Class 12 Recap

So...this was it. Presentations. I was fairly impressed with what I saw. I kind of wish more people had stepped outside their comfort zones but I cannot complain. I was very impressed by the video regarding "Tomorrow is Never Guaranteed". That really stood out to me. And I was impressed by some of the attempts made as well, namely "The Red Button Warhead". All in all, excellent class and there was finally some dialogue going back and forth as well as critique between students. Something I wish there had been more of but hey, we learned stuff. And that's the important thing.

Class 11 recap

Well, on the one hand there's not much for me to say on this. I did watch a few funny movies but nothing about them seemed to stick. I did however dream about this class however and that we had Guest Lecturers from former classes come in, an interesting event to say the least. I dreamed that Matt Powers also held a class where Beth came in as a guest lecturer at his own class as well. The projects done with a video oriented stop-motion classroom group one done in class where the result looked like something from a Robot Chicken episode and it was extremely entertaining and amusing. There were many details to describe but I'll save those for anyone interested in knowing more. Over and out.

BINGO TIEM

Okay so, I have nailed down the project that has inspired my interest.

http://n385chrismckee.blogspot.com/2010/05/inspiration-palooza.html

Now for questions and to send these off. Lots of material to work with for this one.

Class 9 recap

So I wasn't in class today due to slicing up my right ring finger at work. That was fun. But I will take a moment to try and recap the process I went through in the last assignment and why it wasn't posted.

Basically, I tried to look for a deeply personal way to construct and express the concepts of life and death and failed to do so. The reason? I could have easily done this assignment. I could have crafted an abstract representation of Life & Death via illustration or done another thought exercise. I did not however. I wanted to try and make something "authentic and run with a concept or project that was more "me". I tried to do so tackling such a large concept and failed to make it personal. I just didn't have the time to really break it down from the scale I imagine. So for that, I accept my failures and find it more suitable to right them down here.

Class 8 Recap

Well today we participated in an interesting creative exercise. It was a bit...mundane though. I think the thought behind it was good but the execution not so much.

Going around and finding ordinary objects to try and make something artsy and unique didn't feel that grand to be honest. Had it we looked in a place that was outside my familiarity for such objects I might have been more excited but as it where I didn't find myself feeling particularly driven or passionate about this exercise. Hopefully the outcome of this latest project will be interesting.

DAT FEELING

Last class was hella crazy. It put me on edge and in a predatory state of mind I haven't experienced for a long while. We got to play with the ideas of reality and fear and that was something I have yet to experience in a classroom setting. Finally, I got a chance to really reach out with my senses in ways I haven't done very often.

All in all it was exhilarating and felt good. We then moved to the walkway and began doing an exercise to really feel everything around us. And honestly, I felt overwhelmingly content. The hot, dry heat reminded me of Las Vegas and the vibrations, sounds, heated metal, and cirrus clouds high above made me feel as if I was almost there. It was an intense moment of reverie and peace and I feel motivated by it more then anything else.

Dat Reality

"What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can hear, what you can smell, taste and feel, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain." - Morpheus (The Matrix, 1999)

This sums up my vision of reality. It is subjective. I could get a brain tumor that effects my ability to see or interpret other signals flowing from my brain instantly my reality would be different. I am diagnosed with higher functioning Autism, something that makes me view reality in a somewhat different manner then most people. The various sensory outputs of my brain make up what is real to me. And if its not "real"? Then so be it. I'm prepared to accept alternate realities if they make themselves known to me.

As for fears, I have a few.

I have a fear of failure. This is a far reaching fear that covers many different facets but ultimately boils down to one thing: being trapped here in Indiana.

I have lived elsewhere and have been shown what it is to be successful and comfortable in a place brimming with culture, people in my age group, and in a climate that isn't vitriolic for me at certain times of the year. To be trapped here in Indiana would be a creative and emotional jail sentence for me and it is something I will not abide by.

I have fought the advances of depression and hopelessness during my time here. Ever since I returned to Indiana from Las Vegas, I have not been able to view my former home in the same light as before. I didn't know what it was to have free cash to spend on material things, to be in climate that was warm year round, and to be surrounded by people that shared the same passions I did. Before I only knew of what it was to live a lower middle-class existence in a place where winter was the norm and I was just different. Moving out there for that period of time fundamentally changed me. And I promised myself I would come back to the West Coast.

To fail now and have my dreams of being there once more be distant would be a crushing blow. I honestly do not even think of what I would do if I did fail to move out there. But it is a very real fear and one that could happen. And its why I am working so hard now to make sure that it does not happen.

I have a few ideas on how to visualize this but first I wanted to spit this out on paper so to speak. Its not something I've spoken of much. Stay tuned for more.

