Final Project

From Ohio To Orlando

The Places We Travel

These Photos are taken by myself

Before making this project, I planned to make a project about my feeling of basketball, because I love playing basketball so much. Finally, I find it is hard to express my feeling, as it is too difficult and too abstract for me to express it in a interesting and unique way. So I decide to change my theme. Then I planed to make a project about my trip to NYC during Thanks giving holiday. But, all I did in NYC is shopping. There is no time for me to do some thing about art, and I am exhausted. The reason is that we  drive to NYC by ourselves and it takes us 9 hours on the road. Finally, I use face book to get some inspiration, I go through the photos I upload to face book. Suddenly, The photos I took at Orlando was beautiful. So I decided to use my trip to Orlando as my theme of the final project.

When I begin my project, I have to decide what strategies I could use to create my narrative. I went through the micro project I did this semester. I found that I learnt many skills from this course, such as photoshop manipulation, iMove editing and Garageband skills. Why do I use all the skills i learnt to create a project, which can fully reveal the ability I learnt from this couse. Thus, I decide to create a few separate works using different techniques and combine them together as a whole.

The first picture is a map, it clearly shows my travel path from Ohio to Orlando.I use photos to represent each city. These photos are symbol of each city in my opinion. For example, I use Ohio stadium to represent Ohio and the disney world to symbolize Orlando. The photo of the plane not only shows how we travel but also shows which airline company we choose. The second photo shows where we traveled in Orlando, I use photoshop to put these four photos into four round-edge squares. I think this layout clearly shows the places we traveled. The third photo is composed of four photos taken by myself. This is a more personal photo, it shows what we do in previous four photos. I use the style of jigsaw puzzle to express these four photos, as I think our memories are like jigsaw puzzle. When we recall something, what we got is just some separate scene. When we combine these separate scenes together, they become story.

In the fourth image, I use four photos of Disney castle I took in the Disney land when is there is a firework display. I love these photos best, as they are so beautiful. I think they are the best photos I took ever. Actually, it is hard to catch the firework, because the background is dark and the firework moves quick. At first I can't catch them by using the auto mode of camera.The photo I took is like this:

Finally, I adjusted the shutter and the diaphragm of the camera. And I took the photo of the firework successfully. I really like these photos and my friends also tell me these photos are beautiful. I am very proud of myself. 

The final piece of work is a video named fire work. I used the photo of fire work I took and the song "Firework" by Katy Perry to make this video. This is denotation. I also add some photos of smelling faces, just like the lyrics says " You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine/ Just own the night like the 4th of July/ Cause baby, you're a firework/ Come on, show em what your're worth.This is connotation. I try to use firework as a metaphor to tell everybody that they are special in their own way, just like how every firework has it's own different shape, color, ect. When I met difficulties, I will watch this video as this video gives me esteem and tells me do not be pessimistic about life. More importantly, this video makes me think of the happy memory.

MP 5

My action word is drop. The dictionary meaning of this word is let or make something fall vertically.
The object I choose is egg, as I like to eat them. I eat an egg everyday. In my opinion eggs are all fragile and if I drop them they will break very easily.  My idea is that how can I drop an egg without breaking it. So I designed an egg drop project.
Here are the steps:

Here is the video

Brain Storm

When I am thinking about my final project, I have no idea about it. There is no topic I really want to talk about. The  micro projets I did this semester were all assigned theme and with instructions. When doing a final project of what ever I want makes me mind goes blank.

Before I took this class, I have no idea about art. After taking this class, I learnt that art is everywhere and all I need to do is just to find it. I think about the half year time I spend in USA, and found that make a project about the trip to Orlando would be a good idea. I probably make video about this trip and use some photos took by myself. The night view of the castle was awesome, I still remember it until now.

Failure Statement

My biggest failure this semester is probably micro project 2. In this project I need to make a map that shows my unique journey to class. In this project, I take pictures of my way to classroom and put them on the google map. I try to use GPS tag to locate them on the google map automatically, but I failed to do that. I searched on google about how to do this, but it does not work. So I just put the picture on without GPS tag. I thought I could do better if I know how to do this. And this technique is interesting. If I acquire this technique, I could put all the photo I took on the map. When I look at the photo, I know exactly where I took them and which city I have travelled and which not. 

I keep trying to learn this technique. Finally I know how to do it. 

My biggest success this semester is micro project 4. In this project I need to manipulate the sound to give a sense of place in 1 minute. I use the sound on Lane Ave and add some special sound and manipulated them in garage band. When I listen to these sound I know I am on the Lane Ave and these sound are really interesting. The thing I learnt from this success is that art exists everywhere in our life. It is just outside and inside your house, all you need to do is to find it and show them to others in a particular way.

I would like to redo my micro project 2 if I could.  I would add GPS tag and try to reflect more elements about myself. Make it a more personal map.

Micro-Assignment 4, Identity and Sound (Can you hear it now?)

The place I chose is the W Lane Ave. This avenue is near my apartment and I need to cross this street everyday to go to school. This is a busy street with a lot of people and traffic. My normal activities in this place is waiting the traffic light. If I close my eyes, the sound of passing cars and horn of cars can let me know that I am in this place. I notice there are many car accident happens on this street.

Response to Carver “Cathedral”

This story is about a men who learns a lesson from a blind man, who is a friend of his wife. He learns that people should learn the world with their heart instead of judging the world simply by their eyes.At the beginning of the story, we can easily feel that Carver doesn't like the blind man. The writer doesn't use any word to express his dissatisfaction, but we can feel that from the words. For example, the writer do not introduce the name of the blind man, which shows his aversion of the blind man. However, the writer changed his view about the blind man after talking to him. He found that the blind man have clear eyes in his heart and he knows how to feel the world with his heart.

Two to three ten-second video clips with sound