english fourforkteen

(final) project

2008-04-23T23:12:00.000-07:00

It isn't final if it's continuous.

(before)
(after)

enjoy&please post comments, I'd love to get your feedback on my new site.

Also, I was unable to post the picture of my article that was in the magazine I brought to class, but it is very similar to one found on my page (the skies revolt) and I will be posting that picture as soon as I can locate a higher resolution webcam than the one I own.

As for the future, I hope to continue on my path to improve what has already been improved once, but what I believe can be improved many, many times.

--update--
I've already had an update to my project..in a way.
My newer, more professional looking site has landed me an internship writing features for a website called thecelebritycafe.com

I post daily entertainment news features, check it out if you're interested!

Pre-(final project post) post

2008-04-23T23:04:00.000-07:00

In case you do not feel like venturing over to my old blog(blogger blog) that was re-created into a more visually pleasing blog(weebly blog), I am going to paste the final entry I wrote in the blogger blog.

This post will not be posted in my weebly blog, but it was just to let all of my readers (yeah...okay.) what was going through my mind when I decided to change, and even before I decided to change, and the explanation for why everything is framed this way and why my mind is doing all of these things and I am changing in this way.

From the beginning of the semester I was not in this mind frame that I am now, and I think that all of this talk about framing has changed mine. In the past I struggled to make a post, and even right now I feel that my fingers can not type fast enough to keep up with how my mind is going. All the time I spend thinking, I spend all of my time thinking, I think all of the time. It is always new ideas and new ways to improve. I have always been this way but now it is much faster, and much more open and strange. New ideas that may have not been 'normal' in my past but that I believe will change how I succeed in the future. I do believe my new way of thinking will help me to succeed, and I do/will credit this class if/when I get there.

So now, the final post of the blogger blog:
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Attention Readers,

I have recently been learning about the concept of framing, especially in relation to internet sites. Many sites, like blogger, confine the author to a few options, and limit the creativity of the author. Seeing as I am not HTML savvy and are forced to rely on pre-made setups, I had chosen blogger as a way to slowly open up my eyes to the world of blogging.

At one point or another, we all grow, we all change. My knowledge of blogs has begun to exceed the limits of blogger, and it is time to search for newer, more challenging, more professional setups. In hopes that this zine will someday go somewhere, it is important for me to have a visual pleasing, professional looking site. I do not believe that I can find that here, and after much searching and investigation, I was able to locate a site that gave more creative freedom.

Realizing that this new site will one day too, be limiting to the vision I have for this zine, I am still taking a necessary step towards growing my project, a step that is important for the history of The Underground.

I have learned that the way this site is framed is very limiting, and that even the set up of the internet itself (like why all browsers are squares) is also limiting. I think that maybe one day, hoping The Underground can go into print, I will make a shape other than a square. For now, I do not know how to make circle or triangle web pages, so I will have to stick with the square, but I would prefer to be able to separate articles, have a main page, and a contact form. All of these can open up the Underground to more viewers, and more networking possibilities.

Speaking of networking, I can't exactly write off blogger completely. I have gained attention from more professional websites and magazines due to the content of my site. I have set up an internship writing for TheCelebrityCafe.com this summer, and look forward to gaining more writing samples in order to progress my ideas to an even higher level. And I believe that the new and improved Underground will open up more contacts, and will give UG a bigger chance of reaching more people.

In other good news, we have been published (a rendition of The Skies Revolt article) in a student-run fashion magazine called Shei. Picture soon to be posted.

Not wanting to lose all of you, this site will remain open, but feel free to transfer to the new site,

The articles will remain the same, the type of content will remain the same, and the dreams will remain the same. I'm only hoping to take it one step at a time to be able to reach who I want to reach, and go where I want to go. I hope to take you all with me.

To new and future frames,
-The Underground
---
Even as I write this post now I am still in my mind thinking that I am not happy with the way this site is framed because I am thinking that once I press the 'publish post' button, this post will take up almost my entire page. Thus, my reason for switching could not have been a better one and I will always believe that.

Project as a labratory

2008-04-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

My project has really always been a lab from the beginning. Not as far as creating an experiment and documenting it, but because of my multiple trials and errors, and my idea to reinvent the process many times.

