FINAL Creative Gallery

12/3 Blog about creative gallery

My project is going to be a movie made on windows movie maker. It is going to be a WVU Dictionary, showcasing 10 terms associated with the surrounding area and students. For example, the lair, the green, the mon, rail trail, casa, etc.. Im having students define these words, and students from other schools who are not familiar with WVU define these words. The movie will show pictures of what each definition is talking about, and emphasize how culture affects language. This relates back to Urban Dictionary, the focus of my projet, because it shows how terms are created to accomodate people that are familiar with them.

So far I've started working on my creative gallery and have completed half of my movie slideshow in Windows Movie Maker. I have some pictures left to take on my own time and add in along with titles to finish up the movie. I also have to decide on music for the video and revise transitions.

One problem that I'm running into is that my version of Movie Maker on my personal computer is not compatible with the movie maker used on the school computers, so I can't upload or send my video to any of those computers to work on it. I have to figure out how to upload it into my blog successfully so I can be sure that there are no problems when it's my turn to present. Aside from that, the movie is on point with what I expected it to be, and I am just looking forward to getting it completed.

Questions and things left to finish..
- I need help transferring my video onto school computers or into my blog.

Movie Maker Video Draft

Final Paper - 11/17

Click here to read my final paper.

Creativity Gallery

After our discussion in class I have decided to go with my audio-video idea of interviewing random people about their interpretations of Urban Dictionary words. I think this will support the idea of my project about "taking something and making it your own". Using a word already submitted by a previous user and allowing someone to put their spin on it free of influence from the original meaning posed for the word. I will do this by using the software introduced to us in class, and possibly uploading a YouTube video.

Part 2 - 11/12 Discussion of Project

I have focused my project more since the last time we blogged about it. I plan on creating a "WVU Dictionary". I compiled a list of terms (places, people, buildings, streets) that are commonly known and widely used in Morgantown by WVU students. These words are popular within our micro-community because they have meaning to the students. However, if an outsider were to be asked about any of the words, they would probably not know what or who they were referring to. I am going to get audio/video of people from WVU and from home (NJ), about each of the 20 words. They will be asked to say what the word is, and use it in a sentence. By doing this, I will show how 'slang', similar to words on Urban DIctionary, are influenced by particular cultures. This will show why and how remix culture thrives today, especially in language. Whether it is words that apply to sports, cooking, music, art, fashion, or in this case, WVU, they all hold the most meaning to the people who are engulfed in that certain culture. The remix of language is necessary for creativity purposes, common knowledge, and to create a balance between a culture and its people.

My Map

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Here's my story...

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Creative Response to Topic

Using detournment in my project could be difficult. I am working with language, music, and texts. Taking the ideas for any of these, and turning them into something that "mocks" the original will take serious creativity. What mocks a dictionary? or music? or texts? Turning something that deals with language, words and reading, and developing it into a visual image is one idea. In terms of anonymity for my project, the idea that all the 'authors' work under an anonymous name could be fun to work with. What if everything posted was directly tied to the person who posted it. Creating a site that shows picture and name identity would mock the idea of the sites I'm working with.

After class presentation..

Now that I have a more clear idea of what detournement is, I realized that my project is based around it. Taking something old and changing it into new. This is the remix idea I am working with. A creative project I could do would be to incorporate remixes of my remixes.. so from Websters to Pandora to ..possibly mixing together "average joes" singing a particular artists music. From text to TFLN to ... texts telling a story by combining them together. From websters to Urban to .. using slang terms in literature writing.

I could take my "remixed" multimedia and take them back to the past or spring them onto what could be coming next. I would have to explore ideas of what would be most accessible to me and which ideas would accommodate my 3 topics best.

