Final Project!

Thinking about the Final Project

1. what do I want to remember from the conversations I just had?
I think that at this point everyone is sort of at the same point with this project of just trying to get going, so the main thing that I would like to take out of the thoughts from others is the idea that the piece should be somewhat interactive and should not just show viewers something but make them feel something and THINK!
2. How will my final piece be?
At this point I am only entertaining ideas for the project and I am not set in stone on any particular idea but I would like to use the idea of allowing people interact with my piece and to really end up thinking about the piece for some time to come. I would like to use a great deal of words-a possibly long poem or fragmented poem and some use of decorative, yet meaningful backdrops/pictures to add to the overall theme of the piece.

3. How will your writing not be the illustration of my words?
I am currently processing the idea of my piece being a sort of reflection on society and being a piece that is inspired by others and the lives of people I may or may not know.  I think that I may be able to sort of create a piece that moves and that is sort of fractured in the sense that I can begin the piece, put it down and pick it back up again many times while adding knew phrases and thoughts each time that are connected through the animating options of flash but are also somewhat fractured because they are all inspired from different people and events that I cross over a period of time.

Lastly, I would really like to make a piece that forms itself and that makes viewers think about their lives and their thoughts and writing.

analysis for short project

1. WHat did I learn? about the possibilities of animated writing.
I would say that i learned a lot about my opportunities to create something artistic and lovely through flash without being an artistic genius. I have also learned a great deal about what sort of poetic and meaningful messages can be transmitted through the use of animated writing and flash from other projects and my own piece on my love for starbucks. I think that this project has opened new windows for my knowledge and confidence in working with flash to create pieces that mean something to me and also to everyone else who views the piece.

2. What would you polish/change if you had a few more days to work on the piece?
I think that if I had a few more days to polish up the piece and enhance it's meaning and quality I would love to incorporate a picture of actual coffee/espresso beans and to possibly have the spilling cup do more for the overall meaning of the piece. I my project were to be longer I think that it would need to have more meaning and influence on the observers to keep them interested and intrigued. Other than that, I am very pleased with my simple, sweet Starbucks loving piece.

3. If you were to start over from scratch what would be done differently?
If I were to start this process over and create a new draft of a short project I would again, try to incorporate coffee beans and more pictures into the piece. I would also have the phrases and ingredients pop out to the readers a little bit more for a stronger and more infuential piece.  Really driving home the passion for coffee and lattes and Starbucks in particular, because I am sure many people have similar coffee passions as I do, whether for caffeine, substance or for pure pleasure of enjoying to aromas, people LOVE coffee and I love Starbucks!

Short Starbucks animation completed

Confusion in Simmon Biggs....................................................

I am still lost in translation with Biggs article but pulling from the two short paragraphs as instructed, I can sort of begin to understand what he is getting at. I think that art is in existence for expression and passion to be displayed for the world around us. I do sort of agree that art is basically a disjointing of regularity and of the common way. There are more than a handful of genres and forms of art but really they all seem to be for the same underlying purpose. THis posting is not art-it is not set to emotionally or theoretically move anyone. I think that art is really the process of stepping outside of the regular boudaries, and showing the world what we know and how we feel. All processes of art are with intentions to step away from the norm and to put a disjointed blurt into the regularity of the society that people know so well.

Further, people often become different and sprout from differentiation in the world because of outside forces like art and commnication and literature. I think that creativity and art very well set people apart from each other in that people are really just so different and unique in their own manners.There are many forces that push and pull individuals to become who they are and I think that society would be very well different and terribly jointed if these differentiations were not made in clear ways.

My short project-Starbucks!!!!!!!!!

