I understand the debate regarding copyright, it hard to imagine how as a content creator, you work hard to create a piece unique to you, and other people can change the dynamic of the same piece and make it their own. Although, a copyright gives the credit to the artist that the piece originated from. The fair use concept allows individuals to use and built on preexisting content. For example, Tik Toks allows popular songs to be used in dancing videos. In my opinion, when others share, re-share, and remix content on the web it allows the piece to evolve and stay relevant to modern times. In a way, other people are doing justice by keeping art alive in the industry. But I do understand sometimes people can misuse content and change the perception of the original piece and that does injustice to what the owner intended.
In terms of Andy Baio’s case and Richard Prince’s case, I agree that the law hasn’t caught up to changing values and we are transforming into a shared culture and it’s due to the strives we’re taking in technology. It makes it easier for us to obtain and use the content. It should be celebrated not looked down above. The law between fair use works but it can be conflicted depending on the circumstance. Again, in my opinion, no idea is made from thin air, it’s inspired by something else, a pre-existing idea.
I came into this class not really knowing what to expect but I had high hopes because of all the good reviews I’ve heard about this class and Prof Seslow, not only from Rate my professors but from past classmates and even other professors.
This course has been my favorite thus for and that says a lot because I’m a senior and I only have two more courses to go!
I learned a lot from this class and I had fun while creating and blogging about all we have talked about during class. I appreciated being exposed to different types of digital art such as Vapor wave because though I’ve seen it here and there, I didn’t know what it was exactly and how fun and easy it is to create. I also appreciate learning about Copy right and about great minds such as Aaron Swartz. These are topics that I’ve never been exposed to in a classroom setting and I’m for this new knowledge
My favorite creative project that I completed this semester is the DS106 Assignment, I did my version of Pop star out of place and I had so much fun doing it. It was a bit challenging but I’ve always wanted to learn how to combine different pictures like this in Photoshop. I love using Photopea, its a great substitute for Photoshop.
However my greatest accomplishment in CT101 is my website aniqueryan.com. I’m so excited and happy about my website. I will definitely keep it after this course because I plan on continuing on using it to promote my art works. I like how it’s looking right now but I am definitely going to work on how its presented.
I honestly thought it would of been so much more difficult to build a website. The only problem I had was my indecisiveness lol.
What grade do I think I’ve earned in this class?
An A+ of course, Duh!
To be honest I think my grade for this class is going to be a B+ or A-
I’ve only missed the last two post and I haven’t commented on my classmates post. However I’ve tried my best to do all my assignments. This semester has been very challenging but I’ve tried my best.
Any hoooooo! Good Bye! Best wishes to all of you on your endeavors and Happy Holidays!
For this assignment I went browsing around my classmates websites and found some very interesting things. My classmates are cool people. This semester has been very different not meeting people in person, visiting the website was fun it’s like getting to know someone without meeting them.
I visited Shanae Harris’ site Straight Talk with Kysa this site says everything gets discussed here, I liked that. Shanae has some videos about talking to children about boundaries and internet safety for children.
These are all good things any helpful information and safety tips for kids will be something that I appreciate. I will be visiting your site Shanae for more tips and to see what else you decide to discuss.
Then I took a peek at Cindy Abrue’s site, vibe with cindy. OHHHH this site has a perfect visual for this Christmas season. Cindy definitely has a chill vibe. And terrific advice on how to save money. Which I think we can all use advise and tips on how to not overspend.
Throughout this semester we have carried out many activities which are very interesting. The first ones that come to my mind right now are: Make your own memes lol, create your own website and learn about gifs. Performing these activities are not so common in the rest of the classes that I have taken.
What I liked the most about this class was learning. For example, I did not know that the type of images that I like that are seen a lot in electronic music concerts is called “Vaporwave”, I did not know exactly what had happened with Aaron Swartz and what I learned from him helped me see the things differently, I did not know how to do some things in photoshop and here I learned it. So I learned a combination of interesting topics for me, and I think that’s why I liked the class.
