well this was a random week.

Week 11:

I have to say, I really didn't accomplish that much this week, but in my defense there was only so much I could do.

One thing I did was finish revising one of my tour scripts. I think this is the last time, and I will rejoice over that fact. Looking back though, I am pretty proud of myself. For someone who isn't exactly an art aficionado, I thought I did a good job compiling scripts about.....art. One thing I strove for was to make sure the students listening to the tour could relate to my scripts. I worked to make sure I was talking about things they will find interesting, I said it in a way they will understand, and that at the end, they'll be able to relate to the art at least a little bit. I like to think I've accomplished this goal with the two scripts I wrote.

One exciting thing that happened this week was getting Final Cut Pro installed on the G4 computer. This means I can work on the documentary while others are working on the website. It's an exciting moment.

This week I also discovered an awesome Facebook game called SimSocial. I've only been moderately addicted.

interviews, revising, and setting things on fire

Week 10:

I have to admit, I really don't remember a lot of what happened this week. I probably should have written this blog Thursday or Friday, but I just wanted to chillax and be lazy those days.

I know I spent a lot of time shooting interviews for the documentary. I had a schedule that fit everyone in the class in. I only shot interviews for about half the class. However, they were excellent interviews so I decided that was ample.

Furthermore, I CAPTURED the interviews. That's right, I sat down and got that 2 1/2 hours of tape captured so I don't have to do it next week. Now all I need to do is find a time to start going through them and to start really editing this documentary. I'm realizing this is going to be a difficult feat, because everyone needs that G5 for the website. We'll work something out.

I'm also looking into scheduling times for recording the audio tours. I guarantee recording those is going to be QUITE the adventure. I say this because any time I use ProTools it turns out to be an adventure.

Finally, I spent some time (surprise!) revising this week. It was fine actually, I didn't have TOO much. I did suggest setting our podcast scripts on fire in the end. For some reason, Beth wasn't as enthusiastic about that idea.

I LIKE using the words piece and create.

Week 9:

This week was full of revising. It's just as exciting as it sounds. For me, this meant editing my tour scripts. The real challenge for me was the script about abstract expressionism. I think I was convincing myself I didn't understand it, but I really do. It was just the articulating it that was the problem. After meeting with Tania and bouncing ideas off classmates I think I have a workable script.

I know for me one the most annoying part of revision is the list of "forbidden words" we received from the art museum. It includes words such as artwork, piece, and create. One might think it wouldn't be that hard to write without these words. That person would be wrong. Artwork I can do without, especially because we can still use work of art. Piece killed me. In my scripts, it was mostly replaced with the word object, which I loathe. When I think of an object, I think of random items laying around my apartment, not a piece (that's right, I used the word piece) of art. Also, I never realized how much I like the word create. I definitely like it more than make or paint. Needless to say, it was very frustrating trying to replace these words. I became particularly annoyed when I found a sentence that ended with "created the piece of artwork." or something along those lines.

Another small portion of my week was planning out the documentary. I have a general idea of how it will flow, but it made me realize I need to do some more in-depth interviews with students at the VBC. So next week is interview week. I know all my classmates are looking forward to it =)

And from our laptops a website is born

Week 8:

This past week we made a lot of headway on the website. We made many of decisions we had previously been putting off or kept changing our minds on. Also, we got initial designs for the interior pages completed.

One issue that has been debated for an extremely long time is color. Somehow our color decisions never seemed to work and were ever-changing. To solve this, we decided to form a color "committee." We chose a few people to be the Gods of color, and whatever decision they made, was the law. This has worked well for us.

We also put our foot down and developed a style sheet. This way, when we're making templates, we know how big everything should be, what fonts to use, etc. When we put everything together at the end it looks cohesive and actually makes sense.

It seems to me that the next step to the website is putting the templates up on dreamweaver, and then filling them with content. It should be quite the adventure, but I'm very glad we're up to this point.

I'm excited that we've basically completed all of our designs and can start getting it live in the near future. It's taken a lot of work getting to this point, but now we've gotten to the point that we're moving along quite smoothly.

Week 7: I Can Collaborate. I Rock.

This week I was assigned the task to talk about myself and how I roll with collaboration. Well actually, I think technically that's supposed to be next week's post, but I like the idea of writing about it right now.

Obviously a big part of this project comes down to collaboration and group work. One thing I've noticed is that everyone in this seminar is really good at sitting down and discussing things. We can discuss like no other. We can lay out 40 million options. We can look at the pros and cons. This started out as a good thing, but especially in the last week or two we've noticed it's time to make decisions and quit just sitting around and talking about it.

That said, I like to think that recently my role in collaboration has been in keeping the group from getting hung up on details. Instead, I try to steer the conversation so it's focusing on the big picture. I think doing this helps keep the conversation focused and relevant.

For example, we might be trying to make a decision, but somehow the conversation has devolved into a battle between two different types of purple I try to calm everyone down, table the color conversation, and lead everyone back to what we were originally talking about. That's what I try to do, and I like to think I succeed at least some of the time.

I will say my biggest weakness in collaboration is delegating. Usually when I'm assigned to a task, especially one I would HAPPILY do by myself, I have issues delegating tasks to other people. I realize this is something I should work on, because if I don't, the last three weeks of the semester I will most likely combust from stress. Although, that would be an interesting segment for the documentary. In either case, it's my goal in the coming weeks to actually articulate all the insane ideas in my head to other people and hopefully delegate tasks to them. But, I have improved. I give other people the camera now. =)

I think Rick summed it up best though. I asked him how he thought I was at collaboration and he responded by saying that I was "swell."

Also, the above picture was taken outside the art museum. We went on a picture taking expedition, and kept taking pictures even after we left.