Class take away 2

    Today we presented our egg and coloring book assignments. Overall, it was a very nice class; being able to see what everyone would do with their egg, whether it was symbolic to a part of their life or just out of pure creativity. I honestly liked everyone's ideas, symbolic or expressive. My project is described in my post titled "The Egg and the Eye". It was actually inspired by events that happened to other students in the same classroom on the same day that we got our egg for the assignment.

    Just to go a little bit more in depth on why I created the Bastion of Fortitude; two student's eggs were broken before they left the room. It made me think to myself "These eggs must be more fragile than I'm already giving them credit for." In part, my decision was made to not let anything happen to the egg even for creative purposes. I made sure to protect it in a creative way. The other part of the decision is because I'm sort of a protective person. I don't like to see harm come to anything that I care about; whether it's people, possessions, natural places or creatures, and even ideals. I built the Bastion of Fortitude to protect this fragile, inanimate object from many outside forces, including myself, and I did it in a way that was fun for an assignment.

    It was very interesting hearing what everyone else had to say about how and why they made something creative out of their eggs. Some made very visually intriguing pieces from their eggs; some by crushing the egg shell and using it as their visual medium, others by changing the appearance of the egg itself without changing it's form. Others used their creativity to tell a message; whether it symbolized how their life is currently lived, or an emotion that they may feel or felt that impacts them in a negative or positive way, perhaps both.

    The coloring assignments were very interesting as well. I'm rather surprised that someone actually wanted to know what my colored page was about, a lot sooner than I had expected too. When I finished describing it, I knew that I wanted to say more, but I felt as though I had already talked too much about myself. It's not something I do very often, which made me feel very uncomfortable to continue. It's something I had been working on for the past year and a half and I honestly thought that I could handle speaking more about myself, but I was wrong. I'll keep working on my confidence.

    Overall, the class had a positive effect on me. I truly did enjoy hearing and seeing the pieces that the class created and the reasoning behind them. I was rather disappointed in myself for not saying what I really wanted to say, due to a very uncomfortable feeling I had after I started speaking. It's very refreshing to have seen what everyone else can see and do with a single egg. Everyone did something different and even if they were similar, there were a few details that made each egg unique to each person. The coloring book assignments had the same effect on me. Each person not only had a different textbook, but the pictures represented different parts of worlds in which people wish they could live in.

    I really am enjoying this class. To not only use creativity in the media arts perspective, but to then add real meaning to it makes this class very engaging and keeps it interesting.

Color your world

Good morning, or afternoon depending on when this post is actually submitted.

    For this assignment we are to use our coloring books to create a world that we WISH  we could live in. The coloring book I got for this class is a Dinosaur coloring book. This assignment in particular fits well with my choice on the book. I've always been fascinated with dinosaurs ever since I can remember. I remember always imagining myself walking along with the dinosaurs, having adventures with ones that could talk, or at least understand me. Below is a picture that kind of sums up a combination of things I've wished for back then and perhaps a few things that I wish for today.

    Up in the top right side, that's a floating island. I just wanted to point that out before describing the picture further. One of the things I've always wished for throughout my life and still wish for today is to be able to fly. After drawing this picture, I decided to just take a moment to envision the viewpoint of the world if I could ride on the back of a Pterodactyl. I found myself swaying in my seat as I imagined the flight; riding on the breeze, great wings flapping to accelerate us through the air, and swooping downwards to then rise up again. I reluctantly open my eyes to remember that I am still grounded. I honestly love the feeling of falling; it's rather hard to explain, especially since falling is usually associated with injury, death, and failure.

    

    The next point that may catch the eye is the coloration of the Pterodactyl. I colored it in this scheme for two reasons; blue and green are my favorite colors (white too), and I just wanted it to be a bit more different from what might be expected from a dinosaur. I do love this world that we live in, and not just because the main colors are blue, green, and white; but for many other reasons as well. Sometimes I feel like some of the random things in the world could be a bit different though. For instance, the floating island. I would love to walk outside and see a floating island someday, whether it's supposed to be there or not. I just think it'd be a really cool thing to watch. Going back to coloration, I like the way the sky and oceans are blue so I kept them that way. I also like how clouds are white and our sun is yellow. I colored the clouds yellow just so that I was not leaving them the same color as the paper and to show a yellow sun. 

