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.