just to let you kow my tiny cute little blog that i still remember about you! i havent been here for a while but thinking of you frequently anyway! I'm working on something else at the moment (description here) but the Carrotz is still alive.
Last week my project was presented at the Symposium. Well done. But it will be even better.
When?
ASAP!!!
peace
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Very postmortem note
Just for personal record of the process I am attaching an evaluation. Although nobody reads this blog, I want to keep on going with my ideas and as I promised myself, grow some more "trees of theory" soon.
I put my heart into this project and I will carry on, just for myself! I am planning to use it as a part of portfolio for my application for Masters degree, of course when I extend it and shoot all the mistakes (I discovered some after uploading the website; however, I decided to correct them at the same time when I add some new features to my jungle of ideas). But not to make you sleep, dear non-existent audience, here is bit more words on the issue of self-evaluation.
The project titled The Femininity Hills is a medium sized interactive website produced using such digital media tools as Adobe Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver. My main aim was to create a fictional forest of ideas on gender and femininity where my audiences could wander clicking on different buttons. Each part of the forest was supposed to marked by a different composition created in Photoshop. From the very beginning I thought the idea of forest would be ideal for my needs. First of all, I was not sure which approaches I would take in particular in my research on gender. I have read quite a few books on the related issues and still feel that there so muchis still left to be said. Such a feeling can be overwhelming and I was often feeling stressed thinking about the amounts of material I would have to read in order to be able to produce an informed utterance on gender, femininity and sexuality.
I feel it is not necessary to provide a bibliography here as I was doing it regularly on my blog where I kept quite regular notes on my ideas’ development. I treated this project very personally, and was getting inspired very easily. I enjoyed collecting theories for this project. After first few weeks I decided to abandon my initial idea to deploy only texts I have already known and I moved into reading new books and articles. This was parallel to the core readings for my other module titled Language and Gender; it proved to be very influential in gaining theoretical background. However, looking at the actual shape of my website I am not sure if that was a correct approach. Although I touched a lot of different ideas and theories in my website I have an impression that I did not go deep enough with any of these concepts. This is certainly an idea that is worth developing and digging deeper as an independent pursuit.
Also the technological part of my project does nit leave me satisfied. I planned to produce far more complicated and sophisticated structure of the website, with more interactive attractions. Due to my mediocre knowledge of Flash I feel I achieved less satisfying effect. However, in terms of my own development I see this website as a huge step forward. Half a year ago I was not even able to think about producing a small banner in Flash andnow it is not a problem. I am sure that my Flash skills will be improving and that this website was a great breakthrough for my own development.
I had to finish my project in the very last minute and I clearly see that this does not help to structure an interesting project. For a long time I was putting off the actual production as I could not decide which format I should follow, as I described it at that time on my blog. The choice of a formula was a crucial step in planning all following phases and I am worried that if I have started it earlier the final product could have been much better. Just before writing this words I had a final look at the sites in the folders and I can now see that I forgot to place some important links and other elements which in my opinion would make this project worth more attention than now. As a result I feel this project is far less the amount of time and effort I put into researching it. I learned my lesson and now I know that I have to start the actual work much earlier.
However, although I feel that this website is not particularly good, I would like to say that I am happy with the series of digital images I produced for the needs of the project. Again, I see now that I could have considered some aspects of production earlier in time, however it is too late now to cry over the spilt milk. I showed my images to several people and got very positive opinions.
Probably, if I knew that I would not have enough time to produce a site including Flash I would stick with the photographic one. As I noted earlier, I treated this project as a personal challenge and see that I made some significant mistakes.
I hope that this will be my lesson for the future: to start planning earlier and not being complacent with doing some stuff which will not be used in the project anyway. This is what happened to my series of images I was very concerned in the beginning of the production. Now I see that my time management skills have to be improved and this will positively influence my future project.
I think writing an evaluation could be useful for my own development. I guess it will be good to review and rethink my ideas towards new concepts for extending the forest. I would like to shift more to linguistics and theories on sexism and exclusive/inclusive language and I will use materials from the Language and Gender module (module leader Susanne LaBelle). I want to keep consistency in aesthetic matters with the previous part.
