Some final reflections about class:
Well, I've finally reached the end of my studies here at Carolina, and am completing this portfolio as one of my last undergraduate projects. When I composed my midterm portfolio, I wrote, "This class has been extremely challenging and quite intriguing for me thus far in the semester. I had no idea that our assignments would be so difficult when I heard the course description on the first day!" The remainder of the semester has been equally challenging for me, especially as we experimented with increasingly complex computer programs. Although I was initially confused when dealing with the Windows Movie Maker and Sophie programs, I quickly got the hang of them. Ultimately, I feel that I have achieved proficiency in all of the programs we used throughout the semester, and that I am also capable of expressing myself in formats other than the standard English essay.
I initially signed up for this course because the title caught my eye...I am an art history major and do a bit of art on my own on the side (I am an English minor, of course.) I thought it would be interesting to see how literature and the visual, dramatic, and musical arts are seen from an "English" perspective. (I usually think about the visual arts and written works as existing in entirely different spheres, which this class has taught me definitely does not have to be the case.)
I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that we would be creating our own works based off of works of "literature" that we found significant for two reasons: I love doing creative assignments, and it is very nice to be able to select works that have a great deal of meaning for me, or works that I believe are of some merit (rather than being confined to a standard "canon" of works as one is in most literature courses in college). I particularly enjoyed the collage and video projects, because I was able to incorporate visuals into my discussion of works of literature.
Creating the playlist gave me experience firsthand about how one can arrange musical compositions to create a feeling or mood in the listener, and how these evoked emotions can be manipulated depending on the choice of song. I was acting like an author of sorts, annotating the development of the character I chose (Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray.)
As I revised my playlist, I fleshed out my ideas about the connections between each song and each correlating phase of Dorian's character development. I attempted to add details and improve the accuracy of my descriptions in order to convey the appropriate message to my audience.
The first draft of my playlist
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/50
The final draft of my playlist
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/269
Out of all the projects we did over the course of the semester, the podcast project gave me the most trouble (at least ideologically.) I usually think in visual terms, so having to explain myself clearly using a purely auditory format proved to be distinctly challenging. I chose the British musician Pete Doherty (of the bands The Libertines and Babyshambles) as the subject of my playlist, and commented on the ways his song lyrics and instrumentations are of significant literary merit.
When composing the text for the podcast, I had to continually remember to keep my sentences short and concise. When I am writing essays, I tend to use long, complex sentences. However, when one is listening to text, long sentences seem confusing and unclear rather than intelligent and sophisticated. I also had to make sure that I did not speak for too long without giving a musical example to illustrate my points. Therefore, I had to edit my podcast quite a bit in order to balance the effectiveness of my readings with the selected clips from Pete Doherty's songs.
The rough outline of my podcast
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/111
The final copy of my podcast
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/411
When creating the collages, I had only one initial plane on which I would be connecting with my viewers. Rather than depending on time (as in musical compositions like the playlist or podcast) in order to convey my ideas to the viewer, the collage had to make an immediate visual impact. Choosing appropriate images and manipulating them to work together in order to create a mood and evoke the complexity of my character was definitely a challenge.
When creating my character collage, I wanted my final image to appear seamless and unified. I superimposed Jacques David's painting "Madame Recamier" on top of Rene Magritte's "Madame Recamier: Perspective" (in which the figure reclining on the sofa is replaced with a bent coffin; a technique which highlights the transient nature of youth, beauty, and life itself.) I also used two Sally Mann photographs in the image, and a photograph of three women by Henri Lartigue. I deliberately used images whose age was apparent (or, in the case of Sally Mann, images that are manipulated to look artificially aged) in order to emphasize the nostalgic, devastating, and doomed beauty of the character Daisy Miller.
The first draft of my character collage
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/177
The final copy of my character collage
(attachment at the end of my midterm portfolio)
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/277
When creating my poem collage, I decided to use a different technique from my first attempt at collaging (Daisy Miller). I wanted to attempt to use the Gimp program to imitate the look of a hand-made collage. So, I isolated the particular pieces of images that I wanted to use into separate layers, and then merged them together in a deliberately "piecy" image. I thought this aesthetic fit with the apocalyptic tone of Yeats' poem, as it references the disparate elements of modern life that are contributing to the downfall of humanity. Additionally, many artists were working in the format of paper collage when Yeats wrote "The Second Coming" during World War One.
The first (and final) copy of my poem collage
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/193
My last independent project was the creation of a video. I chose to use my video to introduce viewers to the main concepts of the DADA movement that flourished in Europe and America between 1916 and the mid-1920s. I used text from Tristan Tzara's 1922 DADA Manifesto and Fernand Leger's symphonic composition "Ballet Mecanique" in combination with my own text and organizational strategies. I chose to use mainly a plain black background (or a black background with an antique pointing finger at the upper left-hand corner) with red lettering in order to imitate the stark, "newspaper-like" aesthetic of much DADA art, and to keep the viewer's attention only on the text of the movie. I liked the idea of a video composed of text rather than images (although I do use some images of seminal works of DADA artwork) in order to violate viewers' expectations of the filmic medium.
The first draft of my video
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/301
The final draft of my video
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/405
My blog entries throughout the semester
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/17
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/25
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/43#comment-25
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/90#comment-62
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/81#comment-61
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/277
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/299#comment-344
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/298#comment-345
http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/328
This class has definitely made me revise my conception of "art" in all of its different forms. I have come to the conclusion that any form of literary output can be seen as literary (in that it uses some sort of a vocabulary or language, be it an actual spoken or written language, a system of visual representations or iconography, or a series of musical tones). As someone who hopes to go on to work in the art world, it is particularly important to understand as many different means of artistic communication as possible, especially in conveying the meaning I find in particular works to a larger audience. In all, I had a wonderful time in class, and feel that I am taking skills away with me that will be invaluable in my future endeavors.
Thanks for everything Dan, have a great summer!
