Category: AAD Community

Videoplay Exercise

Assignment Description: Students create a 30 second video using iMovie, Movie Maker, Premiere, or other video editing software using still images and audio. The intent is to “play” with different aspects of basic video editing  including titles, transitions, clip trimming, manipulating audio, etc., in order to familiarize themselves with the tools. Since this is an exercise, the theme/storyline is up for choice.

Click on link below:

Video Exercise for AAD 585: Multimedia for Arts Organizations from Evelyn Thorne on Vimeo.

Reflection: My video is obviously longer than 30-60 seconds. I didn’t really have a concept of how short a time that really is till I started making the video. My idea was far too large. I will have to keep this in mind next time I create a video. I don’t consider this my best work, but partly because I do not like Movie Maker. Every time I went to fix something, it threw everything else off. I don’t know if this is common for all movie editing software, but it was very frustrating. If I wanted to adjust the music, all music following was now off timing. This deterred me from fine tuning the video because I didn’t have the time to continually fix everything. However, in the end, I think it’s a fairly good first attempt. I might have gotten carried away with the slide transitions, but I felt the video was corny enough to justify them.

MBTI Reflection Paper

Assignment Description: Assignment: reflect on the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) assessment and in-class discussion. What was most meaningful to you? How might you use this information in your internship search and/or the workplace?

Reflection Paper

Since getting my MBTI results and doing the exercises in class, I have not been able to stop thinking about the results. My friend and I were talking last night about how your perception of yourself is constantly changing. Who know what I don’t know about myself? I feel that the results of the MBTI test have in fact taught me something about myself.

As I mentioned in class, I found it very difficult to choose between judging and perceiving. This showed in my results. Through the exercises in class, I had decided that I was perceiving, but my results came back judging. Thus, I had to choose between ENFP and ENFJ. By the time we had finished class, I was leaning towards ENFP. While I consider myself a practical person, one of my strongest values is on discovery. I like to plan, but I leave room for adaptability because I enjoy the unexpected and I love to realize new ideas. However, when I read over the hand-outs, my opinion switched. ENFPs are describes as free spirits, flaky, and unfocused. They are also likely to give up on projects, not take challenges seriously or be undisciplined. I disagree with all these points. I love a challenge and I have good follow-through. I don’t like to give up and I hate being a flake. So when I read the ENFJ description, I saw that they like clear expectation and love to be productive. They prefer to appear capable, organized and in control and usually follow through with their actions. This description fits my habits and values far more than the ENFPs. So, while I do love discovering new ideas, I guess my process of discovery is fairly structured.

Yet, this difference on organizational habits was not the biggest factor in me choosing ENFJ. Supposedly, an ENFP is someone who doesn’t let road blocks get in his or her way and can very easily establish a report with anyone. While I like to think I possess these qualities, in truth I’m very passive aggressive. My friends used to call me Petty McPassive Aggressive Patterson to my annoyance. For me, the issue isn’t that I can’t address conflict, but that I’m very concerned with harmony and I do care a lot about what people think of me. This disposition completely lines up with an ENFJ. This is why, in class, my first reaction to the thinking vs. feeling exercise was to give up my position on the trip to Hawaii. In my effort to make everyone happy, I often end up sacrificing my own feelings and thus I’m seen as passive. On the other hand, ENFJs are supposedly good diplomats. This seems somewhat contradictory, but I do know that people see me as someone who can be objective and see multiple sides of an issue (my tendency to balance again), thus I can make a good mediator.

However, none of this was what changed my perspective of myself. I have always been a talker, especially in class. I have a hard time not participating and I often worry that I talk too much in class. For years I’ve been trying to stop myself from over-sharing. Last quarter I gave myself a challenge to only speak once on each topic. However, I never knew why I needed to talk so much. Now, after looking over these personality descriptions I see that ENFPs “need to talk about their ideas…to make them real.” This deeply resonated with me. I know that I talk out ideas, but I had not realized that perhaps I needed to verbally validate my ideas. I had always worried that I was one of those people that just loved to hear themselves talk, but when I think about it, it comes down to my need to share, discuss and get responses. I still don’t think it’s a good thing to dominate a conversation (hence why I want to take facilitation training), but at least I know that this need to talk is an essential part of me. Perhaps I don’t need to fight it anymore.

Showcase ePortfolio Narrative and Webmap

Showcase ePortfolio Project Narrative

Assignment Description:

Students describe the intents and content for  their showcase ePortfolios, addressing what they will include, where they will get the content, types of media used, overall architecture/structure of the site, and how they envision user interaction. This is a precursor to mapping the site.

Narrative:

I want my showcase to be simple, easy to use and visual. I looked over all of the 2nd years’ showcases and Katrina Ketchum’s is my favorite. It has a nice sleek and consistent design. I especially like how she laid out her resume: very succinct and visual. I also noticed that she provided some information about her internship and research instead of saying “more info to come”. I’m going to try to emulate these choices in my showcase. I also like Danielle Walter’s showcase, specifically for her home page. Most people have their home page as their about page, but Danielle had this lovely photographic home page. I think I’m going to post my biopic video as my home page and then navigate people to the about page to learn more about me.

