Language as a Medium

Language as a Medium

I have always thought that the purpose of an English major is to preserve something of the past, the art and love of language, in a time when humanity is enraptured with the visual and digital. But language is not a thing of the past and never will be. Through this project, perhaps the most profound lesson I have learned amongst the brainstorming, recording, splicing, dicing, and dragging is that language is a medium for ideas, and the written word is not the only one. In fact, communication is like a movie making program—it is most effective when there is an idea bound and linked perfectly with images and sounds—an art which whether on a paper page or on the internet, is what communicates ideas, but also perpetuate the thoughts and feelings that without such would evaporate. (But still, despite all I learned, the Media Library is still a terrifying place for an English major! And making myself walk into it was perhaps the greatest accomplishment.)

http://www.teachmix.com/litflow/node/193

Combining music and a written analysis was an incredible way to connect to the character of Francie Nolan and to better understand her in my playlist. Searching for the appropriate songs is an activity which requires a close attention to the details and emotions of a character, some which otherwise would often be overlooked. Piecing together the playlist helped to break apart, that is to distinguish and understand, the aspects of Francie’s development as a character. I really enjoyed analyzing from an objective distance, but then also being drawn close to the inner workings of her mind and feelings beneath the plot line of the novel.

http://www.teachmix.com/litflow/node/195

The podcast is the project that frustrated me the most. The idea of it intrigued me, but sitting down to work with the sound clips was difficult, because it did not involve the same structure, since it was less formal, as a written analysis or essay. The program was difficult to work with because it did not allow for a visual image to be organized in my mind as in the video project, although the program methods were similar of cutting and splicing materials. But in a way, it prepared me to understand the video program so that I could have more fun with it, and by doing so, it did challenge my technological skills.

http://www.teachmix.com/litflow/node/192

I’m glad that I picked Louisa Gradgrind as the subject for my collage, because her character has always fascinated me. She is taught to be dry of depth and fancy, and yet in the end, her emotions turn out to be so held back that they spill out all at once to prove her father’s formula of fact as flawed. As a more visually inclined learner, it was enjoyable to look for concrete images with which I could represent the abstract ideas that have filled my head about Louisa since I first read Hard Times.

http://www.teachmix.com/litflow/node/194

Creating the video was without a doubt the project that I doubted most my capability to accomplish, but it turned out to be my favorite assignment. Having the visual pieces to work with, incorporating music, and my love for character assessment was fascinating. I also enjoyed working with the film Finding Nemo, Dory being one of my favorite characters of all time, and using a relatively light hearted and endearing film made the work simpler. When I had finally spliced the scenes together in the right order, timed the music perfectly, and decided to bookend it all with Dory’s dialogue, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment, and realized how much I had learned simply from working with programs and material I had never tampered with before. Being able to discover and portray a character through a visual art was something new and exciting for me as well.