My project is entirely not what I originally envisioned it to become when we had to develop a plan for it-but I love what it is turning into. Through the feedback I recieved today, I think that most people understood the basic idea behind the project but a few people were hoping for a deeper meaning. Because of the simplicity of this peice and the drive to make something delightful this project, for me, does not have a deep meaning or poetic drive-it is simply a representation of my love for Starbucks coffee and my creative choice to have everything that starbucks offers spilling from a coffee cup itself. I plan to, with Anne's help, have the words look even more like they are coming from the inside of the cup and not from behind or in front of the cup. i was also thinking of streaming the words together to have them pile together on the screen from the cup, as the actual full titles of espresso/coffee drinks.

The challenges of digital creations

This article put a strong emphasis on the transformation digital poetry has made over time and how detailed experimental writing and creating can be. I would like to pull a quote from the beginning of the article that really exemplifies the work that we are doing in this course and the struggles of animated writings in general. Glazier notes, “If this struggle between transparency an materiality is at issue in print poetry, then it is of even greater importance in electronic literature,” (171). This idea is bringing forth the struggles of transparency-what is seen but can be missed and the materiality of something-the content and the core of the piece, and how problems like these are even more challenging when they concern digital works. Ultimately there will always be a struggle for writers to express exactly what they want to say and to say it appropriately, but such a struggle can be overcome. Authors often seem to struggle, understandably with expressing their creative work in just the right manner, but the real challenge is to overcome this challenge of producing work that is transparent and has no meaning or significance or even depth but creating pieces of materiality, in which they do have meaning, depth and importance is very challenging, but to be praised. I can easily see how this challenge in and of itself can often seem even more of a challenge when ‘creating’ digital or animated works because, as with my experience in this course with flash and animations, authors need to create pieces of poetry or digital designs of experimentation, one must create something that is interesting and draws readers/viewers to the experience. Beyond just creating appealing pieces of work, which can be seen as simply transparent, I have found it difficult to also create pieces of digital writing that do have depth and as much emotion as they may serve up on a piece on paper.

This article as a whole really expresses, in my opinion, my struggles in creating well-developed and fascinating pieces of work for this course. I have learned a lot about the act of digital animation and digital poetry in general and I have learned a great deal about flash itself, so ultimately I have grown through this course thus far, but I have some more learning and developing to do to overstep some of the challenges that digital writing and animation serve up. I think that it really takes a great deal of patience and practice to overcome such challenges such as the battle of transparency vs. materiality. The best projects seem actually to encompass both of these traits in the right equivalencies. As Glazier also hi-lites, every creation is made more difficult and every challenge stooped higher when done digitally because there is much more manipulation and drive to achieve what you desire than with the standard way of writing with pen and paper. Every challenge in writing can be overstepped, such barriers concerning digital writing just take more work and patience.

Final Project

conversation project with Hayley N.

plan for short animation

As I have been thinking about the short animation project over the weekend that passed by far too quickly I have come to decide that i would like to use inspiration from both the word animation and the conversation project to create a very simple animated poem. For our conversation project we are using a very plain palette with a strong focus and emphasis on the words and the emotions they provide on their own. I am picturing my animation to sit against a black background for the most basic and inviting backgrounds and I would like this stark and blank canvas to be a forum for colors and especially white text to animate upon for a fun and bold method to view my piece. Again, more than anything else I would like to focus on the bold and the innovative display of my words that cannot quite be seen on the white printed page of text. I guess I see this piece as flipping roles of text by turning the black text on a white printed page to white text animating on a black screen. I would also like the piece to develop from both the word animation and the conversation piece by focusing on irony for amusement. I think that I would like to use my instinctive thoughts from one word to inspire a sort of poetic and ironic banter that draws the viewer in by the display, bold color contrast and the amusement that irony presents in and of itself. I do not have a plan for the word that i will start off with and I have no direct plan for the words that will follow, but i would like to let the animation and the moment trail into what the piece will become. I am focusing on irony, bold and attractive text, amusement, and the spur of the moment idea notion to form a full piece of off the wall poetry.