    I really like the world naturally is. There are just a few things that I think could be a bit more interesting about it. Maybe just a few things that don't need an explanation or answer to why it happens, yet it happens anyway. Don't get me wrong, I do like knowing the answer to a question that I ask, but not knowing the answer can make the subject more interesting for me. A floating island, for example, doesn't really make sense. It's that same lack of answers that can make it very mysterious and provoke many questions. Why is that island up there? Is there anything living on that island? Is it a friendly place up there? All these questions ignite my sense of adventure for new possibilities. One reason that I love to dream is because some of my dreams don't make any kind of sense, but they're so interesting that I couldn't care less.

Overall, I just wish that I can fly through the skies someday.

The Egg and the Eye

Hello again, this will be post made rather late at night.

    About two weeks ago, we were given an egg in class by our instructor. The only thing we were told to do with the egg was "Do something creative with this egg." Even though it's a short description, it could mean a nearly infinite amount of possibilities on what can be done. While thinking of some ideas, I made sure to keep a good but gentle grip on the egg. I did not want it to fall out of my hands but at the same time I did not want to crack or break it in my grip. I was still thinking of some ideas while class was going on, when something happened that gave me a bit of inspiration. Another student accidentally dropped their egg on the floor which broke the shell. I don't mean to point out the student, but the event did help me decide on what I wanted to do.

    One thing I would think about every now and then was to make sure that the egg was still in the same condition as when I received it. I already had a sense of wanting to keep the egg in tact, actually seeing one of the eggs in the class room get broken made me feel as though it may be easier to break the egg than I had originally expected. When I got home later that evening, I wanted a place to put the egg where I didn't have to worry about anything possibly happening to it. Eventually I decided how my Bastion of Fortitude was to be made.

1. I put the egg in a small box with some paper and a pair of gloves on top of a soft cloth.

I did this to keep the egg in an environment where there were no hard edges that could possibly crack the shell.











2. The box containing the egg was properly labeled.

 For reasons.
Primarily so that I would not forget.











3. The properly labeled box was put inside a lockable filing cabinet.

And YES I did lock it, can't be too sure.

The filing cabinet ensured that the box would be protected from being dropped off a surface or from having anything dropped onto the box. Either of those actions could potentially crack the shell of the egg.








4. The properly labeled box inside the lockable and locked filing cabinet was then given a clever distraction to serve as a guard against myself and anyone curious enough to break into my room.

Well it's a bit simple, but it did distract me from thinking about the egg. It did a better job of preventing me from getting in or out from that side of my bed, more of an annoyance than extra precaution.










    So far, the Bastion of Fortitude has held up quite nicely. The only thing that is left is to bring the egg to class while it's in the smaller box, just to make sure that it still stays protected. The Bastion of Fortitude as a whole provided great protection against the forces that would crack the egg shell, but will it hold up once the pieces are divided? The true test lies in both the separated pieces of the Bastion of Fortitude and my will to keep the egg safe.

First Blog

Good evening everyone. This is the first time I have ever made a visit to a blogging site with the intention to actually make a blog. While these blogs will primarily be pertaining to the class "Seeing Sideways" at IUPUI, I may continue to blog in the future.

I first heard about the Seeing Sideways class through my school adviser. The title of the course is what stuck out to me the most, "Seeing Sideways". It seems as though we tend to look forward most of the time, which makes some sense because our eyes are in the front of our head. So the words "seeing sideways" make me think of looking at something with a completely different perspective, which is also included in the course description. The course caught my attention and since it is also taught by Beth Lykins, who will be moving to another school next semester, I made the decision to add it to my class schedule.

On the first day of class, I got lost trying to find the room for a few moments. The room was tucked away in the corner of the hallway and if I remember correctly, the room number was not very visible unless I went right up to the door. After sitting in the class room for a while, Beth Lykins walked in and immediately gave us our first assignment: Moving all the chairs into a circle around the room. I thought to myself for a moment "Interesting." a short and simple thought. Half way through the class, we were allowed to have a break, on one condition. We could go anywhere we want for the 15 minute break, but could not leave our chairs. The chairs we were sitting in all had wheels so we didn't have to carry them or anything. It was actually a very fun experience. It was a nice change of perspective; going around the halls, going up and down elevators and even going into a public restroom all while in a desk chair (I did stand up to use the restroom). It truly did feel like I was seeing the world I already know but from a different viewpoint. At the end of class, we were given an egg and told to do something creative with it. No additional instructions were given, only to do "something creative" with it. I am still currently deciding what to do.

I think this class will be very interesting as the semester proceeds. I'm not used to writing a weekly blog but I'll give it my best shot.