Michele Sinclair

1) I hope to learn ways in which an arts organization can communicate effectively to target consumers/participants through online and transmedia communication and/or through printed materials.

I believe I’ve met this goal, as the Graphic Standards package I’ve made could be used for my imaginary arts organization either online or through printed materials, and seeing so many examples between what my peers have made and what past AAD-ers have made, I feel like I have a much better understanding. 

2) I hope to learn ways in which it may still be best to communicate through printed materials to certain audiences, or use a combination of printed and digital materials.

Printed materials do still have purpose– sometimes small flyers/ads that a person can find and physically take with them can feel just precious enough to entice them to find out more. Also, having a physical reminder of something in your home that you see multiple times a day may be less annoying than getting through email and more effective in making you attend/participate. Still, it all depends on the needs (both real and perceived) of the target audience in what marketing platform to utilize most. 

3) I hope to build on what basic skills I have with Adobe Creative Suite and gain basic proficiency in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, but with a focus on Illustrator as a tool for clean, bold drawing. I look forward to experimenting with original drawings and the way they may be converted into vector images in Illustrator through technologies I haven’t yet worked with.

I have gained some more skills in Illustrator and inDesign. I am somewhat more comfortable constructing clean, bold compositions. I haven’t gotten the chance to experiment with creating original drawings and convert them into Illustrator files, but I am fairly confident I could figure it out at this point. I have enjoyed playing around with a Wacom design tablet recently. It allows me to combine my love for drawing and love for image manipulation. I look forward to learning more bout these programs next term. 

4) I look forward to learning more about how typography can make a difference in sneakily selecting potential audiences and how the combination of appropriate layout design and text and image can keep those audiences interested.

Learning about CRAP was the most beneficial tool to keep in mind when designing this term, although I think that much expertise in this area comes from attempts and failed attempts. I think that I have a fairly good eye for composition, but the idea of a focal point in an Illustrator drawing and one in a painting is different and I’m still trying to reconcile that. I hope that I’ll have many more chances to practice these skills. 

5) I plan to put some focus on broadening my technological vocabulary- especially in website design and CS program use. I hope that in leaving this class, I will be better able to understand current conversations about digital culture.

I have definitely broadened my technological vocabulary through lexicon posts, class readings, Eric’s instruction and help from experienced peers. I’m finding it easier to listen to online tutorials by professional designers and be able to follow along. I have a long way to go, but I know that what I’ve gained from this class will allow me to understand some design conversations.

5) I hope to feel more comfortable embracing transmedia platforms in my day-to-day life and take pleasure in updating my ePortfolio and personal website as I learn ways that such platforms can help me more effectively share my skills, experience and future goals with more people.

Reflections:

1) I would like to feel comfortable using the term “transmedia” within and outside of an arts context.

I definitely feel more comfortable using the term “transmedia” and am more aware of the ways in which the use of multiple media sources can help convey a more complete idea. Although the term transmedia still lies in an arts context for me (as most things related to culture, society, etc) fall into some arts realm in my mind, I look forward to ways in which the ideas encompassing transmedia might seep out into the larger public through new technologies such as Google Glass. 

2) I hope to discover ways in which “participatory culture” influences the job of an arts manager, and in parallel, research cultural differences in the ways people engage in the arts.

I have discovered many ways in which participatory culture influences arts programming. Engagement in the arts is dependent on many factors, including but not limited to cultural differences, environmental pressures, social identities and self-confidence (or lack of it). An arts manager must track social trends of participation in arts and culture programming and be inventing new innovative methods to interest possible consumers of an arts product. More than ever, the job of an arts manager is to get information to the larger public and incite curiosity. My generation loves to participate, almost obsessively so, and so this isn’t usually the biggest problem. It’s learning how to best continue opportunities for participation when consumers arrive so that everyone can participate in a way they feel comfortable (and want to come back for more). 

3) As grad school is an opportunity to think about action rather than act and then think, I am determined to give myself the luxury of examining formal art theory and criticism and discussing the praxis of those theories in class and through various media sources.

Well, I thought that grad school is an opportunity to think and then act, but so far, it’s actually been the opposite. I feel as if I’m doing a lot of acting and then thinking, which bodes well for critical reflection but isn’t necessarily the way I prefer to learn. (Real life skills!) I’ve enjoyed the way my rather cynical view of technology in arts education has opened up. The structure of this class has been helpful in not pressuring me to form complete opinions on one art world or another, but has allowed me take in as much as I can like and move forward with new inspiration.

4) I look forward to learning different ways of understanding an “art world” from my peers and the diverse skills and experience they bring to the class and sharing my own ideas.

