the life we live in today using this color splash technique. I first thought of the idea of how we are all focused on one thing only in these days which is Covid-19 and this aligned really well with the idea of color splash and focusing on one color only. The message that I want to deliver is that even though Covid-19 is a horrible experience for all of us and many people are suffering from it, maybe we should sometimes focus on the positives that surround us and let go of any anger towards Covid-19 . I think this is something that is really hard to achieve but trying can help us be distracted a little bit. The process of choosing the photo was very fun and I was really happy with the results because of how good the picture is which makes me grateful for the content we have on the digital world. This assignment made me realize that the editing of a photo for a strong message have to be based on both a good photo and a use of skill like PS to achieve a good result.
4.Tinkering Path four: I am Malala Book cover ( Visual Assignment)
Assignment description:Create a book cover that captures the essence of the story through the use of minimalist design/iconography.
This assignment was somehow similar to the previous one as it is also a poster that is used as a cover for a book. I wanted to do a symbolic figure of an iconic person such as Malala and I wanted to include the essence of her story through the art work itself. Firstly, I searched about the original cover and I took her silhouette as an iconic figure in itself, I then downloaded the image and started editing and drawing on it to achieve the rough texture in the silhouette to reflect the rough journey Malala has gone through. I then wanted to integrate her beautiful messages of equality so I placed smooth flowers instead of her face to represent the idea of our pasts doesn’t define us but our thoughts and souls are the ones that do define us. This exercise was also helpful in combining between the conceptual approach and the technical aspects in creating a cover of book which I’m not experienced with and it was really fun to do so.
5.Theory Path one: Spotlight(Rethinking digital ads Reflection)
As a reflection to the article, I believe that the article contain many key points and suggestion that are directed towards the idea of the value of data. I remember years ago when I was in school, there was this topic that we discussed about the power of data but at the time I was relatively young and I couldn’t really grasp the concept quite well. However, now I believe that the data is almost as important as necessities in our lives which I found very clear in the article especially at the end where they compared the food we eat with the data we choose or choose not to share. The reason why I believe in the power of it is because the idea of Algorithm which is discussed in the article as tool which predicts the users activity and interest based on statistical correlations and this all because of the idea of AI. We have always said that the AI would never reach the human pure intelligence and creativity but what has always been scary about it is the idea of its capacity of collecting data and predication that no human can do. So what if this power was combined in a negative way with the human power. This is were the idea of ” obsession with measuring results” comes as mentioned in the article, the digital ads are becoming more than the idea of money spent on prints and quality of ads but more about data collection. If we think from their point of view, we would find that data collection is the short cut for reaching a user that is interested in your product like why bother creating a huge expensive ad that a few interested people might see while you can just selectively pick people ( who are interested) to view it. Now this is why I always have a conflict in my thoughts about the issue because I try to think from their point of view and I find it kind of logical because there is not enough regulation regarding the issue. I believe in rules and regulation more than anything because the define anything and restrict and I find the article really good in showing the idea of regulation when it first proposed the idea of “Surveillance capitalism” and the organization of ranking digital rights. What I learned from the article is that the communication and decision making are the key to set these regulation which will help us reach disclosure regarding the subject. Another aspect that caught my attention in article was the idea of legally compelling the companies with secrecy of our data like we do with doctors and lawyers. However, I wish the article would have dived more in what are the parameters that we will use to reach these decisions and regulation. It feel that the clarity is one of the most important aspect regarding the data and companies or apps should not lie about what data they collect and people should be clear with themselves that anything they post online might be taken by these companies until we reach full clear regulation and rules. In summary, I think that vagueness is the main issue and I feel like we should stop blaming companies but rather start regulating them so then we would know who is really breaking the law and who isn’t.
Collective Reflection:
I’m really glad I did the twisting path because of the variety of choices I had. The assignments of the Tinkering path were driven towards the creative use of the digital world which helped in opening my eyes towards how to mix between tools, online data and messages I want to deliver. However, their was something I noticed when I reflected on the process is that I tend to use the tools that I’ m most comfortable with instead of trying to find new ways of doing the tasks which would have made it much more interesting. I think this is something that I always have to keep in my mind because the digital world is always in constant development, so it is important to keep updated to work is a smarter way when approaching a task . As for the Theory path, it was similar to what we did earlier in the course ( analyzing articles and reflecting on them) but it was helpful in terms of comparing it with the tinkering path and the article itself was very rich. The main difference between the path ways is the idea of producing date/ideas and receiving them; However, the main link is the idea of reflection in regarding to the digital world and what it offers to use from tools to information and ideas and this we should always be grateful for.
References:
Tarzan Gif:“AnimatedGIF Assignments.” Assignment Bank, assignments.ds106.us/assignments/gif-for-a-reason/.
“The Legend Of Tarzan – Bmonga Vs Tarzan Fight Scene.” Youtube, 14 May 2017, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek8_iiEIpfE.
Elon Musk Mini-Documentary: “Elon Musk: Work Twice as Hard as Others.” Youtube, 9 Aug. 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtaxU6DZvLs.
“Elon Musk CRYING While Seeing Falcon Heavy Launch ! |MUST WATCH|.” Youtube, 11 Feb. 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0MOVDTndB4.
“Elon Musk Biography.” Biography, 4 Apr. 2018, http://www.biography.com/business-figure/elon-musk.
“2012: SpaceX: Elon Musk’s Race to Space.” Youtube, 10 Dec. 2018, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23GzpbNUyI4.
“Talking Tech with Elon Musk!” Youtube, 17 Aug. 2018, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MevKTPN4ozw.
“Video Assignments.” Assignment Bank, assignments.ds106.us/assignments/mini-documentary/.
“Watch Elon Musk Announce the Tesla Cybertruck in 14 Minutes.” Youtube, 21 Nov. 2019, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=464puoD09dM.
Corona virus Poster: unsplash.com/photos/1xT5Yz2Am0M.
“Visual Assignments.” Assignment Bank, assignments.ds106.us/assignments/splash-the-color/.
I am Malala cover: “Design Assignments .” Assignment Bank, assignments.ds106.us/assignments/minimalist-book-covers/.
Spotlight(Rethinking digital ads Reflection):“Spotlight: Rethinking Digital Ads.” Internet Health Report, Apr. 2019, internethealthreport.org/2019/rethinking-digital-ads/.