Do you want to see my vaporwave?
About my website, I don’t know if I’m going to keep it. I have a project in mind that I still have to develop and once I do, I might use it to promote it, so I would have to change the whole edition (which is almost nothing at the moment lol)
Currently, my website is very poorly designed, I put a couple of plugins that don’t affect the design but the way of working. My website is inspired by one of my favorite artists who was Avicii. His logo is the current icon for my website and the main image is an image from his album which is a very nice tree which I leave it here…
Also, I put a post a while ago about Donald Trump where I don’t attack him but I don’t defend him either. If you want to check it here I leave the link. Bryalbacg.com
Something complicated was customizing my website since I had never done it before. I had taken a web page design class but was using a programming language which was HTML. So it was hard for me to learn how to customize my website.
I took four classes this semester, but CT101 was different. In all the other classes the main thing was the content that the professor was going to teach. However, in CT101 it was not only that, but the comfort of the student as well. Sometimes chatting with the student about topics that are not part of the class makes the class have a different mood. In this class I hope to get an A since I have applied all the content learned and I did not miss any class or at least that I remember. And even though I know my assignments weren’t perfect, I tried to do the best I could. There were certain assignments that I did not fully understand since some said for example “customize your web page” and then they said “if you did not do the midterm assignment, so do it” (this is just an example) and as I had already done the assignment of the midterm, I did not publish anything on the blog. But in the end, I really enjoyed this class and many thanks to Prof Seslow.
Pheew! The CT101 digital storytelling course has been a fun ride with its own set of peaks and troughs due to other personal engagements. I’ll look back on the weeks and corresponding classes and assignments that culminated into my writing this final blog post with a nostalgic feeling because I would say it was the first time in a long time when I was having fun and learning how to boost my creativity at the same time.
I will try to make this as detailed as possible without boring the reader.
The first weeks introduced me to internet happiness and how interactions in a virtual world can have positive real life effects. Especially when the events in the real world are all doom and gloom.
I learned that in the right space on the internet, we can find wholesome contents which can improve or lighten our moods.
Knowing about internet happiness significantly boosted my expectations for this course. It made me realize that digital storytelling, despite having been around for a while, is a niche that is evolving, that can be tapped into by virtually anyone and that can have a very huge, productive impact on a worldwide scale. Safe to say that I was hooked.
The fun continued with memes and gifs.
Prior to taking this course I had come across various memes and gifs on social media and besides laughing at the very funny ones I never really understood the artistic potential it possessed. This, I learned by reflecting on the question “Are memes art?”
I learned the distinguishing factor between memes and gifs i.e memes are still images sometimes accompanied by captions which further enhances it as a tool for storytelling. Gifs are like memes in terms of expressing a particular feeling. However, it involves moving images like short videos. It can be used to express happiness, excitement, disappointment et cetera.
In the course of learning about gifs and memes, I learned how to find the precise meme or gif that best suited the thought or feeling I wanted to portray using various online sources, notably Make a Meme, Giphy and Imgur.
Going further, we were introduced to DS106 Assignments, a repository from where we chose two different assignments to replicate. I went for “Pop Star Out of Place.” I used Photopea to accomplish this. Photopea is like an online photoshop that allows image manipulations. My second DS10 project was to choose an unregistered company and brand their logo. I also achieved this using Photopea and Publisher.
The skill acquired here would come in handy in various aspects of digital storytelling because with it I can easily apply various images to tell any story I want to in a way that best shows my perspective.
The story of Aaron Swartz, The Internet’s Own Boy was very introspective and I frankly learned a lot from it. It delved into his strength of will and resilience to make the internet as democratic as possible. It also talked about the unending legal troubles he’s had to face in this quest.
By the midterm of the course we had already been taught how to setup a website using WordPress. The process was pretty straightforward.
First was to find a domain name that best reflected what your website was all about; it had to be something users could recall easily and it had to have very little or no resemblance to existing brands.
