Welcome to my Music page! I created this song using the program Pro Tools to create. The song is called "Train Song" and was originally performed by Feist and Ben Gibbard, but I loved it so much, I decided to give it a try. I first recorded me singing in many diffrent keys to see which one sounded the best, but after hearing them all together, I decided that was how I wanted to show it. As I start to sing the chorus, the tempo also picks up ever-so-slightly. I thought it was fun how my many voices all sounded like a little army, so I got the idea to put footsteps, almost like marching soldiers, in the background. Please enjoy!

 

Below is my Animation, which I created in Flash using the built in tools as well as photos of my own.The assignment told us to illustrate or animate a poem that we wrote this past semester. Usually, a reader does not sense the tone or emotions of a poet or writer when reading the poem, so this was a good opportunity to convey how I feel about the poem, or how I felt when I was writing it. I used a poem entitled "She Doesn't Believe In Summertime" to illustrate. I last used Adobe Flash to animate my narrative in my second semester at Freestyle Academy, and this second time around was definitley easier because I was more familiar with the program.

Click here to watch my video!

The interesting thing about animating a poem is that the audience members experience a very different poem because of the pictures that go with it and how I say it, as opposed to reading it plainly out of a book. I liked performing this poem especially because I had the opportunity to portray my emotions regarding each and every word, as we learned from Allen Ginsberg, is crucial to conveying the theme of the poem.

This page plays host to the art piece I worked on in Design Class. The goal of this assignment was to get us, the students, to express an emotion with an action. For example, I feel uneasy when I am not true to myself. From there, we expanded upon that idea in the hope that the art would convey such emotions. I tried to push myself to experiment with different mediums of art. So, the background is made up of a puzzle that I spray painted with three different colors, one textured, that way, when I played with the hue/saturation and color balance, the black and white would be aesthetically interesting. Then, I took a world map, made it

black and white, turned the opacity down and roatated it different ways. Finally, I made a girl and boy out of newspaper, turned the saturation up, and layered it in with the other components.

This was one of my favorite pieces from my junior year becuase not only did I get to incorporate elements of 3D art (the puzzle) with technological art, but I feel that the message translated through the piece is more universal than any of my other pieces. After all, an artist's job is to connect their audience with a message--with the artist herself. This piece is untitled.

This page contains all of the poems I worked on this semester in regard to the Experimental Unit. For inspiration and instruction on how to write effective, emotionally poetry, we studied the works of the many great artists of the 20th century. I also, however, got to research a poet of my choice, and I chose the acclaimed Sarah Kay. She started writing poetry at a very young age and used them to help her "solve a problem," in her life. She has performed for thousands at presentations and TED Talks alike, wowing those much older and younger than her with her words. Many of her pieces combine music with spoken word, and most are performed as abstract stories.

I chose to base my poems of this model. I hope you enjoy. Click here for Sarah Kay's website, another source of inspiration for this unit. The first poem is entitled "Gold." I don't really know what my inspiration for this poem was, but throughout the writing process, I was thinking about the measurement of time, and what would happen if we measured it in colors or other sentimental objects. The second is about a real experience of mine, of what happened when I stumbled across a peice of writing of my sister's. The third poem is sort of a list of advice written to myself in poetic form.

Finally, the fourth poem is about a girl on a journey, who goes searching through her town, looking for answers. I enjoyed the entire experience of reading other works of poetry, drafting, writing, and revising my own work. I learned more about myself in this short period of time of reflection than I have in a long time, so I hope to take the skills learned in this unit into the summer and next year.

As you will have noticed, I wrote all of my poems on a typewriter. I feel that a computer is too judgemental a source, too quick a critic with its delete button and space bar, too technologically advanced for what should be a transcendental process.

 

Welcome to my Experimental Website, the host of my experimental art from this final, fourth unit of my Junior year at Freestyle Academy. For this unit, we were expected to explore the meaning of experimental art. What makes art "experimental?" Does it have to raise questions for the audience? Touch upon the more controvercial aspects of society for the artist? Or do the tools used to make the piece simply have to be unexpected?

In Design, we explored possible answers to the questions above as we worked on our own experimental design piece. Click on the "Art" button to see what I created. In English, we learned what it meant to be experimental with liturature.

We studied the acclaimed works of poets, especially Allen Ginsberg of the Beat Generation. We read a book entitled The God of Small Things and created our own set of poetry that, without form, taught us to write freely and explore our creative faculties. Finally, in Web/Audio class, we created this website, an animation, and a music piece.

Throughout this unit I learned a lot about experimental technique and that--ironically, there is none. In order to create effective experimental art, I had to let go of my inner critic and simply create. The programs I used to create the varying art peices were not new to me, but I defintely to use them in different ways. For example, in photoshop, I utilized the ability to layer different elements of the piece instead of simply changing the opacity or the like. Also, in flash, I chose to convey more emotions than actual representations of the poem, so that the audience could analyze the poetry themselves.