Week Ten- This is the End

The last Screencast and entry for this course, but certainly not the last time to use the multimedia skills I developed this quarter.

I also attempted to have some smooth jazz in the background for this Screencast (I know you enjoy jazz), but apparently the microphone did its job and filtered it out.

Week Nine- Prezi Screencast

Here is the screencast reviewing my Prezi. It's a bit long (~7 minutes), but I enjoyed making it. Screencast is ridiculously useful.

Week Eight- A Streetcar named Medium

For my relevant multimedia resource, I’m excited to share with you all Medium.com! Keep in mind the exclamation point, I use it about once a year, and I am that excited to share it. The website is simple enough, with an aesthetically pleasing user face. Now you might be wondering, what is Medium? The website describes itself as, “Everyone’s stories and ideas,” though I’ve found it to be heavily focused on technology and entrepreneurship. Essentially, the website is a space for blog entries which the website aggregates the most popular to the front page and a list of the top 100 blog posts. Bonus points: it even lists next to the blog entries the approximate time the entry would take to read.

I find this website an interesting and useful addition to the use of Reddit. The community is composed of users linked to their actual professional identity. After analysis of Reddit in Writing 105P, I’ve found this a valued addition to websites. It keeps people more accountable to their additions online. For example, if I find an interesting concept or post, I can follow the links to the user and see some of their real life accomplishments. For credibility alone, this is a huge plus for me.

Though this website certainly has an entrepreneurial focus, it has many resources to offer. One of the most relevant posts I found during my Photoshop project was a blog post consistening of links to stock photos described as, “not sucking.” As someone who generally prefers photos that “don’t suck”, it was a huge help in finding photos appropriate for usage (stock, artistic, size). Here is a link to that specific post (https://medium.com/design-ux/62ae4bcbe01b). Anyway, the website certainly has even more to offer. Another aspect I enjoy is an increased social awareness I’ve found on the website. For anyone who has spent more than five minutes on the internet, namely Youtube comments, you’ll find people writing the most horrendous things. On Medium, I find that socially conscious and intelligent posts are applauded. On Medium, you can find a post analyzing the constructs discouraging female engineers in technology just as likely as you’ll find a post on how to get a busy person to respond to your email. Please give Medium a try.

Week Seven- Photoshop Screencast

Hello, hello! Here is the Screencast for my Photoshop project. Enjoy.

Week Six- A Day Without Media

Also known as, the day the Earth stood still. So maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but life certainly does seem to revolve marginally slower without a constant connection to media. I find it interesting how much preparation I needed for a day without media. Planning was the first step. Monday through Friday I either have class involving computers, or my work at the Auditor-Controller’s office is solely online. Saturday and Sunday were the only available options for a day without media. That was shocking alone; that I depended upon media so extensively that preparation was needed to separate from it. I even warned my brother and mom that I would not be responding due to an assignment.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy seemingly far far away, I would borrow a cell phone if my well-being demanded it (think field trips without the parents). Soon, the cell phone became an extension of my hands, with some months in high school I had over 16,000 texts sent. Though 16,000 texts a month was certainly an accomplishment in its own respect, described by a Verizon salesman as possibly one of the few customers to actually cost Verizon money, I began to cut back and become more cognizant of my usage. Today, I primarily use my phone for browsing articles, setting up in-person contact with friends, and communicating with family. Despite this limited current usage, I still feel dependent upon my phone. If I accidentally leave my phone in my car, I notice within about ten minutes. If I accidentally leave my wallet in the car, I might notice the following day. As Itunes might describe, “Synchronization complete.” Am I not effectively a cyborg with such a dependency upon technology?

This thought has actually plagued my thoughts since taking Writing 105P. In the course, we discussed human’s increasing dependency upon technology, including how recall is even changed by technology. A study by Betsy Sparrow of Columbia (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/health/15memory.html?_r=0) even investigated how search engines and the internet change recall. People are much more likely to remember how to find things rather than the content. Is this not a more valuable skill with human knowledge exponentially increasing and its wealth available where the tips of fingers connect to a keyboard?

