Introduction
The experimental unit is the most fluid of the four units we’ve done this year. It required creativity and some level of ingenuity, mixed in with an understanding of the conventions upon which good works of any kind are built. The entirety of the unit was structured around a concept chosen at its beginning, which was different for each person. Mine was “impatience because of the desire to rebel.” In English class we wrote poetry and a song. In Design, we created a piece that was a representation of our interpretations of the concept. In Web/Audio, we created a website (as per usual) showcasing the fruits of the unit, as well as an animation of a poem, a piece of music, and stylized images of our poems. All of these can be seen in this site.

This unit was more relaxed in the choice of mediums than others. We were allowed to use Photoshop or Illustrator as we wished, and our use of Flash for animations was unregulated. As such, I created frames in Photoshop which I then imported to Flash for the animation. I was thrilled to be able to use traditional art forms in Design for the conceptual art piece, and while I would need more practice to be comfortable with them, I feel like I learned a lot about how they work.

Poetry

In English class, we were required to write at least 75 lines of poetry, as well as a Haiku which was arranged over a photo. In Web/Audio, we made pictures of the poems in order to enhance the reading experience. The process was unremarkable, and I used .png files instead of .jpg files because although their smaller file size is convenient, the latter make flat colors such as the ones here ugly and mottled.

Animation
In English class, we were required to write 75 lines of poetry (seen in the “Poetry” section), and this one was my favorite. This poem was inspired partially by my concept (the feeling of impatience because of the desire to rebel), but also by my own experiences as a student. The visual portion of the animation is merely a visually rendered version of the images described in the poem.

I did not get to practice using Flash for this as much as I might have liked because of the nature of the animation; each frame was drawn in Photoshop first, and then imported to Flash, so the usage of Flash was limited to arranging the images and adding audio.

Art

 

 

 

The photo Haiku here is a product solely of English class; we first wrote haikus, and then edited them onto a photo that was not necessarily a literal interpretation of the poem but still had some sort of connection.

The conceptual piece is from Design class, and involved combining traditional and digital media in order to express a concept. The artist statement is as follows:

The concept from which I worked for this semester was “impatience because of the desire to rebel.” This piece is my interpretation of that. The setting of a racetrack implies impatience like in the anticipatory moment at a starting line, right before the race begins. The runners are all tensed up, waiting for the gun to fire. The one runner at the forefront of the piece represents impatience when it causes one to jump the gun, so to speak. It’s the inability to resist impatience. The runner in front also exemplifies the desire to rebel in that instead of waiting in a row behind the line like the others, they have begun already. They have refused to conform to the rules which would have allowed them to succeed, which is the heart of rebellion.

The colors and mediums I chose reflect this idea. The simple, flat colors and imperfect, wiggly lines are themselves an expression of impatience in that an impatient person might not want to refine shapes or add depth. I highlighted the energy of impatience by using bright, primary colors (especially for the runner in front) and long flowing lines suggestive of motion. The background of the piece, an edited picture of acrylic paint, is reflective of

Music

Coming soon.