To be completely honest, this week was tough. Trying to find my rhythm and patterns between this class and my others has proved to be a challenge as I was not anticipating quite this much to do in this class alone. I wasn’t able to complete everything for this class on top of all of the other assignments and readings for my other classes. I was able to do some daily creates, my course character, and my three assignment bank assignments, but I had to keep them pretty simple to try and get as much done for this course as I could along with all my Psych and Disability Studies classes. I had the most fun working on my playlist assignment as it was the most emotionally meaningful and I really felt like I was telling a story with it. I also enjoyed writing about non-conformity and how the world we are currently living in is already a cyberpunk dystopia essentially. My noir-style book cover was simple and easy, but I’m not the proudest of how it turned out, but I just unfortunately didn’t have much time to dedicate to it since my time was running out and I had a bunch of other assignments all due tonight at 11:59pm. At the end of the week, I decided it was better to do as much as I could and at least be decently proud of it than to either turn nothing in or turn in very few things. Some points are better than no points. Here’s hoping I’ve found my rhythm and that my time commitments start to level out.
Category Archives: Week 2 Assignments
Modern Dystopia: A Tech-Noir Book Cover
This week has been insanely busy, so trying to figure out which assignments would fit into my schedule was quite the challenge, especially figuring out how to incorporate the theme. However, when I saw the opportunity to design a Noir book cover, it was perfect. I felt comfortable in my Canva abilities, I know book covers, I could incorporate it into the theme, and it wasn’t a large time commitment. I decided to keep it simple and to the point. It’s not very involved and if I had more time during the week outside of my other classes and my job, I probably could’ve produced something more detailed and showcasing more of my abilities, however it unfortunately was not in the cards this week for me. I thought it best to create something I felt just okay about than to not create anything at all.
I chose to use Canva because it was a software I use regularly, so I didn’t need to set aside time to learn how to use it. Not to mention, it’s good at getting the job done with design projects of this nature; very user friendly and accessible. Again, I don’t feel super great about the finished product, but I feel good enough about it matching the theme and vibe of the class and it shows a little bit of something I’m able to do.
Non-Conformity: Our Current Cyberpunk Existence
When the concept of cyberpunk is thought about, it’s often envisioned in a highly futuristic dystopian setting much like that of Cyberpunk 2077 and Bladerunner, but the truth of the matter is that we live in a cyberpunk world currently in 2025. High-tech low life discrimination, heavy emphasis on transactional trickle down capitalism, post-industrial dystopia, and a flawed emphasis on individualism where individualism is encouraged as long as you’re a rich white man. With the newly inaugurated office beginning to put their plans into place, it’s become evident to many that these changes will further the dystopian capitalist high-tech consequences of non-conformity for those outside the favor of our country’s current regime. Those who fall outside of the preferential of office, especially queer individuals, non-white individuals, those of lower socioeconomic classes, essentially anyone who isn’t a rich cis-het white man, will be subject to a violent, fearmongering style of glorified peer pressure to conform and go into hiding. ICE is already on the streets and even those who are documented are in danger, anti-abortion laws have already cost the lives of countless women, book and subject banning legislation in schools is cancelling out essential historical and scientific knowledge and putting careers at risk, etc.
As a queer, agender, disabled person who was assigned female at birth who is pursuing a degree in psychology focused in human sexuality with the end goal to be a sex therapist focusing in personal sexuality and sexual deviances, my health, safety, accessibility, and career are all at risk with this new government. The people in office are attempting to scare people into conforming, but the issue is that while, yes, it’s terrifying, it is impossible to conform. Physical anatomy cannot be changed (especially with the laws banning gender affirming care), disability cannot be magically cured, my bisexuality cannot be prayed away, and while I could alter my career choice, I will continue to fight for it because it’s more important now than ever even if I create the risk of losing it all to the hands of this fascist regime. It’s a dark time we live in and this is only the beginning.
My Life Condensed: A Take on the Soundtrack Playlist Assignment
Music is something that I’ve always been heavily immersed in; it was rare that I was ever in the silence from a very young age. My parents always had music on in the cars when they drove, the kitchen while they cooked, the living room while they lounged, and not to mention that I grew up steeped in the goth scene and its associated club nights and culture which is highly music oriented. This constant inundation of music combined with my debilitating lack of social skills and struggles growing up autistic with many other psychological issues paved the way for music and media to be my biggest coping mechanism.
Due to my autism, I’ve had to, in turn, battle alexithymia, which is the inability or immense struggle to identify, understand, and express emotions. I may not have always been able to say “this is how I’m feeling and why”, but music was my voice. I spent so much time listening to music and identifying songs and lyrics that could describe what was happening in my mind, so when I saw the option to create a playlist of songs that played a significant role in my life, I immediately thought of all the songs over the years that helped me voice how I felt on the inside and helped me describe my struggles. I have so many playlists that I’ve made over the years that are all highly categorized and organized by emotion, genre, memory, and more as this has been my primary way of processing my own emotions, but for this assignment, I narrowed it down to some of the most quintessential songs that had the most profound impact on my ability to understand myself, my emotions, and my experiences.
I used Spotify to create my playlist as this is my default music service and, as a result, the one I am most familiar with when it comes to playlist construction. Then, I began the search. I scoured all 20 of my current published playlists that range from 30 minutes to nearly 21 hours in length. The goal was to condense my alexithymic coping journey to a single hour by selecting 15 songs that gave me the biggest revelations, reliefs, and self-understandings. It was difficult to pick and choose, but in the end, I feel like I ended with a myriad of genres, emotions, and memories that one could listen to and understand the closest digital things to raw emotions of my 20 years of life in one playlist.