“Imagine you find a kaleidoscope. You put it up to your eye, and point it to the sky. You twist it into the light. What do you see? Use either story or poem or words or image or art to bring us into the colorful world of your tumbling tube.”
Through the glass, the sky shatters—
Sapphire, emerald, gold spill and swirl,
patterns bloom, dissolve, reform.
Twist, twist—light bends,
chaos and symmetry collide.
For a moment, infinity glows in my hands.
It was interesting to look at these posts through the eyes of Krissy. It took me a minute to gather the posts that I wanted Krissy to react to, but eventually I was able to put together a few that Krissy would have a lot to say about.
I think Krissy would like this post because Sapphira is an empowering femme fatale. I think Krissy would look up to her in a lot of ways, especially as she progresses into her mission. A lot of people view powerful women as rule breakers and society is made to believe they are villains. However, Krissy would know better than this and even relate to it as she views herself as powerfull. Although Krissy’s archetype is not Femme Fatale, like Sapphira, they are both independent women and I think they would be friends.
I think Krissy would be horrified and appalled by this newspaper. She would understand being frusterated with people online but to actively wish death on people is terrible. Additionally, she’d be even more terrified of the twist that the people who used the #deathto hashtag would die. Krissy would be terrified of this concept and it would remind her of how scary and powerful technology has become. She would use this as a reminder while she goes off to fight her mission.
Krissy would be terrified if she heard this on her radio. She doesn’t own any smart home devices because her family thinks they make you lazy. However, just because she doesn’t have these devices, doesn’t mean she doesn’t empathize with the people who do. Krissy would also be terrified for what this means for the future of technology, will people find a fix for this problem or will they just become more sneaky to avoid getting caught. Maybe this is what ultimately leads to the demise of the future.
I was excited to start this assignment because I think studying propaganda is very interesting. I struggled to come up with an theme at first, I was overwhelmed with ideas, it felt like there were too many options. I eventually settled on the price of eggs, because it’s a point of frustration for me and a lot of Americans. On February 13th, apnews.com published an article “US egg prices hit a record high of $4.95 and are likely to keep climbing” These are crazy prices when eggs are a necessity for most people, and it seems like some politicians aren’t willing to do anything about it.
To make this poster, I used Canva. A big thing I wanted to incorporate into this piece were elements such as colors, shapes, and general themes you would normally see in American propaganda. A lot of American propaganda that I saw when I was looking for examples was very patriotic, but I think this is a low point for America’s economy, so I wanted to use the patriotism in an ironic way. The pan and dollars falling were already on Canva so I added them to the poster. To get the egg, I googled an image of an egg being cracked, uploaded it to Canva and erased all the parts so only the egg shell was left. I then put all the pieces together and I think it came out nicely. For the text, I wanted to have something short and catchy to act as a slogan of sorts.
I’m really happy with how this poster came out, I think the ironic patriotism perfectly compliments the distaste many Americans have for the high egg prices. To make you giggle, here is the tweet that inspired me to make my poster about egg prices.
This is a tweet following the shootout at the police station advising people to stay away and making the public aware of the situation that has taken place at the station.
The qoute “Legends rise in the dark ” is sued to emphasize that what is done in our darkest hour and out of sight is what comes to light and shapes us as who we are. This going along with DK’s morality and the questionable things he does as he trying to figure out the line between right and wrong.
This is rare for me to say, but I was actually motivated to start the week. I started off with commenting on other people’s posts, as well as starting to think of ideas for the assignments this week. My mind started flowing with ideas for what to do, so throughout the weekend, I will start narrowing it down to the story and propaganda poster that I truly want to do. I also started on looking at other people’s creation in order to find ones that my course character, Veronica Malone, would love! I talk about it here, Vee’s Favorite Digital Projects.
For the news story, I decided to do a article about the Black Mirror episode, Hated in the Nation. I talk about it more in my blog post, Social Media Turns Deadly, but I used Canva in order to create the poster itself, and then wrote out the article basically summarizing the events of the episode, making it sound like an actual newspaper story.
I knew that Veronica Malone would appreciate a poster that talks about the justice system. Specifically the corruption that comes with it. I go more in depth about it in my poster, Propaganda, but I created the design on Canva, and used an iconic symbol of justice, Lady Liberty, with her scales being tipped by money as well as the powerful people behind it. She would support it because she has worked in the justice system, and seen the corruption first-hand. She believes in standing up for the forgotten, as well as making sure that those who do not have power or money have a voice.
Daily Create #1
For the first daily create of the week, we were asked to rename a place on a map, which sounds pretty familiar as to something that happened recently. I decided to rename the place where my parents grew up, as well as I did for practically half of my childhood, Buffalo! I renamed it to ‘Snowfalo’, which as you can tell, implies that there is snow for pretty much most of the year.
Daily Create #2
For the second daily create, we had to make a gif from our favorite movie! My favorite movie of all time is Knives Out! I love murder mysteries, so when I saw Knives Out for the first time, I was immediately in love with it. The cast is stacked with stars like Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, and so many others. The details behind it truly makes it shocking when it is revealed who the culprit is, but yet you are mad that you didn’t see it sooner. For the scene I picked, I did a scene that I quote a lot, which is Chris Evans just saying “…yup!”. A simple, yet effective line delivery!
Daily Create #3
For the last daily create, we were asked to take a photo of what it would look like opposite of our own perspective. I was sitting outside since it was so nice out, so I thought this picture was cool!
Overall, it was a pretty good week! I was able to manage my time wisely, and I had a lot of fun making the propaganda poster, as I could relate it to the times we live in now, as well as something my character would support. So ready for spring break (and hopefully) warmer weather!
For this assignment, I wanted to do the Black Mirror episode we had to do a video essay on last week, Hated in the Nation! I found this episode to be very interesting, so I knew I wanted to do a news article as the events in the episode sound realistic to me (which is very sad). I used Canva in order to find a template, and then from there wrote an article that summarized the crimes committed throughout the episode. I found a photo of the main character, Karin, off of Google. The photo is of her in the courtroom, to show that the article happens after the events of the episode. I then created a title, which is pretty relevant to our class theme, Tech-Noir Times. Overall, it was fun to experiment with this template in order to get my message across!
When scrolling through everyone’s creations and work throughout the week, I was able to pick out a few of her favorites! Whether they are entertaining or if they convey an important message, here are a couple of Vee’s favorite digital creations.
I think Vee would really appreciate Flower Bed’s propaganda poster! The messaging behind it is very important, as nowadays a lot of people are stuck to their screens. Technology was made in order to make our lives easier, but has it created an addiction among some individuals that can’t be reversed? This is something Vee would acknowledge, as she prefers old-fashioned methods when it comes to her missions.
Another favorite of hers is a PSA that Rylie made! It replicates the emergency broadcasts that we hear today, but added a fun narrative of the several voice assistants such as Siri or Alexa going rogue. It goes along with our theme for the class very well. Vee would appreciate the story of the voice assistants taking over because again, she likes relying on herself instead of technology. The idea of technology taking over isn’t a stretch for her.
Lastly, she would love Coni’s newspaper clipping from The Terminator! The design of it, as well as how it describes the event makes it sound like it actually happened! Vee likes the Terminator movies, and would love the thought process and creativity behind the clipping itself.
Prompt: Twisting the Kaleidoscope
I found a kaleidoscope camera lens and took a photo of a plant from the place I work! I’m getting into the hobby of indoor plant care and I’m sooo excited about it