"The Aesthetics of Digital Poetry"

“The Aesthetics of Digital Poetry” discusses three major perceptions of creating and understanding poetry in a digital form. The ontological perspective that is brought up in the start of this article is a very interesting perspective to think about. Through the reading of this section of the article, I couldn’t help but to think about my own start and exploration of flash and animated poetry. When I first started work for this class I had no idea how to begin viewing or creating poetry that moved and spoke to the viewer and reader in a whole different way than anything I had every explored. This article explores the basic ideas of computers and explains in detail how people must be at least somewhat computer-literate to view many animated pieces of poetry in hopes to understand the purpose and main idea. When creating a piece of animated poetry the “author” must have a detailed plan of what emotion or reaction they want to receive from the audience. This idea is similar with writing poetry on hard paper but when animating pieces of poetry I find that I have drive to obtain a deeper emotion and reaction from my audience. I feel that when I write poetry on paper I expect that my readers will interpret the piece and think to themselves in piece and among personal experiences, but when I create a piece of animated writing I find that I expect my audience will react more openly and among others about their reaction to the piece. I like that the article mentions the code of language that a computer provides for users, because people do need to possess some computer knowledge and people must understand what it takes for others to create such pieces before they view them. This code of language is the “new” element that computers bring to the table in relation to creating animated pieces of poetry. The article also discusses this possible element of computers adding to literature and writing, “…whether computers and the Internet truly bring forth anything new?” I think that computers and the element of the internet do bring some new tools and sources that writers can use to present new forms of creative writing to their viewers, and they also provide new ways to express emotions and thoughts that cannot be shown on the written printed text.

            I think that computers definitely provide something new and different for writers and for thus for the viewers. Although, I feel that computers provide new elements of creativity, I do not think that they have changed writing itself. Currently, animated poetry and printed poetry seem to exist perfectly balanced in the culture of writing and reading and interpreting, so I think that this balance has the potential to last. Before, this semester began, I had only seen a touch of animated poetry, but I had not nearly the level of understanding about them that I do now. To create and to view animated works of poetry and writing, one must have some sort of understanding of how the process works and what a writer potentially hopes to receive from their creative work.

Plan for research project

deena larsen          
For my independent research project I have been searching through the links provided and I discovered a very neat and interesting. Deena Larsen is a creative producer who has an abundant amount of poetic and fictional based works, using flash and other tools. Clicking through some her popular works, I think that she is an extremely accomplished and creative designer, so I would mostly like to research her works because of their quality and personality and especially the consistent poetic stream. I am hoping that she is established enough for me to find research to fill the required length of the paper, and if so I will need to research her background, educational and career field. I will also need to search through her published pieces and research commentary written about her and her work. The only concern that I have with this project is the length so I can see research support and helpful references becoming a helpful aid from Anne or other students that come across any helpful links. I have also noticed that we have about 1month to write up our first draft so my plan is to take some time out of every weekend until then to research her work and to make notes for the draft itself. I hope that all goes according to plan and that I am able to find more information and work by Deena Larsen.

Response to my word animation.

From the two responses that i recieved in class today I am really not surprised at all. i am really pleased with the satisfaction that people seemed to have with my ideas, and I am pleased to see that my plan and ideas were understood. I understand that some of the color choices made the viewing of piece a challenge and I also have come to understand that some of my motion tweens could have been slightly more fluid and easier to see. With more time I would like to perfect some of the tweens and adjust the timeline a bit. I would also very much like to expand on the poem itself and possibly incorporate actual pictures of real peonies/gardens. I would like to learn to be able to develop more fluid tweens, and shape tweens that do not dissappear-not sure why this kept happening. I would also like to view/learn more about poetic or story-telling expressions through the art of flash. Lastly, i think that more required development times/ stages imposed by the class or myself will help my pieces become more strong and have clear fluid ideas/poetic development throughout the peices.

topic for conversation project.

