Mind Depiction
MY DIGITAL PORTFOLIO
Project Thoughts:
This section of my website will be where I write about the projects that I've done or am in the process of working on. I will try to provide links to all projects when possible. For a list of my projects with short descriptions, please refer to my Portfolio page.
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Satire Project Reflection
This project was all about defining what satire was and giving examples of satire that were discovered while reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories. While brainstorming, one of my group members came up with the idea of making the whole slideshow a satirical take on PowerPoints and how people use them.
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Since a lot of the presentation was focused on being humorous and making the satire apparent, it was unlike other projects I've done. Those were usually simple, professional, and clinical. I really like how this project came out because of how different it was. I had fun with it and it allowed me to be creative in a way that is uncommon in an average classroom.
The only hard part was trying to draw the line between satire and silly. Satire is about being humorous, but there is a point when the meaning starts to get a little lost. I'll be the first to admit that we went past that point a bit. Next time, I would try to tone it down a bit.
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There were certain standards that were set for this project by my teacher (linked here).
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On the topic of beauty, the beauty in the project was the humor. Traditional aesthetic ideals would not work with the context of the presentation. Our presentation is funny and made people laugh. With the humor, came poignancy. People can feel the truth in what we are saying. Everyone has committed the errors we were pointing out. Uniqueness and relevance are quite simple. This project was fresh, funny, and made clear how it connects to the real world.
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If I had any closing statements about this project, it would be that I was proud to have worked on it and I can't wait to explore the world of satire.
Huckleberry Finn Architecture Project Reflection
For a class project, I few friends and I put together a structure that we felt represented the themes of slavery, racism, and society in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Now, I have already done a whole essay that explains the symbolism behind the project and, honestly, I would rather just link you to that than go over it all again. Click here to be directed to the Portfolio page where you can find a link to that essay.
What I would rather do right now is go over the process of how the project came into existence. It was a wild ride from start to finish. While there was a fair amount of stress with a dash of conflict, there was also a lot of fun involved and we were laughing about 90% of the time.
It all started with Katie, Connor, and me (aka the Team) taking a couple of days in class to brainstorm. This was probably the least stressful part of the project. We were all still excited and we just kept coming up with new ways to improve the project. One person would say something and then someone else would add to that and it just became this beautiful little idea scribbled out in a notebook.
The next stage wasn’t so bad either. We got together and tried to get everything ready for assembly. We cut out what we needed in terms of shapes. We took a ride to the craft store (which we affectionately referred to as the “family shopping trip”). It was a great time.
The small amount of conflict that occurred happened during the painting and assembling part of the project. At the start, things were going fine. Painting was easy enough and we all were in agreement. The bottom half of the project was looking good. When we got to the heart and droplets, however, things started going south. One of our designs looked absolutely awful when transferred from the page to reality. Our droplets looked sloppy. The gimp material we used to suspend them looked clunky and messy. At that point, we thought the project was ruined. We had no more time to work on it or to go and get new materials to fix it.
Fortunately, our teacher extended the deadline a bit and it gave us some time to fix it. The thing was though, that 2/3 of the Team was not available to get together to work. It was left to Katie fix it and possibly improve it. This is where some creative differences came into play. Some team members thought that the project wasn’t jaw-dropping enough. The remaining team member (me) disagreed. That led to a bit of a fight and a whole lot of compromise.
In the end, we worked it all out. The result of that disagreement was the silver ribbon on the stand and the white and gold droplets coming from the heart alongside the original black droplets. It turned out well, in my opinion.
I think working on a project like this in a collaborative fashion taught me a lot about compromise and respect. To keep things pretty peaceful, we had to pick our battles and hear each other out every so often. Overall, I’m in love with the project and I’m glad that it turned out the way it did.