My project began as a photo-a-day type of project, I wasn't really sure where it was going but I thought it sounded like a good idea. After about a week I wasn't feeling any motivation, and so I wanted to adapt it to be more of a creative, and less of an every day thing. I went about trying to set up shoots with people so I could go through with all of these visions that I had, but we all know that as a college student planning things outside of class that isn't homework is not the easiest thing to do.

Finally, I was sitting in another class before ours, and it hit me. I wanted to learn from everything that I had experienced, and I wanted to tell everyone else about it. I wanted to do this 'project about projects' to show how important it is to not start a project until you have a clear vision, and how your main idea may not be as easy as you thought.

I began to think of what I could do that would show the process of a project, and then I remembered a blog that I had previously created within blogger, because I wasn't educated in any other blog hosting sites, and how I had originally wanted to create a 'zine' type website, but didn't really know what I was doing.

I had updated my site on blogger many times, and each time I did I became more and more unhappy with what the outcome was looking like, but I was still too afraid to venture to other sites.

Now, this project was my chance. I could finally turn something that I was interested in, and something that I wanted to improve, into what I really wanted it to be. I finally had the time, now I just needed the resources. And who better to ask than a blog-extraordinare herself?

We began searching for these sites, and I found a few that looked like more of what I wanted, but kept looking, doing google search after google search, until I finally found one that I liked.

I began using this site and everything seemed to fit together. I had the freedom that I wanted, but I wasn't completely clueless. I was confident in what was coming out, and I was proud to show this to people.

The move from blogger to weebly was the best choice I have made in terms of my website. When I was finally done moving and styling everything, it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders, and then I realized: this is what this project is supposed to be about. exploration.

it all makes sense now. welcome to my laboratory.

This is a lab that will always be continuing until I have to confidence to have my own domain, my own dotcom site that I can have complete creative control over. I am close, but I do not have this knowledge yet. This will bring more steps of trial and error, more experiments, more labs, until I have everything where I want it. And after this I am sure I will have 1000 new ideas for new labs, because once I waited to get this inspiration, it was all easy.
---
Questions of Poams:

1. When you read a poem(poam) you decide how it is supposed to be in your mind. How it sounds, how it looks, what the tone is. I was just writing a paper about this earlier today because I went to see a poet called Emily XYZ who does 'two-voice' poetry, where two people are saying different things at the same time, and sometimes the same thing at the same time, in a rhythm. If you were to read these poems it would be a completely different experience than if you were to hear them, because you have no idea how the poet intended for the poem to sound if you do not know them personally, and in almost all cases, you do not know the poet.

2/3. You can discover new things about a poem that maybe even the poet did not intend by reading it. You can read it many times, and you can see how the poem looks (is it a shape? are the lines short? are there stanzas?) and you can pay attention to words that are repeated, or ones that you may not recognize. You can access a part of your mind and a way of thinking that would not be present in hearing a poem or even reading a poem out loud. It would be the same if you were to hear a song, and see the lyrics of a song without hearing the music, a completely different experience.

Folds

2008-04-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

In first reading the blog post and doing the paper folding activity in class, I began to develop a fascination with the transformation of objects from 2D to 3D through folding. This is obviously most apparent in origami, which is part of what I tried to attempt in class. I was able to document my folding by taking pictures of the unfolding of my 'cootie catcher':

I found it interesting that a 2D piece of paper could be transformed into a 3D object just by folding:

The other, by far most interesting transformation comes from within. Seeing eye puzzles are only 2D objects, but only become 3D through the mind. Through concentration and crossing your eyes, a person is able to see a 3D image within this puzzle. I can not grasp how this happens, and how these are made, so for now they remain a true puzzle.

Many of the pictures in the post were intriguing, especially in the pictures of the spheres. How is it that a 2D picture and appear 3D? Is this just a mind trick, or an artistic phenomenon?

Catching up

2008-04-01T15:14:00.001-07:00

It's been too long since I've posted but I have double exciting news that was worth a new post, before I play a lot of catch up on assignments from previous weeks.