The next step after this was to register the domain name with a hosting company, for mine I used Reclaim Hosting. Then I went on to the WordPress dashboard to customize my website’s look on the front-end.
With the website all setup, we were taught how to add some more functionalities to it by using plugins.
I learned how to secure the contents of my website by simply installing and activating the “Really Simple SSL” plugin which changes the protocol from http to https.
I also learned how to display contents of my social media channels on my website.
For the next class we were asked to share and also look at our classmates’ websites. I looked at a handful but the two websites I talked about were macdeesauze.com and raaiwlou.com. You can find the detailed post about those two websites here.
The Vapor Wave aesthetic was the next stop in what’s been a fun road trip. We were introduced to Vapor Wave an art form that started in the early 2010’. Vapor Wave as a visual art style is an integration of several art forms which include; glitch art, anime, 3d renders of images, pixelated images and significant attributes of retro artworks.
The Vapor Wave is a daring art form which is basically what I liked about it but I was not impressed by the fact that it did not have a clearly defined method of art creation.
Our final class was focused on copyrights with specific reference to contents being created, shared, modified and re-shared on the internet. I learned about fair use policy and how it could be useful to protect both the interests of the original content creators and also the individuals who want to make use of their creations.
In addition, Larry Lessig’s TED talk video was very informative. He gave a detailed presentation on the impact of the internet, how laws affect content creation and sharing and how the younger generations can adapt to a world that is changing at an unpredictable pace.
Below is a link to Larry Lessig’s TED talk video
I frankly think I have fulfilled all the requirements of CT101 course and can proudly say that I am way better at digital storytelling today than I was at the commencement of this course. Taking into consideration the effort and commitment I exerted for the duration of the CT101: Digital Storytelling course, I think I deserve an A+ grade.
What I enjoyed about this class was ease of communication between the professor and his students. It created an enabling environment for learning with as little stress as possible.
I do think I will maintain the website I created. And I intend to do that by posting ad related content on it momentarily and also by updating my WordPress when necessary.
The website is primarily used to enlighten readers about the importance of ads to businesses in a competitive world where it’s more necessary than ever to stand out to your prospective clients. The website structure is not hard to grasp, there’s the homepage, about page, blog and contact page.
Building the website was fun. The little challenge, if I would call it that was when I had to customize the structure.
Having a website is a very lovely feeling because I feel I can disseminate information about topics I’m passionate about to a wider audience. I can now digitally tell a story.
Finally, I would like to appreciate the efforts of all my classmates for the duration of this course.
And also, the professor, Ryan Seslow for his awesomeness.
It’s not been an easy year for well documented reasons but we did it.
After viewing this video about Aaron Swartz who this documentry is based on it really made me think and realize that throughout life you will be told to do something from anyone . However you will always question it because everyone doesn’t like being told what to do. Based on the way how Swartz portryed himself through his facial expressions and his voice tone you can really see that he has the spirit that he wont back down from anything such as a challenge as is shown when he was a child he wouldn’t back down from a challenge
As Discussed in class we are to chose and create a domain name that suits us for our own personal website. THe Domain I have chosen to use for my website is onebadr34.
And the reason why i have chosen this name is due to my passion and love for cars. As a kid growing i always had a passion for buliding and working on cars. Also my passion for the Fast and Furious Movies as well had a lot due to with my domain chosing because of myself wanting to own the Nissan GTR R34 Skyline which is a monster of a car. To create this website we will be using a site called Reclaim Hosting which will also be my first using it as well can’t wait!
Copyright as defined on copyrightalliance.org is a collection of rights that automatically vest to someone who creates an original work of authorship – like a literary work, song, movie or software. These rights include the right to reproduce the work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies, and to perform and display the work publicly.
Knowing what copyright means would inevitably lead to the question, why is there copyright?
In my opinion, I think everyone who uses the web and social media platforms should be wary of the contents they share and duly credit original sources or authors. This, while showing appreciation and encouragement to the original creators for their work also serves to bring their craft to a wider audience which can only be a good thing in the long run.
