A MEMORY AND A POEM

Memory

I enjoyed thinking about the memory I shared with my dad on campus. Sometimes, it takes a while for me to think about an idea, but the memory I shared came to me rather quickly. I am not really sure what connection others will make as far as what it says about Kean University as a whole but maybe it can represent Kean being a place of laughter and happiness. 

Sharing My Poem in Class

When our professors told us to bring in something creative, I started thinking about all the poems I wrote for my Advanced Writing Poetry class. I really wanted to bring in something new but like I expressed in class due to time I haven't been writing poetry lately. Last Wednesday, I decided to go with Paper Clip. I knew it was still a work in progress but it was one of those poems I still liked with it being a work in progress.

Paper Clip

I want my relationship with God

to be like the relationship

of paper with paper clips.

I want to hold on to him 

like the clip.

I want him to be able 

to trust me with 

texts or valuable 

information.

I want him to be able to use me

time and time again

like the paper clip. 

I'LL STICK TO SINGING!

Early Noise/ Morning Sounds

So,I knew I would struggle with the activity this week. When I first scanned the assignment, I was already frustrated because it just sounded complex. I began by downloading everything before class. Then in class we did a mini activity that made me feel better about the assignment, but after I gathered all my sound files and started to convert them/export them to mp3 I was feeling uneasy again. I took the time out to read the blog post thoroughly and realized our Professor Alan Levine had a longer tutorial. The tutorial made me feel better again and it prompted me to import and export all my files again to follow what he did more precisely. Now, all I had to do was test it out. So, I went to the Young Writers Project and figured out how to download my sounds. There wasn't much on there when I attempted to do this and continue my homework so I just listened to three and attempted a draft of what I wanted to say. When I revisited the homework assignment again, I listened to the sounds harder and tried to come up with something creative but realistic. 

Here is the final product using three of gg sounds: 

Ending to Overlap with gg sounds

My parents always claim I make to much noise so I go to my car which allows me to be free and escape. 

More Practice

So, for more practice I decided to do "Have a Phone Conversation with Yourself." Based off of my solo conversation, I captured the idea of "holding down both sides of a conversation" and "using the pitch changer." I actually enjoyed this activity even though it took me a while to figure out how to make my voice go even deeper. I started off already speaking in a lower tone and just used Audacity to make it less obvious and a little deeper.

ORSTRESSDER

     GIF and Memes

           I have to admit I was not excited about this week's activities at all. I felt like a lot of people were, but these were two areas I did not have much familiarity with. In fact, Wednesday was the first time I made a GIF. I was content with the GIF based off of Howard Rheingold's Alchemagickal Lucid DreamBox and my knowledge, but the GIF was not one of my favorites. In terms of what I produced for the homework, I really like the idea behind it. I see places where I could probably do things a little different, but I decided to stick with what I had. After all, I did so many videos just to get to that one. But the idea behind the GIF was to start off in a state of chaos. I was stressed and overwhelmed. Then, to move to a place where I decided to pray. To write and turn to God, will put my chaos into a state of order.

     
          I think it is important to know sometimes it is hard to pray, but what I learned from Pastor Simmons is "God is a God of order." The GIF was inspired by several Pastors, Dr. Zamora's comment in class asking "does anybody keep a journal of their dreams" (that made me think about my journals), past comments people I know made about a journal, and my own engagement with written prayer and turning to God during chaotic moments in my life.

         In terms of the memes, I was inspired by a photo I took in the past. I made both the order and chaotic memes, and I used pictures I took for both. I just felt the need to claim the order one/make an account because my poem is incorporated. I tried to go back and do the chaotic one but for some reason it did not work. Anyways, the order photo has one of my favorite poems. I wanted it to represent how your work will turn out if you turn to God. Praying to God can lead to great sharing results, and you can even get ideas. For the chaotic photo, I decided to just take a photo of just blank sheets of computer paper. Sometimes, before you turn to God you feel confused, empty, stressed (just chaotic). Finally, a song that kept popping in my head and is a source of inspiration is "Nothing Without You" by Jason Nelson.

Network Effect

       When I visited Network Effect the only connection I could really make is so many other things are taking place in the world, that are sometimes more exciting, during the time we spend on the internet. 

