SE+Wk+12

So, I have all my images, and I'm pretty satisfied with them. I guess the only thing I'm having trouble with is how I should use text. The images might be too subtle on their own, and I need to control them. Text seems to be the best way to do this. I was originally going to use the lyrics for the song that the project is based on. But I believe the project has kind of moved on from that. The project's not totally indebted to the lyrics anymore. I might quote a lyric here and there, though. Also, I'm not sure how I'm going to put the readings into my prezi like Professor Archibald did. My prezi's not really political, and it's not making big statements. Thus, I'm finding it hard to really incorporate them. But I'm definitely going to need text, because without it, the images alone won't be able to articulate everything.

There area few ideas that I can relate my project to. For example, I had to defamilarize myself with the photos. I also liked Ramage's idea of discounting. Alone, the images wouldn't have a whole lot of meaning. But together they add up to something. The images work together. I was also thinking of Sontag and how she talks about the camera being voyeuristic. She says that, “The camera doesn't rape, or even possess, though it may presume, intrude, trespass, distort, exploit, and, at the farthest reach of metaphor, assassinate...” I can kind of relate this voyeuristic approach to my own photos. All my photos are personal photos. Would I be considered a voyeur, even though I'm taking photos of small things that I see in //my// world? Though oblivious to it, was I intruding or trespassing or exploiting my world? And because this story draws personal experiences, I am kind of distorting my world and my thoughts by applying more meaning to photos I've taken, photos that had no previous meaning whatsoever.

Because there's no text yet to articulate everything, I guess I should give a run down on what the story is. It's all over the place, so bear with me. My project is about the doubts, disillusionment, and frustrations I have in regards to my future and my goals in life. I'm still in college, and it feels like it's been in slow motion ever since I enrolled here in '08 (College is represented by the classroom photos. My frustration with college is represented by the computer screen photo of the Max page that has already determined that I'm expected to graduate in May of 2016). I have interests (writing and music) that I seem to drift away from, or that haven't always worked out. I get frustrated with them, or I don't have the time for them, or I put them on hold, or I feel like giving up on them.(My goals are represented by the guitar/amp not being used, the tablet and stack of books being untouched, and the word “hack.”) I'd like to make it as a writer or a musician, but I always fear it might not happen, and I'll end up working some lousy job instead. The best way to show doubt was to show some sort of escape from it (driving, then drinking) and to fade/blur/distort the subsequent photos. As the drinking gets more excessive, the thoughts of never graduating, forgotten dreams and goals, ending up in a shitty job, etc do too. The next to last slide is me, or the “narrator”, going up the steps to their place, drunk. The story ends where it began, with a chalkboard in a classroom. There's no real resolution.

Though not everyone shares the same goals and desires, I think the whole idea of having doubts or being scared of the future is pretty universal. Especially when you're in college. You're kinda safe from the future for a bit. But as the end of it gets nearer, it's scary to think about what's on the other side of it. Where will you end up? Hopefully the audience can relate the images, or the sentiment behind the images, to their experiences, or the way they currently feel regarding their future and their goals in life, and how easy it is to get discouraged, disillusioned, doubtful etc. when their dreams are put on hold or aren't reached fast enough or aren't reached at all.