Remediation and Film

     I picked the film chapter because I knew it would interest me and I believed I could understand what it was about.  Thankfully I was right, and this chapter was actually interesting and made sense.  This is what I learned from my chapter.
     Hypermediation was prevalent in early animated movies because of the lack of visual aids.  It wasn't like people were watching the movies and felt like they were really feeling it.  At he same time the strong human connections and the emotions that heartwarming movies like "Snow White" and "Dumbo" evoke brought some transparency to the movies as well.  Later on when films like "Beauty and the Beast" came out and digital animations looked like live action film, they became very transparent because it wasn't only the emotions that the movies had, but they matched it with good cinematography.
     Movies operate under a specific transparent immediacy that Bolter and Grusin call the "Hollywood Style".  In a good movie we see events take place and consider them to be a natural occurrence.  Whether or not these events would happen in real life isn't the question, but if the movie makes the audience believe what they are seeing then they are making the movie transparent.  On the flip side, when a movie has a scene or a camera angle that is too weird or unnatural, the film looses transparency and the audience becomes aware of the film as a medium.
     There are times in a movie or a scene in which the film calls for hypermediation.  In scenes of movies (in particular earlier movies) where the character is experiencing a dream or a mental disorder the camera may show things in a disoriented view, and when a character is in perfect balance and everything is ok, the camera would go back to it's normal way of viewing things.  This concept is a very intentional one, and the intentions of it are clear; the audience will come out of the transparency and see that something is different about the scene that is unfolding.
     There is another scenario that looks at hypermediacy and transparency that mixes the two together.  In fact, the line becomes blurred because in this scenario, the film has computer graphics that aid live action.  This interesting combo walks the line between the two.  On one hand the director wants the audience to be visually impressed which leans closer to hypermediacy.  On the other hand, the director wants the graphics to be credible and that leans closer to transparency.
     Finally the last point that the chapter makes is the idea that plots of a movie are all well and good, but sometimes all it comes down to for a movie to be transparent or not is the cinema of attractions.  If the audience is emerged in what they are seeing on the screen with car chases that feel like they are present in the car, or roof dangling scenes in which it seems as if they are about to fall, then the level of transparency grows.
     Transparency requires hypermediacy and vice versa.  When you watch a scene from a movie and it seems real to you then it is transparent, but when you break it down the moment following your observance and realize you've been fooled that moment requires hypermediacy.

Remediation Project

For my project I choose a project from my 2D design class.  Initially in this class I thought I would be doing a lot of drawings, but as it turned out I ended up doing a lot of hands on work like the one I'm about to talk about.  So for this project we were told to "Make our Face" and other than a few restrictions we didn't get a lot of instruction.  I was pretty dumbfounded at first on what to do, but after some thought, I came up with the idea to make my face out of two things that I love; tootsie rolls and starbursts.  It was a unique idea, but I was willing to try it out.
I think that my remediated version of this project can be some sort of a photo story of my project.  I'm not sure if I will do simply a photo gallery with captions, but I think it could be interesting if I could put the pictures I have on a video and overlay it with my voice.  The only thing that makes me hesitate this idea would be the ability to do it because I haven't done it before and I don't know if I have the right software for it.  Either way, that is my idea.
This project would be very hypermediated.  It is a step by step process and i'm looking to inform the audience of a process that I took.  It will be broken down into steps and it will not be transparent.  The different mediums I will use will be images for sure, and maybe video and maybe sound depending on figuring how to do a voiceover.
I think my key primitive is illustration because that's what my project depicts.  It's an illustration of my process and how I made my project happen.  The pictures will provide the visual element and my voice will illustrate how it relates to the process.

Saco River Project and Omeka 3

I had difficulty choosing my last exhibit, but what I ended up doing was showing UNE's involvement with the project.  Obviously they were with the project all the way, but I had a few items that showed who and how they made it happen.  I also added how they informed people about the project via flyers, posters, etc, and what kind of feedback that students have gotten.
All together this project was a success, but is still a work in progress.  We have a total of 199 items on our site and that is more than I ever thought we would have, but there is so much more that this project has to offer.  Somewhere down the road this Omeka project could be picked back up and taken to another level, but our part is taken care of.  We provided a base and a solid foundation for what this project includes, what sorts of species live in and on the river, where the river is located, and even given added some of its history.  When you look at the project as a whole we've done a lot and it feels good to make a contribution.
Omeka was a great site to use, and after learning the ways around the site, it was easy to add things to collections and exhibits.  I wouldn't hesitate to use Omeka in the future if the opportunity presents itself.