My opinions on how best to use and share content on the web brings us to the concept of “Fair use.” Fair use, according to this sub domain web-page from the Stanford University website is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “trans-formative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an infringement.
The concept of fair usage is one that I really like because it means that the general public are allowed the creative freedom to make an adaptation of an original piece of art without altering it significantly and without alienating the rights of the creator. This also becomes relevant because there are ideas which are triggered by an already existing art forms and which could be more relevant to specific groups in ways the original art isn’t. For instance, using a less than 30 second gif from a movie to express a singular idea or feeling that could resonate even louder than the movie from which it was gotten from.
There were various insights I got from watching the Larry Lessing video but the bit that I considered most significant goes thus;
“The importance is that that technique has been democratized. It is now anybody with access to a $1,500 dollar computer who can take sounds and images from the culture around us and use it to say things differently. These tools of creativity have become tools of speech. It is a literacy for this generation. This is how our kids speak. It is how our kids think. It is what your kids are as they increasingly understand digital technologies and their relationship to themselves.”
This quote which was quite relevant at the time is still just as relevant now. Despite being a slight deviation from the topic of copyright it is still a very vital insight into content creation on the web and how these contents affects us socio-culturally. The internet and specifically social media is growing at a rate that we can hardly keep taps on and just like any form of growth there are implications and ramifications.
On the creative spectrum, I can say that the web has been a blessing. Kids now have access to tools that help them express their creativity easily and also make it available to pretty much anyone around the world. ”This is how our kids speak”
On the downside, it’s harder to censor the contents the kids have access to. And that could be a huge problem in the quest for these kids to “increasingly understand digital technologies and their relationship to themselves”
Vapor Wave is a sub-genre of electronic music. It is also a form of visual art and internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. At its core, Vapor Wave as a visual art style is an integration of several art forms which include; glitch art, anime, 3d renders of images, pixelated images and significant attributes of retro artworks.
For a period of time, Vapor Wave aesthetics influenced aspects of mainstream music videos with Rihanna the most notable artiste whose music video contained known aspects of the aesthetic.
From the perspective of a journalist and also on a personal level, I cannot say I hate Vapor Wave as an art form because all forms of art are meant to be expressive and inspiring. So if it exists, then there’s certainly a creative edge to it. It’s bold as it’s daring. More importantly it works perfectly as a creative tool for storytelling.
That also doesn’t mean I like it either and that is for the simple reason that the sub-genre is not as clearly defined as all other forms of art I know of. Throwing some Renaissance era sculptures on a backdrop of dimly intense color(s) with some geometric lines and other random 3d images does tell a story but it’s just not the kind of visual art that I am accustomed to.
The Vapor Wave aesthetic is distorted at best with no clear rules or guidelines as to how to create art within its confines which I think is the point all along. Freedom of artistic expression with very little inhibitions.
Having said that, I think the Vapor Wave aesthetic didn’t last long as a mainstream art form because of this same reason i.e not being clearly defined.
A lot of criticisms on its style and substance and the fact that it didn’t adapt overtime means it’s now less a staple than it was in the early 2010s.
As was required of us, I took some time to peek into the websites of my classmates.
The first website that really appealed to me was Louannie Smith’sraaiwlou.com. The site name “raaiwlou”, as I found out, is an acronym for “Read All About it With Lou” which I think is a sleek move.
The website was quite easy to navigate with a nice template but what struck me was how simple and effective the first post was.
Using very few words, the writer was able to introduce the readers to the website in such a way that it felt like they were having an actual conversation even when the writer was not there. And when I was done, I did leave a comment (more like a thumbs up.)
The other website that I really liked was Mac-Dege’s macdeesauze.com.
On the website, pictures played a very significant role is conveying messages.
The first image that I saw when I visited the website was the image of a Nike Air Jordans with the wearer’s orange sock showing the words “EMBRACE CHANGE” Not so subtle huh?
