Documenting Processes...

Group Members:
Travis Clark
Taylor Davis

            Documentary is the documentation of events, people, and processes. It records the things we take for granted and takes them to a platform where they can be appreciated more fully in much the same way writers have tried to capture the sublime in their writings to give their readers a sense of awe for nature. This art of documentation provides us an opportunity to appreciate even the smallest and most ordinary of processes.

The texts that we drew the most inspiration from were the “Routine” videos by Mercadante. The videos were simple in their approach to everyday objects and routines most everyone experiences such as tying a pair of shoes. It was this kind of tribute to the simple everyday occurrence that steered us in the direction of recording the washing of a dog. It’s one of the events that happens so often in homes across the country.

An example of the way documentary showcases processes in our day are the various YouTube videos of street performers, specifically artists around the world who paint pictures before the eyes of a awed crowd. These artists paint landscapes or space scenes in a matter of minutes, and we see the entire process from beginning to end, having had no idea beforehand what the end result will be. For some reason, seeing this process, the transformation of a blank white slate into a one of a kind masterpiece, amazes us.

Now even though washing a dog is quite an ordinary task, it is still an interesting process with a beginning, middle, and end, and this is what we attempted to show with our piece. It documents as much of the process as possible in under two minutes, from the moment Skippy’s told he’s getting a bath to the moment he is rewarded for being good. This transformation is quite a simple one, from a dirty dog to a clean one, but it can still be very gratifying. There is something about creating something from scratch or changing or perfecting something to make it our own that we as humans find most satisfying, and knowing that we worked ourselves for an end result makes that end result more worth it.

Documentary is a way of relating that feeling to someone else; the wonderful feeling of bringing order to disorder. If used properly, it can make something as simple as washing a pet seem like quite a significant task, and this makes us appreciate the end result even more.

Round Robin Round-up...please standby for creativity...

Group members:
Travis Clark
Spencer Coakwell
Michael Comp
Scott Cook
Clark Davis

Montages, as DJ Spooky states, are “a reflection on the different paths information takes as it moves from one culture to the next, one individual at a time.” Montages combine many ideas from a variety of sources in order to create a single new idea. As we collaborated on the Round Robin assignment, these montage-like stories challenged our individual creativity with each new story that came our way. This process led to the creation of something that was very different than any one of us could have individually created, demonstrating that frankenstein-like collaboration will often produce a collected body of work more beautiful than its individual parts.

Each group member came with their own ideas, cultures, and backstories that led to the unique creation of the next part of the story. This resulted in a heightened form of montage, as the combined efforts of separated minds artfully weaved the pieces together into a work that transcends the sum of its parts. A montage that comes from only one source would not contain these many “different paths”. While this wouldn’t be bad, the stories would still not have had the same impact and variety had they not been a montage pulled from multiple sources.

In this way, our creation resembles the recently popular Ice Bucket Challenge videos. Though the new creations that ice-bucketers contributed weren’t as subtle or drastic as our stories, they were additions to the global ice-bucket narrative. Every contributor had their own spin that story developed in the videos which is why we enjoy watching them. They were all the same, but different. 

Some say that there are no original ideas. The ideas that were spun from the each individual, whether original or not, lead to a unique and truly one-of-a-kind series of tales that would be near impossible to repeat by chance. One mark of a great story is its impossibility of being recreated while still creating a “why didn’t I think of that” feeling in the reader.

    This type of collaboration creates something unique in relation to other storytelling mediums with how it combined these ideas. Most stories can be controlled in content and progression but due to the nature of Round Robin, the story takes on a life of its own. No thought can be constructed to form a rigid path or definite boundary for our narratives. This pattern mirrors our society’s perception and transference of narrative.

    In our modern society, this medium (Exquisite Corpse) and narrative construction is becoming pervasive throughout our society. Many stories we “read” are created through constant browsing of  Facebook, Google, Netflix, and montages. As we download information into our consciousness, instantaneously creating new meaning with fragments of information pushed through the filters of our life's experiences, we ourselves are creating personal montages daily. As each of us seeks to create stories that are equally valuable to the many parts they are composed of, the original narratives are transformed and we leave our proverbial fingerprints over everything. 

Deep in the forest, a mother bear and her cubs were hungry. Having slept all day, none of them had eaten anything...if only they could find some fresh mean nearby.

The good fairy blessed them with long term intelligence to find the food they needed. Too bad it had to be those little boy scouts.

Music Mosaic - The Photo Album

I have always been a fan of the heart-warming stuff. When I listen to the song "Stranger on the Shore", originally written and performed by Acker Bilk, I feel an incredible amount of love and innocence being expressed. For this project I could have gone with some sort of abstract pieces of art that somehow expressed all of that but I had a story that I wanted to tell. A story about a little girl who got an egg and, from that egg, found one of her closest friends.

One of the things that I got from the Dillard reading was that when people are introduced to a new way of seeing, they can reject the new way or they can embrace it. With the story I’m telling with my pictures, instead of dog, cat, or bird as a pet I wanted an animal of fantasy. I was inspired by my childhood fantasy, Pokémon. I mean who doesn’t want a companion like a Pokémon throughout life? I also thought about “How to Train a Dragon” as I was drawing this. The way the dragon “Toothless” appears and acts also inspired the scenes that I drew.

