Write From The Heart

"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back."

Visual Studies Seminar Post #8: Alumni Presentations and Beyond College

November3

Part 1: Staff Presentations

Each of the staff presenters had some art or pieces of work to showcase, such as theater production, photographs, pencil media, multimedia artworks. I was enamored with the presentations as a whole, they truly did show that there was work and great talent coming from St. Edward’s education. I found myself engaged with Tuan’s presentation a lot; I resonate closely with his work on sort of an abstract, yet personal portfolio. Bill’s presentation was cryptic, especially with his unending silence, but it was atmospheric too due to his eclectic style. The pieces of drama shown provided a lot of insight into the medium I hadn’t discovered or found interest in before, so it was a new, unique experience for me. I enjoyed the presentations, overall! The speakers were all confident, (hopefully… you’re all staff here at a liberal arts university), and had visually interesting presentations.

Part 2: 5-Year Plan

Admittedly, I haven’t gone into too much depth about my 5-year plan as opposed to my 4-year plan. I’ve gone into detail about my academic plans during college, such as becoming an Interactive Game Studies major and Fine Arts minor, with brief mentions of utilizing resources around Austin. Yet, I don’t have a solid idea of what job I’ll take up after I graduate. One of my first options would be as a game tester, since it’s usually considered an entry job into the industry and grants people experience in recognizing faulty code. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll probably start with internships or small-time instructing courses offered at various artistic organizations. There’s a particular organization for teaching students about fine art back home in San Antonio that offers both these positions, so it’d be a great learning experience both in artistic ability and in educating kids about my passion.

Sequence Pt. 1- Initial Sketches

October30

Here are the initial sketches for the blank book. My plan for this is to create an auto-biography of sorts with juxtaposed hand-drawn figures on top of collaged or otherwise digitally edited backdrops, scenery complimented with poetry. The order of the narrative is chronological, with the title of each poem representing my respective age portrayed in the words and image. I also wanted to highlight a thematic shift as well as a narrative and visual one as well- while my persona ages. obviously meaning the body type and content of each poem change to suit the age, I want the theme of the poems, and in conjunction the content of the imagery, to change as well. From early years to middle school I want to focus on solely conveying emotions, since concrete events are fuzzy at that point in time. From late middle school up to sophomore year, the focus is on anxiety and epiphanies. Finally, the last few years are completely based on psychological reflection- thinking back on my worries of the past and recovery from them.

Visual Studies Seminar Post #7: The Future

October27

Part 1: 4-Year Degree Plan

My four-year degree plan so far for college is to follow Interactive Game Studies as my major. I was able to skip most of my core classes due to excessive AP credit acquiring so being able to immerse myself into a work-intensive creative major feels like it would be the most fulfilling to me, so that’s why I mostly plan to follow my major/minor during the course of these four years. Being located in Austin, Texas, practically the biggest center for video game development in the United States outside Silicon Valley, is another perk to the major- it lends itself to prospective work more easily. I could take up internships with the companies nearby, going indie, while still arduous, would be more successful around a community centered around individualism, and the creative atmosphere would benefit me greatly. Plus, I have connections back home in San Antonio, only an hour away, consisting of professional game developers and an organization prioritizing showcasing new creators’ work.

However, I do have numerous backup plans in case Interactive Game Studies doesn’t work out for me. My artistic abilities lend myself to creative categories, so I could always join Graphic Design or Advertising since I do also have an eye for creating things that pop out to people. I’ve expressed an interest in acting before, so the drama club might have opportunities for me. And, I also have a passion for teaching people about my interests, so I’ve highly considered dropping the fine arts altogether to pursue Education.

Part 2: Minor

I currently already have a minor that I plan to keep for my plan, Fine Arts. I chose Art for two reasons, one, that it’s another one of my major passions, being able to express myself in a creative fashion while also making others around me happy, and two, that it greatly benefits my major. As a game developer, it’s a note-worthy skill to manage multiple departments of the game- including coding, developing sounds, writing dialogue/story, and, relevant to my minor, designing the visuals. Of course creative writing is another field of expression I enjoy heavily, but I mainly focus on developing my art since I feel I already have the skills required to write an effective game story, but feel less confident with art. I want to grow the skill more, so it’s natural to choose it as an area of study to learn more about a field I carved my life around.