1: My new project (about projects) is coming along GREAT. I am in the process of locating a new host for my zine, to make it look more polished and professional, and take the next step in creating my project. This leads me to my next news

2: I have been PUBLISHED. Well, not really as cool as it sounds, but a rendition of an article from my zine has been published in SHEI magazine. I'm more happy because 1 of my 3 articles managed to make it in, what happened to the other two..I really don't know. Even small steps are steps to progress.

Next step: Internship, moving my zine/articles to an even more professional, respected level. Also looking good. TheCelebrityCafe.com anyone?

Until catch up time,
Hillary

New take.

2008-03-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Although my previous project plan was to just take one picture a day, I wasn't feeling inspired. I do still plan on using those photos for my original product, but I want to begin experimenting with planned photo shoots.

How is this expression different from the random encounters of daily photos?
How does planning out a shoot change the creativity and spontaneity?
Can planned shoots really be considered creative expression?
They are planned out to a T, so where is the room for the real expression if
everything is so "automated"?

Influence for my new adaptation of my project:

The true purpose of ordinary objects.

2008-03-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

Although the creator of mardi gras beads may have not had our purpose in mind, the observation of the interaction between students and the beads prove a different purpose.

The beads exist in their own linear frame, but contain many functions (neck wear, bracelets, shapes on a table). Each person seems to have a different purpose for their beads, and what is particularly interesting is when those purposes combine, when those beads combine to form an extended frame, an interlocking frame.

However, the "purpose" for the students' actions may not be any purpose at all. It may be unconscious actions that can result in the creation of something worth interpreting, or it may reveal the student's true feelings of what the purpose for the beads actually are.

The most fascinating thing about these beads is that I don't believe that it is possible to create the same formation more than once. It can never be duplicated, each experience with the beads is of its own.

This brings up the importance of documentation. Simply describing a formation of beads is not going to give the visual factor that is actually present at the time. Visual art gives an actual look to the experience, and it can create the possibility of comparison between different uses for the beads, and different experiences with the beads.

Are there other similar objects that may be comparable to this experience?
Is the only reason we believe a certain object has a certain purpose is because the manufacturers say so?
For example, a similar experience may be found in yarn, electrical cords, or even some foods.
What do you think?

framing and flux

2008-03-02T12:39:00.000-08:00

During class I joined the google team edition and although I don't really know how it works quite yet, it seems to be very organized, but all framed in the same way. It seems that everything on the web never exists outside of a square or rectangle. Why are the applications not circles?

Flux seemed to be almost the opposite of frame. I was first unsure of what flux was, so I looked it up on the internet and all of the shapes seemed to be 'frameless' but maybe not exactly frameless, maybe a moving frame?

I'm still sort of confused.

question

2008-02-19T15:54:00.000-08:00

how can someone frame their project when no frame exists to what the project should include?

how do emotions exist within a frame?

what happens to the frame of a project when the idea takes a turn in a different direction?

framing. [shape]

2008-02-17T16:20:00.000-08:00

I first began to think of framing with all of the snow that has been coming.
As I sat in class and looked out the window I focused on a group of snowflakes and noticed that they don't just flow straight down, some appear to go up, some just drift for awhile.

I started to think of the earth as a frame. Beginning with precipitation, there obviously has to be clouds. These clouds do not form at the edge of the earth, but in the sky. When there are clouds, the frame of the earth almost 'shrinks.' We forget about the gap that there is between the clouds and the edge of the earth, and the frame changes.

Within this gap is a separate frame, a forgotten frame. This frame e x t e n d s to the edge of the earth into a much more vast frame: the universe.

The point of 'outer space' is that we have yet to discover where it goes. Our solar system exists in our galaxies, but are there other galaxies? Is the frame of outer space really just empty space that never ends?

For those of you that believe in heaven or hell, then where do those exist? Within the earth? Between the earth and outer space?

Opinions please?

head underwater.

2008-02-02T22:19:00.000-08:00

and you tell me to breathe easy for awhile.

-blank stares at blank pages.