Bergamo ROUGH draft essay

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AeN4kohIuWjUZGZwZ3diZm5fMzhmbnhtZmZyeg&hl=en

Project Diagram

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AeN4kohIuWjUZGZwZ3diZm5fMzZmbXhmOHdmeA&hl=en

Reflection Blog for Essay

My thoughts on this essay so far are a little shaky. I have a lot of information on my topic, and a generally clear idea of what my theory is, however, I am a unsure of how to relay the information I have in the best way to support my topic. That will be something I need to work on, organizing the information (diigo bookmarks) I have according to where they will best fit in the paper. I think structure of the paper will be the hardest part for me, but I am starting to organize my ideas according to my slideshow.

Annotated Bookmarks

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AeN4kohIuWjUZGZwZ3diZm5fMzRmcm50ZnRncg&hl=en

Reflection on Theory

So far for my project I am focusing on how old sources are remixed into new sources using media. For example, radio turned into Pandora, Webster's turned into Urban, and text messaging into TFML. By focusing on the change I have viewed numerous ways which these sources differ. One includes, the content itself, how the content is presented, and what type of audience the content attracts. Also, I am paying close attention to the author and audience in each situation. The author is usually the audience, and most times is kept anonymous. I talk about how this has an effect on the site, and on media authorship.

Google Slideshow Link

Publish Post

Wordle

What is a Multimedia Author?

What is a multimedia author?
What are your thoughts at this point?
Write your own theory under the “influence” (a la Lethem) of Foucault and/or Barthes.

"It is language that speaks, not the author"
"The explanation of the work is always sought in the man who has produced it"
"The absent author: pre-exists their work, time/age is not a factor, what do we believe about the author... modern writer is: born simultaneously with his texts, exists with his text."
"It's source is not known, but texts are perfectly read because writing best correlates to reading"

These excerpts pulled frm Barthes "Death of an Author" were of best interest to me. When talking about a multimedia author I have always thought of someone who participates in some way in writing taking place on the internet. There are a lot of broad areas you can take multimedia authorship, EXA: collaborative, anonymous, published, personal, etc... In relation to my project, I'd say authorship in media is loosely used, and not always important to determine the meanings of the text. For example, the idea of an 'absent author' would be those people who give their input to websites like ..FML.com, textsfromlastnight.com, urbandictionary.com... These "authors" are completely anonymous, the only thing you know about them is what you read that they post/write. This is the idea of an absent author, but also a modern writer. Someone who does not exist in every aspect of the text, but does not pre-exist the text.

I like the saying "it is the language that speaks, not the author". This is true in many aspects of writing, because you can have no prior knowledge of an author but completely understand the meaning of their texts, its the language and the words that make the work come to life. After reading this article I feel like I have a better understanding of importance of an author, or lack thereof. It rose questions about when is it important to know the background of an author? Is the authors POV necessary to understand the text? Does the absence of an author (anonymity) effect the way text is interpreted?

My theory on authorship in multimedia aspects is heavily influenced the idea of how texts can still be perfectly read or interpreted despite an absent author. I think a good claim to make on authorship after reading these articles is that the voice of the author is never unknown even if the author is. You can interpret writing effectively despite knowing why the writing exists in the first place. Multimedia authors may not always be published or even named, however, the idea of an author will always become apparent upon reading their work.

Research Proposal

My research proposal is going to take another look at the idea of authorship in multimedia writing. The webpages I've bookmarked grow based solely on participation from its visitors. These websites allow anyone who visits the site to post information, music, or pictures. The sites I am looking at to support my research are the following:

-Pandora.com
-Twitter.com
-Facebook.com
-Myspace.com
-Urbandictionary.com
-Datpiff.com
-Textsfromlastnight.com
-FML.com
-Youtube.com
-Collegehumor.com

