Last couple week's photos

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Book and Newspaper--sound project with photos

Analysis of own sound project

When I first received the assignment, I was nervous as to how I was going to portray events that were over 20 years in the past and in a different setting than what is readily available to me. Through some scrounging of old photos and luck with the melting of the snow, I was able to patch together some type of successful visual for the featured story while still maintaining the mystery by not showing a literal reenactment. I think my piece is successful in that it shows the love I have for my parents despite their quirks and the important relationships I have with them. Though they are opposites, they complement each other and provide me with plenty of stories about "the old days".

There are some things that frustrate me, however. My father's narrative fades in and out despite hours of normalization and playing with the sound balance. The tone quality of his voice is also quite schizophrenic and it bothers me. Upon watching the finished product, I realize that some ambient sounds were lost along the way, such as my father's shout of "hey what are you doing!" in the turning point of the story, a detail I didn't catch until just recently. I also would have liked to employ a Ken Burns effect on the old pictures to distinguish them from the modern ones.

All in all, despite the flaws, I am fairly pleased with the final result. I wanted to capture the essence of my small, three-person household and I think I was successful. In the end, that's really what the story's about anyway. I could have chosen any number of my parents' stories and still would have come out with the same message at the end. I still haven't shown this to my father, but I'm hoping he'll see it as a symbol of my understanding and acceptance of his introverted nature.

ok the order of these goes bottom to top. I tried to implement as many of the techniques I learned in the book as possible, but my knowledge of this stuff still feels a little scattered, especially with the layout rules and everything. I made a mock mailer for the Lenni Lenape festival I attend every year.

There Cannot Be a Sea

I wish this picture could be bigger but nothing else will fit. You get the general idea. Anyway, This poem "There Cannot Be a Sea" is by 2oth century Vietnamese poet Lam Thi My Da. It was written during the Vietnam war and translated for American audiences. I love the imagery in this poem and wanted to represent it true to Vietnamese tradition in art. The poem was intended to communicate the beauty of the Vietnamese people and culture and that's what I hope to achieve. I researched traditional Vietnamese art and found that they prefer to work off of dark canvases and that tapestries are a royal luxury and cultural expression. I was going for a rich, antique feel with lots of curves and movement.

word visualization: cobra

SEE NO, HEAR NO, SPEAK NO

For the self-visualization triptych, I wanted to use the old adage "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil". In my life I often turn my attention away from things that remind me of obligations I have and stressful things around me. I put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed and it can sometimes become overwhelming. I wanted to put a twist on the theme, however, by making "speak no" different. Whereas the others represent outside influences, I wanted "speak no" to represent all the inspiration I having blooming and boiling inside. Just as I am restricted by what others show and say, I am restricted in what I can express because I do not yet have a steady outlet for all my ideas.