Languages

2008-01-22T15:06:00.000-08:00

I have been fascinated with languages this semester ever since my 232-231 fiasco in Spanish. Although now being in 231 I understand everything the teacher is saying, today I began to think about learning other languages.

Being from the United States, we obviously realize that our english is much different than proper english, or that that we imagine to be spoken in England.

Mostly referring to: the accent.

Then I began to think, if a native speaker of a language other than english went to England, or was taught by someone who was from England, would their newly acquired english be spoken with an accent?

Most of the time when someone is learning spanish from a Spaniard, they start to develop the 'theta' that Spaniards use, as opposed to Mexicans, Dominicans, etc.

So could this be true for people learning english?

Not according to plan

2008-01-20T17:44:00.000-08:00

I'm finding the world has not been as inspirational as I had hoped. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, or maybe I'm looking to hard?

Things so far.

2008-01-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

By next time I'll try to make the pictures actually fit the page. :[

My puppy.

One of my favorites. Good things come from bad days. Sometimes.

mess.

alone.absent.typical.

My Journey...an Inspiration?

2008-01-15T16:58:00.000-08:00

In my previous post on the necessity for multimedia, I do believe that I may have found an inspiration for a central theme to my blog. I believe that I would like to explore taking a photograph each day to see if they relate over time, or at all.

Photography is a release for me, not always an expression of my emotions, but of my creativity. I feel that through photography as an individual, daily task, I could capture a new expression each day I take one, or multiple pictures.

In order to connect these photos, I may attempt to create a video towards the end of the semester that composes all of the photographs in chronological order, however as I begin this task my final wanted outcome may change. Also, I may feel that one semester does not give enough time to find deep relations into my photography, and I may want to continue the project until I feel that it is completed.

I will begin tomorrow, and I plan to organize these photos on a weekly basis, maybe not one per day, but whichever photographs (at least one) I take in one day that I find particularly influential or moving.

Technology and Multimedia Forms as a Necessity

2008-01-15T15:18:00.000-08:00

Technology seems to be a term that is often thrown around in response to the world's growing obsession with 'what will come next.' Whether it is laptop computers, cell phones, MP3 players, someone is always making the old, better. Technology, in my opinion, is anything virtual, or that which can not be physically seen. Any form of technology of course can be held or seen, but how the device is actually working is digitalized, is sent or 'beamed' from an unknown programmed source. It is possible that technology is anything that needs to be or was invented off a sort of program to ensure its correct function, but in present times the word technology is so often used that it seems that everything we use is a form of technology.

Could it be the progression of making an old form "better" or more usable?

Could it be a virtual form of an object used?

In a broader sense, technology appears to be unable to be defined within my vocabulary and knowledge of the subject, and it is a term that everyone seems to have their own opinions on, so maybe the definition is just that, an opinion of whoever defined it in a dictionary, which transferred it to a term that everyone knows and alters with their own experiences.

In relation, the necessity for 'multi' medias is because no two people are the same. No one can express every one of their ideas in the exact way as another person. Certain people feel a connection to poetry or writing, and others find an ease in expressing themselves through painting or photography. In order to fully allow people to express themselves, get their ideas across, advance technology, there must be different media forms to enable everyone to have their say and their opinion or expression on display for others

Response 1/8 Limited Fork Theory Post

2008-01-14T17:21:00.000-08:00

In reading the post on Limited Fork posted on 1/8, I found myself confused on how to compose an actual response. This may be because I am not yet in touch with the artistic, poetic part of my brain, or because I have not yet begun my journey to an idea of what my endless page will entail. Although the artwork and poetry within the entry of Limited Fork has creative characteristics, in its entirety, the post seemed to be out of my league as a artist/poet.

Perhaps in the future I will begin to understand the creative mind of Thylias Moss, but as of now everything still remains a mystery.

As for the progression of my creative journey, I have yet to have an epiphany to what my endless page should contain.

Through sitting in lecture and discussing the importance of text as a tool for expression, it became clear to me that as the artwork displayed on limited fork was indeed artwork, the real expression may have been in the text, which was unable to be read on the small screen, but what the author has written may have been more private thoughts, which could have explained the ideas or thoughts meant through the artwork.

Until next week-
Hillary.