Phoebe's Journey: Low-Tech to High-Tech Living
To the audience,
Hello, there.
My name is Phoebe Powers. I am a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The following portfolio consists of a compilation of the projects I've completed this semester in my Digital Humanities class, along with personal reflections detailing the creative processes involved in bringing this together.
I entered this class with the true epitome of low-tech knowledge, despite nearly reaching the end of my four year undergraduate education. With a double major of English and Political Science, I rarely encountered a class that required any tech savvy other than searching for a book at the library or writing a paper in Microsoft Word.
Sitting in class the first day hearing other students speak, I could tell that I was coming in with the least amount of tech knowledge. But, lo and behold, I pushed myself by the end of the semester to master applications such as iMovie, Snagit, Quicktime, and Audacity.
Over the course of this semester, both my creativity and my critical thinking were pushed (nearly) to the breaking point, but as I hope to show you through my portfolio, I have emerged victorious!
Best,
Phoebe Powers
My Projects:
My portfolio video:
Here is the link
DH Report
Our first project of the class was our Digital Humanities reports, which could cover essentially any digital topic. I was a little hesitant to stretch my creativity in this initial project, and therefore it reads pretty much like an ordinary paper. Even if the presentation was a little dry, I certainly enjoyed writing the paper as it has to do with a topic that I feel very passionate about: justice for survivors of sexual assault. I stumbled across a digital archive for the #metoo movement that had been created at a Harvard library; the archive interested me greatly and I decided to work it into my paper as well.
- Draft #1
- Draft #2
Improv Video
reflection: This was the first video I composed in this class. Although my clip is short, this project was an important step in my process of realizing how much I enjoy the process of composing videos.
Me Too Movement Video
reflection: This project was very satisfying to complete mainly due to how many different parts came together to create it. I based the content for the video on my DH reports: the #metoo movement. I had never created a storyboard before this project, but it created a nice flow in the organization of preparing for the video; it also helped me to think about my video more as a story than as a group of pictures with choppy narrative for each. Furthermore, Professor Anderson encouraged us to be creative with the storyboard, which is why I used a pink background; you'll see my script also has a colorful background. I've found that it is much more enjoyable for me to be working on something that is aesthetically pleasing, rather than staring at a plain white text document for a few hours.
- storyboard:
- link to full video transcript
- reflection:
The video transcript was fairly easy to complete as I already had a general sense of the information I needed to share for each photo. Furthermore, this process helped me understand the helpful nature of receiving feedback on a written script rather than feedback on what you're saying in the video. Having all of my lines written out definitely contributes to the overall organization of this project. Having a transcript also allowed me to speak more confidently in the video because I knew exactly what I was saying (some have compared me to John Oliver reading off his lines on the Daily Show.... kidding.. haha).
My first draft of my #metoo movement video is below:
reflection: Creating this video was a key turning point in my creative process from low-tech to high-tech thinking. I was again a wee bit anxious about this video project (notice a pattern?) as I struggled to find a video platform applicable to my Macbook. I settled on iMovie, at the suggestion of Professor Dan, and watched a few youtube videos to understand the basics of the application. The platform (once you get the hang out it) makes it simple to cut and edit clips together as well as transition tactfully from clip to clip.
The difficulties began to arise when I attempted to upload my video to Youtube. Once I uploaded it to Youtube, the visibility of the video switched to read "blocked" due to copyright claims. Upon further examination, I inserted a lengthy video from a TedTalk, which must have violated copyright claims. I've attached a photo of the initial message below:
After a bit of stress, I was able to share a link to the mp4 of my video with Professor Dan.
After sending my draft video to Professor Dan, he replied with this feedback:
I then proceeded to use this feedback to produce the final version of my video. I started by chopping up the Ted Talk into multiple clips separated by images. I then went on to fine tune my audio narrative, most of which I just ended up re-recording. For the most part, I added a lot of new media (including images and even a Quicktime screen recording) to make the video more entertaining. As you've probably seen in my first draft, I had some images on screen for a full 45 seconds while I talked about them; this is extremely boring from the perspective of the audience. I also cut out the last section from my first draft because I ended up going a little off topic at the end -- instead, I have now inserted an improv clip of myself speaking on the impact of the Me Too Movement.
