Play Make Write Think

Podcast Reflection

Once you have each completed your podcast episode, the Producer and Assistant Producer should each write separate reflection posts, published to your own sites. Link to the podcast episode post on the course site as part of your reflection.

Your refection should be 250 – 500 words and should be in the form of an essay with complete paragraphs, not as a list of bullet point answers.

Reflection Questions

Include a brief description of your process for developing the podcast. How did you and your co-producer divide up the tasks involved and how did you structure your collaboration? In what ways does your episode respond to the other episodes in the series — in other words, compare your episode to the ones before it, explaining how you gained inspiration from, adapted, or resisted something that your peers did in their episodes.

Please describe your primary goals with the episode that you produced and explain the strategies that you used to achieve them. You’re producing these episodes under a number of time and technological constraints, so it’s likely that there will be some goals that you just cannot accomplish within those constraints — address what challenges arose for you and the choices you made to meet them and/or describe what you would have done differently had you more time/resources available for your episode (in other words, what are some aspirational goals that were perhaps unrealistic given the constraints of the assignment but that you would have liked to have tried to accomplish if circumstances were different?).

How do you see your work on the podcast episode helping you to achieve the learning outcomes for this course? Explain how you met those outcomes with your work on this assignment.

Make sure you address the sets of questions above and then also consider some of the questions below and address them in your reflection (you definitely won’t be able to answer all of these, so go through the list and pick some that seem to be most of interest for you and write about them):

  • Were the strategies, skills and procedures you used effective for this assignment?
  • Do you see any patterns in how you approached your work on this episode? How was producing a podcast similar to or different from writing more traditional essays?
  • What have you learned about your strengths and areas in need of improvement?
  • How are you progressing as a learner?
  • What suggestions do you have for your peers as they go about working on their episodes to come?
  • How can you apply the skills you used in crafting this podcast episode to future writing projects? Where can you use these skills again?
  • What are you most proud of about the episode that you created?

Week ahead: 5

5 2/11 “Introduction” and “Games” from Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson
2/13 Superbetter, chapters 1 & 2
2/16 Side Quest 5: Sunday Sketches

Podcast episodes 1 & 2

On Tuesday, we’ll discuss Steven Johnson’s Sleeper Curve and his argument about games. These sentences from the introduction particularly resonate with the sort of arguments I’d like you to think about constructing for your podcast episodes:

The approach followed in this book is more systemic than symbolic, more about causal relationships than metaphors. It is closer, in a sense, to physics than to poetry. My argument for the existence of the Sleeper Curve comes out of an assumption that the landscape of popular culture involves the clash of competing forces: the neurological appetites of the brain, the economics of the culture industry, changing technological platforms. The specific ways in which those forces collide play a determining role in the type of popular culture we ultimately consume. The work of the critic, in this instance, is to diagram those forces, not decode them (9).

How does Johnson “diagram forces” in these pages, rather than “decode” them?

I’ll also bring in some board games for us to look at in conjunction with Johnson’s article. I’m going to ask you to play one of these games from the SDL game lending library within the next couple (I added the library to our texts and services page, with information about check out).

On Thursday, we will probably continue our discussion of Johnson some and also discuss Superbetter.

The guggen- huh?

About a week ago, I was binge-listening the 99% invisible podcast and came across an episode where they covered the architecture of the Guggenheim Museum. They described its white curves and spirals as another masterpiece by Frank Lloyd Wright and when I looked it up, I couldn’t help to think that it kinda looked like half an egg.

Coming up with an idea for this assignment was the easy part. The curves of both an egg and the Guggenheim were more difficult to crop together than I would like to admit. As someone who doesn’t own photoshop or has picture editing experience, I fumbled with how to make my idea appear on the screen. After spending an embarrassingly long amount of time trying to get the to curved shapes to fit together, I downloaded a shady editing software and watched a tutorial so I could clip out the museum itself. After several layers of background colors and duplicates of images, I now present to you the masterpiece that I dub, “The Eggenheim.” I’m more proud of that name than I probably should be but that tangle of poorly cut images and mismatched colors is my digital baby now.