Class 6 recap

Class 6 was honestly a bit boring to me. I found some of the projects amusing and interesting but it felt like we were kinda going through the motions of previous classes. The Art DVD shown at the end felt similar to ones we had seen before as well. The talk of creating stuff to represent certain ideas or images or even people. It was interesting to see but at the same time I didn't take anything from it that I didn't know before.

That being said, I hope the next class will be more invigorating and exciting. I look forward to seeing if this is the case.

DAT SPONTANEITY

Alright so...

Daunting task this week: Do some "Bible Dipping" and use whatever idea is chosen to do something cool.

Okay then.

So we got "Symbol For Sound". Which essentially means taking sounds and instead of representing them with groups of symbols, just make it one. So...I played with the idea, considered a number of ideas. I have settled on the concept of the Primal Alphabet. It is by no means completed or refined but its enough of a concept that I will probably play with it more.

So what is the Primal Alphabet? In my mind, I see it as a written script with a character to describe every sound in the known universe. As such, it can be used in any known language. So how does it work? Well, after much consideration, I decided upon to have each character possess the look of a celestial body. In this case, galaxies.

The pictures I have above are representative of the basic shapes used in the Primal Alphabet. The most common galaxy shapes, the spiral galaxies, representing the most commonly known sounds that exist in the universe. As a sound becomes more rare, its character reflects a celestial shape of similar rarity. So a sound that is rare/unique such as a humpback whale's call would be reflected by a rare formation of nebula for example.

For storytelling purposes, I foresee the Primal Alphabet being a tool in my world building. It is a language as old as the known universe itself and as such contains a great deal of power. A person that invests their blood or the worldly equivalent in the writing of the Primal Alphabet has the ability to do great and terrible things based upon whatever motives they have. Therefore it is a useful tool for the purposes of recording but a great liability as well if used improperly. As time goes on I'll likely refine this concept but for now I'm pleased to have a starting point.

Dat Inspiration

You want to talk about inspiration? Let's talk about inspiration. This shit right here is my inspiration. This right here is my goal, my endgame, my Mt. Everest. This is the level I want to get too. It takes slow and steady dedication, work, and restructuring of priorities from time to time but I've been committed in this direction for years and I'm not about to falter now. Sometimes life throws me curve balls or my self-esteem munched asphalt or general what have you but its just a matter of righting the vehicle and not spinning out when that happens, something I've managed to do in light of the major blows that almost made me quit the dream.

This combined with my passion for role play are my wells of creativity and the heart of my inspiration. Role play fills another niche of my inspiration because it gives me source material to create stuff from and when situations are ideal it is nearly boundless in the choices I have before me. One is my final destination, the other is my fuel. Together they give my goal purpose and together they are my ultimate inspiration.

Class 4 Recap

So what turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, based on what I heard from Beth and others, was quite fun and even a bit challenging for myself. In order to present what I did, I had to get creative because the mediums currently available at my fingertips were sadly lacking. Fail whiteboard markers were failures and so I was asked to go and display my assignment outside in some fashion that was legal. This request piqued my curiosity and I immediately set off to the great outdoors to find a way to carry out the task.

Only a few minutes had passed when I moved out the front of the Informatics building and spied a grouping of pine trees just across West Michigan St. that I figured would do just fine for what I had in mind. A few moments later with a sturdy stick in hand and I was carving out a replica of my drawing assignment into the ground, the pine needles working perfectly as I cut into the surface of the ground and made markings. For a nice chunk of time I did this, largely oblivious to the not so dynamic presentations being made as I worked. Those were far from my mind though and I worked fast and thoroughly until I had my examples created.

Soooo....I went back inside, waited for the current presentation to end, then prompted everyone outdoors, and explained the length and breadth of the assignment I did. And it was really fun. I really enjoyed the whole exercise and we even lounged outside for a time just enjoying the weather. It was simply marvelous. Class wrapped up shortly afterward and what would have otherwise been a boring evening was fresh, new, and dare I say creatively inspiring. All in all, a GREAT SUCCESS.

Dat Re-Examination

For this particular project, I chose something simple but important nonetheless. I chose to redo a project consisting of drawing exercises that Ludwig assigned to me a long while back when I took his class.

These consisted of drawing multiple lines in a row and drawing one very big squiggly line and then tracing it within an equidistant one as well as you possibly could. I chose this because I wanted to take stock of how far I had come as an artist.

I honestly wasn't terribly impressed by my performance, but its better then others I've seen. It was a stark reminder that even though I've gotten better, there's always room to improve. That and I'm using a tablet that I haven't fine-tuned entirely to my liking. Regardless, it was an improvement over what I had tried on paper over a year ago.

All in all, a humble reminder of progress that needs to be made and where I used to be as opposed to where I am now. I've made progress. And that's something I'm glad to see.