 This has been one of the most rewarding parts of the AAD program this far for me — learning from my peers. They’re a truly amazing group of individuals with a very wide range of interests, skills and passions and I love to hear them bring new insight to class discussions. I have been delighted to find that there are others who share similar passions as me, as I hadn’t really met anyone before this program who I felt did. I’ve also been humbled to learn about art worlds I didn’t understand or never took the time to understand from those who have spent their lives changing lives. This is one of the things I most look forward to in future terms. It’s only been 10 weeks, but we’re already a little family.

5) I want to locate a non-profit organization which uses transmedia platforms successfully and learn how I might implement such strategies in to my own future organizations.

I have been introduced in this class to many organizations using transmedia platforms successfully and I’m sure there have been a few non-profits in there. However, in this class, my focus was not so much on my personal career goals, but rather to learn as much as I could from my peers and what sources were exposed to me. In that, I think I gained much more than if I had entered with a narrow mind. In fact, I entered this class thinking my mind was fairly open, but I found a few walls I had built and have found ways to get around them. 

6) I hope to be introduced to concepts merging art and folklore, as it is an area I have studied little. I hope to expand my knowledge on the ways anthropology and art merge together.

Anthropology and art– I hope to learn more about this. I am reminded of the day that we discussed in class what art objects had been invented in the past 100 years and what early arts objects preceded them. This evolution of art objects in parallel with cultural developments mirrors many early human theories- to make objects which are essential to the group of people making them in that time and geographical place. Such objects could thus explain the cultural development of early humans as art objects transformed depending on sites and age of those sites.

I would like to learn more about folklore and art worlds, too. Maybe this will fit in my winter break rainy day reading. 

I’ve been attending visiting artist lectures in Lawrence Hall for around 4 years now, first as a beginning artist and now as a graduate student. Every lecture that I can remember, there’s been something written on the chalkboard right behind or next to the guest artist.  It’s always something from the prior class that had inhabited the room, generally incomprehensible out of context, and sometimes profane. The entire time I watch the artist and their assisting faculty member struggle with the room’s technology, praying their technology-reliant presentations will appear in full form, I endure a inner crisis whether to stay in my seat or take the initiative to erase the chalkboard. It’s ironic, really, that there’s still chalkboards in LA 177 and 115, rooms which pride themselves on having some of the newest technology AAA has to offer. Mid-class sketches are still important, and maybe I’ve never erased the chalkboards because that gives me some kind of hope.

Andrea Polli was the latest visiting artist to the UO, an Art & Ecology professor from University of New Mexico. I left her lecture, as I told someone in my cohort, in a “cloud of inspiration.” I majored in studio arts as an undergrad, and while I love to create, I love learning about biology and anthropology just as much, if not more. When I would tell anyone this before graduating with my Bachelor’s, I’d get little more than a “hmm, what a strange combo. Good luck with that.” In applying to masters programs, I had started to regularly suppress my desire to study environmental sciences. I convinced myself that I was an artist and a beginning art teacher, and that was that.

Thank you, Andrea Polli, for being the first person to inform me that indeed, the disciplines of art and ecology are not separate but of a greater interweaved thread of understanding of the human experience. To be driven to care about both, I can now profess to the world, is natural. And it feels so good. Polli didn’t stop at combining art and ecology in the questions she’s asked as an artist, but has allowed technology to serve as a tool for sharing information and finding answers.

She began her lecture by sharing this quote with the audience; “There is more information available at our fingertips during a walk in the woods than in any computer system” -Mark Neiser.

Then, she asked a question.

“Do media instructors convince students to become consumers of commercial products?” 

She was conflicted by this feeling, and works to understand her role in it all.

One of the driving topics of her work is discovering what social and cultural effects there are when defining the natural environment as “information space.” Need I say I was awed? These feelings I had been trying to reconcile for years were being tied up for me in nice neat bows.

Assorted projects she’s been involved with:

-Weather models describing climate change gathered from Antarctic scientists, sounds and data

-“Cloud car”, modeled from the feeling of breathing in New Delhi. The car breathes. Look it up.

-Experiments with Chuck Varga in making air particles visible (air quality)

-Bioethics of Beer- a pub where you learn about your beer by interacting with strangers for a more participatory, and apparently, sustainable experience

-Victimless leather is not victimless, bio-couture

So where does technology come into all of this? From what I heard, Polli views technology as an aid in participation, allowing people who already care about some of these issues to understand them better through tools that make it them more visible, acessible and interesting.

What a thought– allowing technology to make visible a social issue, when technology itself is usually thought of making social issues invisible… is it not?

I wanted to share this with you all, not just because I know many of you were unable to make it, but because it was a defining, encouraging experience for me. Thank you for your visit to Eugene, Professor Polli! I can’t wait to research more about your work and hear about future endeavors.

Welcome to your brand new blog at University of Oregon Sites.

To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.

For assistance, visit our general support guide or check out theEdublogs User Guide guide.

For additional assistance, contact the Technology Service Desk at 541-346-HELP or techdesk@uoregon.edu.