This week involved looking at and playing off of other students’ work. I submitted four examples of work I admire to the ds106 inspire site. I spent the bulk of my time working on 10 stars’ worth of “collaborative” assignments, somehow involving both mine and someone else’s character. So I had Braddock watch a movie about Donnie and then he… Read more →

Stars: This assignment asked us to write an origin story for an unusual superhero. I turned this into a collaborative assignment by continuing the story from the role-playing assignment, and having mine and Stephanie’s character play a role in the birth of The Clown.   The day his father died, Thomas Hinckle resolved to take matters into his own hands.… Read more →

Stars: This assignment started you off with a story about a clown. I turned this assignment into a collaborative one by having the clown get murdered and having Stephanie’s character, Emma Marie Callaghan, investigate the murder. As you will soon see, it also involves my character, though Emma doesn’t know that yet.   “…It was time to have a word… Read more →

Stars: I’m turning this movie review writing assignment into a collaborative by writing it in the voice of my character, after he’s watched a movie about Spencer’s character, Donnie:   So I’ve started  this thing, this blog thing. I don’t know many people here in the city, and Bill down at the bar’s gittin’ tired of my drunken mumbling. So… Read more →

This photograph is an abstract representation of my favorite moment this week (so far). What was the moment? That’s none of your business Read more →

This week we were asked to look over our fellow students’ work and write a SEPARATE blog post about each, DETAILING why they “inspire” us, and submit them to the ds106 Inspire Site. Well first of all, you can’t assign inspiration, you can’t force inspiration, and you can’t grade inspiration. So of course the “inspire site” is full of all… Read more →

I used photoshop to create this composite self portrait. Read more →

This week my group completed our DnD-noir themed radio show for ds106radio, for which I created commercial bumpers. It can  be found on soundcloud. I made commercials that related to our storyline, much in the style of Prairie Home Companion, at least one of which is quite noir-ish. I used clips from songs I own that I turned into mp3s… Read more →

This week was focused on design. I took to the streets Monday night to complete the “designblitz” and captured some examples of effective and less-than-effective signage. Then I read through and thought about the Vignelli Cannon, a sort of design guidebook written by a master in the field. We watched some movies that showed the range of genres capable of… Read more →

We were asked to watch one of three movies this week: Double Indemnity, The Big Lebowski, or Blade Runner and to think about how built environment helps frame the design and style of noir. I wasn’t sure what to do, seeing as how I watched Double Indemnity the first week of class, Blade Runner a little while ago, and have… Read more →

four stars: Illustrate a favorite lyric “The thought that life could be better/ is woven indelibly/ into our hearts/ and our brains.” Is my favorite line from a song by Paul Simon called Train in the Distance. I thought also about how so frequently in noir characters are drawn into trouble by the impulse Simon is describing, either stemming from… Read more →

four stars: This assignment asked us to create a ds106 wallpaper, such as  one might make a poster out of or use as a desktop background. I used photoshop and combination of appropriated images and a photograph of my own. I made it a little dark, in honor of this year’s noir focus. Read more →

two stars:     (I think it should be more) This assignment was to create a genre themed or compilation album cover and playlist. I put together Down in the Mountains, a compilation of country/blues songs. The name (in case you’re confused) stems from the genre; “in the mountains” because its music you might expect to hear there and “down” because… Read more →

two stars: This simple design assignment called for us to, without the aid of any other visual cues, not even color, choose a word and communicate it in a single typeface. The only thing you could use was size and shape. I chose a fance font that I thought looked like something from a storybook about knights to represent “knight”.… Read more →

today’s daily create was to create some jewelry using real food. I made this one out of unraveled paracord and a raw egg. Spring is just around the corner, and the egg symbolizes spring, birth, and life. The egg rests in a  loose and frazzled hammock  symbolizing the fragility of of life. Read more →

So we learned about some copyright law, its history, and as it stands today. I found it interesting that “fair use” isn’t a right per se, just a “legally defensible position” and that there aren’t really any rules. If you want to use a piece of media, there’s no sure way to protect against a lawsuit besides paying for the… Read more →

Well, it was interesting. There was a lot of…I guess thoeretical?….talk at the beginning. Conceptual. Like nothing that you can turn around and DO something with, which was kind of annoying. Hostly after the first few paragraphs I just skimmed. It was all so abstract it got sort of annoying, like a little pretentious, you know? but I mean I… Read more →

four stars: So I am a huge fan of Magic: The Gathering. I have many cards and still play regularly, as do many of my friends. So I was super psyched to see that there was an assignment where we get to create our own. I made four cards, all creatures. The first is Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro. I… Read more →

This week we were asked to do a “designblitz” where we take pictures of ads, signs, etc. that illustrate principals/elements of visual design. So, in the spirit of noir, I took to the streets one cold, rainy night (Monday) to see how businesses use signs and lights to reach through the darkness and capture the eyes of passers-by. These signs… Read more →

Well, I didn’t get it all done this week,  but I had a lot of fun! We learned all about audio storytelling this week, in general and as it is used in noir film and radio. I really enjoyed the fact that our explorations involved Ira Glass, from This American Life, Jad Abumrad of Radiolab, and Prairie Home Companion, all… Read more →

This is my “bumper” for ds106 radio, posted on soundcloud. Read more →

We have been tasked with “discussing audio in storytelling”, a vague, possibly momentous undertaking which leaves me unsure where to begin. So rather than an ambitious explanation, I’ll just sort of keep to what I looked at/listened to, and what I think/thought. Now first off, I watched all for sections of an interview with Ira Glass, host of This American… Read more →

Well week three is just about in the rearview, and we’ve done a lot. We read some guides to improving photographic storytelling.  We watched two noir films and, using stills from the movies, talked about staples of the noir style. I myself watched “Brick” and “Killer’s Kiss” and used stills from the latter to talk about the lighting, grittiness, characters,… Read more →

Drawing without lifting the pencil is harder than it looks or sounds, you really have to plan it out or it’s gonna look weird, but at the same time you have can end up with a really cool messy kind of look. Here’s my twisted attempt. Read more →

WANTED poster visual assignment, 2.5 stars.   This mysterious online presence has recently opened a slew of social media accounts and has begun blogging about fictional characters and all kinds of random stuff, posting pictures and sometimes other media all over the internet. It has come to our attention that this individual, calling themselves the “Wildwood Blogger”, has been operating… Read more →

Shiny Like Silk visual assignment. 2.5 stars. Make a picture using this awesome site. This was so cool. I’m gonna be using this site a bunch! Read more →

Back to Basics visual assignment. Two stars. Read more →

When he new for sure they had it in for him, he packed up the essentials in his duffel and took the  path through the woods to Milly’s parents’ house, where he’d told her to stay ’til the trouble was over. As he left the sun was setting on a grey November day, and he heard shots echoing faintly through… Read more →

  Here are the photos I took for the noir safari assignment, most of them shot in downtown Fredericksburg. Models are myself and my lovely friend Danielle. They display elements key to the noir style, including but not limited to: dramatic use of distinct shadow, sense of drama/moodiness, urban nightscapes, lighting from one side, the grittiness of urban environment, characters… Read more →

This week I watched Brick and Killer’s Kiss, two films that make use of the noir style. Here are some stills from Killer’s Kiss that illustrate common elements of noir. The first is a still from when the antagonists goons corner the main character’s trainer and friend in an ally. They chase him to the end and murder him, thinking… Read more →