NOTE FOR MYSELF: -insert links in the page on acknowledgements
- more music by Masskotki?
ok for now.
I put my heart into this project and I will carry on, just for myself! I am planning to use it as a part of portfolio for my application for Masters degree, of course when I extend it and shoot all the mistakes (I discovered some after uploading the website; however, I decided to correct them at the same time when I add some new features to my jungle of ideas). But not to make you sleep, dear non-existent audience, here is bit more words on the issue of self-evaluation.
The project titled The Femininity Hills is a medium sized interactive website produced using such digital media tools as Adobe Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver. My main aim was to create a fictional forest of ideas on gender and femininity where my audiences could wander clicking on different buttons. Each part of the forest was supposed to marked by a different composition created in Photoshop. From the very beginning I thought the idea of forest would be ideal for my needs. First of all, I was not sure which approaches I would take in particular in my research on gender. I have read quite a few books on the related issues and still feel that there so muchis still left to be said. Such a feeling can be overwhelming and I was often feeling stressed thinking about the amounts of material I would have to read in order to be able to produce an informed utterance on gender, femininity and sexuality.
I feel it is not necessary to provide a bibliography here as I was doing it regularly on my blog where I kept quite regular notes on my ideas’ development. I treated this project very personally, and was getting inspired very easily. I enjoyed collecting theories for this project. After first few weeks I decided to abandon my initial idea to deploy only texts I have already known and I moved into reading new books and articles. This was parallel to the core readings for my other module titled Language and Gender; it proved to be very influential in gaining theoretical background. However, looking at the actual shape of my website I am not sure if that was a correct approach. Although I touched a lot of different ideas and theories in my website I have an impression that I did not go deep enough with any of these concepts. This is certainly an idea that is worth developing and digging deeper as an independent pursuit.
Also the technological part of my project does nit leave me satisfied. I planned to produce far more complicated and sophisticated structure of the website, with more interactive attractions. Due to my mediocre knowledge of Flash I feel I achieved less satisfying effect. However, in terms of my own development I see this website as a huge step forward. Half a year ago I was not even able to think about producing a small banner in Flash andnow it is not a problem. I am sure that my Flash skills will be improving and that this website was a great breakthrough for my own development.
I had to finish my project in the very last minute and I clearly see that this does not help to structure an interesting project. For a long time I was putting off the actual production as I could not decide which format I should follow, as I described it at that time on my blog. The choice of a formula was a crucial step in planning all following phases and I am worried that if I have started it earlier the final product could have been much better. Just before writing this words I had a final look at the sites in the folders and I can now see that I forgot to place some important links and other elements which in my opinion would make this project worth more attention than now. As a result I feel this project is far less the amount of time and effort I put into researching it. I learned my lesson and now I know that I have to start the actual work much earlier.
However, although I feel that this website is not particularly good, I would like to say that I am happy with the series of digital images I produced for the needs of the project. Again, I see now that I could have considered some aspects of production earlier in time, however it is too late now to cry over the spilt milk. I showed my images to several people and got very positive opinions.
Probably, if I knew that I would not have enough time to produce a site including Flash I would stick with the photographic one. As I noted earlier, I treated this project as a personal challenge and see that I made some significant mistakes.
I hope that this will be my lesson for the future: to start planning earlier and not being complacent with doing some stuff which will not be used in the project anyway. This is what happened to my series of images I was very concerned in the beginning of the production. Now I see that my time management skills have to be improved and this will positively influence my future project.
I think writing an evaluation could be useful for my own development. I guess it will be good to review and rethink my ideas towards new concepts for extending the forest. I would like to shift more to linguistics and theories on sexism and exclusive/inclusive language and I will use materials from the Language and Gender module (module leader Susanne LaBelle). I want to keep consistency in aesthetic matters with the previous part.
NOTE FOR MYSELF: -insert links in the page on acknowledgements
- more music by Masskotki?
ok for now.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
POST MORTEM NOTES
That's it, the project is finished. I am somewhat disappointed with my work.
There were several mistakes made that make me feel especially unhappy.
