Blog #10 LAST ONE!!!!

So the final project really didn't turn out as well as I thought it would. The program we chose to use was very limited in the amount of changes and settings you can adjust. The program rejected the video we made which was very frustrating however the moving aspect of the project was intriguing and could be used to give any project ethos. I will probably use prezi in the future to make power points more interesting because in the end that is kinda all it is good for. It is much more limited in the options and effects than a power point would be but the spinning effect is cool i guess. All in all I was disappointed with the amount of influence I had on the way the prezi operated and looked. It was a good project idea and was a fun to create, I just wished i could have created a more "interactive map" as I originally planned to make. But hey at least I figured out how to use the prezi so i can use it in the future. Not to make an interactive map but maybe for some other purpose.

The other projects my classmates created where very interesting. The project I enjoyed the most was the music video mashup created by Chris. I thought the idea behind mixing the loosing my religion video and footage from the passion was a great idea and mixed very well together. My least favorite was the athletes paige. Maybe I am just not interested in this information and maybe I believe most if not all of the athletes they profile are good for nothin but basketball crooks. However the Wiki was very well created and i liked the interactive aspects of it.

Besides the final though I'm glad for school to be over and I greatly enjoyed this class. I usually despise media classes however this class was fun, interesting, and educational. I now posses the knowledge to use programs to create all different types of media!

PEACE!

Blog # 10

After reviewing my peers reviews of my final project, a few things which need attention become apparent. It is obvious that my project is lacking in the media aspect. Sound and more visual elements are needed to improve the projects' ethos. To remedy this my partner and I have arranged to go fly fishing on friday morning to gather footage of the river first hand. I plan to travel to the most popular holes and collect video footage of the geographic surroundings as well as some other aspects needed like methods to tie flies used on the san juan. In the process I plan to gather footage of my partner as well as myself, fishing, tying flies, and hopefully catching fish. I will then add this to my project to give it more visual appeal. Another aspect of my final project that is obviously lacking is the interactivity of the media. Because "prezzi" is such a new program to me I experienced and am still encountering a large learning curve. As cool as prezzi seems it is actually very limited in the way you can control things. I am still trying to figure out if I will be able to link a certain part of the map to a certain part of the outlying information regarding the area. So I plan to hammer out all of the kinks, so to speak, and add more visually stimulating material.

One of the projects that I was interested in was the other prezzi project. It appears that she is running into similar problems with the program. I really had high hopes for prezzi, however it is turning out to be a cooler looking way to give a power point, which is not very interactive.

Final project

While thinking back on the variety of types of media I was exposed to throughout the course some good thoughts as well as some bad memories came to mind. I tried to think of which form of media was easiest for me to use, create, and understand. One of the more simple projects we created was the class wiki project which required much more research than the other projects but was not as demanding in a technical sense. I rather enjoyed this project probably due to the amount of research which was required. For some odd reason I think researching topics and learning more about a specific issue is interesting to me. Maybe because I have done a good amount of research throughout my educational career and am more or less used to it by now or maybe I enjoy understanding a topic in depth. The other projects such as the psa announcement and the video remix required much more understanding of the technologies and the way to operate the programs rather than the material which was mostly created to be original ideas of the group. Anyway, in regards to my final project I had a few ideas run through my head and they all seemed to tie back to creating a well researched and developed topic and presenting it in the form of a website. I had an idea involving the development of an interactive website concerning the writing styles and themes of classical authors like Hemmingway and Emerson. Unfortunately this topic would be extremely difficult to research without reading an ample amount books. So in thinking more about the things that interest me and ways I could incorporate them into my final project I kept coming back to my love for the outdoors. I started to think about creating an interactive map of a recreation area I am familiar with. A couple of things that came to mind was a map of the San Juan River with dots you could click on that would show the best times to fish the area and the best flies to use there and maybe even directions on how to tie the flies. I could also include links to tour providers and some of the best fly shops in the area. Another idea similar to the map of the San Juan was a map of a climbing area which is familiar to me such as the Sandias mountains in Albuquerque, New Mexico or Indian Creek which is a world renowned climbing area in Utah. Again the same idea of having links which give information about the climbs such as the difficulty rating and the size of gear to use and I could even include full route descriptions. These are just some of the better ideas I have had, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Blog #8

OK, so I still hold to my first argument of I wish there where more artists who created new and artistic form of musical creation. I agree that being able to "bootleg" is taking away from the necessity of a composer to posses any form of artistic value. You don't even need to know the difference between musical scales or the certain notes or style of music being used. All you need to know is how to use a computer and how to pick out sounds that will somewhat mix together. Sad that the artistic side of music composition is fading away. Here is an example of a talentless person creating music by mixing together different sounds, none of which are their own personal creations.

Maybe I just have no respect for Kanye but its sad that he is capitalizing of the musical genius of a great musician (Ray Charles).