Saco River Project and Omeka 2

As we continued along in the Omeka project we all were experimenting with all of the Omeka features and I think we all understood a lot about it, but there were still things I hoped to learn.  I learned how to make a collection and how to put my items in it, and I learned how to embed videos into the site.  My biggest current issue is how to get the videos I put on the sample pages of our site into collections or exhibits.  I tried a few ways, but it doesn't look like an option.
Another project within the project I have to work on is my exhibit.  I'm not sure what I would like to exhibit from the project, and I know I have to get it done soon.  I'll continue to work on looking at what I have and seeing what kind of exhibit makes sense.

Saco River Project and Omeka

Right from the start we all divided into groups to decide who would work on what for the project.  I was happy to find out that I got the publications and the media part of the project because that is what caught my eye first.  Although I didn't have a partner to work with, I was still happy with the results.  In the beginning of the project we all got straight to work adding items and filling out the dublin core for each of them.  This took some getting used to, but it wasn't difficult work.  My first problem that I came across was with the file size limit.  I had items that were far larger than the 2MB I was allowed and I couldn't put certain items on the site.  Thankfully this was resolved and now the file size limit is 100MB.
When we went to the Mcarthur Library I was able to help out other people with their projects, and I believe that if I need help later down the line, I will have plenty of classmates willing to help me.

Omeka

The collection I chose to examine was Hero's and Villains: Silver Age Comics.  Out of the selection of Omeka collections this particular one looked fun and I wanted to know more about it.

The collection is broken down into six different tabs: About the Exhibit, Comics Timeline, Browse Exhibits, Browse Collections, Browse Items, and Resources.  About the Exhibit gives the viewer a small description as to why the collection happened and has a video to go with it.  Comics Timeline goes through the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, and the Modern Age and tells us what was going on in the world and how it affected comics as well as when super heros made their first appearances.  The browsing options make it easier for a visitor to find what exactly they're looking on the site.

With this site you can search for your favorite superhero and find a list of comics they were in and discover a history of when they were created.  For example, when I looked up Iron Man, I found six different covers of Iron Man, each of which tells me the title, a description, the publisher, coverage, etc.

Ecoding experience

After my first night of TEI, I was wondering if I could finish the leaf.  I don't know if it was reading Thoreau's scribble or all the symbols associated with TEI, but I was exhausted.  GIMP was a great source to use because of it's abilities, but I still couldn't read a good amount of the words, and the different codes to remember was just too much.  I had to take several breaks throughout the process because I just couldn't focus on the project.  When all was said and done, I had many errors in my encoding, but it was just a first draft.

When I went to class on Monday, I learned about a few more tricks that could help me out with my leaf, and I was feeling a little more optimistic.  Probably the biggest help was the reading document that was provided to us in dropbox.  When I went home and started to read some of the document, I realized that I had seen a lot of the same sentences in my encoding, and all of a sudden, the words that were at first "illegible" became very much legible.  This document changed the project for me and suddenly I was picking up steam and reading Thoreau's handwriting much easier.

As far as the encoding goes, I learned something new about it each class.  The first class I learned the basics(which wasn't quite enough).  The class following that, I learned a lot more about adding things to the encoding, and that is also when I discovered the reading doc.  Last class I got a better grasp on strikethroughs and deletions as well as metamarks.

I'm fairly confident that I did well on this project.  I know I'm just a beginner in text encoding, but with the pieces of advice that I got, I was able to produce something that shows my comprehension.

Skype Conference with Paul Schacht

   The Skype conference with Paul Schacht was very cool.  This was the first time that had ever used Skype for a conference or a learning purpose, and it's actually an effective tool.  Paul had a lot of good things to say and having him in our class helped because it put another perspective on the project getting started on.

   Based on what Paul said it sounds like the available online material about Thoreau is limited, and by doing a project like this, it will provide countless opportunities for Thoreau scholars who would like more than juts pdfs and boring html.  Paul said that the Internet allows putting text out there in all it's fluidity and incorporates a narrative of changes.  Reading the many different revisions of Walden side by side will lead to plenty of research and discoveries that scholars may have never noticed.  They can also look at Thoreau's edits and sometimes determine his mood or intent, and that is pretty incredible.

   Paul said that in the next few years they hope to add more texts to "Readers Thoreau" and foster discussion on Walden and other texts.  The discussion's would be monitored but with the limited audience they wouldn't have to worry about "trolls" but they would have to keep an eye on scholars jumping down other scholars' throats.

   Overall this meeting we had with Paul was beneficial for me and I think for the class.  He is obviously passionate about what he does and he had all the answers to our questions.  I can only hope I like this project as much as he does when all is said and done.