All of the pages of my showcase will have a header with my name, my personal branding words (Community Organizer, Creative Leader, and Conscientious Storyteller) and the quote: “Earth without art is just eh.” Below this will be the menu with just 4 options: About, Professional, Portfolio, and Contact. The professional page will have a drop-down menu with the following: Resume, Internship & Practicum, and Research. As I mentioned, I plan to post small statements of interest for my internship and research, so that those pages at least have some information. I believe this will help the site look more professional as I continue to work on my internship and research. For my portfolio, I am planning to include a lot of links to my other sites including my writing blog, ELAN social media, AAD Art World project, MetaphorADay twitter, Portlandia of the Free blog, published articles and eventually a podcast. I will also add PDF links to my favorite creative and academic writing. Since I am more focused on writing than visual art, I thought I would just have a little header of images that include some of my design work or photography. Lastly, I will have a simple contact page for people to email me. I am planning on creating a Linkden account so that I people can contact me there as well!

Showcase ePortfolio Project Webmap:

Assignment Description:

Students create and/or revise a flow chart/webmap that reflects the content categories/information chunks and the subset information that falls within each main chunk. Maps should be annotated with brief descriptions of what is to be included in each content chunk and where/how the content will be collected and/or generated.

Click link to see PDF:

Showcase ePortfolio Webmap


 

OFN Practicum: Week 2 Log

Week 2

Since Maya and I met with Nathan last Monday, we have reviewed the inventory of Box 60 of the TAAP archives as well as the inventory of all the boxes. Nathan suggested we look at just boxes 60 and 61, however after reviewing the list of all the boxes, I saw some boxes that were labeled Rural Libraries and other boxes also labeled TAAP. We will have to follow up with Nathan to see if those boxes would be applicable for our research.  Maya and I met on Friday to go to Special Collections and look over box 60. We used the inventory as a guide to find the best possible artists. We looked for artists that were most likely living, doing work in a rural area of the NW and had been awarded by TAAP. We identified about 3-4 possible artists from this box. We took notes on their basic info with the plan of picking our top 6 artists after we’ve compiled a full list of possible artists. We could not find a time in which we could both come back and look through box 61 together, so we are going to research at separate times and inform each other of what we found. I plan to look over box 61 next Thursday afternoon. We also both agreed to look over the list of current TAAP recipients listed on the OFN website. I have just reviewed this list and found 2 strong possibilities for the map and 2 artists that have promise. Maya and I will be conferring notes about our findings sometime next week.

Some issues we’ve come across in our research is a lack of variety in TAAP applicants. For example, in box 60, probably around half of the artist did some kind of basket weaving. Maya and I both agreed that we should try to collect a variety of posts representing different places and traditions, but it seems most of the TAAP archives relate to Native American culture. This is great for representing Oregon’s native roots, but we thought we should find some other cultures that represent the Pacific NW as well. I’m wondering that if we can’t find much outside of the realm of Native American art, should we look outside of TAAP? Basically, I need to clarify how much representing a variety of artists and cultures matters to this project. Also, another problem we’ve come across is that most international (or non native) artists are based in metropolitan areas. I know that the Rural Arts & Culture website says that rural does not necessarily have to be based on geography, but I feel that we should try our best to post about places outside of big cities like Portland. However, I have found some artists who live in suburbs of Portland or cities like Corvallis or Eugene. While it might be a good idea to have a post representing Eugene, I am essentially unsure what locations are considered rural in the Pacific NW. Clarifying this geographical definition of rural might be very helpful to choosing artists that best represent the Rural Arts & Culture Map’s mission.

OFN Practicum: Week 1 Log

Week 1

For the 1st week of the practicum with the Oregon Folklife Network, Maya and I met with Emily and Riki to discuss the project and scheduling. We decided to meet on Mondays at 11:15am (with the exception of the next two weeks) for check-ins. We were orientated to TAAP (Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program) as this will be our main source for creating posts. We discussed possible issues with using the TAAP archives: determining if the artist was a nominee or awarded, finding the location of the artist and whether the artists is still active. We then set up a meeting with Nathan Georgitis to show us the Oregon Folklore Program archives. We met with him on Monday, Jan. 14th and he orientated us with various resources that we could use to find rural folk artists: the Folk Art of the Oregon Country survey, student folklore fieldwork database, and the TAAP inventory held in Special Collections. The TAAP inventory has not been digitized yet, so Maya and I will have to access the files at Special Collections. Nathan has provided us with an inventory and/or box numbers that we will check out at Special Collections. Once we have identified the artist we want to use, we will contact Nathan who will help us find images. Maya and I also registered with Special Collections on Monday. We are setting up a meeting on Friday to discuss when we will go to Special Collections and look through the files.

I also read over some materials provided to me in the practicum packet, which gave me an introduction to folklife and folklore, and I reviewed The Art of the Rural website and Rural Arts & Culture Map. This was great information for me because I had very little understanding of what folklife/lore was before signing up for this practicum. After looking over the various websites, I realize that the definition of folklife, art and culture is very broad and often differing. One site listed 4 definitions: 1) oral narration, rituals, crafts and other forms of vernacular expressive culture 2) the academic discipline studying the before-mentioned 3) everyday usage; folkloric phenomena (such as music) 4) myth or falsehood. However, OFN’s definition is much more specific: everyday knowledge, art and lore that are passed within communities through imitation, conversation and practice. The OFN website also states that folklife is not art that is folk-inspired  or produced by individuals or groups not a part of the original community who developed the art or practice. This is very helpful information for creating posts to the Rural & Arts Culture Map on behalf of OFN. I want to make sure the artists we pick reflect OFN’s values as well as The Art of Rural’s mission to focus on rural-urban exchange. Thus, I believe it would be best to collect data just on TAAP awarded artists as those artists are already approved by OFN. Hopefully, we will be able to find living, working artists through these archives who live in rural areas.