These types of sites all have one thing in common, they allow their audience to participate in originating the site. I think these web pages will provide an interesting relation to the idea of authorship in multimedia. When I think about authorship, two things come to mind, origin of an idea and execution of that idea. The sites listed above originate from one person's idea , and are then sculpted by the input of possibly millions of people. There is a very loose idea of authorship in these sites because anyone can put their own spin on the original thought. For example, Pandora allows a user to type in an artist and takes a "sounds like" approach to forming a radio station. Datpiff works similarly by allowing visitors to form their own CD playlists using songs from musicians and writing it off as their mixtape. The ideas behind TEXTS, FML, ad Youtube share the fact that it started with a broad idea, (EXA: post your texts from last night) and turned into whatever the "authors" of the site made it. Urban dictionary is another good example of visitors being able to 'define' a word in terms of how that word plays a role in their life, majority of the time they're slang. These sites I feel add to the idea of authorship, and support why I don't feel like remixing an original thought should be considered plagiarizing. They show how personal additions to a standing idea can be beneficial. Questions to ask based on my topic that would be good to research concern what the idea of multimedia authorhip really is:

-Are contributions to these sites mostly anonymous?
-Is money being made off of anything posted to these sites?
-Why do these sites exist?
-Is there room for plagiarism?
-Is there research done on these sites? What do they say about the posts made?

Bibliography

1.Urban Dictionary: http://www.urbandictionary.com/. September 8th, 2009.
2.Dat Piff: http://datpiff.com. September 8th, 2009.
3.F My Life: http://fml.com. September 1st, 2009.
4.Texts from Last Night: http://textsfromlastnight.com. September 8th, 2009.
5.Writings on the Stall: http://writingsonthestall.com. September 9th, 2009.
6.Pandora: http://pandora.com. September 3rd, 2009.

Rise of Plagiosphere & Ecstasy of Influence

Rise of Plagiosphere : This article was pretty insightful considering I am a college student who it could very well effect. I thought it was interesting to know how extensive these plagiarism websites can be. To know that your words can be compared to millions of others writings is scary. What if there is coincidental similarities between your writing and someone elses. This article made me think about the class topic of multimedia writing in a realistic way. I didn't really comprehend how much writing is used for the internet. These numbers helped put me in place.

Ecstasy of Influence: This article was interesting because so many times I've heard lines by various music artists revamped and used as hooks in other songs. Also, the use of older music turned into pop, rap, and hip hop is very popular. I don't consider this plagiarism as long as credit is given when it is due. It's simply taking an inspiring phrase, or line, and turning into something your own by adding personal style. The example o Bob Dylan's lyric in this article is good example. In the television sense of it, there are a lot of similar characters when it comes to variations on color, and shape of cartoons. However, the story line for the most part is different. In movies, the idea of a plot often seems plagiarized. For example, any movie dealing with a "dance" theme seems to play out the same way. Step up, Step Up 2, Bring it On, Save the Last Dance, Stomp the Yard,etc...these types of movies all fall under the same idea. I guess depending on how you redo the originial, whether you copy it or enhance the idea to benefit the original, depends on whether I would consider it plagiarism.

8.27

I use the web everyday for a variety of things. When I wake up in the morning I check my e-mail and the weather. I use the web to get dates/times for events as well as directions to these events. I also use it for school related purposes that require me to obtain blogs, check my syllabus, or research online. It allows me to keep in touch with family and friends who are scattered in areas other than Morgantown. I shop, pay bills, and look up recipes online. I use the web to stay updated on news and music, and obviously for entertainment. Sites I visit most often are our WVU sites, weather.com, MUB/Comcast/Allegheny/Verizon, Google, Youtube, Pandora, Food Network, Facebook/Myspace, ESPN, and various shopping sites.

I don't have a webpage and this is my second blog that I have kept for school purposes. I use AIM, Skype, Facebook, and Myspace to keep in touch with friends and family on a daily, if not weekly, basis. On average I probably spend about 1-2 hours a day actually sitting infront of my computer or surfing the web, and a couple more hours just leaving Pandora up to listen to music. As for writing on the web, I'm pretty contained to just writing on Facebook, Myspace, AIM, and now this blog.

Web and computer skills I have include Microsoft office programs, and an introduction to Adobe Dreamweaver in constructing a personal website in my English 304 class during my Fall semester 08.