text – CT101 Digital Storytelling

Archiving Through Tumblr

In a sense, I have been practicing archiving for a little over four years now through the blogging website, Tumblr. I don’t post any original content of my own so my blog consists of purely things that I’ve “reblogged” from other people that I follow on the site. It is literally a collection of […]

In a sense, I have been practicing archiving for a little over four years now through the blogging website, Tumblr. I don’t post any original content of my own so my blog consists of purely things that I’ve “reblogged” from other people that I follow on the site. It is literally a collection of things that appeal to me, that have been created and produced by other people. I usually browse through my own blog whenever I’m looking for inspiration/content for a project. I do also partake in bookmarking certain web pages that have content that I’d like to reference back to.

I chose the above gif from my Tumblr archive because I believe it describes my blog pretty well, artistically and metaphorically speaking. There are times where I’ll be inactive for a few days which represents the calm after the colorful burst, but when I start posting again, I reblog tons of images and gifs in a short period of time which is represented by the colorful burst, itself. My Tumblr is the epitome of everything I’m interested in and like, in terms of visual stimuli.

I also like the fact that this gif is looped very cleanly and can be viewed as anything from space or an eye.

Another Logo Made

So I’ve been messing around with MS Paint again because I recently made a new blog on Tumblr which will contain just black and white photos from my daily life. I found a great theme that contained a sidebar but I didn’t have any image to put in said sidebar and I wasn’t happy just putting one of the old logo icons that I had already made so I decided to make a new using an old logo I had previously created. I just made a double, and flipped it so that the two Ks mirror each other. This look is really ideal because it looks cool and symmetrical while also maintaining purpose since my initials are K.K. This came out a bit better than I thought it would, especially since I had to line everything up just using my eyes and making guesses as to where they should go since I don’t have Photoshop on my laptop at home and everyone knows how primitive and basic MS Paint is so I didn’t have much tools to utilize but I think it came out pretty decently, to say the least. Hoping to clean this up on Photoshop when I get the change.

Responding To Great Advice

After reading Professor Michael Smith’s blog post, which contained some awesome advice from previous CT 399 students, I was immediately struck with inspiration and motivation to work harder at figuring out what I want to do with my time and finding new ways to create original, or just generally creative content. The most helpful bits […]

The most helpful bits of advice were:

What you make outside of class is as important as what you make for class.

I’ve always had this mindset that “I just need to do this assignment for class and then I’m free to do whatever even if that means doing nothing at all”. That is not the proper way to thrive within this major. In order to really develop a sense of what you can do and what you can’t – you have to constantly be working on something; no matter if it’s a small project or something that requires a bit more time. The key is to just always be making something, even if it’s not a requirement for a class because that’s how you grow as an artist.

Take responsibility for your work, develop sustainable working habits.

This is definitely something that I need to work on. I procrastinate too much and am constantly putting off work. Overall, I really don’t have good working habits. I need to start working on things as soon as I come up with ideas on how I want to go about doing them, rather than just waiting until the deadline approaches because I could be using all that extra time to make it even better.

Considering content that already excites you.

I actually already do this. I’ve been accumulating a lot of images and gifs that I’ve found over the internet, specifically Tumblr, within the last few years and this has really helped me figure out what I’m interested in and what themes I’d like my own content to have/portray.

Organizing/archiving interesting content, opinions, tutorials, etc.

Although I’d really like to do this, I feel like this would take some time but the organization factor really appeals to me and I’m looking forward to seeing all my different interests categorized neatly. I may come to some sort of understanding in regards to what inspires me and how I can develop those inspirations into making more things.

Documentary Awareness

After watching the documentary titled The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, I was immediately overcome with so many different emotions that I wasn’t quite sure which one to write about. I’m amazed at how much Aaron was able to accomplish within the short amount of time that he was alive, but I’m also upset and enraged that the government put so much stress on him that he decided to end his life before it had really began. Aaron Swartz is truly someone to look up to in terms of being an incredible creative and technical innovator. He brought so much awareness to the underbelly of politics with regard to the Internet and I believe he’s someone that young people can aspire to become like. He truly wanted to make the world a better place by bringing technology, information and people together. All he intended to do was spread information and make it available to any and everyone no matter their financial status. And it’s irritating to know that the government tries so hard to keep things from its citizens (the very citizens that keep the government running) and go so far as to punish people because they don’t trust us with certain information. One of the quotes from the documentary that really inspired me to make the above poster is: “So secrecy serves those who are already in power and we are living in an era of secrecy that coincides with an era where the government is doing also a lot of things that are probably illegal and unconstitutional. So those two things are not coincidences”. – David Sirota (columnist, Salon). The government itself is just so corrupt to the point where a lot of people have lost trust in the United States government and I think that’s so terrible to know because if the citizens of a country can’t rely on their own government when it comes to giving them access to things that should be public, then who are they to turn to in times of need and change?