Having a pet is such an everyday thing that people sometimes take pets for granted. In my mind, replacing the traditional pet animal with something so outlandish brings a renewed vision of what it means for someone to have a pet. Maybe someone will revisit the time they first got their puppy and the joy they have from growing up with it.

The way I drew the images as photos, that really goes back to the song “Strange on the Shore”. It has a bit of a nostalgic tone. It’s looking back on cherished memories. Photos do that for me. Therefore, with each frame I wanted it to seem like there was someone taking a picture. When people make their photo album it very rare that they are looking back on bad memories. People generally choose the good moments to keep and share. The moments they can look back on after a rough day and smile on. I hope that I managed to achieve that photo nostalgia feel to some degree of that here.

As I said earlier, I also feel a great amount of innocence and love coming from this song. In each frame I wanted there to be some of that. At first we have just the girl being an innocent little girl. But as time passes the pet dragon-kangaroo thing is the innocent one and love is mutually shared between them.

Take what you will. You don’t have to like it but I feel accomplished. With a bit more polishing, this could be some very good stuff.

Attention class. Todays assignment is to...play Assassin's Creed?

I remember back in 2006 when I saw the trailer for the first of many Assassin’s Creed video games. A man dressed all in white, riding on horseback, enters Jerusalem and mercilessly kills a number of people before escaping from the guards by blending in with a crowd of praying monks. It was pretty awesome. It reminded me and my brother of the Thief video game we used to play except more intense and exciting. Who would have guessed that eight years later this game would develop into a diverse and still expanding franchise including over a dozen video games, numerous books, comics, clothing, and a movie in the works that this would be the way numerous youngsters would learn about history…wait, what?

Video games are moving quickly from the realm of pure entertainment into a complex realms of art, music, philosophy, storytelling and even teaching. For some people video games are still a waste of time and should be avoided like the plague. While others embrace video games like a lover and scream like someone has been murdered when their World of Warcraft account gets deleted. Most people are, or have, come around to the idea that video games are more than just shoot em’ up, brain dead lights on a screen, but a tool that can be used to entertain, train, and learn. But can video games actually help people learn? Isn’t that something you do in a classroom with a teacher and books? Although there are dozens of video games I could use as examples, Assassin’s Creed is by far the most notable and will, therefore, be the focus of this essay.

The Assassin’s Creed games can be described as a historical fiction game. The game draws from actual events, peoples, deaths, and assassinations throughout the Crusades, the Renaissance, the American and French Revolutions, to develop its story and game play. Assassin’s Creed III, for example, takes place during the American Revolutionary War. Players take the place of an Native American, Conner, as he battles his way through the British Red Coats and Templar's to bring freedom to the Americans and his people, all while satisfying his need for revenge. Players find themselves dodging cannon fire at the Battle of Lexington and Concord, helping Paul Reveres warn the minute men, participate in the Boston Tea Party, among other historical events. But these are games of historical fiction. Do they really keep true to historical fact?

Is this educational?

As it turns out, yes, for the most part. While the characters do receive some fictionalization, a great deal of events, including the death of historical figures, take place at the time and location that they would have in real life. Players are even given a bonus if they achieve goals in the way they were historically performed. Ubisoft, the developer of Assassin’s Creed, have teams of people researching history, religion, culture, period clothing and technology to make the games true to fact. Not only that but included in the game is a vast database filled with detailed accounts, information, and commentary on the historical figures, events, architecture, innovations, and more that the player can access at any point in the game. So do the Assassin Creed games accurately display historical fact? Yes, when you look past the fictional events you play through. Does that mean that the games should be used as a tool for learning?

Imagine for a moment that you are in a classroom. The professor there is lecturing about biology. It is one of those lecture with slides and little, or no, active participation from the class. Some people find this to be very helpful. Others are having headaches and ulcers just trying to imagine it. People learn and remember things in different ways. Some people learn things by seeing, some by listening and others by writing. Most people learn from a mixture of these methods and tools to help them retain and apply information. Video games can be one of those tools. Video games can never replace traditional forms of learning but traditional forms of learning can benefit from use of video games. A good friend of mine said that it was because of Roller Coaster Tycoon, a game where one manages every aspect of running an amusement park, to his ability to manage money effectively today and an inspiration to going into Information Technologies.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still concerns when it comes to video games. There are people, developers and consumers, who abuse video games. Video games are a neutral medium. They are only as entertaining, destructive, instructive, or abusive as the developer or consumer makes them. Games can be sickening, violent, and unproductive but they can also be instructive, enlightening, and productive and still be entertaining. Both developers and consumers need to be responsible with their use of this medium. How they can and should be used in the field of education needs to be considered seriously as the medium continues to grow and expand.

Can Assassin’s Creed help student learns? As tool it can help teachers educate and students learn. A tool can never replace the one handling it. But like every other tools they need to be handled with care and skill to be efficient.