For my conversation project with Hayley we will be exploring the current debate that most people in our nation are dealing with-of gay marriage. We will be exploring this idea by forming characters to push across the ideas of one side being for the possibilities of gay marriage and the perspective of many people who are anti-gay marriage. This project will developed very much like a debate between not our personal perspectives but characters formed to demonstrate the common and most powerful debate points. We will ensure that the perspectives are clear by distinguishing between each character through color, passion and relationship.

final word animation--Peony

Comparing Clips

Visual and Audio enhanced writing provides new perspectives and ideas for typical viewers of simple, typed writing pieces. Through the start of this semester we have looked at both ‘movie’ animated writing and writing that is visually interesting but on a flat page still. I have become entirely fascinated with both forms of poetic writing, but the pieces with audio files that move about and make noise on my screen naturally catch my attention the most, because they are so beyond anything I have seen done before, and I am not sure to what extent I will eventually be capable of reproducing such pieces, but I would like to try. Recently I ventured into two animated pieces of poetry that both tell very moving and inspiring stories through words, pictures, music, sounds, and moving bits. These two pieces are “Blue Velvet: Re-dressing New Orleans in Katrina’s wake, and “Ask me For the Moon,” by John Zuern.

Both of these pieces are very interesting and tell stories within themselves. I would say that in their own methods, the creators are trying to inspire people to take action and to embrace reality and life. The Katrina piece is very real and actually a bit harsh, in that the topics the piece displays are tough realms to accept and to talk about. Words such as racism and control and catastrophe are harsh realities that the people of New Orleans are and have been learning to cope with. The other piece, is really in my opinion a story of an adventure and of a real place and time in the author’s stream of life experiences. Ultimately both of these pieces of animation were created to catch a viewer’s eye and to invoke a great deal of realism, and emotion.

A very crucial decision to look into is the choice of which each author had to make to produce these animated pieces of writing instead of just writing this poetic realism onto a white piece of paper for anyone to read. The truth is that with animated literature people are given the chance, not only to read amazing pieces of creativity and emotion, but to see it, hear it and to really feel it. I think that animated writing allows viewers to actually connect with the piece and the creator at a deeper and more personal level than if the same pieces of work were typed up just like this. This very piece of writing probably does not invoke very much emotion or entertainment but as the creator I made the valid choice to leave out such opportunities to stick to the facts and analysis of other works that do invoke emotions and entertainment factors for any viewer(s).

I think that in order to understand the moon poetic piece very little background information is needed to enjoy the piece but a patient attitude is probably needed to understand the piece. In addition, with the Katrina piece, some background knowledge of the natural disaster are helpful to understand the work in its’ entirety. I can also see that as the contexts of each piece are quite different, the animated pieces are still both thoughts and realities streaming across a screen with sounds, and visual effects to expand the possibilities for the reader.

After viewing and trying to analyze each of these pieces of work I would most like to imitate the poetic passion and influence they were able to hold on to in their work, for my word piece. I think that the use of words to express something specific to anyone while not explaining oneself is really exciting and educating. I would like to use the inspiration each of these pieces drives into me to create a word animation that displays emotion and the very beauty that it represents through the thoughtful use of words and poetic inspiration.

"The Art of Immemorability"

The Art of Immemorability was an interesting reading that covered the span of literacy, language and writing that turned into technology today. I think that this reading was definitely a bit challenging but it was not entirely incomprehensible. I enjoyed that the reading really covered the history of language and the transformation that it has made in our culture. I enjoyed the note, “The real technology –behind all of our other technologies-is language,” (4). I think that this point highlights the idea that technology and literature and language are entirely similar and within one category. With computers and the internet and with written language and literate pieces of work, I think that people similarly interpret what they see and what they read and people must adapt to new ways of thinking and writing.

I also found that the overall aspects of the writing were comprehensible, but there were a few moments of lost clarity when the writer refers to other texts and writers that I had a lack of background knowledge about. Besides the short moments of confusion, the writing was very interesting and demonstrated the transformation that language has made over a vast period of time. Through this essay, it is clear that every movement and advancement that language and writing has made are valid and important forms of literature in our society. I found it to be clear that writing tracks language and records its significance as it also modifies the forms of language and entertains people. This article clearly emphasizes that experimental language and forms of literature are necessary and innovative. Such a transformation of literature represents the very technological advancements language has made.