TEI

After reading about The Text Encoding Initiative I get a better understanding of the origin of text encoding and how it is funded.  What interested me most, however, was more closely related to how text encoding is done and what is necessary when encoding text.  The boring parts of this chapter for me were when Cummings talked about why the TEI came into existence and what the guidelines were all about.  I think I'm starting to understand digital humanities a little better so the reason behind starting text encoding was already partly understood for me.
What did surprise me was that according to TEI guideline number 8, they still encourage funding agencies for support.  I guess it doesn't surprise me they encourage support, but what surprises me is that they need the support, but I guess that's what happens with non- profit organizations.  It's just that the TEI seems to be very helpful and I would think that many organizations involved in the humanities or literature would want to fund a program like this. I think that text encoding could be very cool and possibly a useful tool to have in the workforce.

DH Chapter Assignment

The chapter that I read was “Handholding, Remixing, and the Instant Replay: New Narratives in a Postnarrative World” by Carolyn Guertin.  First I would like to explain why I choose this chapter.  Unlike some of the other options for chapters we could read, I felt like I might connect with this one more.  Based on the title and my first impression of the chapter, I thought that it might have something to do with sports instant replay, music, or video games and I was right.  But how do these topics relate to The Digital Humanities?  Aren't they forms of entertainment that don't require much analytical thought? Maybe on the at first glance that's what they appear to be, but when you look at the technology and capabilities that surround these subjects, you soon discover that they are much more than that.

I'll start by talking about the instant replay.  In sports, instant replay allows fans, commentators, and officials to look back at a play and see how it happened or developed.  In this chapter instant replay doesn't mean watching if a football player's feet was in bounds during a catch, but instead it brings up the fact that "replaying" moments is a big part of the new kinds of narratives that are present in our digital culture.  With all the born digital narratives, it’s easy to follow links to other readings while interacting with one narrative and then returning to the text a second or third time.  After reading the text again or “replaying” it in your mind, it alters your understanding of the meaning of the text because it’s a different experience from the first time.

Music also plays a role in this chapter, but it’s not like I initially thought when I saw remixing.  Actually it’s less about music and more about sounds in general.  For example Juliet Davis’s work “Pieces of Herself” was a digital program that allowed the user to drag items from different rooms in a woman’s house onto her body, and the program would respond with a dialogue on topics like “consumerism, feminist politics, and other situated issues relevant to women’s lives and domestic space” (Guertin 235).  In the 70s, when the technologies came out to break music down into multiple tracks, it made easier the manipulation of threads.  In turn, these technologies made it easy to adjust the volume, delete tracks, or add new ones.  Depending on who was tinkering the music, they could make a much different sound from another listener.  It is this same concept that allows softwares such as “StorySpace” produce a novel that changed every time it was read.

Video games and interactive digital narratives were talked about most in the chapter.  There were several digital programs that allowed the viewer to experience something unlike anything they had ever experienced.  What sounds to be one of the most intricate games (if that's even what you call this) is called "Glide."  To understand Glide you must know that it is made up of several different worlds.  it has a digital game interface called the Collabyrinth, downloadable fonts, an interactive visual lexicon resembling a spiders web, and a print based novel called "The Maze Game" which explains the rules of the world and the language to us"(Guertin 239).  Yes that is a lot of information packed into one game. This world would mean nothing to someone who hadn't read the novel, and took the time to learn the ways of the game and connect to it.  Sort of similar to this is a game called "Spore" and in that game you also have another world at your finger tips, but in this one, you can shape it and control it.  In Spore, you create an organism and develop it through generations while helping it evolve in the process.  You must adapt to the climate and environment your in, and learn to be the hunter, not the hunted.  Both of these examples leave the door wide open for hours of exploring new territory for these types of games, and although I only gave two examples, there were a lot more worth reading about or experimenting with inside the chapter.

At the very end of the chapter the Nintendo Wii gets brought into the picture and throughout the chapter that was one of the devices that reminded me some of the things I was reading about.  Clearly this chapter could be another 10-20 pages long if it was up to date because some of the digital advances in technology that have been made are incredible.  The newest technology isn't the Wii remote anymore, now it's the xbox kinect, where your whole body doing the work in front of a sensor.  All of the newest digital media tools are at our fingertips with our ipods and ipads and iphones.  I believe that this topic will continue to be an exciting one for years to come.

First Impression of Digital Humanities

After reading the three assigned articles from The New York Times 2010 Humanities series I now have a much better grasp on what I think digital humanities are.  They exist because of new technology and people who think efficiently and embrace new things.  The very first thing that I understand from digital humanities is that it is still a relatively new term.  These articles came out in 2010 and each one of them discussed a developing process that could have never happened several years ago, but is now happening through the use of digital technologies.
Another big thing that I have come to understand is that digital humanities have a wide variety of topics.  What I mean by that is in one of the articles it talked about scholars recreating landscapes while in another it talked about the public helping to transcribe papers written long ago.  There are underlying themes in both of these examples since both look to help explain history, and it shows that the digital humanities have a lot to offer.
As my Digital Humanities class continues, I will have a better grasp as to what I might expect in the future and hopefully now I will be even more prepared.