Sequence Reflective Essay: Mulholland Drive

October23

David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive starts with a foreboding atmosphere, dropping its audience straight into an unknown setting after a seemingly random dancing scene. Without explaining anything about the setting, the characters, the conflict, or any piece of information, the first cataclysmic event occurs. The emulation of the passage of time, or lack of a cohesive sequence of events, in this film contributes to the overall tone: Fear.

A typical film will tell its story in chronological order of comprehensible events to tell a story, usually following the five act structure in some manner. There will be an introduction establishing primary characters and setting, a rising action to develop the conflict and main antagonist, a climax to centralize all side arcs, action, and high points, a falling action to ruminate on the story, and a conclusion to wrap up any loose threads and resolve story points. But, Mulholland Drive actively avoids this setup. The first few minutes of the movie are a non-sequitur to people dancing, then an inexplicable car crash out of nowhere. The scene cuts to a woman running from something, but abruptly ends that thread once again to introduce two new characters, then again for another, and so on. The lack of cohesion in this film lends itself to confusion, the unknown. The average human being is deathly afraid of the unknown because of an inherent preference towards certainty. The five act structure exists because audiences take comfort knowing how a story will naturally progress, but diverting from the typical structure will make audiences unaware of what the story will become or how it will develop. Anything can happen, which frightens people the most.

How Lynch further exploits the innate fear of the unknown by using sequence is through his shot composition. Most of Lynch’s shots when preparing for a climatic event will focus on first-person perspective shots inching closer to a given point of interest. The shakiness of the camera movements during these scenes coupled with the first-person view allow the audience to “see” from the character’s perspective. But, again, the lack of a comprehensible chain of events makes relating to the characters even more unnerving, since there’s no way to expect what comes next. Of course, looking at this older film through a modern lens means it’s easier to predict a jumpscare, or shock-value scare tactics designed to appear for a fraction of a second, but viewing it from a past perspective makes the trope a lot less campy.

Additionally, connecting each isolated event/scene with each other using time is near to impossible because of the lack of establishing the setting and time in relation to each other. For instance, in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the opening scene is shown to be Arizona and then the audience follows the main character to another town. Each setting is established in relation to each other because of the centralized focus on a single character and the subtle passage of time conveyed through each consecutive scene showing the gradual shift to nightfall. In Mulholland Drive, the closest Lynch gets to showing the passage of time clearly is between the woman from the opening and the diner, when nighttime shifts to open daylight. But, because there’s little to no indication of the events’ relation to each other through a scene transition or central character, viewers will have a difficult time telling if the two scenes were right next to each other chronologically, days apart, weeks apart, etc.

Visual Studies Seminar Post #6: Skills Inventory & Action Plan

October20

Part 1: Skills Inventory By Class (Excluding LLC seminar courses)

Rhetoric & Composition

My greatest strengths in Rhetoric & Composition include: Concise writing style and ability to analyze, compare, and contrast.
For greater success in this course, I need to: Be more dedicated to the readings in class and avoid procrastinating on essays.

My computer skills include: Extended knowledge of Microsoft Word and Google Docs’ functions, such as accents.
I still need to learn: Lesser known shortcuts in Word and Docs.

My greatest strengths as a researcher/writer include: Synthesizing information from research into real world issues.
I need to work on these aspects of research and writing: Finding academic journals and learning to condense my writing by using less jargon.
I learn best & accomplish most when: I’m invested in my topic and find a plethora of new information from articles.

Printed Page & Silver Screen

My greatest strengths in Printed Page & Silver Screen include: My attentiveness while watching film, observation skills, and ability to deeply analyze a scene.
For greater success in this course, I need to: Articulate my analysis more clearly and include deeper observations.

My computer skills include: *same as rhet/comp*
I still need to learn: *same as rhet/comp*

My greatest strengths as a writer include: Ability to connect themes of literature and movies to scenes or characters introduced in the story.
I need to work on these aspects of writing: Going into more depth when discussing analysis of formal elements, such as shot composition.
I learn best & accomplish most when: I think about the overall meaning of the story for longer and clearly connect elements of the media to established theories.

