February 1, 2025 – Chicken Arms
February 3, 2025 – Visual Poetry
February 7, 2025 – Anti-spam Poetry
TDC 2/1 – 2/7
Author Archives: Rylie’s Riveting Region
Photos on Photos on Photos – Weekly Summary #3
I appreciated the focus on photography this week, as I have been trying to take more pictures this semester. Perhaps it’s the senior regrets, but I feel like I hardly have any pictures of the last four years! I spent some more time with my course character, Bethany, as I worked on finding her a house that I know she would love! I also took the time to scan in some of her IDs, just to keep them on my laptop in case she looses her wallet. Neither of these assignments required any intense technical skills, as I just used browser based programs for both.
Along with my time with Bethany, I spent some time deciding which of my things I would save in a fire. I discussed this in the assignment post, but I opted to work on my iPad (and in bed) instead of on my laptop (at my desk), so I likely didn’t approach this in the most efficient way. However, I enjoyed reverse coloring much more than the lasso tool!
I could see myself continuing to check back in with the photoblitz tool, as I think the collection of prompts combined with the idea is so interesting! I think it could be fun to do in a bigger city or someplace that I’m unfamiliar with, as this assignement felt more like a seek-and-find than a true act of detection. I didn’t find myself using the whole time because of this, as I already had ideas in my head.
In terms of design, I feel like all I think about is design design design. Lighting design, graphic design, “does this look good on the wall here?”, crafting- the list goes on. I always enjoy reading about these things, if just to fill in trivia facts.
TDC 1/27 – 1/31
My Opinions on Design (Because You Asked)
A lesson in hyperlinks indeed! As someone who participates in Wikipedia deep dives, I really enjoyed reading “A Kid’s Guide to Graphic Design by Iconic Designer Chip Kidd.” Not paying any attention to my own design here and just slapping the hyperlink as the name of the article, but that is what it is!
While I make no great claims about my design abilities, I do like to think about design more than the average bear. Working in the theatre means I’m constantly considering how to reach the middle point between what I need and what the audience will see as “good” or “polished.” Not only that, but everything that is on stage needs to be put there with both the considerations of the play and of the audience, which can lead to interesting challenges. I appreciated the article discussing graphic design as “problem solving,” as I feel the same about theatrical design.
The article about movie posters accompanied by the video of the creation of the Stranger Things logo made me think about book covers, which is something I spend more time looking at. Like movie posters, book covers are subject to trends- we’ve seen an increase in drawn/illustrated covers recently. This is not something that I connect with, and personally hope goes away soon. I don’t feel like I’ve felt that uncomfortable or alienated by other designs before. I suppose they must be popular or else cover designers wouldn’t keep making them and authors wouldn’t request them, but irrationally I wish they would just change this retroactivley.
The article about movie posters accompanied by the video of the creation of the Stranger Things logo made me think about book covers, which is something I spend more time looking at. Like movie posters, book covers are subject to trends- we’ve seen an increase in drawn/illustrated covers recently. This is not something that I connect with, and personally hope goes away soon. I don’t feel like I’ve felt that uncomfortable or alienated by other designs before. I suppose they must be popular or else cover designers wouldn’t keep making them and authors wouldn’t request them, but irrationally I wish they would just change this retroactivley.
While I can’t say that I didn’t learn anything from the readings and videos, its hard to identify one particular fact. I feel like a lot of the reading affirmed things that I subconciously already knew. However, I think putting language to these subconsious feelings is important as it allows us, as designers, to target them.
Something About Kittens and Raindrops…
I took this picture of my desk after a particularly vigorous crafting session, but managed to have many of my favorite things in the image. I’m sure that there were easier ways to do this project, but I opted for convenience of device. Instead of loading up Photoshop on my laptop, I used Procreate on my iPad. I imported the photo and copied the layer, and made the top layer black-and-white. After that, I just erased the areas on the black-and-white layer that I wanted to be shown in color.
See if you can find all of them!
- The Emotional Support Water Bottle: I LOVE my water bottle, and I carry it with me everywhere. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but there is almost never water in it.
- Show Buttons: I have a pin from each of the shows that I have worked on in Klein Theatre, which is all of them! I have a display on my backpack and bulletin board.
- Owen’s Farm Mug: This was the last trip my family took together before COVID, and my parents snuck this mug into my college stuff. It broke last year when I accidentally launched it across the kitchen while trying to wash it, so while it no longer holds coffee, it does hold pens.
- Memory Box: I have one of these for each year of college, and it holds playbills/scraps of paper/playing cards/anything else that has something of importance to me.
- Pothos: I have a lot of plants, but this one is the first one I got from my Mom.
- Photos of my Roommates and I: We took these pictures at Fall Formal this year, and I adore this photo reel (and my roommates!).
- Love Postcard: I got this in a box for a bracelet from my grandmother and, while I didn’t like the jewlery, this postcard has traveled with me.
- NYC Card: I bought a lot of art on my first trip to New York, and this one is just so cute.
- Dad’s Jacket: At some point I stole this jacket from my Dad, and I love that it’s getting so much wear from both him and me. It just goes with everything!
- Work in Progress Art: I bought this right before college to remind me that I am always learning to be better. Cheesy, I know.
Bethany’s Barbie Dream House
I decided to further characterize Bethany (and indulge myself) by looking for a house for her on Zillow. Since she is based in Chicago, that’s where I opted to search. She really doesn’t need a lot of space, especially since its just her. I could see her eventually getting a pet, so a pet-friendly establishment was a plus. While Bethany is only a receptionist for a funeral home, she does have the extra cash flow from Smithy, so the price wasn’t anything I was too worried about.
