One of the things we had to do for our daily create for today was to pick something that may go unnoticed in everyday life and I chose something as simple as a pencil because we use them so often and for me, there are a lot of times where I am in need of one and cannot find one and do not notice that there are none near me. They are taken for granted sometimes and people do not notice how often they are needed and used.
This week was another light week in terms of assignments and what we had to do. I started off this week’s assignment on Sunday and so I started with my first daily create. This daily create required us to take the open mouth of a statue and remix it and so I decided to do something a little bit more creative. I drew inspiration from the Iron Man movie, where at the end of the movie, is is sitting by himself in his suit inside of a huge donut sign eating a donut and so i had an Ai-chatbot generate me an image of a superhero sitting inside the mouth of a statue eating a donut. Although the statue was not the same, the idea behind the picture and requirements for the daily create were still met, in my opinion. You can view and read about this daily create at this link. Then, on Monday, I did my second daily create. I did my second daily create on Monday in which we had to describe our visit to either Ed Sheeran’s Castle on the Hill or Frankenstein’s Castle. You can read about what I chose here. Following that on Tuesday, I did my third and final daily create for the week. The final daily create of the week required us to create a postage stamp for the DS106 field. Therefore, I used an AI-chatbot to create a postage stamp for DS106 and you can find that post here. As stated in the description, the test may not be perfect because AI-chatbots sometimes still struggle with placing text on the image, however, other than that it was a perfect fit for the assignment description. While all my daily creates were being completed, I moved onto creating the actual pieces of work that I needed to finish the assignments for the week. The first assignment was a propaganda poster that we needed to create that represented something about our course character. As a result, i chose to do my propaganda poster on Xander and his troubles with his former employer, Aggressive Technologies. I used an AI-chatbot to create the image and it shows Xander standing in front of his former company’s building with the motto “Aggressive Tech: Profit Over People,” and I chose to go with this because Aggressive Technologies cares more about money than valuing their workforce as you read in last week’s backstory with Xander and the company. You can find the full post here. My final assignment for the week was to create a public service announcement that gave a speech about our course character and relate it to the field of AI or to Aggressive Technologies. Once again, I chose the Aggressive Technologies route and made a news bulletin/PSA about how Xander was going to go public with the information he has on his former company and how they truly run their company. You can read and hear all about that in this post. The final task was commenting, which I did, as well as to create a blog post that required us to watch other people’s PSAs and try to think of how our character would respond to them. That post is located here and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it out.
I did not encounter too many issues this week when completing my assignments. I thought things went pretty smoothly this week and I enjoyed doing all of the assignments. From this week, I would say that creating the propaganda poster was my favorite. This is because I found it very enjoyable to create various images for the propaganda poster and finally decide on which one I wanted to use. It allowed me to be thorough and extra creative with the work that I was choosing and that made it more enjoyable. Once again, I did not encounter any issues this week for any of the assignments.
I definitely think that I accomplished all of the requirements for the assignments for this week and I think I did them to the best of my ability. Like stated before, my favorite assignment was the propaganda poster for our course character and their relation to AI/Aggressive Technologies. I would not do anything differently for the work that I did this week as it was completed with effort, time, and creativeness. I believe that there are no larger issues at hand with my work. I think that the assignments were done properly and with effort. I do not have any further questions at this time for the class. One thing I will focus on in the future, it just to get better at working with and understanding the OpenShot Video Editor just in case I am in need of using it again in the future.
One of the final assignments that we needed to complete this week was to create a PSA about our course character in relation to the field of AI or Aggressive Technologies. However, that was a separate assignment, on top of that we needed to create a blog post that talked about how our characters may respond to some of the PSA’s that others in the class might create. As a result, I am writing this blog post to do just that. The first PSA that I was able to view is located here, and this PSA talks about how AI can be used to accomplish a variety of tasks and how useful it can to complete everyday tasks. We all know that Xander is an innovator and inventor and is all for using AI in everyday life and so I think his reaction to this announcement would be very positive and he would stand behind this message. He would definitely push for this announcement to be made even more public because not only does it stand by what he believes in, it also would help promote his future and reputation in the industry since he just launched his new AI-implant chip that people will eventually be able to get for themselves to help them with everyday tasks and in various situations. The second PSA that I was able to find is located here, and tries to spread the message that we should all trust AI and that we should not worry about the consequences that it could bring and that we should also trust the people that are in charge of manufacturing AI tools, such as Aggressive Technologies. Xander would only agree with some parts of this message I believe, because he would advocate for the trusting of AI, however, he would not advocate for the trusting of Aggressive Technologies. This is because, as we all now know, AT stabbed Xander in the back in recent weeks, and Xander has plans on going public with the information he has on them. Therefore, Xander would not agree to trust AT after what they did to him, however, he would ask the public to continue to trust AI and wait and see all the benefits that it could/would bring in the future. The final PSA that I chose to comment on, was this one, which talks about how AT is all about making money and there are no ethical actions that they take to help their employees. They ruthlessly lay off their employees with no severance packages and all of their promises are just a mask to what they are really trying to do, use AI to line the pockets of those at the top while the hard working employees all suffer. Xander would be at the forefront of this revolution and he would not back down. After learning about AT’s plan to line their pockets based on his invention, he knows that he was not the first and will not be the last so he is going to do everything in power to make sure that AT pays for what they have done to him and to others just like him. Without a shadow of a doubt, Xander would and could be used a poster boy for this revolution and he would be all for it because he will spend the rest of his life if he has to, to get revenge and make AT pay for what they did to him. Overall, all of the PSA’s were really interesting and was cool to see how everyone went about completing the assignment and how they chose the various applications that they used to get it done. I enjoyed watching all of them and trying to figure what Xander would say about them and I think this version of commenting on other’s peoples post is nice, however, I think that the smaller comments are better because they are more personal than a blog post. Still, this assignment was enjoyable to complete and I had a fun time watching other people’s PSAs and was cool to see how different people expressed their creativity.
