gd4-ichnogram

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Writing Initiative #7

What have you learned about yourself doing this self-directed assignment?

I learned that I struggle a bit to think outside the box when it comes to ideas and it takes me a while to figure out the execution of some of my ideas (mainly for the 4D). I went through a bit of an artblock at some moments trying to figure out ideas, and that I should be doing more research in these moments.

What did you find to be the most difficult aspect of your chosen assignment? Creativity? Research? Connecting design to research? Craft? Organizational skills? Time management? Something else entirely?

I found that the most difficult aspect would be with my 4D and the creativity of it. Even after I had some ideas for 2D, 3D and my reflective, the 4D had very little inspiration and ideas, that I feel its entirely felt sort of lack lustre in comparison to the rest of the assignments. I spent a lot of time trying to search for any interactive methods I could've used, video ideas, or whatever felt possible with what I had. Maybe if I did have more time or spent more time thinking about the 4D throughout the entire semster, I might've had a better idea.

What did you enjoy about this opportunity?

I enjoyed the ability and freedom when it came to the assignments, and that they could mean anything I felt was right for my word. I also enjoyed the group feedback sessions as it was nice to connect and see other people's work, how some people have words and ideas that connected with someone else, and how someone else's ideas can help jumpstart one of the assignments that may have been a struggle. I also enjoyed how some of my assignments had me thinking about things family-wise that I try to push back and not think about, and that it felt nice to get some of those feelings out through these assignments.

How would you rate your performance over the course of the semester?

I think my performance would be decent or average. I missed a few important presentation classe due to illness where I could've gotten more feedback on my assignments and ideas, but I would always try to have some iterations or versions for the next class I attended so I didn't have nothing or the same things to show. I made sure everything was in on time, I had time for each assignment, I had things to show for each group meeting, and that my time was used well considering I had other courses too, but I feel that what I did show could've been more or better.

Hindsight is 20/20. What would you do differently, now that you've had this opportunity to work this way?

I think I would try to think broader in terms of direction. At the start with my research, I was very literal when it came to the definition of "ichnogram" and the use of footprints that I had a hard time branching out with ideas later on with the 4D especially. I also felt I had struggled with ideas from the start as a cause of this, at least until the idea for my 3D using Russian dolls and reflective using my baby box idea randomly came to me. I also think if I was going to go through this childhood route again, I would've searched for childhood photos and videos sooner.

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4D - Final

The 4D is more of a nostalgic experience that shows the growth or people’s path and “footprint” in life. Using my childhood videos, I want this experience to connect that these videos, pictures and audio could be similar to someone else's own videos or childhood memorabilia. We were all children once and all “walk for the first time”, whether that's actually taking our first steps, moving away for the first time, going to college or university or any other big life event someone takes the risk to experience for the first time in their life. 

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Reflective - Final

Some information copy and pasted from previous post:

The reflective keeps that similar theme of personalization to my own life, childhood, growth, and someone’s experiences in life. This project is a mimic of my own childhood baby box and baby book (inspiration pictures of my actual box shown previously).

Box

The original box contains items from my childhood as I grew up with my blankets, my swaddle, the first item I showed in Show and Tell in kindergarten and many other things.

My project box holds my other projects (2D and 3D) and other items that represent places I’ve been and my experiences as I’ve grown older. It includes:

my rocks from various locations (from Lake Simcoe, rivers nearby, and a bag my boyfriend gifted to me when he found out I liked rocks)

my Kpop sticker book of my favourite group growing up (something I bond over with my very close friend of almost 10 years)

My baby blanket

A ring that gets passed down on my mothers side

A dreamcatcher my father made for me (my siblings got similar ones)

A scanned version of my college diploma

A metal welded cube (when I met my boyfriend who also went to the same college but for welding, he showed me metal cubes he was making in class, and I thought they were cute so he gifted one to me)

Photobook

The original baby book contains photos from when I was born to my toddler years.