Below are the original images

A New Hairstyle

Zack Severino ’22

I paired an image of my friend Zack with a pom pom ball as hair. I created this combination of images because they were both conveniently in the coffee shop I am doing this assignment in. I sat and stared at my surroundings for a few minutes. I could feel the wheels turning inside my brain as I actively looked for items to pair together. It was challenging to find two items that attached together and flowed in some way. I looked up and saw my friend’s straight hairline. I realized it would be fun to put something coming out the top of his head. Now his hair has become the puff ball that sits at the top of my beanie.

SO, CLOUDFRO..

IMAGE MADE WITH PICMONKEY.

So, if you asked me how I liked this task… I would say I didn’t. I don’t think that this task of creating a combophoto is a horrible one, but I would say that the idea of thinking of two completely different things and fitting them into a similar graphical/physical agenda posed as a real challenge. I don’t know if I felt dumber thinking about how I was going to possibly photoshop two very different things together or how the two different things that I chose would fit together and make sense. So, there I was… in the ESC trying to figure out what two things I would decide to do. And, there was my friend Autumn sitting there with a beautiful puffy fro. YEP! That was idea number one. But then, I pondered about what would go right with a fro. I literally looked up and saw some clouds. BOOM! Idea number 2 was in the works. I’d figured I’d add some pink in the clouds to give the pick some “flavor”.

So yes, my combophoto is representative of a fabulous black woman who’s hair is made out of beautiful clouds. After struggling to figure out what two photos I would jam together, I actually grew to love my first photoshopped picture. Maybe you’ll like the picture, too?

Which planets is the “sweetest” to you?

Do you remember all the planets? Let’s see them from left to right… The first one is Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun. The second one is Venus, the hottest planet. The third one is Earth, where we live on. The fourth one is Mars, where we might live in the near future. The fifth one is Jupiter, a huge one. The sixth one is Saturn, which has cool rings. The seventh one is a melon, which always reminds me of craters of moon…

I encountered with two challenges. One was that I had no idea which pictures to choose and another was that the editing software “Paint 3D” crashes every time when I open it. I chose the following images:

https://www.britannica.com/science/planet
https://www.instacart.com/products/2632807-fresh-sugar-kiss-melon-each

There is no deep meaning to why I chose these images. A melon’s surface just looks like a planet, and I tried to edit so that the edited image seems to be right. I wonder why a melon looks like this way…

#sq4

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Combo Photo

I started out picking my favorite color and looking up what objects are red on google. There were plenty of children picture book references. I then put away the project for another idea. After a quick study session of anatomy, I realized that apples and hearts are red and decided to go along with that age-old statement about apples and doctors.

Some challenges I faced was deciding whether to overlay the apple or just stick it on top of the heart. Overlaying the apple would make it not look like an apple, but sticking it on top would make the heart seem an odd shape. I went with the second option and erased the apple enough to fit the heart. I saturated the colors more to match the reds. The longest part was erasing the overlay, but a quick question on the internet helped me to figure out how to use PicMonkey. A tip: Use the Graphics Icon to overlay and insert more than one image. Also right-clicking brings up the eraser and fade options to blend the two images.

Final message

This image conveys how healthful eating can prevent heart problems and other diseases/illnesses. The clash of 3d to 2d creates the hypothetical situation of awareness where eating healthfully would not produce obvious results of healthiness but still contributes to it. It is my take on “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”.

Sources: Heart by Injurymap https://www.flickr.com/photos/157210824@N06/46770305995/in/photolist-2efW3w8-b8C9EH-7Dexkr-7jV1tA-npqrDm-dX2vor-96XQnE-6RW2pt-9xv2ja-7CSfo5-oihvDa-iVMpnF-6rVSbo-o6xbVQ-3gbqMu-9DE7di-7DXhc7-2bX3PW-4ggtsX-6yLJM9-5P8C3q-8Ng5us-5dZpWw-2hrv3iy-eKUHdG-5tHyEk-7WgJw7-2vEtqV-2dC4x7-4H6zyX-3cJo7f-7XzX6r-ihwz6k-96JAt-bghih-h6wzP-p5ckmc-5RZbaq-8jhjYi-4saqa1-5otsrW-928wCF-8jkyKC-24KfvAx-AG5XD-5ah8u6-AG5Yk-pmDNHo-p5bcaB-pmDP2u