Another one of the assignments that we were required to complete this week was to create a public service announcement using our course character and relating it to the field of AI or Aggressive Technologies. So, for this assignment, I chose to talk about Aggressive Technologies and their mistreatment and unethical practices when it comes to their employees. Now a growing theme for my course character, I decided to make a public service announcement that talked about how Xander, my course character, has gone public with the information he has on Aggressive Technologies and the way their run their business. I enjoyed creating this video because I was able to use all the skills that I have developed over the past couple weeks to create this one work of art that can be used as a public service announcement. I did everything for the video from writing the announcement, to generating the image, to putting it all together in Openshot.
In order to create this video, I first started by using Eleven Lab’s text-to-speech product and wrote out what the actual announcement would be. From reading examples on the internet and having my own ideas, I was able to come up with a short 45-second announcement that contained all the major points that I wanted to convey while also trying to persuade the viewer/listener to support Xander’s endeavors. Once I created the script for the announcement, I had to convert it to a speech so I used Eleven Labs product to do that. Once I an audio file with the speech, I decided to add some background music to the speech so it did not sound so bare. I did that on audacity and had the sounds files overlap each other with the background music being a little less louder than the rest so that the speech could still be heard. Once I had the completed audio file with both the audio and the background music, I created a graph using an AI-chatbot so that I could turn it into a video, and I did that using OpenShot video editor, and once everything was put together I uploaded it to youtube to have a link to embed with this post. You can find my work down below. Like stated before, I enjoyed completing this assignment because it allowed to use all the skills that I have gained over the last couple weeks and put it all together to create one piece of work that represents those different newly-gained skills. I hope you enjoy!
One of the assignments that we had to do this week was to create a poster that was categorized as propaganda related to our course character or to Aggressive Technologies. So, for my assignment description, I decided to create a propaganda poster that was both directly related to my course character and his opinion and view on Aggressive Technologies. In the picture, you can see my character, Xander Neoteric, standing in front of Aggressive Technologies main headquarters, and the title “Aggressive Tech: Profit Over People,” I chose this title because in one of my posts from last week I talked about how Aggressive Technologies severely mistreated Xander as an employee and put profits and revenue over valuing their employees and workers. Therefore, this poster serves as the perfect example of what type of company Aggressive Technologies is and what they truly stand for.
Since some of the aspects that we can focus on while creating propaganda is to consider the ethics and employment of one’s life, it makes sense that I chose to attack the company’s reputation for their unethical treatment of their employees. It helps to bring to light the truth behind how they construct their business and the types of shady things that they do from within their own walls. Another thing to consider while creating propaganda is the control and ownership of data and information and by stealing Xander’s idea and the data that he was working with, it falls right under this category and helps to reinforce the decisions that I made to create this for my propaganda assignment. You can see the full poster below and I think I did a good job of bringing all of the components talked about above into one picture while also making it visually appealing and easy to understand. I also think that the use of the subtle colors help to push the idea of propaganda even more. In order to create this, I used an AI-chatbot to create the image and gave them prompt that asked to put my course character in front of the Aggressive Technologies building with the text below it that states the line talked about before. I enjoyed creating this piece and think it works really well for the assignment and the requirements that we had to meet while completing the assignment.
For today’s daily create, you needed to create a postage stamp for DS106 and this is what I came up with. It includes all of the different parts such as a camera for video, microphone for audio, and all of the other aspects of the field. I am really happy with my output and of course, since it was AI-generated the text might not be perfect, but for the future, it looks really nice.