The project photo book contains five different sections:

2D: contains the actual 2D final, failed attempts and iterations, and folding tests to make sure I folded and printed the 2D correctly

3D: mainly process images showing sketches and painting process, and the final

4D: screenshots from tests and original videos

Reflective: Pictures of the original box and of my project box

Photo Secion: Photos of me growing up with my family and new experiences within my 24 years of life.

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4D - Video Option #2

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4D - Video Option #1

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4D - Video Filtering

Adjusted brightness, saturation, and bloom. I did some other filtering tests on this video, but I can only do so much before everything becomes too white, way too saturated or hard to understand what's happening in the video. However, this was my favourite outcome of the attempts and messing around. This video is almost 2 minutes. The video currently feels long so intend to clip and shorten it down to around 1 minute or slightly less.

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4D - Poem Options

Poem #1

Solace by Ruby Archer

Though Life will rob me of my childhood days,

And hedge a way for free, unbidden feet,

It cannot steal my childhood thoughts and lays,

Nor break the spell that lets me hear the beat

Of Nature's heart, and catch her whisper sweet.

Poem #2

Growing up By IcySky

You can grow up, and get wiser, and stay true to yourself, there's a difference between changing everything about you, and adding things to the same you, to make a better you... You can still be a child at heart, but be mature at the same time... There's a time and place for everything... Growing older, just helps you realize what those times are.

Poem #3

Broken By Alexus R. Avery

Broken dreams

Turning into silent screams.

Listening to the loud noise.

Oh boy, how it destroys

The way things used to be.

A family now starting to flee,

Broken into pieces.

Now my heart screeches.

Deep inside my heart

Everything's falling apart.

If you look into my eyes

You'll then start to realize

The things I say are lies.

Can't you hear my cries?

I wanna go back to the start

Before I got a broken heart.

I miss my family as a whole,

But life decided to take a toll.

If I reach inside of me,

Maybe, just maybe, I'll be free.

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4D - Feedback

Some feedback on my 4D, which the video shown was Overlap Experiment in a previous post, included filtering and overlapping with text.

It was suggested that I should add filters or make the childhood videos feel almost dreamy or nostalgic, such as messing with the colour grading and old film filters/overlays to appear older. This was previously mentioend in another post.

Some other suggesttions were to overlay the video or splice it with text and other childhood photos, such as using poems, posts used on family facebooks or written works about generations and growth.

Using this feedback, I intend to use both in some way. The filtering would give a better visual other than just transparency and video overlay, and the written work would give a better narrative that could allow anyone to feel that connection to childhood, nostalgia or reflect on their own growth.

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4D - Video #2

This is the video where the audio used in some tests is extracted from. This video shows myself, my brother and my younger sister when it was just us three playing in the yard. My brother sits and plays in the dirt, as I go to push my sister on the swing.

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4D - Video #1

This video that gets overlaid and is transparent on top of the other video is one of the first footages my parents have of me first learning to walk. My father holds the camera as my mother helps guide me across the room.

Fun Fact: I was lured and given Smarties to help me walk. My parents would each have a few pieces or the bag, call me over, and I'd walk over to get that piece of chocolate. You can briefly see my mother carrying the bag and giving me one at 1:06.

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4D - Inspiration #3

This video in particular by NicaFilm on Tiktok gave me a lot of inspiration even if I didn't have videos of this many ages or of my childhood readily available to me. The audio, colour grading on some of the clips, and the overall feelings I get from this video is something I'm looking for in terms of my 4D. The sense of childhood nostalgia alongside recognizing the growth of who we are as people looking back on our memories is what I want to capture in this project.

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4D - Inspiration #2

Filter inspiratio similar to old TVs and film that were more common during my childhood.

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Writing Initiative- #6

Where's Writing Initiative #5? I was absent. ;(

Which piece did you present to the class today? How does it relate to the other pieces previously presented?

The piece I presented to the group was my 4D, or some experimentations of it as it’s been a bit of a struggle. This work relates to my other pieces as it keeps that personalization that's seen in each of my previous works. 