Letter Animation

Response to "The Grey Line"

Experimental Literature

            All of the poem choices on course reserve were fascinating to me, but I felt that the poem “The Grey Line,” was the most striking poem that was also understandable. The piece itself is somewhere in-between a poem typed in a normal manner and a completely abstract and alternative poem. I really like that the title of the poem is itself incorporated into the visual design of the poem as the grey line is the line of the word ‘grey’ that connects the poem through a vertical line in two columns. I think that in creating such a visually dynamic and poetically pleasing piece the author was hoping to get their audience members to interact with the piece visually, mentally, and with a great deal of imagination. If you read the poem through straight without concerning yourself with context it is not challenging to read as some poems have the words broken up or the lines are all over the page, but the meaning and visualization of the piece takes a little extra work. The grey line itself is very visually intriguing in the consistency of the word simply as a word, as a color, a descriptor and as a monotone of life. I do not think that this repetition of this particular word makes the poem gloomy or depressing as I would first expect but it gives the piece consistency on different levels. This is because sometimes the grey implies blandness or dull qualities and sometimes it is pleasant and calming. In addition, the choice the author made to display the lines as entering from the left and ending with the word ‘grey’ and then beginning with ‘grey’ for other lines is also visually and imaginatively intriguing. They add dimension and visual intrigue throughout the poem. I also found that the color blue is also used frequently as a color tone and as an emotional state of blue-grey. This choice I think is significant because blue is a relaxing tone visually and emotionally yet it can also be a bit somber like grey itself. The combination of these two colors provides for a visually(picture in the mind) pleasing notion of a calm and relaxed world.

            I feel like the composer of this particular piece of artwork and poetry displayed their piece in such a creative fashion to add depth and as I said visual reference. I think that they wanted to stay away from the traditional approach to writing and displaying poetry because they did not want the viewer or reader to just read the poem for the words on the page but to examine the placement and choice of the words on the page. The meaning of this poem extends beyond the lines and phrases of words used and can be discovered in the ‘grey line’ that acts as a median, a focal point for viewers and a center for imagination and discovery. The end of the poem is also very significant because it is the area of which grey is repeated directly a few times without any attached words/lines and the lines that are attached are the most prominent descriptions of grey at peace and in happiness-“pretty grey” “silver grey,” “grey on the skyline.”

            I think that going into this piece I had an open mind to visual creativity and this open mind and a free imagination are the only things that a potential reader really needs to have to understand the poem. This piece is not as abstract as some other pieces but a strong imagination is still key to understanding the piece and in welcoming its’ creativity and potential. I think that another key in recognizing the visual creativity in this piece is to notice that many lines are simple 2-3 word descriptions always using the word grey and others are longer visualizations of what the word can imply and relate to. For my own future work I would really like to incorporate these ideas of forming sentences around a central word in the center of the page. I think that this is very interesting and intriguing. In this piece and form in particular, also the method is not overwhelming so that the repetition does not get to be annoying, but it is rather a good focal point of interest and design on the page. Another creative element that I would like to use in the future is the use of designing the lines to meet in the center coming from both the left and the right sides of the center line of grey.

            **I could not figure out how to properly also post the peice itself-with the copyright and everything but it is one of the poems from The Order of Things:Scottish Sound, Pattern, and Concrete Poetry.
The piece is created by Donald Urquhart.

The Flying f

Today, I noticed a lowercase f that had angel wings and that was flying across the screen, with the wings moving the f along. This animation was just so creative and exciting...I have no idea how the artist was able to make so much go on with the f and the wings but I wish to learn. I really enjoyed that the f was connected to the fly from the start letter and that this word was then the creativity set into motion on the screen. The animation ended with the word fly which really wrapped up the short piece and brought the connection to life. I think that I could also set an A word inspired piece into motion to really express something vivid with an actual picture on the screen. I think this simple f animation was really beautiful and  surprisingly poetic for a one letter animation.