History of Games

My greatest strengths in History of Games include: Ability to relate events in game development history among time.
For greater success in this course, I need to: Remember names of iconic figures and/or significant games.

My computer skills include: *same as rhet/comp*
I still need to learn: *same as rhet/comp*

My greatest strengths as a writer include: Ability to remember events and their significance within video game history.
I need to work on these aspects of writing: Synthesize historical events to motivations of the developers.
I learn best & accomplish most when: I get to hear about the video game business from the actual people that made the market, either in quotes or in-person.

Visual Studies

My greatest strengths in Visual Studies include: Application of art composition and color theory.
For greater success in this course, I need to: Dedicate more time to fine-tuning my pieces and creating new ones.

My computer skills include: Knowledge of Photoshop’s features.
I still need to learn: Other major image editing software and how to properly print certain materials.

My greatest strengths as a researcher include: My curiosity into experimenting with image editing software and with colors in my work.
I need to work on these aspects of research: Learning the differences between printing settings and remembering which ones to use.
I learn best & accomplish most when: I’m passionate about my art and working without procrastination towards editing my pieces.

Public Speaking

My greatest strengths in Public Speaking include: My animated, natural speaking voice and articulation.
For greater success in this course, I need to: Practice my speeches more often.

My computer skills include: *same as rhet/comp*
I still need to learn: *same as rhet/comp*

My greatest strengths as a speaker/writer include: My ability to speak with clarity and personality and to provide introspective speech content.
I need to work on these aspects of speaking and writing: The natural delivery of my gestures and lessening my pauses.
I learn best & accomplish most when: I have ample time to plan my speech’s high points.

Part 2: Action Plan for Rhetoric & Composition

  1. Spend more time researching my source material.
  2. Study academic writing with more dedication.
  3. Stop procrastinating on my papers for this class.
  4. Pay more attention to MLA citation rules.
  5. Spend more time proofing my essay.
  6. Highlight quotes in the source so I won’t lose the page number.
  7. Synthesize sources among each other instead of in isolation.
  8. Use less summary and create more analysis.
  9. Learn to take a less opinionated point of view.
  10. Learn to use Google Scholar more often.

Harmony Pt. 3- Hybrid (Photoshop)

October16

For the final set of collages, I really wanted to focus on taking advantage of the tools Photoshop provides to mesh the edits together into one cohesive vision. Like all my others collages, I like to play with colors and saturation. I’ve always had a fascination with the aesthetics from the seventies and the eighties because of how they used psychedelic and neon colors in tandem. I like how it contrasts with dark colors and shades of black/grey especially, it brings out the elements of both amazingly well. Instead of purely relying on surrealist imagery like my last few, for these collages I mainly drew my attention towards colors. It took me a while, but I found my comfort zone creating collages with color experimentation in mind. It’s oddly relaxing and also exciting to play around with the brushes and adjustments in Photoshop, so for these ones it felt natural to me when I was creating them. Unlike my last few where I sort of struggled to cut out elements to create a collage, I felt like I had more freedom in this project.

The golden realization for me was that I had severely impaired my photo work earlier in the semester by limiting myself to the side of South Congress that heads away from the capitol building. Once I ventured towards downtown, the locations were much more varied and provided me with excellent snaps that immediately clicked in my head for possible collages. Going down SoCo this way makes me eager to venture down again and keep taking photos or finding spots to make collages out of. I can reasonably see myself making collages as a stress-reliever in the near future due to this.

Edit 12/8/17: I removed the third collage due to the assets of the piece belonging to another artist. Their permission was not given to upload the piece as my own and I sincerely, deeply apologize. It was not my intent to plagiarize work from another student, I was completely unaware that the assets were theirs, but nonetheless, it was wrong to include it as one of my creative ideas.

