Creating trancing pages required much patience. Graphite tended to smear on pages and stain all other surfaces it had the misfortune of encountering. Despite the time-consuming tracing, the analysis itself was interesting to do. Ties between each page found in separate works were not an easy task, but how each element shaped that scene for the protagonist’s storyline was incredibly interesting to divulge in the analysis. The pages I decided to focus on were pages two hundred ninety-seven of “Stitches” by David Small and page seventy-six of “Fun Home” by Alison Bechdel.
Page 79 of “Fun Home” by Alison BechdelPage 297 of “Stitches” by Alison Bechdel
I used a sandwich-making instruction model to showcase all the learning objectives I learned throughout my in “The Secret Language of Comics” class. Instead of choosing to actually recreate a step-by-step how-to, I chose to do it in a similar fashion that commercials create it to advertise the multiple ingredients they use, particularly in hamburgers. This would be a much simpler and less confusing way of going about it in my opinion.
I used a sandwich-making instruction model to showcase all the learning objectives I learned throughout my in “The Secret Language of Comics” class. Instead of choosing to actually recreate a step-by-step how-to, I chose to do it in a similar fashion that commercials create it to advertise the multiple ingredients they use, particularly in hamburgers. This would be a much simpler and less confusing way of going about it in my opinion.
Spotify Playlist: A Mix For My Good Friend Who Wants to Live in the Woods
I accumulated songs into a playlist that I thought would convey a sense of adventure. There are Irish musical ensembles, various folk music, songs dating back to the 1600s, songs from The Hobbit, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones are all found within the playlist. There are thirteen songs in total amounting to 46 minutes and 31 seconds. Creating this playlist was a very enjoyable task for me. I am always looking forward to creating playlists for specific purposes in life:
Recreating this movie scene was easy and efficient. It required the participation of only one person and low equipment needed (a door frame and door). In an iconic movie scene from the evolutionary psychology thriller written by Stephen King and directed by Stanley Kubrick, Jack Nicholson’s face covers the entirety of the camera frame as he descends more and more into madness.
Writing the Halfa Kucha was a challenging process, but I wrote mine in a similar fashion as I would an essay. I grouped scenes between “Kindred” by Octavia E. Butler and “Fun Home” by Alison Bechdel which would be the main points I would want to present. I also scripted what I would say on each slide in order to back up the several claims I made. The title and end slide would serve as an introduction and conclusion slide.
Presentation
The presentation was the most difficult part of the project. A common problem I believe we all had was condensing the information into a 20-second per slide, 10-slide presentation. Timing and practice were key when presenting. A personal problem I have is slight stuttering when flustered. I noticed that I could present the beginning slides well until I lost my train of thought, became flustered, and consequently started stuttering slightly. The embarrassment fueled this cycle until I found my groove once again.
How has the entire literacy narrative project helped you to meet the Learning Outcomes for this class
How was it to return to the alphabetic literacy narrative after having created your comic? How did you think differently after having worked in the visual medium and now returning to a text narrative?
How do you see the story you are trying to tell in different terms now? Was your analytical thinking process any different?
This entire literacy narrative project has helped me meet the following learning outcomes for this class: Practice writing as a process, recursively implementing strategies of research, drafting, revision, editing, and reflection; Demonstrate collaborative skills in classroom discussion and while working together on projects and presentations; Use technology rhetorically and appropriately, and engage responsibly in online spaces. I was able to practice writing as a process through the creation of the essay, its multiple revisions and edits, and reflections of said revisions and edits through the reflection posts. I was also able to demonstrate collaborative skills in classroom discussion by peer-reviewing other people’s comic strips and giving constructive advice on how they could better the construction of the storyline. Lastly, through the continuous upload of our work to our WordPress website, I am able to use technology appropriately and responsibly in online spaces.
The conceptual issues I was trying to track were mostly how content I felt for ten consecutive days in areas such as healthiness, positivity, DCT satisfaction (very important), and weather satisfaction. I divided the categories and color-coded depending on the duration of the mood that I was feeling. I concluded that my busiest days tend to have lower mood ratings in positivity and healthiness. This trend will most likely continue for the rest of the year. On the days when I have free afternoons, I find myself feeling satisfaction from the DCT food as well as the weather. My best guess from this is that I have time to enjoy my food and soak in the day instead of running over the chewing action and worrying about the next thing I have to do.
At the beginning of this project, I had asked myself if my positivity depended on the amount of time I spent with other people or did it depend more heavily on my schedule. Because of the unsteady exposure to other people, I was not able to fully determine whether this was the case. I did, however, find myself feeling better after those brief encounters. Some judgment calls I faced while gathering my data were mostly dealing with determining the hours I had felt a certain mood. I would encounter choices like figuring out if I had felt healthy for ten or eleven hours that day. These choices might have skewed the visual data. I chose to visualize the data in the manner I did because it personally helped me organize my understanding and saw my rating spread out clearly throughout the ten days in the different categories.
If I were to continue this project into the future, I would investigate if my moods revolved around the amount of time I spent with my friends like I previously intended. The difference would be the scheduled time so I can properly determine if those experiences affected them at all. I have found this to be a valuable tool for self-analysis. I had not realized my moods changed that drastically in such a relatively short period of time. I am interested in doing this long-term if possible.
Creating this comic took a long time. It was challenging to create images that would fit the story narrative well and could properly project what I was visualizing at the time I was writing the story. One of the more difficult parts was drawing scenes that I was trying to water down so as to not create something so difficult. It was fun, however, to draw things in exaggerated ways that I thought fit best with the narrative.