  

Week Five- Sticks and Stones

     I've been dreading this post. I'm embarrassed by the quality of the image as a piece, but I certainly know I tried. Here is the image. When it's really small, like so, you can't see the green distortion found near the windows, but I suppose the "H" is fairly apparent.

     That being said, the debbie-downer introduction and lack of satisfaction with the image, certainly doesn't diminish the process. I enjoyed working with Photoshop, despite being tedious at times. My current Photoshop skills are basic, but I'm excited to learn and refine new techniques to visually create a message. I feel my limited skills limit my imagination even. 

     This limitation can be seen in the process of this picture (which I don't believe will make the Photoshop project cut). At first, my grandest idea was to take a picture of something resembling a letter in nature. This idea developed to taking an abstract letter image and accentuating it through the use of Photoshop. That's what you find here, but what I had tried to learn to do through Youtube tutorials is bring in the color from a mask of the same image, so that the saturation of the photos would be entirely natural, while still using the Black and White filter. Now, the projected images for my Photoshop project, after learning enhanced skills, will be both aesthetically pleasing AND have merit. 

     I'm excited to see my ideas actualize. I think this photo demonstrates a powerful lesson from multimedia- the extent to which you master the tools enables you to control the end result. That's a bit wordy for my liking, but I think the message is there. When you're just beginning to learn to draw, all you see is stick figures. 

Week Four- The Font Paradigm

     Of the readings for Week Four, Spiekermann and Ginger’s piece on font led me to the biggest realization- I’ve been showing up to dinner parties without paying attention to the dress code! To elaborate, I know so little about design; I take even font for granted. In class, we had the activity of matching the fonts to the shoe, and my group had no difficulty matching the fonts to the correct shoe. I recognized the font to match the object; however, I don’t utilize font myself to strengthen my pieces holistically. This realization makes me curious to learn the rules, so that I can begin to break them consciously. I believe I would have enjoyed learning fonts and design along typical academia topics such as the oft used chemistry I learned!

     In fact, I believe design is nearly discouraged. For most papers and projects I’ve encountered in high school and college, the format is limited. Font is limited to the famous Times New Roman or Arial.  In much the same way, the papers are limited to certain tones. A good “fuck”, despite how fitting, would not be appropriate in an academic setting. Furthermore, even the questions often drive the essay into a corner- a corner where the prompt spells diverting paths "F". 

I believe design is discouraged on an institutional level though, for at least convenience’s sake.     

     Following Ken Robinson’s video, Changing Education Paradigms, having increased free will does not fit into a manufacturing mindset. When I have approached professors, or taken a chance and diverted from the prompt without approval, I have found that the quality of my work improves exponentially, but more importantly my own investment in the work grows exponentially. Interestingly, in my own experiences the increased investment is noted and rewarded. Unfortunately, the course site was taken down, but in my past course I strayed so much from the topic the professor wrote me a personal note detailing that I challenged the assignment’s boundaries, but he was so impressed with the work he couldn’t take away from it.  Perhaps these limitations are imaginary –something to be disregarded by the brave- simply in place to fit the educational model.

     For those who haven’t seen Ken Robinson’s video, please take the time out of your day to watch. It’s fantastic. 

Week Three- Podcast Progression

     Audacity is an interesting tool to work with an auditory medium. The first time I interacted with the program, I created a podcast in response to the movie Requiem for a Dream. My skills in Audacity were limited, thereby limiting the quality of my podcast as an artistic piece. I manually recorded the song I wanted to intro my podcast with and recorded the entirety of the podcast in a several single takes. The quality of the audio alone was not something to be proud of; however, I enjoyed creating the piece in the simplicity that it was new, and I was learning.

     I tried podcasting once again in the summer for a Leadership Development course. The chapter we were studying concerned challenging the process. In the leadership realm, this often means improving processes such as transitioning invoices from a paper system to an automated online system. For the assignment, I applied the challenge of the process directly to the assignment, leading me to respond via a podcast. This podcast was different in that I changed the format as there wasn’t a script, only an idea of critiquing the current system of education with two friends disenfranchised with the system. Seventeen minutes of audio recording later, I felt invigorated- filled with an energy to defy a system that sees my as a permanent identification number and a flat cost. Not only that, but my two friends wanted to begin an informal podcast.