Studio Visit with Howard Rheingold and Mamie Rheingold

      Once again, I feel like I said majority of my feelings about the studio visit Wednesday. To me, a balanced life as a digital citizen is knowing when you need to get off the internet and focus on what is more important. Sometimes, I literally have to avoid Facebook because I know it will distract me. My best practice thus far, has been getting off of Facebook completely for weeks. I know it is good for me but it is also hard.

     

CAN YOU HEAR ME?

So, this week I learned so much goes into audio that you sometimes do not even consider/notice. Professor Levine was right when he said, "with sound you do not have to pay attention" and at times I found myself trying really hard to keep paying attention.

Furthermore, we did an activity Wednesday in class called blackout poetry that was both complex and fun. I chose to work in a group, and I expressed in class I think it made the activity harder. I was very satisfied with my group though and how we all worked together to get the assignment accomplished. I even loved the fact me and @le petit jo was able to put our own sentence/sentences aside and just focus on editing what @Bcre8iv21 had. Sometimes, that can be difficult depending on who you are working with. After completing the activity and reading the homework requirements for week five, the class was asked to "NOT use text to fill out the story." For some reason on the first try, I did it anyway. I liked what I created so I figured why not share. Nothing wrong with adding right?

First attempt

So, I really liked the line @RissaCandiloro used when she posted/shared her blackout poetry, and I thought it was a great opening that flowed so I decided to use that first. "Considering time when time began . . . . or perhaps the way it will end." "The first morning Pollo dreamed of a monk and crawling boiling phenomenon" (Professor Levine).  The astounding morning dreamed then visited the faceless monk, Pollo, briefly sending pigeons dead as their men. "The skeletons had piled ruins of events in twelve million centuries" (Professor Levine).  

Second Attempt

1. "Incredible beasts still call in the morning but only briefly abandoning scandalous actuality" (Stephanie Jones). 

2.

3. 

Trying to create a story without words was hard. At times, I added sentences then took them away because I felt like it was giving away to much information. So instead of writing all the sentences, I used photos as replacements. I believe the photos incorporated multiple sentences. So, I still used four lines and had the photos capture them. As far as the sound, I like nature jam. I hear the birds but it also has this chopping/smashing element to it which I think works well with the pictures/sentences.

In conclusion

I honestly feel like I shared a lot of my thoughts about the studio visit in class on Wednesday, but now I feel like the studio visit helped me way more than I originally thought it did. For this week's homework, I took the time to also find the trailer to one of my favorite movies Tears of the Sun. I have to admit I looked at the trailer. But when I thought about it after, the sounds in the background lets me know there is going to be death and it creates suspense. And when listening to the Truth's It's Going to Change Your Life, sometimes I felt like I had to tune the words out to fully listen to the sound. Moreover, I think it is possible to do a blackout with audio. In fact, I think Professor Levine already did when he "took a 55 minute RadioLab episode and edited it down to about 9 minutes." I feel like I am constantly learning this semester. 

LIGHT

                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                     

   Original Photo

Original Book

          This week's activities were time consuming and complex, but I am satisfied with the outcome. I could not figure out how to do the edges the same, but I love what I came up with for the alternative book cover. I feel like the name of the book alone fulfills the alchemy element, but for some reason when I look at the fire I think of chemicals and labs.
           I used a photo I previously took for the Four Elements activity but did not use. I also downloaded GIMP. The idea was inspired by the movie Darkness Falls and DS106 Assignment Bank. The bank inspired me to write/paint on the picture. When you think of fairies, your mind goes to all things good. My photos bring out the dark side and make you think of all things evil which was inspired by Darkness Falls.

         These two photos represent the front and back of my postcard. I originally was trying to find/use something on the internet (Jukebox and Canva) but with prices, the words not appearing the way I wanted it to, and just time in general I decided to make it myself. At this point, I am not even sure which one was harder because they both took a lot of time.
         But, I decided to use an old fireworks photo I took because it could not be traced to a particular place. I realized this photo would be best for an "imaginary or magical place." I also felt like leaving the address out and putting Dear Stranger made it more "magical." This postcard was inspired by my professors, wikipedia, Beyoncé song "I was here," a postcard my dentist sent me to remind me about an appointment, and tweets on Twitter. For example,

Every time you focus on the positive, you are bringing more light into your life and that light removes all darkness.