 

Visual Studies Seminar Post #5: Upperclassmen Work and 4 Neat Websites

October13

Part 1: Visual Studies Senior Presenters

Last Friday, I noted on how informative and fascinating each presentation for the respective Visual Studies majors were. Graphic Design had a fascinating intro where the student accidentally discovered her dream major, a nice little reminder that great things can come from mistakes and an equally fascinating portfolio, showing off numerous pieces, published work, and opportunities. Photography provided excellent insight into the environments one will see taking the class, but also stressing the amount of diligence and patience it takes to manage a full-fledged career in photography. My favorite presentation by far was Fine Arts. The speaker was a little awkward, but, in my opinion, it added to the personality and humor. She clearly showed a before and after for her development as an artist, showing the shift from focus on shadows and color theory to exploring the abstract and colors by their element. There were many more opportunities than I projected to see coming out from her major, especially the work at a local organization, which resonates heavily with me. Unfortunately, I believe the presentation that was most lacking was, ironically, my own major, Interactive Games Studies. The speaker seemed very uncomfortable, deliberately used self-proclaimed poor examples when showing off her work, (even though I thought the Romeo and Juliet game had an interesting concept!), and then derailed from the major to discuss her art. Not that the content she provided was bad, I liked how she discussed her development as an artist, but only very briefly did she actually go over the opportunities given by the major and discussed the work entailed by her major, which was a simple, “You’ll be working for 12 hours in a lab” with no added commentary. If she discussed current projects it probably would’ve left a better impact since it would show her growth as a game developer, but she chose to show development as an artist and say how stressful game developing is, which just leaves me wondering why she stuck with a major it seems like she doesn’t have fulfilling experiences with instead of feeling excited for the classes and projects to come.

Overall, the presentations were fantastic and the speakers were mostly confident, but Interactive Games Studies’ negativity and lack of substance stood out like a sore thumb among the group, showing a significantly smaller portfolio than the others and feeling more like a rant about how game developers have to work constantly for little to no reward instead of an informative presentation about the classes and experience.

Part 2: 4 Interesting Websites!

For the 4 websites I’ve checked out, I stuck to artist portfolios/bios to fit the theme of portfolios given by the prompt and each link will redirect users to the main page of the website, if there are multiple pages.

  • Yul Moreau: http://y78.fr/

I chose Moreau’s page for two reasons, one, the 80’s synth aesthetic is incredibly done on the site and makes the scrolling feature much more stylized, creating an enjoyable experience in itself when browsing the portfolio. Two, the portfolio itself has a lot of unique, telling work. Particularly the game, the first project listed, stood out to me for its visuals and, from what I could gleam of the French I don’t speak nor read, its story. The 2 dimensional, postmodern simplified animation style goes nearly perfectly with a conformed, futuristic society.

  • Gisele Jaquenod: http://www.giselejaquenod.com/

Jaquenod’s page is just too dang adorable to pass up. Her art style is very pleasing to the eye and her personality comes off as very approachable. She puts a lot of emphasis on animals, from her theme to actual links to her pet cats, which I thought was an endearing touch to an already cute-loaded portfolio. Again, her art is high quality; her products have bunches of charm to them and her original blog themes have their own unique style that makes it a good purchase for those looking for an individual setup.

  • Javier Pineda: https://www.javierpineda-animation.com/

Pineda’s page is structured and organized well, having a preview strip of each of the projects and links designating original work, animations, and more. I was mainly drawn by the original animation styles; they were quite energetic and felt like they would look amazing in motion, but what caught my eye upon browsing was Pineda’s board work for hit animation shows The Simpsons and Dilbert. It’s certainly an impressive note to put on a portfolio and the boards themselves provide great insight into what went behind beloved scenes.

  • Stevan Zivadinovic: http://portfolio.hobolobo.net/

This final link is actually a personal connection! I’ve worked with Stevan before back in my hometown, where Say Sí is located, for a mentorship and helped his team out during PAX South to debut their students’ original game. I chose Stevan for that reason and also because his portfolio has a brilliant deadpan sense of humor that’s consistent through his titular webcomic series, Hobo Lobo of Hamelin, which is linked in his website. The comic has been put on indefinite hiatus, but the content that’s available is outstanding. By using an “infinite canvas,” parallax scrolling, and a sketchy, yet charming artistic style, the comic sets its tone well and mimics children’s picture books, just with more imminent doom and rat plagues.