     The podcast on Lucid Dreaming I produced for Writing 105M serves as a combination of the two processes I've experienced in podcasting thus far. I strayed from the script and added in some passion. The result, combined with improved Audacity skills, has been rewarding. I feel more “authentic” as a creator of a podcast, but I've also gained the insight that I’d like to work with sound as a writer now and in the future.

     I pursue Economics & Accounting as a major for practicality, but I pursue writing out of passion. As a medium, sound is the most appealing to me as it ties directly into emotion. This brings up a question I’d very much like to find the answer to- do pieces created through sound carry the same benefits of a written piece? For example, will I gain as much, if not more, from the process of creating an auditory piece? Furthermore, following Scott McCloud’s comic, does leaving less to the imagination (adding sound) make the actual message less meaningful? Also, the most basic of questions, does listening to an audiobook benefit someone as much as reading it themselves in regards to improving vocabulary and expanding one’s world view?

Week Two- The Shittiest of Drafts

     I’ve read “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lammot two, three, four times now. Each time, I feel a slight inspiration, a slight push to write, and disregard unrealistic standards I place on myself. All the same, each time I don’t end up using this force, then feel the crushing fallout of disappointment. For me, this piece is ideologically reassuring due to casting some realism on what writing as a writer is like, but the effect ends there.

     After reading the piece this time though, I’ve analyzed why I don’t capitalize on the reassurance. I believe I don’t make defined plans to combat writer’s block. I sit down to write a paper and hear, “You don’t have anything worthwhile to say. Your writing is simple regurgitation- unoriginal, uninteresting.”  Consequently, that is the beginning and ending to my first steps of my writing process, causing me to transition to the step of “Incubation” as illustrated in the Gliffy earlier this quarter. I put the writing process into a self-created limbo where my ideas are incased in a soft-walled center that can be evaluated without any implication on my own ability. This incubation materialized is bouncing ideas off the process in my head, as well as asking my roommates and friends what they think about my current idea. The idea then stays in the incubation process until nearly the deadline.

     As the deadline approaches, I begin to feel the familiar anxiety and pressure. Once the deadline is almost impossible to fulfill- I gain the catalyst I need. Necessity and grade pressure then forces myself to write the piece, disregarding the self-defeating thoughts. This behavior then becomes a positive feedback loop as the rush process at the end makes the most comforting writing process, and it also happens to be the time when most of my best ideas are generated (keeping in mind that I flesh out most of my ideas in my head during incubation).

 The analysis of this process leads me to an excerpt from a book entitled Buck by Mk Asante I read this summer. “Shoot to make it.” I realize I need to actually shoot to make it- the soft limbo I leave ideas in is a mechanism I use to avoid negative thoughts; however, it damages my potential as a writer. I need to approach writing as I would learning a sport- I’ll fail, suck (shitty first drafts), but I’ll improve as long as I stick with it. 

On a side note, here is a link to a short video produced about Buck. Enjoy.

Week One- A Short Introduction

     Hello, hello, hello. My name is Steven Beringer. Though I've been called many names, some more flattering than others, I typically prefer just Steven. Here is a picture from this last summer, after I accepted an offer for an accounting firm in San Francisco.
      Naturally, I am an Economics & Accounting major in my third year here at UCSB. If I could, I'd get on a ten year plan and major in everything. Time is of the essence, so I've focused my studies in the accounting and writing departments.
      Perhaps I'm blinded by my own personal experiences rather than data, but I don't believe any student wakes up in the morning, invigorated, ready to take on some spreadsheets. That's when writing comes in. I've taken Rhetoric, Business, and Philosophies of Language so far in the writing department, and I have many more classes still to take.
     I'm excited to learn multimedia writing. I'm excited to learn how to produce a podcast; but, what I am most excited for is being surrounded by UCSB students whom have been given the reigns to their education. The change in the class is palpable, and I look forward to that moment. If you're not sure as to what I'm referring to, wait and see. :)