Class Takeawawaway 2

The main thing that I took away from this class is that I don't think I am fully engaging my brain when I am trying to learn. My experience with NEWM-N250, the team building class, taught me that my learning style is that of kinesthetic/visual. Meaning I learn best by moving and doing something and seeing something to learn. It is really surprising, then, that I am not a doodler, which is what we were assigned to do for homework.

This is actually something I am not practiced at. I haven't doodled or drawn, even, since I was in middle school or junior high. What do I draw?! How do I doodle?! Is that a silly question? Meh, probably...

Being creative is something that I strive to be everyday, and most days I feel like I am falling on the side of mediocrity. Sure, I know how to operate the programs that we use in MAS, but am I using them? Too often I feel we are challenged to analyze an audience and to find out what they like. But in MAS I am not sure we are challenged enough to find out what we like. If I can be inspired, truly inspired, I feel like I can make some groundbreaking media that is worth remembering.

Maybe it will just start with a doodle...

An Egg and A Fishbowl

So remember that last time that I said I needed to find a starting place to begin my egg assignment. Totally did it. No big deal.

Considering I introduced myself as somebody who is familiar with audio editing programs and techniques, I decided to do a little "Egg Song". What does it sound like to physically cook and enjoy the sustenance of an egg? Well there is a symphony of sounds in all kinds of cooking, and often times we over look some things.

Now, I want to say that this song did not turn out as well as I had hoped. Sure, the recording part went fine. I got to use my Zoom recorder and even got to enjoy some food. However next, I took off creating my project without doing much planning. I just started jamming sounds together out of excitement to hear the final product. This is a major downfall for MAS folks; we gotta remember to plan ahead to make the cool stuff! Naturally because I did not have a definite final product in my mind it sounds kind of mis-mashed in places but ultimately the listener should be able to make the distinction between all of the sounds I included.

Enjoy, if you would like, my "Egg Song"

Cheers!

Class 1 Takeaway

My take away from this class was the concept of fishbowling. I thought that was a really novel concept in terms of creativity. When we were initially given The Egg, I was looking around the room and noting people's reactions. Most had a blank look. They seemed to be saying "well now what can I possibly do with this?".

The fact that the assignment was so broad, so open, people simply did not know what to do. I know I did not, at first, either. But then after Barry Schwartz's video, it seemed to make sense.

Narrow down the possible choices.

So I thought about how I introduced myself to the class to give myself a starting point. What were their expectations about my project (not that I am doing this project specifically for them) going to be? I had to fishbowl myself to get a good starting point for my Egg assignment, and I think I've found it.