Harmony Pt. 2- Digital

October9

These collages were significantly easier for me to create and compile, in my opinion. Not only was I allowed to use previous Gestalt photos to gather resources from, but I found new possibilities to work with via Photoshop. I have a fascination with color theory and utilizing complementary colors as well as expressing them through surrealism, so the ability to use the program to layer, edit, and saturate snips at will allowed me to freely express this desire. Like my previous set of collages, I focused primarily on pure instinct, cutting and placing elements where I felt they were supported the strongest. I do still have a comfort zone in tidiness and order in my pieces, so I wanted to subvert that by creating discord and uneasiness, but while still conforming to rule, i.e. the use of contrasting colors via following color theory.

Taking photos down South Congress is a new challenge for me, but I feel like it’s also growing on me. I’m starting to notice more element-worthy shots to take, how to frame pictures, and how to make an effective collage. Learning how to use Photoshop is an essential task for any artist, digital or traditional, and I feel I learned this while painstakingly compiling my works to be as they are.

Visual Studies Seminar Blog Post #4: Current Projects and Self-Critique

October6

Part 1: Collage Work

  1. What was the goal of the assignment? Or what was the question posed by this assignment?
    • This assignment asked me to find any kind of objects scattered throughout South Congress Street, collect them, then scan and cut up various pieces to create 2 collages. When creating the works, I was additionally tasked with thinking outside the box to create a surrealist, but visually appealing, work using the elements I had.
  2. How did you go about reaching this goal or answering this question?
    • I completed this assignment by picking up items I thought were interesting and provided a great deal of content to work with for a collage. For instance, I came upon 2 lottery tickets; which I felt were incredibly flashy and loaded with items to put onto a collage. Then, once I scanned and printed all the items, I cut and arranged them by instinct, keeping the layouts that I believed had pleasant structures and exciting placements.

Part 2: My After-Thoughts on the Project

For organizational sake, I will be self-critiquing the collage on the left. However, this self-critique could apply to my second one as well as this will be critiquing my collage creating skills.

  1. What is the strongest aspect of this work?
    • I think the strongest aspect of my work is the organization of elements- it seems chaotic, but it has a decent composition to it that leads the eye wandering on the piece.
  2. What is the weakest aspect?
    • Definitely what I consider the weakest aspect is the lack of overlap; it would’ve created more structure and made more interesting dynamics between the cuts.
  3. How can the project be strengthened conceptually?
    • Conceptually, I could’ve strengthened the piece with a backdrop picture or more cuts to make it more visually interesting. As it is, it feels more empty since I didn’t grab as many objects as I’d hoped.
  4. How can the project be strengthened technically?
    • Technically, I should’ve improved my pasting technique, since it looked very messy close up. Additionally, I think the aforementioned problem with emptiness is emphasized by my lack of experience in composition when in relation to collages. I did my best with the organizational composition, but didn’t consider how it could be different by overlap.
  5. Additional notes.
    • Collage work is very different from more traditional mediums like painting or penciling. I’ll have to rework my entire outlook on composing pieces to make a more effective collage.

Harmony Pt. 1- Analogue

October2

For the analogue collages, I really struggled to find proper items that would net me decent cuts, so the end result of this I feel is a testament to my ability to work with minimal resources and still succeed in the assignment. Admittedly, I wish my objects weren’t so small and that I could’ve found more, because I feel as if I could’ve limited the amount of white space in my collages, but I’m still satisfied with my result nonetheless. I mostly just cut elements that seemed fun to me and placed them in areas that compliment or contrast each other. There’s no theme in mind, but I see how my subconscious seeps through to organize each element amongst each other. I’m not very well versed in collages, so that’s another thing I think I could improve upon- making my collages less organized and narrative-based to focus on pure shape.

So far, I enjoy walking up and down South Congress, but it almost feels restrictive for me to only gather materials down the street. It’s suffocating to only be able to utilize resources from a single area, and one without much to work with to boot. I was much more comfortable taking photos in South Congress, and also feel more comfortable with the thought of being able to use photos for different collages. But, if there’s one thing the analogue collages are useful for, it’s teaching grit; being able to work with lesser resources and being restrained. It’s a helpful learning experience, despite my initial dislike for collaging and for the limit to one street. I feel that my final product here represents a culmination of my grit and resourcefulness.

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