The answer is simple; the title, which I think is a double entendre because aside the story that was shared on the post, we all know that sneaking is also a form of movement.
Social media is the principal and ubiquitous existence of the internet today and its influence just keeps growing wider. Your perceptions of its merits and demerits notwithstanding, you cannot deny that is has undergone an exponential growth over the years. A growth that is only going to increase as the years go by. Simply put, social media is inevitable.
Beyond serving as an outlet for sharing thoughts and expressing one’s feelings, social media is one of the biggest hubs of creativity and artistic expression.
From tweeting about a rival’s team loss with a corresponding meme to seeing a holiday photo with a cute husky on Instagram; from reading a heartfelt thanksgiving message on Facebook to watching a granny try new dance moves on TikTok, the stories being told on these digital platforms are so vast and imaginative.
All that being said, it only makes sense that one’s social media activity is tethered to their websites if they have one because there are some contents which could be relevant to the information being shared on the website. (A case in point; using gifs/memes to express one’s feelings in blog posts)
The first step as was taught in the Zoom class would be to go to the WordPress plugins directory in the back-end and search for the Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed. Once found, I installed and activated the plugin after which I proceeded to grant the plugin the access to my Instagram account and also customized the settings to suit my preferences better.
I also went further to install and activate the 10Web Social Post Feed which primarily displays custom Facebook posts on a WordPress website. The process was just as seamless as that of the Smash Balloon plugin.
In addition, I took the time to install the Really Simple SSL plugin, a tip that was shared by the professor before he delved into the social media plugins. It was pretty straightforward to do. The aim of doing this was to change the URL protocol from HTTP to HTTPS because it is encrypted and more secure.
Based on what I seen, VaporWave is kinda all about perception. At first glance, it seems like a bunch of bodies of art pieced together on a multi colored background and honestly it can be distracting to the mind but when you actually look and analyze; it becomes a beautiful body of work.
Before I continue, i’ll answer the initial question which is, What is Vapor Wave? Vapor Wave can be considered a combination of electronic music and visual art styles. From my understanding its supposed to be sarcastic in a way, poking at serious art and adding an twist.
Visually I think Vapor Wave is pleasing to the eyes, at first I wasn’t the biggest fan but as I look through more images, they began to pop out to me. Vapor wave has a cool way of being both modern and dated. It draws you in and keeps your attention. I feel as tho I view it from an observant point of view. I’m not sure if I will participate in the art form but I am enticed enough to want to continue looking at different bodies of work.
For the two projects we had to choose from the DS106, I decided to pick the Favorite Movie quote assignment Favorite Movie Quote as the project I would complete, and the Create A License plate assignment Design A License Plate as a second project.
The movie I chose is Toy Story 2 and how i created this by using Imgur due to the fact that it had this image that was from the scene where my favorite quote was.
The second project i chose was to create a personal license plate and the site i used for it is Build a Sign
I musts say that my classmates have produced some very successful websites. You go guys!
The website that I really took a liking to is Claudia Bakes! by Claudia Campos. This is not because it is filled with delicious goodies…. but honestly that may be one of the reasons.
I love the overall feel of the website, the use of the color brown for the Titles gives the website a calm, “homey” feel. Its just pleasing on the eyes. I do have a bit of a sweet tooth and I appreciate the fact that Claudia shares the recipes to the pictures of the delectable goodies she post.
Well done Claudia!
Though I am currently trying to eat healthy and I’ve been doing a decent job at staying away from too much sweets, this website has me drooling lol.
With that being said, I think I’m going to try out one of these recipes. Thank you Claudia!
I am having so much fun customizing my website; aniqueryan.com
I’m still in awe that I’m actually doing this. I would of never thought that this would be so easy to accomplish.
Here is a little snap shot of my website. I have successfully added an Instagram plugin and posted my second blog post.
I’m getting there slowly but surely and I’m enjoying every bit of it!
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