I found this stunning apartment that I know Bethany would LOVE. Located in downtown Chicago, the one-bed/one-bath setup is just enough for her. The brick and hardwood fixtures are breathtaking, and the balcony would be perfect for her morning reading. There is enough space in the living area for a small office, which Bethany will use for all of her after hours work.
While the bedroom is a pretty stark white, Bethany would fill the room with life through a huge rug and lots of wall art. There is still some personality in this room, though! A wooden beam runs through the ceiling, bringing some much needed warmth to this part of the house.
I Lost My Wallet
As one of the assignments for this week, I created two ID cards for my course character, Bethany Smith.
For this card, I used an ID making website and then saved the PDF. It was a little hard to use as the website was quite laggy, but I think it turned out nice!
For the library card, I just searched for the Chicago Public Library card and erased the example name and signature on Photoshop. After that, I added back in Bethany’s name and signature using the text and paint tools, respectivley.
Does this Guy have a Monacle?
In the blog posts about Technopoly, I appreciated that the author mentioned that Neil Postman was “a prophet … one who warns.” This was a sentiment that I was trying to reflect in my film review of Black Mirror season 2, episode 1, but I wasn’t able to say it as concisely.
Black Mirror S2E1 – Dr. Oblivion’s Reccomendations
As part of the viewing of tech noir, I watched Black Mirror season 2, episode 1 entitled “Be Right Back.” I haven’t watched Black Mirror before, so instead of choosing an episode that I thoight was interesting, I chose a random episode to review. The short description on the episode reads, “after learning about a new service that lets people stay in touch with the deceased, a lonley, greiving Martha reconnects with her late lover.”
What struck me initially about this episode was how closely it already follows our own society. Ashe, the aformentioned “late lover,” seems to be hooked to his cell phone. Martha tells him multiple times to put it away, especially while the two are in the car.
Ashe dies in a car accident, which is heavily implied to be the result of distracted driving. Martha attempts to process his death, only for one of her friends to sign her up for a service that filters all of Ashe’s online activity through a program that will allow her to “talk to him” again. I’m struck by how human this action seems while also feeling so alien. Martha’s friend was only trying to take care of her, but just prevented Martha from being able to process Ashe’s death. Even during the times where Martha is afraid of the program, which will be referred to as “not-Ashe,” she manages to overcome the fear to keep some semblance of her partner alive. Even when not-Ashe is just a text bubble on her computer, her desire to talk to him surpasses her need to interact with the real people in her life.
Eventually, not-Ashe is upgraded to be something/someone she can talk to in a phone call, and then into a “living” being. Only a few hours after not-Ashe is delivered and setup in her house, Martha initiates sex with him. Whether she was looking for connection or just trying to satisfy a desire with something close to her partner, the decision is interesting. On a larger scale, the presence of intimacy with future tech is something that many are interested in, and the inclusion of that in this episode was appropriately uncomfortable. Not-Ashe had to download porn in order to understand how to have sex with Martha, and while this was offputting to her, she did not stop.
This episode was aired in 2013, long before AI chatbots flooded social media. However, the similarity of not-Ashe to the various celebrities you can now “talk to” on Instagram is interesting. I wonder if it will be possible to take these chatbots to a further level, and how that may effect us. At the end of the episode, Martha is overcome by how close and also how far not-Ashe is from the man she lost. She walks him to a cliff and encourages him to jump off. The episode doesn’t have to address what would happen if she killed not-Ashe, who is decidedly not-human, as he pleads for his life at her suggestion. As we continue towards the future predicted by this episode of Black Mirror, it will be hard to ignore the legislation that comes out of it.
Transcription: Well, the review is not bad, mentioning some key points of the episode’s plot and themes. The comparison between the episode’s concept and AI chatbots is interesting, showing a connection to real-world technology. However, consider tightening up your writing to make it more concise and to the point. Also, maybe dial back a bit on your detailed opinions regarding Martha’s choices. We get it. You find it uncomfortable. Keep refining your analysis and keep an eye on how technology in Black Mirror reflects our own society’s trajectory.
Weekly Summary #2
Talk about a week where my brain felt fully juiced! Getting started with The Daily Creates was certainly difficult at first, especially having to be okay with creating art that wasn’t polished due to the time constraints. However, I found myself beginning to look forward to seeing what kinds of new things I would be asked to make each day. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t still have trouble with TDC, though!
Along the same lines, I had a ton of fun creating my course character. I’m interested to see how our work with our characters will continue throughout the rest of the semester, as well as how they’ll interact with the class. The writing process was tough at first, but I got a lot of inspiration from a character name generator. It spit out “Bethany Smith (Smithy),” and I just had to make my character a good girl by day/mob boss by night with that kind of name! Being able to create a collage to further create a 3D person was quite fun as well! I haven’t done “creative writing” in years, so this was a welcome break from typical writing expectations.
I enjoyed my interactions with Dr. Oblivion, too. I find him a little unnerving, but I could say that about all AI! I think his voice adds another level to his persona, and I like being able to feed him prompts.
Looking back on this week, I know better how to manage my time in this class going forward. I think the first week of the semester spoiled me, and the workload this week surprised me. I also need to get in the habit of commenting on others’ posts, as I don’t feel like I did enough of that this week.