Under my Communications degree, I had to take ENGL1112 which is a Screen Texts and Print Texts unit, compulsory during first semester in my first year.
I had essays, readings, and never ending books to read. Which was great, since it's generally what I enjoy doing.
Then they threw us:
The Electronic Project from Hell.
That's the real name.
Formally, however, it's known as:The iPod Project.
What we basically had to do was to use one of our texts: Patchwork Girl or Donnie Darko (I used this one), find a theme that ran through one of those texts and then do our own hypertext explaining our opinions and thoughts about it.
A hypertext is basically something that conveys a message electronically. It's like trying to write an essay using powerpoint. Only you've got to use words (if necessary), pictures, songs, audio, anything that conveys your meaning as creatively as is possible. An essay in pictures and audio.
I guess the pictures you use really do have to say a thousand words.
I can only say thank GOD that referencing isn't necessary. Otherwise I'd have a lot of trouble finding the artists who took the photos that I'd pinched off the internet. And the people who said/wrote the quotes I used. I even stuck in something that looked like poetry just so it would look like I'd done some work. It might be construed that way, but I never know since it didn't even rhyme. Ah well, poetic licence and all that.
My biggest problem though was having to do all the html referencing. I didn't even use bright colours or fancy fonts. It was just the absolute basics - having to link one slide to another, and making sure the video actually showed up when the link was pressed (which it didn't, the first time I tried. I eventually figured out that the video had to be in the iPod hard drive and not just iTunes before it would play up)
I feel rather bitter about this though. Why? Because my lecturer can't even switch on the computer without help, and she wants us to do...a hypertext project on an iPod??
Initally, we were all taught how to do the linking on an apple mac computer. Which I hated. Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike the mac? I have never used anything so complicated and annoying in my entire life. Although it doesn't help that my PC doesn't have the most recent Quicktime Player for me to format and edit video clips.
Thankfully, one student who shared my thoughts was generous and kind enough (I sincerely hope he knows it's him if he ever reads this) to post up instructions on how to do the entire project on PC. Which I gratefully followed. Step-by-step instructions really are a bonus for someone who left everything to the last minute and didn't even realise to what extent the full potential of an iPod was.
This task was set almost a month ago. But I finished it tonight, and finally, I can hand it in tomorrow morning before the 4pm deadline hits and all chaos in the Arts Building at UWA ensues.
To be honest - I had fun on this project. It was the canvas I never had. The blank space on which I could do absolutely anything I wanted. All that space, so much to do, so much to say. I believe I've definitely gone over the quota necessary - I only needed to create 10 slides and I think I have at least 15. The only think I hated about it was the html referencing I needed to do, just to get one stupid point across. But, well, that's art.
Thus ends the Electronic Project from Hell. :)
Mishy <3>
No comments:
Post a Comment