Medium Specificity

I am comfortable with photography; however, that comfort comes from trust in myself, rather than my instrument. I have taken classes and studied other photographers’ work in order to arrange my subjects, manipulate light, and edit my photographs with appropriate software. Having worked as a photographer in both amateur and professional settings, I didn’t believe there was much for me to explore in this field. However, I used this project as an opportunity to rely on my camera. I set the shooting mode to a continuous frame, meant for sports or fast movement, and did nothing else to adjust the camera’s automatic settings. I directed my friends to play in the snow, and I followed them with my finger down on the shutter button. I did not look through my viewfinder, I did not set up shots, I did not offer direction to the subjects—I just allowed the camera to capture them.

I feel fortunate to have had this new perspective on camera work. In comparison to the two staged photographs on the blog, the other photos captured real emotion. People put on a different face when they know a moment is intentionally being frozen in time. By keeping the camera lowered, I photographed without creating pressure and ended with photographs that, while being out of focus and poorly framed, show joy, love, friendship, and fun. I was overjoyed to find that art does not only occur because of the micromanagement of an artist, especially when portraying real lives. 

Full album: https://goo.gl/photos/RFsDPHeCp3nHYd7Q7

Digital and Social Media Adaptation

Please follow link to a pinterest board :)

https://www.pinterest.com/empicks/ode-to-an-orange/

I feel like this is a great way to allow students to connect to something unfamiliar, like a literary text, through a medium they are comfortable with. What I liked best about this form is that we had to think about what the short story was saying and tell that same story. It would have been easier to illustrate the action with pictures or film a reading, but the jump to adding another level with the same story is what made the project unique and the application very helpful.

I would love to use this kind of project with my students. Furthermore, I would love to have them use their own social media accounts so that their work would be available to friends, followers, subscribers, etc. Their work would become more meaningful to them and would provoke thought as others could like, share, and comment on their work.

Thinking and Writing About Digital Media

As a Millennial, I spent my formative years trusting that the answers to any of life's questions could be found on a computer. This belief intensified as I entered adulthood and obtained a smartphone, meaning that the endless resources of digital media all fit in my pocket. I love the stories told through movies and long form television, so I am often drawn to Netflix and similar sites. I use Facebook to remain semi-informed on the lives of friends who live far away and the current events posted to my news feed (the only source of news that I consume, as I avoid newspapers and news sites generally) and Instagram to stay connected to my family, who all post there regularly. I turn to Pinterest often for creative ideas and new recipes.  

On the whole, I believe that my interaction with digital media is about satisfaction. If I want to know something, I only need to google it or ask Siri. Often, I won't read the entire article or page that is suggested. I scan through until I find out what to know and then I move on. For this reason I loathe news videos--they talk too slowly and I can't skip to the essential information. If I want to alleviate boredom, I usually open Facebook or Instagram and allow my mind to shut down a little as I scroll through other people's lives. Since a large portion of my friends on Facebook are people I knew in high school or people who friend requested me after my mission in Honduras, I don't know exactly who most of them are anyway. I would minimize my friend count, but removing friends en masse is the most inconvenient function on Facebook. My husband also taught me his trick of opening the "Videos You May Like" tab on Instagram, which also serves for temporary mindlessness. It worries me that what I require to be satisfied is a high mental stimulus in order to produce a very low mental response, like I am practicing shutting my brain off. Yet that seems to be the goal of a majority of the digital media I have encountered. 

This said, I am grateful for a religious upbringing that encouraged personal integrity, and has enabled me to avoid media that would prove detrimental. I know that my students' media consumption will probably be greater than mine, so I hope to help them establish their own standards for what they will allow on their phone or computer screen and what they will scroll past. Moreover, I hope to help my students understand the practice of meta-cognition. As I become more dependent on digital media, I lose my ability to focus on real life conversations, like college lectures or even conversations with friends. I predict this problem will only worsen for my students. I hope to help them to put their phones down and interact more with their physical circumstances than with the virtual world.