Final Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5oOrYCm9MM

At first, I have no idea what should I do for this final project, but after looking at all the photos in my iPhone, I decided to use those photos to make a short video to document my life in OSU.  Since I bought my iPhone just before I came to the USA, so all of the photos in my iPhone were taken since I entered in OSU.  It is like my iPhone accompanied me, experience my university life together with me and document my life for me.   Before I started this project, I think this could be a review of the passing year in OSU, which will be extremely precious and meaningful to myself, so I was very passionate about this project.  

Then I started to make this short video.  When I chose photos from my photo album, I feel like I was looking back my passing year.  And I smiled when I looked at some pictures.  Also, I categorized them into my first Halloween, my first Black Friday shopping, I went back to China during winter break and my grandma's birthday, I traveled to Orlando in spring break, my dad came to OSU visit me as well as my 20th birthday.  I wrote some key words to introduce each picture.  I really enjoy in making this project, this project makes me think my life in OSU is not that boring, and it is kind of unique and interesting.  I also chose a song named “Journey” as my background music; I think this song is very appropriate here, because my study abroad experience is really a exciting journey.

When I completed this project, I am very proud of it.  I like to share it with my friends.  And I really like the last picture which is a line “to be continued…”, and the background music fitted very well here.  I think this is also fill the requirement “Please remember that you need not know how the narrative ends, just how it begins”.  After all, I believe this short video is not just for this course’s final, but also for myself.  I will be very happy that I made such a video when I graduate.   

Final Project- for Thursday Nov.29

Failure Paper

My biggest failure in this semester was I did not communicate with other students except my two friends.  When you ask us to share our opinions about the articles we read or the videos that we just saw, I just shared my opinion with my two friends, and I never shared my opinion with other students.  Also I did not make any new friends in this class.   I learnt I should share my opinions with more students from this failure, and maybe ask their opinions about my projects, and other people’s opinions can give me more ideas and improve my future projects.  Look back all of my micro projects, and I think my biggest success is micro project 3.  I used Photoshop to put my seven personal items’ pictures in a backpack, I carry all of them everyday but I never notice them before.   I did not notice my other personal items before I did this project, but after it, I began to notice small things that around me, including those things that are always there but I never noticed.  If I can redo one project, I would redo the micro project 4.  I think I did not put all of my effort in that micro project.  I simply recorded different sounds and put them together.  If I could redo this project, I would think it deeper and make it interesting.  I would make it longer, record more sounds in the coffee shop and even some little conversations and use garage band to repeat some sounds to make my project diverse and interesting.

Blog 10 Brainstorm for final project

The final project's topic is narrative.  At first I thought I can narrate Black Friday shopping, from my last year's experience, Black Friday is crazy.  People will wait outside the stores and wait for them to open.  And the stores usually have super attractive deals, like AF had 50% off last black Friday, and it opened at 12:00am.  All of those people are crazy.  Then I looked at my cell phone try to find the pictures that I took at last year's black Friday.  However, when I looked at my cell phone's album, I found I have taken more than 800 photos, and most of them were taken since I came to the United State, and I realized I have came to the United State for more than one year, so I came up with a better idea, which is I can do this project to narrative my one-year study abroad experience.  It will include the pictures of my dorm, my first pumpkin carving, my first Black Friday, I went back to China during winter break and my grandma's birthday, I traveled to Orlando in spring break, my dad came to OSU visit me, my 20th birthday and so on.  But I do not know if it okay to use old pictures to do this project.  After all, I believe this project would be great!

MP5

My word: heap

The project I choose is my clothes.  I wear my clothes everyday, and clothes are easy to alter, so I did not think about it too much when I picked it.  Then I looked up the word "heap" in dictionary, it means accumulate, gather, and load.  After thinking about my word's meanings, I came up with an idea, which is I can heap my clothes together into a pattern.  I have many clothes with different colors and patterns, so I thought heap them together maybe an interesting way to express the word.  I decided to shape my clothes into a heart.  I put my sweater in the bottom, then I heaped my shirts on the top of sweaters to make my pattern looks colorful and nice.  

MP4

The place I choose is a spot on campus where I usually pass when I walk to classroom.  It is a crossing between Central Classroom and Oxley's Cafe.  I have Art Education 2520 every Tuesday and Thursday, and the previous class ends about half an hour before Art Education class starts, so I usually spend that time in that place.  Normally, I will buy a cup of hot chocolate in the Oxley's Cafe and sitting on the chairs outside for a while, chatting with friends, watching people walking around and hearing waiter call customers' name to serve coffee.  It is usually 9 o'clock in the morning, so there are only few people outside, but more people are waiting in the line to buy a cup of coffee in the Oxley's Cafe.  I also noticed there are several squirrels near the tree, and the birds are singing.  If I close my eyes, I will know I am in this place by hearing waiter calling customers' names to serve coffee and birds sing, and I have recorded pieces of these sound in my work.

This is the URL for my MP4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XYytyZRGso&feature=youtu.be

Blog 9: Response to Carver R "Cathedral"

I just finished reading the short story called Cathedral, which is kind of long for me, but this story is interesting.  The story was about a blind man called Robert came to visit the narrator's wife, and the narrator was unhappy at first.  However, when his wife fall asleep, and there was him alone with Robert.  He tried to describe what he saw in the television to Robert, but he cannot say a word about what Cathedral looks like, then Robert told narrator to hold his hand and draw it.  Robert told the narrator to close his eyes when they were drawing, and the narrator said he felt something else and he would like to keep his eyes close for a little longer.  The narrator experienced something differently when he closed his eyes, I guess it is inner peace, he can feel he was in his home.

However, I am still a little bit confused about the story.  Why did the writer name this article "Cathedral" which Cathedral appeared very late in this article. Also, this story seems have no end to me.  I can only guess what will going on after the narrator open his eyes and what will he say to Robert.