Introduction to Finality

Work to have done: Submit final-for-now website, with source files, and reflection

Plan for the Day:

1. Breathe; reflect. (5-10 min)
2. Consolidation Unit goals, and what that might look like (10-15 min)
3. Generative Writing (5-10 min)
4. Work on a Project Proposal

1. Breathe; reflect. (5-10 min)

Congratulations on reaching the end of the web unit! You’ve just turned in a reflection on your individual website project; now, take a few minutes to write a broader reflection (as we’ve done before) about the course as a whole.

One goal I have, overall, is to help you feel more empowered to learn new digital skills across contexts, not just for particular applications or tools. One way to think about that is through metaphor (or, more specifically, simile).

EXT: What personal skillsets do you feel like you now possess, that you might offer to a team of digital media composers?

2. Consolidation Unit Goals (5-10 min)

As I said in my email and on the updated schedule, I am with heavy head dropping my final unit goal of helping you manage a complex project involving multiple team members. Therefore, instead of spending three weeks on collaborative composing, we’ll spend the remaining two weeks on consolidation.

In this unit, you’ll build on top of what you’ve already made and learned: a revision, extension, or combination of the modes and media you used in earlier units.

The unit goals, then, are:

1. to integrate and consolidate the skills you’ve practiced across the semester
2. to assess your own skills as a digital media composer, to find ways you in particular might best contribute to a collaborative digital project (perhaps in the future)

What might that look like?

On the most straightforward level, this could literally be a revision of one of your existing projects. Were there stretch goals or aspirations that you think you didn’t quite figure out how to achieve? Did you write in a reflection about what you might do with more time? Well, now you have a little more time!

Another option would be to make a second project in the vein of one you’ve already done: another sound-editing project, another visual argument, another website. You’ll have less time than you did originally, but you should also be higher on the learning curve. In this same vein, you could try an alternate program for the same genres: e.g. AdobeSuite parallels like Audition (for Audacity) and Photoshop (for GIMP). See what happens when you dive in again, and reflect on the differences!

A third option is to build a new project that builds on what you know to make something different: e.g. you could try or next-level tools like Illustrator for vector graphics (the opensource parallel is Inkscape) or Ableton for music mixing (there’s a free trial); or try for one of the ideas you’d already proposed on the Issue Queue; or – and this is what I was originally going to suggest for anyone not sure what to make or do here – you could make a Twine.

What is Twine?

A choose-your-own-adventure story is one way to think about it. But it’s not always adventure, not always a story… and not even always choice.

Here are some examples, grouped more or less in pairs of shorter (odds) and longer (evens). Open and play through at least one of each, or through the beginning few scenes, until you get the flavor. Note that the first four are more or less professional-level, while the last two were made by students at Pitt.

1. The Tiniest Room - a minimalist escape room
2. The Griffin and the Minor Canon - more poetic (it’s actually an adaptation of a short story from 1885). Hint: if you’re stuck, visit the stone ledge a few times. The view isn’t always the same.
3. Queers in Love at the End of the World - what will you do with the short time you have left?
4. the uncle who works for nintendo – a horror game; see trigger warning link on home screen.
5. Conquering Cathy - “A trial of fortitude & vitality at the University of Pittsburgh”
6. Remnants – Your mother is crying next to your bed. Why can’t you touch her hand?

I’ve recorded a roughly 10-minute screencast intro to Twine and why I think it’s useful now: in a nutshell, it allows you to apply your knowledge of html and css, and the affordances of sound and/or image, in a shared context that’s also pretty fun. And many of you did say you wanted to build games!

If this sounds intriguing, I encourage you to look at the relevant section of our course resources page for links to the Twine and Harlowe wikis (your basic starting point) and some good video tutorials (listed as a “slightly more advanced intro”).

Generative writing

Now that you have a sense of what’s possible, in general, it’s time for you to write your way into a sense of what’s drawing you, in particular. (This exercise adapted from Sondra Perl’s Guidelines for Composing)

Take a breath. Close your eyes. Put down your pen, or take your hands off your keyboard. Find a way to be present to yourself, wherever you are, and know that whatever you write for next set of questions will not be collected: it’s for you alone.

1. Start by making a list: What’s on my mind? what have I been meaning to do lately? When you feel yourself answering, begin to write.

2. Set that list aside – it’ll wait for you until you’ve finished here – and ask yourself again: What skills have I been building in this class? What do I feel I’ve leveled up on, or that I’m on the verge of leveling up on? What am I on the edge of accomplishing? As before, just make a list, like an inventory: don’t delve too much into any one item.

3. Now ask yourself: Is there anything I’ve been trying to do in this class, but haven’t yet done? Any aspirational goals I meant to achieve, but just ran out of time for? Did any of the ideas above sound both fun and achievable, a way to make these last couple of weeks more celebratory than stressful? Again, take a quick survey; you’ll have time later to expand.

4. Take one more moment to consider: Is there anything I’m forgetting, that could go on this list? If you came to this exercise with a project already in mind, make sure to add that to your list.

Take a moment now to read back over your lists. Is there something that stands out, that says, me, pick me? Choose one thing to work with, at least for today, and mark it in some way. Then copy it into a clean page.

With that chosen subject, write again:

1. What terms or images come to mind when you think of this subject? … Think about categories of words: actions vs things. Descriptors (adjectives).
2. Is there anything you’re forgetting to add to your list? A line from a song? A color?
3. Who else might be interested in this? Who, that is, could be your audience?

See if you can summon up the whole of this idea, like it’s right here in the room with you. Where does it live? Is it above you? Inside you? In the palm of your hand? Just sit with your idea for a moment, feeling where you connect to it.

And now, plan.

Your homework for the weekend is to post a proposal / plan for your consolidation unit.

Take 10-15 minutes now to get started on that process, using whatever medium feels appropriate to your project: do you want to sketch a drawing on paper? Record yourself talking, either on a phone or in Audacity? Type it out? Go with what makes sense.

If you can, work your way toward developing a task list for your project: What are the parts of the project? What assets will you need to find? What do you already know how to do, and what will you need to learn? Would some tasks be easier to outsource or split with a partner, and if so, who might you ask to partner with you?

I’ll be in the usual Zoom during our scheduled class time, so feel free to meet me there – or to post a new issue to the Issue Queue.

EXT: If you have time now, you can get started on implementing your plan! We’ll have mostly studio time for the next three classes – and, if possible, to gather some shared baseline goals that work for all the projects.

Homework for next time

• Make a new1 repository (GH, Box, or Drive) containing:
  • a brief overview of your project goals
  • a task list for your project
  • proposed roles for your team members, if you have a team of more than one
• Post your project proposal, with a link to the repository, on the Issue Queue.
• Decide (together, if working on a team) what would constitute a minimum deliverable project, and what series of stretch goals you’ll try for beyond that minimum. Push these updated goals to your repo.

¹ If you’re updating an existing project, do this in a new branch of the old repository, instead.