Here is a link to the Culture Jamming Final Project. Enjoy!
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http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7968247
Xtranormal is really fun. I will use it so much more, I just know it, 
Most of what was said in our peer reviews were things we already discussed in our group before we went to break. All of us sat down and watched the draft all the way through and picked out parts that would be a bit hard to understand for the readers. It is a good thing that we have already addressed changing what our peers wanted changed because that shows that we are on the right path to creating a great piece of literature. Since we are already so in tune with our audience, there will be less of a struggle to make things work out in the long run.
One of the most intriguing comments that sticks out to me is the one to focus more on examining the commercial itself than the meme warfare. It would be a good idea to consider breaking down what the piece itself is saying and then introducing the meme war. While I like this idea a great deal, I think we are a bit pressed for time and that would be too much for us to do at this point. For now, I think it is best to continue on the path we set for ourselves before break and keep our nerves as calm as possible.
I have always been fascinated by different cultures and how a whole bunch of different ideas can exist in one set space and turn into a counter-culture. It was easy for me to pick a counter-culture project for this class because I realized that every type of media we are introduced to has some kind of counter-culture references. I wondered if anyone thought about why certain references were made multiple times and why some were very few and hard to find. I wondered if we even realized that counter-cultural references were being made in such high quantities around us.
I like pointing out what is right in front of people’s faces and this seemed like the perfect place to explore my ideas and see if they opened the eyes of my peers.
I chose to combing groups 2 and 1 when coming up with a final list of criteria. I like the openness of group 2′s list because it gives a general over view of what I should contain when going about my project. The way it is set up is easy to understand and I can get the gist of what is expected of me.
While I like how general group 2′s list is, I know that for a more complex project, I would want a more explained list to look at to make sure that at every point during the creating process I am doing what I am supposed to do. Group 1 did a great job of this. There is the general look at what I need, but then there is also an explanation of what each category needs.
Kairos
Kairos has very specific needs of the submissions it gets. This publication has a set purpose in making a name for multimedia and the editors wants to make sure that the people who want to submit to them know what they are getting into and what the publication expects from them. The submissions guideline and the about page for this site really go hand in hand. A writer would have to know a lot about Kairos to even begin to submit something to them, since the publication is so specific to new technologies and medias within scholarly work.
C&C Online
This publication is also trying to be media based, but it is a bit less strict than Kairos for what it will accept. While all text documents are still not accepted, it seems as if more pieces with lower quality medias will still be taken here. From reading the submissions guidelines for C&C, this looks like a good place to go if one is not sure of their web based abilities, but would like to learn how to get their foot in the door.
JUMP
JUMP is already different from the other two because it is geared towards undergraduate students. This means that there will more likely be a higher concentration of people who know how to deal with the internet and can move quickly with all the new changes that come along. This submission page had the least to say because everyone who will use it is almost expected to know how their media works and hand it in with those requirements. Also, since it is an undergraduate program with reflections involved the guidelines work better when they are wide open so they give students more room to be creative and explain their whole process instead of making them shrink down their work.
Pedagogue of Young Gods by Saul Williams
This is a spoken word piece that I had in my iTunes, but wanted to present as more than just a piece of music. The most I could find online was the “video” above that contains a picture of the album cover and the actual poem. I chose this “video” because I questioned what sort of medium it was. I have to put it through on this blog for instance as a video, but there are no moving pictures. But on the other hand the medium is still visual and audial, so does it really matter what the actual piece is called?
The more important reason I chose this piece is because it touches me so deeply every time I hear it. I am not a very religious person, but this poem is like praying for me. Saul talks about just letting go and opening up to the world no matter what situation that you’re in, and I think that every person on the planet could relate to what he is saying. There is no set audience for this piece, and that is why it is so beautiful.
Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie
I chose this piece 1.) because I could put it in the specific category of “video” and 2.) because stop motion is the most interesting form of video to me, especially when it is paired with music and telling a story. Stop motion takes the gestural to another level. The human eye is not used to seeing movements so jerky and out of place, but at the same time our minds can still put together a story and get something wonderful out of what we are seeing.
The audio in this video is a bit in the background. In fact it took me quite a few times of watching this to actually pay attention to what Oren Lavie was trying to get across with this video. And when I put all the parts of this video together, it’s really relaxing and it makes me smile to listen to it. I’m not really sure what the audience is for this piece. There isn’t a specific genre it belongs to.
Irony on the Beach Original Source Unknown (Found on Tumblr)
I LOVE this picture because it is one of those pictures that is specifically funny to my generation. Without knowing “txtspeak” this is just a picture of a warning sign. But with the knowledge of what “lol” means, this image becomes really funny. The two main components in this image are visual and written text. The interesting thing about this picture is that what used to be a visual, the sign for a drowning person, has been changed to a textual, lol, in the mind of the audience to make it funny. Another thing that makes this funny is that it says lol and then “call 911″, like you’re supposed to laugh first and then get help. Hilarious.
If I had to do the narrative over again, I probably would have put my thoughts together a bit more. I really didn’t know what to say about my experience, I just knew that I liked it a lot and wanted to talk about it. I think it really would have done me well to write down what I meant instead of just going at it…
But all in all I don’t think it will matter because my thoughts on all my different ideas change excitement level almost everyday, so if I do this again, the story might not even be the same and I’ll change it last minute like the first time.
The goals of this class are exactly what I thought they would be when I signed up for it. I knew we would be dealing with different modes of communication and media and trying to find a balance between the two. I can’t really say I was surprised by the goals themselves, but I was a little overwhelmed when everything was laid out to me on the first day. I guess it was just the fact of realizing how much I didn’t know and how much I had to accomplish over the semester that threw me back a little bit.
A great thing, though, is that I feel good about how I will be treated in this class. The fact the our professor is kind enough to not only know the struggle some of us will go through with some of these projects, but to help us as well, no matter how slow we may be going or how much trouble we may be having. It also put me at ease when our concerns and values about the class were taken into consideration and put on the syllabus. It made me feel like I was truly a part of the class and that my contributions, now and for the rest of the semester, will be valued.
Setting up this page was a little confusing for me, and is still giving me a few issues, but what I do have done, I like. I’ve got the blogroll and tabs for pages up for functionality in the class, but then I have things like the flickr and authors spots to add a little personality and color. I like the idea of having a blog for this class because it is truly something I can see my progress in. I know how helpless I am with blogs right now, and later down the line I feel like I will know so much more and laugh at the information I have now.
As far as projects go for this semester, I want to learn a lot about audio and video. I have seen that these two mediums have the most effect on people when trying to get a point across. I want to create something new and exciting with theses two mediums. Something that people have never seen before and will want more of. This may be a bit much to as out of the class right now, but I believe if I want it hard enough it will happen.
I am really looking forward to this class this semester because I feel that I will learn a lot, not just for my social life, but for my career as well.
