Saturday, December 15, 2012

FEATS OF WISDOM! # [1]

Reciters: Sarah Gutierrez and Amanda Arnold    Camera Men: Ryan Nguyen and Will Veroski








Thursday, December 13, 2012

Fall Semester Reflection

Do you read your colleagues’ work online?  How often? What is it like to read their work? How does being able to see everyone’s work online at any given time change the way you do your work?

-I do read my other colleagues work online maybe 4-8 times a week. The way it changes my work is that I’m able to compare their ideas to mine and possibly look at the assignment in a different way because of their understanding of it.

How has the publicly and always visible course blog made this course different from one without a blog?  How would the course change if the course blog disappeared tomorrow?

-The blog has enlightened me in the sense that I thought that it would be the same as just writing out my paper and handing it in like my other teachers without blogs that can only lecture us at one given point during the day while Dr. Preston gives us information outside of class time that is relevant to the course. If the course blog were to disappear then I would probably flip my computer because of all of the blog work I have done. I would have no idea what to do, and I think that Dr. Preston would go back to our old ways of writing on the board like how Sophomore year was and we’d be taking some steps backward.

Has publishing your work for the public to see changed your approach to completing an assignment? How so?  How would your feelings about the course change if you couldn’t publish your work that way?

 -Publishing my blog for the public has made me more aware of the fact that people are viewing my work. I have to have more integrity in order to complete these assignments to my fullest capabilities because everyone is viewing it and seeing my standards. If I couldn’t publish my work that way I feel like I’d be wasting a lot of paper for all those assignments.

Has your experience of the physical classroom changed because of the open & online aspects?  Where does your learning actually happen? 

 -My view of the physical classroom has not changed because I still believe that all the real magic happens there because I can hear more perspectives and be able to ask direct questions with an automatic response. However, I do think that all my actual learning happens when I’m comparing my points with other students by viewing their blogs online.

You were described in the Macarthur Foundation/DML  interview as “a pioneer”— how do you describe the experience on the edge to people who haven’t been there (friends and family)?

 - This class is not for people who think they can get by by just doing the work and posting it on the blog, you need to be active in making sure you help make a better understanding of the assignment. You need to take the assignment beyond the average because DP is expecting so much of us.
 However, if you want to try to hack the curriculum with us there is plenty of room for success and collaboration is open-source learning in which everyone helps each other out.

How do they respond when you describe the brave new world in which you’re working?

-Whenever I tell my mom about whats going on in this class she’s always assuming that I just slack off and that there’s just assignments posted online. When I showed her she was highly impressed with how all of the students were learning as a whole instead of being on their own time in a dark room with a big ass textbook.

What do their responses mean to you?  What effect(s) (if any) do they have on you?

-I think it shows them how innovative and creative the youth actually is, we play a big part in society and the adult-half of society thinks that its like pulling teeth to get us to learn when in all reality we can show them something new like this course. I feel like my confidence is boosted based on how much I impress people with our new way of learning.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

No Exit Remix (Final Project)

Estelle by Brenna McNamara

Garcin by Ian Janssen

Inez by Brittany Cunningham


The Torture Begins. In this photograph I want to show Estelle (left) breaking their agreement to stay silent as she is asking Garcin (center) for some sort of object that has a mirror.

I am Your Mirror. In this scene I wanted to show Inez (front right) putting on Estelle's (far left) makeup in order to persuade her, but torture by saying  lies about her face. Then I wanted to show Garcin (far right) trying to evade the discussion they were having.

Stories of Hell's Prisoners. In this scene I wanted to show Estelle's (far left) frustration of telling her story and how she didn't want to reveal the truth, but Inez (far right) is smiling at the fact that she is torturing someone.

Dead Already. In this scene it shows Estelle (far left) about to stab Inez (far right), but Inez seems to be confused because their is no point in stabbing her when they are dead already causing Estelle to feel the reality of the situation.
No Exit. This photograph does not go in sequence with the rest but I wanted to do an overall shot of how I would interpret No Exit.
In this assignment I wanted to inspire everyone to start remixing assignments so that they can learn better. I feel now that I know No Exit better now that I have reinterpreted it in a way that I love. Having to go through the tedious steps of  picking out scenes that I feel are vital to the play, I now know the play like the back of my hand. So the overall point of my assignment was to remix the play in a way in which I can understand it better, and it also corresponds with my intended major of photography.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Literature Analysis #5: No Exit by Jean-Paul Satre

GENERAL
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

 -In this play Satre interprets Hell as the torturers being other people through his characters Garcin, Estelle, and Inez. The three of them are all in Hell because of something awful that they have done and they wind up driving each other crazy by the end of the story. Because it is in the form of a play and there is hardly any stage direction, Satre fulfills his purpose of getting to know the characters at the same pace they do which kinda keeps you on the edge of your seat while you're reading along.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

 -The theme of the novel is that Hell is other people. When each of the women first arrive they think that Garcin is the torturer, but he explains to them that he is not. However in reality they are all each others' torturers because since they are locked up in the room they have to deal with each other and how much they hate the personalities of each other.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

 -The author's tone throughout the play is kind of torturous because throughout the course of the play we see that things become worse and worse, and that is all we are still reading for. Hell interests people whether they believe in it or not because people want to understand the possibilities that could happen after life.

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

 -Irony: In the beginning of the play when all of the characters first meet they think that the torturer is in the room, but Garcin explains each time when Inez and Estelle come in that he is not the torturer. The ironic part of it all is that he and the others are the torturers. Ultimately making Hell other people.

 -Pacing: I like the fact that we don't have a sense of time that has gone by in the story because we don't know if this whole play has been going on for minutes, hours, days, years, etc.It's kind of interesting because when they decide to just sit in their corners and not talk to each other, how long did that really last?

 -Setting: The lack of a setting works really well because as a reader you have to really use your imagination to help attain a setting and I think that's where Satre really gets his goal of making people think what would Hell really be like.

 -Characterization: Because there is no direct characterization, readers have to do a lot of their own analysis of the character because there are no details in which we can pick up what they look like, but through dialogue you can find that each of the characters are basically awful human beings (why they are in Hell).

 -Dialogue: Plays are all about dialogue so through this we have to interpret practically everything since stage direction is only used maybe once or twice throughout the whole play.

 -Symbolism: The room represents Hell itself in which the three characters torture each other with their company. "Hell is other people."

 -Conflict: The conflict is the characters themselves because they are causing problems for one another, but will never be able to leave. They provide conflict for each other and can not get away from it so their is never really and resolution.

CHARACTERIZATION
 1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

 -In No Exit there are no direct characterizations because of the fact that it is a play and Satre left it up to interpretation by not giving hardly any stage direction. An example of indirect characterization is having to learn who the characters are through the dialogue, like in the beginning we learn that Garcin finds himself of a higher status because he is making rude remarks on behalf of where he is living (sorry Garcin, this is Hell not Trump Tower). Another indirect characterization is when Estelle asks for something with a reflection so she can look at herself because she is vain.

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

 -The author's syntax and diction does not change throughout the play because all of the characters seem to be discussing things in the same manor to the way get upset to the way they just sit and don't do anything.

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

 -I don't think that any of the characters in the play are changing so they all are static because all of them are completely stubborn and probably figure why change when their fate is set in stone, there's no second chances after Hell. All of their characters are flat characters in the beginning, but by the end of the play they are round characters because we finally understand their personality.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.

 -I don't feel like after reading this play that I have met a real person, but read a character because even though the characters were realistic I couldn't focus on the reality of them when the whole story was Sci-Fi and it wasn't long enough to get a grip or connection with the characters.