Apple by Open Grid Scheduler

https://www.flickr.com/photos/opengridscheduler/24591388896/in/photolist-rUwJfg-Dt4iaJ-24k4u8N-DkRWME-DMe87K-JAcF5U-DdJ52e-9XzRzZ-zMbg6Y-HqrHZQ-246Fc6H-2az2rTD-Z1Tc5t-JuqjkL-AJbvcT-226GBXd-DK4okd-Djc6Nj-BUbcDa-GGfvCh-JVgRDR-szp8a9-zQYQ8C-27FSXMA-GFUmB3-XYanFn-Kd18QR-qD4EzQ-23SpwHn-JL4JAY-JFXnUm-wKyQfV-BEspZT-zvGaWk-FXD1FG-22XScci-PnkxUX-GSQzMH-vJztsR-25bCNQ7-26YeWzB-uAYeBf-CSCdra-w62Zw5-JSfSuE-saeZG5-xeSrLe-R6MQ7E-tCe2HX-rjQjXT/

Fluffy Sweetness

This combo image was inspired by the dessert-scented body lotion I purchased yesterday, the sweet, delicious fragrance in the air pushed me to make this assignment dessert-related. Being a baker myself. one of my favorite things to bake is cupcake, and my favorite part of making cupcakes is decorating them, therefore, after choosing cupcake as my base image, I was trying to come up with an idea for the “frosting”. I thought using cloud was a perfect idea because we always make the analogy comparing cloud and cotton candy because of their fluffy, pillowy textures and appearances. To make it more attractive and dream like, I chose a castle-shaped cloud to be the frosting. This combo photo reminds me of my childhood fantasy when I sat on the grass and looked at the clouds, and I hope you like it, too.

The most difficult part of this assignment for me was to find two pictures with very similar background tone so that they wouldn’t look too “separated” when I combine them; other than that, there was no major obstacles.

Picture credit: https://pixels.com/featured/2-birthday-cupcake-ruth-black.html

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/03/cloudflare_goes_big_on_serverless_with_new_command_line_free_accounts/

Hippotatomus

I did not enjoy this task. There is nothing inherantly wrong with it, infact I found coming up with potential ideas incredibly fun. The frustration of this task was entirely my fault. I looked through Stephen Mcmennamy’s instagram page and my mind went in to overdrive, spitting out exciting ideas and potential photo combinations. I then went to Flickr’s Creative Commons website and had an ‘Oh shit’ moment. These pictures are grainy, the backgrounds are terrible, the lighting is awful.

My issue was that I was far too ambitious. I looked back at Combophoto’s page again and my brain was filled with dissappointment. ‘There’s no way I can even come close to recreating these’. Sometimes boundaries and limitations can be benefitial when it comes to being creative, not in this case. I felt deflated and annoyed that the images I was picturing in my mind would never be seen by others.

In the end I took inspiration from ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ with my Hippotatomus. I wasn’t happy with how it looked so I also made a space shuttle where the main fuel tank has been replaced by a carrot.

Picture References:https://www.pexels.com/photo/aircraft-astronaut-business-dusk-355906/

Fly Me to the Moon

Combophoto made via Procreate

The significant challenge for the Combophoto is to find two images that are graphically and chromatically matching. For the first attempt, I failed to come up with a decent idea. However, later when I was watching the documentary film First Man (2018), the idea of combining the image of astronaut and moon popped into my mind. The shape of the space helmet ideally matches the shape of the moon. With the basic idea, it is not hard to find the images of the astronaut and the moon.

However, I had a hard time piecing two pictures together. I was too lazy to explore new apps, so I tried to use Procreate on my iPad. However, this app is not friendly to rookies like me. I tried hard to figure out how to work with the layers and brushes.

People are naturally respectful and curious about things like outer space and astronomy. The idea I would like to convey here is similar to the spirit of moon landing: to explore the unknown.

Picture reference:

https://images.app.goo.gl/pnHaK5mTFJW8eFWn8

https://images.app.goo.gl/BjEf7gTSMtNKtETS6

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