Expressing A letter in motion

My first rough draft of my letter A animation is somewhat simple, and I would definitely like to advance the animation as I learn more about flash and work to expand my project. For now, I think that the simplicity of my animation does hold some value. My letter A rolls along the page and grows smaller and larger and then-my favorite aspect of my letter animation-the A transforms from a salmon tone to a lavender tone. I think that color-especially on a typeface screen expresses a great deal of creativity and enlitenment about such a piece.

Thoughts on first animation project...

I am still getting used to adobe flash and how to make my letter come to life, but from my first draft to my final draft of my letter I hope to show the history of formation and the abilities of my letter in entertaining animation on the screen. I would like to animate the letter A in the capital form- to transform the letter's look from one of the earliest designs through 3 or 4 different looks so the A is always changing shape, I would also like show the abilities of this letter on the screen by using the bottom/feet that are always present in some way shape or form to make the transformed letter animation walk or dance depending on the style-across the animated screen. I am not sure if this is too much to do with the letter or exactly how I will execute this plan, but I think that I will be able to work with each A formation to play with how exactly each version of type can move along. I think that these basic ideas will provide for an educating and entertaining animation of the letter A.

History of the Letter A

The letter A is the first character of the alphabet and has been since our alphabet was adapted from the Egyptian language and then from the Phoenicians. The entire alphabet has progressed a long way since the beginning thoughts of writing and letters. A few web pages that I found demonstrated how the capital letter A, was pretty much always formed with three lines, but the look of this formation has changed a good deal. At the same time, many ancient forms of the letter A were formed like an open triangle, and several lowercase formats look like today's English u. It seems also that most formats were designed from the modifying formats that came before them, such as the rustic capital of which the capital A gains feet on the bottom of the two large meeting lines but there is no middle dash to complete the A we are now familiar with. I learned from another article a theory on the possible origin of the letter A from the Phoenicians, which is that they used the ox head to start their alphabet thus the letter A represents this picture and starts out their alphabet in a very strong manner.
I am interested in the letter A mostly because it can be written in so many ways to still be interpreted as the same letter; I also find it interesting that this letter or any variation of it always starts off the alphabet and seems to be used in abundance when reading through any article, book, paper, ad, etc. I think that an animation using the letter A can show people the variations of the letter, and the many looks, whether in size, format, color, shape, or angle, that it can hold on a page. I hope to use animation to make the letter A appear as a flowing format of my own, that can dance around a page and put its feet to good use.
http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/alphabet.html
http://www.greek-language.com/Alphabet.html
http://www.itcfonts.com/Ulc/2711/A.htm
http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/scripts/letters/historya.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cyrillic.htm

Letter: A

The letter A is symmetrical, moving, traditional, and in abundance. The letter A is used in words of all shapes and sizes, in sentences of all forms. A is a word within itself, which cannot be said about any other letter in the english language. A is standard and often formed with the straightest of lines and little imagination, but allows room for creativity to grow and for the lines to curve and twist. The curves can twist into the rest of the word remaining or the creative A is strong enough to stand alone. The letter A shows possibilities and style in lowercase forms and uppercase forms from my views. I find it entirely fascinating that this letter can be written like this a or as a more informal lowercase a which can also be translated into the uppercase form. I also find it fascinating that this letter is used for the @ sign. I can see the letter A rolling with curves across a page or moving around on what could function as two feet in the uppercase form. I can see this letter moving strong and solid across the page or possibly dancing along to express its spirited feeling and to involve the reader in the writing to be appreciated.

About me

This is my first official blog! I am excited to see how my posts and responses work out on here and I hope to write creative and interesting posts here. I am a junior at UWM and I am an English Education major. This course in general seems very new and enticing as I have never used flash before. I am looking forward to learning more about computer programs like flash and discovering the idea of animating words and my creative works of literature.