One thing I will say I like about the new age of creating new music from old music is the increased amount of accessibility and the decreased amount of earnings made by DJs which is causing the musicians to make profit by putting on shows. For example a very popular DJ named Pretty Lights makes all of his music available for free on his website which proves he is not making any money off of his musical creations in the form of selling singles or even albums. He makes his money purely through putting on shows and the amount of tickets he sells. I love this movement back to concentrating more on live concerts than creating single tracks to be distributed. Anybody with a computer can remix and mash together songs however it takes at least a little talent to create new music and to freestyle on stage in front of thousands of people.

Here is an example of Pretty Lights playing live at Rothbury 2009 (one of the biggest music festivals there is) in which he freestyles from his original song to create a good live performance. Notice his music is nothing but samples and clips of music.

Blog #7

I believe copyright today isn't necessarily outdated, it just needs to be clarified somewhat. I do not disprove of people creating mashup's, sound collages, and remixes. I do however believe that permission to use the sound clips should be attained from the artist. Yes, using different existing sound samples to create a new sound clip can be considered a form of artistic creation but it is a compilation of other peoples art and ideas and requires permission from that person to build upon their original work. An example of a remix/mashup is this song by Cypress Hill.

This song uses the music from a song entitled "Cisco Kid" by the band War. The rappers simply remix the instrumental version of the original song while rapping their own lyrics over the remixed music. I believe this is a form of artistic creation because the rappers are using their own lyrics. While they are rapping over another groups musical creation they had to acquire permission from the original creators to use the music. This is a good example of old music being used in new music. I personally believe is an overly common theme in todays music. I would guess that less than half of all new music created today is purely a "new" creation. Most songs contain at least a small clip of somebody else's music. Some music like "The Gray Album" is created purely by using samples of other peoples music. I do not mind musicians creating new music using old music but I wish remixing and mashing songs together was not such a prevalent theme in todays new music. I wish there where more artists today who could create new and innovative forms of music by not using other peoples creations.

Podcasting

After reading these two articles concerning "podcasts" i was surprised at the depth podcasting has expanded. I previously thought podcasts where mostly recorded radio shows which you could save and listen to at any point. I had no idea that you could download virtual tours of museums and zoo's as well as download lessons on how to speak another language. I have never created a podcast, however I have listened to a few and as I said before they seemed to be recorded radio shows and had no educatonal or virtual aspects to them. I would rather not listen to radio talk shows or educational material for that matter while I could be listening to my own selection of music, however I do see the benefits students as well as teachers can reap from podcasting. The article mentions an Austrailian proffesor who, instead of confiscating ipods, chose to incorporate history lessons in the form of podcasts so students could listen to lessons instead of music. I'm not quite sure of the effectiviness of this technique which could backfire easly and give students a way to listen to more music in class but the teacher is being innovative in trying to adapt to the new technologies which now rule our world. I could see the benefit of incorporating podcasts in Fort Lewis by maybe making proffesors lectures available for listening if a student misses the lecture or if they just want to review the lesson. I could see the relationship between podcasting and radio shows because that is the only type of podcast I have experienced however educational or virtual tour podcasts would probably have a different tone than the radio podcasts with maybe more informational content than musical.

Mars is Heaven! (or hell?)

rather enjoyed the transition away from academic pieces. As interesting as academic articles are they tend to get a little dry sometimes and it is good to get a dose of creative writing. Which I must say this piece is incredibly creative and interesting to see the spin Bradbury puts on reality. I have read this piece before and it is more enjoyable each time I read it. I believe turning this story into a radio show would be a great idea because it is short enough, compelling enough, and captivating enough to interest radio listeners. There would not have to be much editing or changing that would need to be done to make this piece a radio program. If I where changing this into a radio show I would change the story into a screen play with multiple characters voices and an announcer to handle the narrators job of alliterating the situation and setting through words. Bradbury does a magnificent job in bringing to life the settings and situations he portrays in his story. For example when Captain John Black's troops see all of their dead relatives and friends he describes the setting as "A brass band exploded in the sunlight, flinging off a gay tune from upraised tubas and trumpets. There was a bang of drums and a shrill of fifes. Little girls with golden hair jumped up and down. Little boys shouted "Hooray!" And fat men passed around ten-cent cigars. They mayor of the town made a speech. Then, each member of the crew with a mother on one arm, a father or sister on the other, was spirited off down the street, into little cottages or big mansions and doors slammed shut." This is a spectacular job of alliteration and I do not believe these words would have to be changed too much by the narrator.

Shifting too a different genre does not always involve a huge set of changes, especially switching from a written to a spoken genre. It helps too when the author has as much talent for writing as Bradbury does. However changing the deliverance method of something does not necessarily change the genre completely. The change from a academic to a fictional genre will change a story very fast. Fictional genres let the imagination run wild with crazy ideas while an academic genre is a little more down to earth and factual. Changing an written academic piece to a spoken academic piece would be much more difficult and painful due to the need for mass amounts of information that need to be delivered in an interesting and captivating way.