Describe 2–3 specific strengths your classmates found in your work and their reasons for identifying them.

Keeping the personalization has been a good touch and it can be something that people could relate to themselves, such as looking at their own childhood videos and photos, and even just thinking about their own growth and footprints they have left in their life. 

Describe 1–2 specific ways your classmates thought you could improve this work going forward. Consider the remaining outcome yet to be presented in a couple of weeks; why have you put it off the longest? Describe your reasons for presenting this outcome last.

Some ways I could improve this work would be to make it more interesting, whether that’s using more effects or adding text into the video like a poem, posts or journal entries. I have put this project off the longest and presented it last because I didn’t have any solid ideas or direction of how I could convey my word into a 4D time and motion experience. In comparison to the 3D and reflective where I was able to think of something at a random time at night that makes sense, I didn’t get that same epiphany for the 4D project.

Finally, you have now had a chance to present each of your projects (2D, 3D, 4D, Reflective) in process to the class. Produce an image of each one and describe how an aspect of your word is manifested in each piece.

2D - As my word means “footprint”, I decided to use a large map to show my routes that I walk and travel often, as well as the places that I like to visit and ones I would rather avoid. This map also includes places where I’ve been previously in my life, such as college and my previous residence when I first moved to Oshawa. This map is meant to mimic those old tourist maps that people would have to carry in order to navigate without the current GPS.

3D - For the 3D, it took a different approach to “footprint” and ichnogram. Instead of meaning footprint and places literally, I decided to take it in a more metaphorical sense. Generational trauma or trauma in general within a family leaves its mark in different ways, especially if certain events or experiences happened at a young age or to multiple children. This project is meant to signify the marks and “footprints” of trauma left behind after serious and traumatic events.

4D - The 4D is more of a nostalgic experience that shows the growth or people’s path and “footprint” in life. Using my childhood videos, I want this experience to connect that these videos, pictures and audio could be similar to someone else's own videos or childhood memorabilia. We were all children once and all “walk for the first time”, whether that's actually taking our first steps, moving away for the first time, going to college or university or any other big life event someone takes the risk to experience for the first time in their life. 

Reflective - The reflective keeps that similar theme of personalization to my own life, childhood, growth, and someone’s experiences in life. This project is a mimic of my own childhood baby box and baby book. The original box contains items from my childhood as I grew up with my blankets, my swaddle, the first item I showed in Show and Tell in kindergarten and many other things. My project box holds my other projects (2D and 3D) and other items that represent places I’ve been and my experiences as I’ve grown older. It includes my rocks, my Kpop sticker book of my favourite group growing up, my baby blanket, a ring that gets passed down on my mothers side, a dreamcatcher my father made, and my college diploma (scanned). The original baby book contains photos from when I was born to my toddler years. The project photo book contains process photos and failed attempts from my 2D, process photos of my 3D, screenshots of process in my 4D, the original book and box, and childhood photos that are in order of year to show how I’ve grown and my experiences.

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4D - Inspiration #1

These are some Tiktok videos I found as some inspiration, and filters/overlays that I found interesting to utilize in my 4D or experimentations.

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4D - Experiment #3 - Camera POV

This was to mess around with overlays, filters, and sound effects using the two videos and other photos that show the growth between my siblings and I. While I don't think I would use this camera POV, I do like the overlays that make the video feel more nostalgic and appear as old film.

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4D - Experiment #2 - Photo Editing

This experiment was just testing how some images from the same photography session would look as a gif or video. I didn't like how it turned out so this will not be used, but maybe the pictures themselves will be as an overlay later.

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4D - Experimentation #1 - Overlapping

I spent a lot of time experimenting with some photos and videos I had, such as photos of my siblings and I, and the 2 videos I have. The audio used in most of the videos, except the photo experiment, is taken from one of my childhood videos and it's the only one with decent audio. For the overlapping videos test, I just adjusted the transparency of the video of me walking for the first time and placed it above the video with my younger brother and sister.