Individual Podcast
reflection: The original podcast was recorded live in class with my group on our topic: Data & Privacy. To prepare for this live recording, our group met a couple times beforehand to discuss the expansive topic of internet privacy. The range of knowledge on podding ranged greatly among our group members; David, for example, actually does podcast type work for a living, so he was a key asset to our team. We thought it best to keep the podcast conversational rather than lecture the audience in order to maintain interest and uphold the entertainment value. Furthermore, it made the project that much more enjoyable because we were essentially just having a group conversation on a topic that is increasingly important in our digitized society.
The application used for the podcast is Audacity, an audio software app that I had zero experience with beforehand (again, low-tech lifestyle, you guys). So after we recorded our live, in-class presentation on data privacy, I was on my own to edit down the full thirty-something minute audio into about half of that time. The thought of doing this made me pretty anxious, so I put it off for a while (ah, c'est la vie), but when I finally got around to editing it down, it was much easier than I thought. Professor Dan had already shown us in class some tips and tricks for working in Audacity, so once I started it actually came pretty easily. I started by cutting out any unnecessary fillers, such as "um," "like," and "uh." After this, I cut out any audio that I felt was irrelevant to data privacy. I also increased the volume for some of the group members with more soft-spoken voices. And finally I tried to give all group members somewhat of an equal speaking time (besides myself, whomst voice I cut a teeny bit more out of simply due to the fact that... ew... my own voice (I'm sure some of you can relate)).
A bit to my dismay, when I tried to upload my final edit of the podcast, the soundbite was empty. And then when I went back to open the saved copy on my laptop, that also appeared to be empty.
Pinterest Project
This project offered some difficulty for me at the onset as the screen recording application I had previously used, Snagit, was no longer working on my laptop. Instead, I downloaded Quicktime, and was able to easily record the screen with this platform. I was able to use the scraping platform at the onset, but once I got to the analyze function, my laptop would always time out and not display any information. Yet I was still able to gain insight out of the project regardless.
Here is the script for the video:
Here is my Pinterest video below:
Participation in class
I posted a comment over the Intro to Digital Humanities readings. (1/14)
I posted on the Humanistic Theory and Digital Scholarship reading. (1/21)
I posted about the Felski reading. (1/28)
I commented on Caroline's DH report.
I commented on Shawna's DH report.
I commented on the reading on Digital Literacy. (2/4)
I commented about the Drucker reading. (2/11)
I posted about the reading which offered tips for recording a podcast. (2/18)
I posted on the reading over Captivating Algorithms. (3/31)
Outside of class project:
So here's the pinnacle of my ascension into the world of hi-tech: I created my own vlog outside of class! You're probably thinking, "no way the same girl who talked about microsoft word being the only app she uses created a vlog" - think again.
After picking up the basics of iMovie during my #MeToo video project, I decided that I wanted to create my own quarantine vlog. Over the course of a few weeks, I horizontally recorded my friends and I doing various shenanigans around our neighborhood. I edited all of the clips together, threw in some music, removed some potentially incriminating parts, and.. voila!
Here is the link to my VLOG! or you can watch below:
As an avid youtube-watcher myself, I have noticed that many of my favorite vloggers tend to keep their videos on the shorter side (around 5 minutes) in order to maintain audience attention. So I cut down around a total of 30-45 minutes of footage to about 5 minutes.
I asked for feedback from friends, and one friend mentioned that I did not really offer context to a lot of the clips in the video, so for my next vlog I plan to include a few more mini clips of myself explaining what's going on. Furthermore, a few friends expressed some anxiety that I am in contact with too many people given Coronavirus, but they are likely unaware that I live in a house of five girls, so I plan on lessening the anxiety on that in my next vlog.
I recorded the vlog on my iPhone 8, which has a decent enough camera. In the future maybe I would use a real camera, but for now I am content with the iPhone quality. Furthermore, I almost always have my phone with me (#millennial) so that I am readily able to record if any whacky occurence goes down.
Overall, I am so thankful to have found and taken this class because it has opened up a whole new realm of creative possibilities that I had been dying to try, but just did not have the proper experience or confidence yet. Now, I am proud to say that I have gone above and beyond my initial expectations for myself coming into this class.
Thank you to Professor Anderson for creating such an innovative and applicable class - it was truly a magnificent way to finish my career as an English major at UNC. Who says English majors can't do shit now, huh???