For today’s daily create we had to describe which castle on the hill we would like to visit and and to describe out visit. I would like to visit Frankenstein’s castle because of the spooky, ominous atmosphere that it would bring. I walked in and the entire castle was dimly lit and it seemed like every door had something new to offer inside. I was definitely spooked but also intrigued to see what I would find. I enjoyed the ominous theme and thought it added to the discovery of the castle and was eager to find out more. Eventually, I made it to the lab room, where I saw a figure lay on the table and immediately knew that this was Frankenstein.
This daily create required us to take the open mouth of a statue and remix it and so I decided to do something a little bit more creative. I drew inspiration from the Iron Man movie, where at the end of the movie, is is sitting by himself in his suit inside of a huge donut sign eating a donut and so i had an Ai-chatbot generate me an image of a superhero sitting inside the mouth of a statue eating a donut. Although the statue was not the same, the idea behind the picture and requirements for the daily create were still met, in my opinion.
We had another light week this week in terms of assignments and work we needed to get done. I did my first daily create of the week on Sunday and it required us to create a two line poem about what nature teaches us. This daily create was a little quicker than normal since it was only two lines, however, it was interesting to see what I could come up with and you can read it here. My second and final daily create for the week was done on Monday and for this one we had to find a movie, associate it with a picture, and mess with the title and flip the words and letters around. As you can read here, I chose to do Harry Potter for this one as it is one of my all time favorite movie franchises. This week was a little more interesting because we were allowed to have more input on the work we were doing to finish out assignments for the week. By that I mean, we had a choice of either creating a video while talking to Dr. Oblivion or creating three blog posts about three different video assignments from the assignment bank. For this week, I chose to do the three different assignment from the assignment bank. It is also important to note that for these assignments we were required to make sure that at least two of the assignments were related to our course character in some way. The first assignment that I chose to do was called “What do you do?” and this assignment wanted us to create a short, 8-second video that shows something that we do on a daily basis. I created a blog post about what I chose to do here. For that assignment, I decided to keep it simple and just record myself walking back from class and lifts. As you will read in the post, the video was taken near Eagle Village right near the bridge that connects the village to the rest of campus. My second assignment I chose to do this week was to create a TikTok of your pet, and I had to relate this assignment back to my course character in some way. So, I decided to take my dog, Belle, and claim that it was also Xander’s dog and gave the two a little backstory and talked about how they grew up together and have such a strong bond. That post is located here. The final assignment I chose to do this week was to do a GRWM, or Get Ready With Me! This GRWM follows Xander has he gets ready for the day and the day that I chose to do is very important. This is the day that he is making a public announcement about what his former company, Aggressive Technologies did to him. You can find that post here. The final thing we needed to do this week was create a backstory with our character and the company, Aggressive Technologies, which is why the GRWM assignment is so closely tied with the company. Xander has a dark story with the company, from brilliant mind within the company, to be being publicly humiliated and ridiculed, Xander’s made it his mission to get back at what Aggressive Technologies did to him. That post is located here.
I did not encounter too many issues this week when completing my assignments. I thought things went pretty smoothly this week and I enjoyed doing all of the assignments. From this week, I would say that creating the backstory between our course character and Aggressive Technologies was my favorite. This is because I found it very interesting how I could create even more about my character’s life and the directions that I could have gone in were endless. I enjoyed taking the time and trying to figure out where I wanted to go with my character and found it soothing. I had an issue last week with learning how to work with OpenShot video editor, but this week the process was a lot smoother and definitely helped speed up the process of creating and exporting the videos for the assignments that I completed this week.
I definitely think that I accomplished all of the requirements for the assignments for this week and I think I did them to the best of my ability. My favorite assignment was the creating of the backstory for Xander and his former company. I would not do anything differently for the work that I did this week as it was completed with effort, time, and creativeness. I believe that there are no larger issues at hand with my work. I do not have any further questions at this time for the class. Last week I said I wanted to get better at working with OpenShot Video Editor, and so far, that goal is being accomplished because I had to use it for one of my assignments this week and the process was a lot smoother. Till next week!
The final assignment bank assignment I chose to do this week was the “Get Ready With Me!” in which we needed to create a video of someone getting ready for the day, getting ready for practice, bed, etc. Since one of the course requirements this week was to incorporate our course characters into at least two of out assignments. I thought, why not create a great ready with me, alongside my course character Xander Neoteric. I enjoyed creating this little video because it allowed me have full creative thought and input over what was going to happen in the video and how it was going to happen. This video takes place on the day in which Xander is preparing to out Aggressive Technologies for what they did to him. (P.S. Read about that here). I decided to use an AI chatbot to generate the images for me and then used a text-to-speech converter to give Xander a voice because I felt that was more creative than me just voicing over the video. In the end, I am glad that I did because the video turned out so much better and sounded better as well. It was really col to see how the AI chatbot interpreted my prompts to give me the images and I was able to use the skills that we learned over the last couple weeks to create this video. From generating images to creating text-to-speech audio outputs, I brought everything together in the following video. I hope you enjoy!