BLISS PART 1

So this time I'm not going to forget to link this blog post to the assignment listing on Oncourse. Losing points = not cool bro. So for my bliss what did I do? I role-played characters that I've been cultivating for years with a good friend of mine. A friend of mine that, due to distance, I have been unable to hang out with like I would want too. So we chat online and role-play our own personal fictional character we have created within unique worlds of our own devising. One of my reasons for going to LCAD is so that I can bridge the great distance between her and other good friends I have in Las Vegas and myself as I have been largely unable to cultivate a relationship that comes remotely close to what I share with them.

But onwards to the role-play itself. I cannot begin to express how nice it feels to be able to engage in that free development of character and setting and just letting my mind expand without anything holding me back. To interact and see in my head how events play out with people whom I consider closer then family. It is something that makes my days on this campus, largely alone, bearable and one of the things that pushes me forward to get accepted at Laguna College of Art & Design.

I'll be completely honest when I say that I cannot stay here in Indiana. I cannot accept being away from the imaginative energy and the people that helped me grow creatively in ways I never thought possible while I lived here. I need that energy back and if I fail in my goals then I will have failed myself. And truly, I wouldn't know what to do with myself then. I am thankful though to at least have this medium in which to contact those people with whom I deeply trust and be able to continue meshing out narratives, characters, plots, and everything else in between along with drawing and crafting that comes with it.

Breakin Dem Rules

So I broke a rule today. Not a New Media one though. Why? Because I knew it wouldn't go well. Intuition is a powerful thing and I had not the time nor the fortitude to commit to it. A short an honest answer in regards to that and I have a certain personal philosophy I adhere to in relation to that. But I'll explain that in class. First, on to the rule I did break.

I broke a personal rule today. It was "Always Eat Breakfast". Because I always have at least a complete part of this balanced breakfast, thanks in large part to General Mills drilling that concept into my head as a kid. So I went without eating breakfast. And it was a really bad idea. I had a burning sensation in my abdomen for the whole six hours I worked and found myself feeling nauseated. I couldn't help but wonder if this was what smokers felt like while going through withdrawal. I wasn't bitchy towards anyone thankfully but I really wanted time to fast forward as my stomach felt as if it was eating itself and winding up in knots while doing so. When it comes to breaking rules of things such as Art and New Media, this is what it feels like for me. Unless I know that rule inside and out. Again, I'll get into the deeper side of that in class tomorrow.

Dat Class

So today's class was kinda cool. We discussed a lot about eggs. We had a Schindler's List egg, a R&B egg, eggs that caused shit luck, all kinds of eggs. Even shared my egg. In a manner of speaking. Then we had a break where we forced to be in chairs. And that was very unique yet fun. Just what my mind needed for such a slow day. Also I got a chance to nap which I was partially successful at doing. The conversation was just so stimulating though that I couldn't stay asleep.

Anyway, we moved onward to our assignment, which was breaking the rules. In another time and place I likely would have easily gravitated to such an idea but that is largely not the case now. I do have an idea of how to go about this assignment but I'm really not looking forward to the result (SPOILER: Its nothing illegal). Regardless, interested to see how this transpires.

Dat Egg

So I got an egg. And I was asked to do something with it. But the question was what to do with a brown, spotted egg? Wasn't going to eat it as I don't want to get salmonella. Might have been able to make some easy cash though if I did catch and sued the...

Anyway, so I considered my various options. The first thing I considered was "Hey, why not draw a representative picture of what an egg means to you?". Which would have consisted of a life-likish drawing of the egg itself coupled with flowey designs and DEEP MEANINGS. So deep they might well be fathomless. But I reconsidered. I've done drawing before and this was an opportunity to do something new. So, I settled on something I haven't done a lot of.

I grabbethed the egg, ventured off to the shores of the White River, and immediately began foraging like a bear before hibernation, looking for sticks, pine needles, leaves, so on and so forth. And once I did assemble a nice chunk of dead plant matter, I immediately went about constructing what I had in mind. And I made a nest. Not the greatest nest in the world probably and I may well google up how to make a super-awesome nest but it was a nest nonetheless. So with this new nest, I placed the egg within it and casually observed it for a bit there on the shores of the White River.

A couple of things ran through my mind as I looked at that nest with the egg resting inside. One was how weird it was for a bigass chicken egg to be in a songbird looking next. But then I remembered what cuckoos do and it didn't seem so strange. The second was how much my life was changing at this point in my life, one semester before graduation. How, in a way, I was sort of waiting to hatch and move on with the next phase of my life. I felt a need to reflect then on my life up until now and the crossroads I would soon come upon. Dem deep metaphors man. Regardless, I enjoyed this experience. Looking forward to more moar exercises like this.

HYEEEEAAAAAAH

FIRST POST. Trust me when I say the rest will have a lot more content.