— ManifestationMiracle (@manifestation4) February 14, 2017

WRAP UP 

What I got from watching Kurt Vonnegut is structure could perhaps make it easier for electronic literature. I thought about the response Dogtrax gave to me on my Necessary Creative Path blog. He said, "Great reflection .. I wonder about your first part -- it may be that the bot itself (I agree with you on it) is limited in the way it culls suggestions from its databased based on keywords in the tweet sent its way. So, not likely a weakness of your inquiry much as a weakness in the bot response structure (who knew there would even be such a thing!)"

;)

Kevin 

Systems know what to do if they are following a structure. Lastly in terms of the studio visit with Mark & Rob, I kept thinking about the netprov I was involved in for Dr. Zamora's class. To me, it was fun and at times challenging. Like I mentioned to Dr. Zamora before, I struggled with saying certain things even though I knew it was fake. 

STALK ME LINKS

Links for Digital Storytelling Class

1.      All my Blogs

http://myimprovedstorytelling.blogspot.com/

All my Blogs on Class Site

http://netnarr.arganee.world/author/quanesha-burr/ 

Twitter/Tweets using Netnarr

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=%23netnarr%20from%3AQuaneshaSB

3.      Daily Digital Alchemy

http://daily.arganee.world/hashtags/QuaneshaSB/

4.      Hypothe.is

https://hypothes.is/users/QuaneshaB

5.      Kean University Bloggers

http://netnarr.arganee.world/category/syndicated/kean/

THE NECESSARY CREATIVE PATH

           I have to say I was very surprised and pleased with how quick I got a response from the twitter bot. My question to @KairosHotBots was can you suggest or recommend bots that enjoy encouraging others. The two suggestions I received were not very helpful. The response leads me to think either my question was not good enough or encouraging others is not on the popular list. I truthfully believe there are several ways to encourage others. Encouragement can be weaved into statements, stories, songs, poems, etc.
           But aside from encouragement, a page I viewed seemed to give me some hope @SnowballPoetry. I could see how some poems could possibly be constructed from what I read even if I did not understand some of the tweets. I tapped into creativity. And speaking of creativity, I really enjoyed the Flickr activity. Based off the two stories I wrote Necessary Path and Escape, I really like Necessary Path. To be honest when I first started doing this activity, I was thinking about the link Sandy Brown Jensen shared with me. I did not have time to fully read the link though, and I made a deliberate decision not to finish reading it before I did this activity. I wanted to see what came out of me without being so consumed by how others said you should do it. But, I did know the story did not have to be long. Below is the aftermath!
          In conclusion, this week went well. I loved the comments I received on some of my blogs Wednesday night. I learned that people can sometimes make connections from the very elements that you thought hindered your work. I started trying to think about some questions for the twitter bot Friday. I sent one question Saturday, and I did a little investigation Saturday and Sunday. The stories were produced Monday night/early Tuesday morning.

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Five Card Story: Necessary Path

a Networked Narratives story created by Quanesha

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog
Brook had to take the same path every day so she could get to the destination she was trying to reach. But, each day she tried to find something beautiful and different to reflect upon even if it was something as simple as a plant. What she found that propelled her to write a story reminded her of Christmas and her life. She was scattered but beautiful and thin but complete in her own unique way. She knew that the right man one day would see everything she saw within herself plus more. But until then, she was focused on her purpose and the road that led to it. She knew that only one person was in control/had the key. So, she lived each day reflecting, dreaming, and constructing stories.

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Five Card Story: Escape

a Networked Narratives story created by Quanesha

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by Mind on Fire Photography

flickr photo by Mind on Fire Photography

flickr photo by cogdogblog
Hope loved music! Hope found a connection with every song even if her real life appeared to have no connection. She could spend hours sitting, watching the sun, and listening to music. Hope didn’t really care about how warm or cold it was. All she could think about was Christmas and Jesus. During this time, she enjoyed taking walks with others, resting at a peak, and then using some of that time to engage in prayer. She prayed for help, and she prayed about her road.
Inspired by: Travis Greene “Made a Way,” and Hezekiah Walker “Grateful”

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