First of all, I did not check the roots of files used in my project. This caused problems whilst burning a CD. Repairing was time-consuming and difficult. I can see that a clear and organised directory for files is a must! Secondly, it took me a while to finish editing a poster in inDesign. I overrated my flexibility and I am not entirely happy with the effect I gained.
Thirdly, the address of my host server does not work properly! I checked my account and they sent me a note that they would be closing down soon all accounts but they did not state when. I know it is too late but I will try to upload my website to another webhost. I opened the following address:
http://thecarrotz.freehostia.com/
hopefully this works better.
To sum up, due to these unlucky circumstances I feel very unsatisfied with the work I submitted. I think I learnt my hard lesson and now I seriously have to develop skills of time management. I know now that producing a digital media piece can be much longer due to unexpected impediments (I have never been so unlucky with technology as this time). Having said that I promise myself to re-0rganise my way of work and time management.
There were several mistakes made that make me feel especially unhappy.
First of all, I did not check the roots of files used in my project. This caused problems whilst burning a CD. Repairing was time-consuming and difficult. I can see that a clear and organised directory for files is a must! Secondly, it took me a while to finish editing a poster in inDesign. I overrated my flexibility and I am not entirely happy with the effect I gained.
Thirdly, the address of my host server does not work properly! I checked my account and they sent me a note that they would be closing down soon all accounts but they did not state when. I know it is too late but I will try to upload my website to another webhost. I opened the following address:
http://thecarrotz.freehostia.com/
hopefully this works better.
To sum up, due to these unlucky circumstances I feel very unsatisfied with the work I submitted. I think I learnt my hard lesson and now I seriously have to develop skills of time management. I know now that producing a digital media piece can be much longer due to unexpected impediments (I have never been so unlucky with technology as this time). Having said that I promise myself to re-0rganise my way of work and time management.
Monday, 12 January 2009
LAST MINUTE UPDATE
The website has been finished!
I am just about to upload it online under the address I mentioned last time.
I worked all night and produced some nice images.
that's it for now, as i have to finish poster:D
Friday, 9 January 2009
I forgot to mention that...
I forgot to mention that I found a space to place my final website at server run by lycos.tripod.
The address will be http://carrotcreations.i-was-in-paris.com
I opened an account for free in the end of December. It has a funny name and I think it matches my concept of random name (carrot:)
hope it's going to work properly!:)
i am still working on my poster and it takes time as I am not really confident with using inDesign...
The address will be http://carrotcreations.i-was-in-paris.com
I opened an account for free in the end of December. It has a funny name and I think it matches my concept of random name (carrot:)
hope it's going to work properly!:)
i am still working on my poster and it takes time as I am not really confident with using inDesign...
p r o b l e m s
This is a hard time now as there is so much to do during assessment time. Nonetheless I am working diligently on the website. I have done a few swf files- they're ready to be placed in Dreamweaver!:)
I must admit that I had severe problems with defining how the website should be structured. I was struggling with the technological constraints. What I mean by this is that I did not know how to make sense of the pros and cons of Dreamweaver and Flash and how to make the most of it. I started to feel that I will have to find a compromise between the effect I want to achieve and what I can really make using the software. There was a problem for me considering the linking of the pages. I did not know if it's better to place a chunky swf which would include the most of the website content or to split it into several swfs which would be placed on separate pages. Both ideas had positive and negative sides and I did several tests... which showed that both ideas fail at some point... I wanted to use swf files as objects that could be linked to the other parts of the website, but Dreamweaver did not work the way I supposed it to do. I imported an invisible gif file as I thought I could place it in front of swf and use it as a link to the rest of the content. It worked when I tested it in safari browser on a MAC but it failed in Mozilla Firefox... I don't know why. What is more, I tested my website draft on a PC using the Internet Explorer and it was a disaster... And I entirely don't know WHY!!!
However, at the moment I think that the structure will be as follows
- index: the entrance. swf and a rollover underneath that will be linked with the menu page
- the menu page: a swf starting with the motive of leaves which will be linked to the rest of the composition
underneath the swf file there will be a rollover that will be linked to the "get me out of here" section with the sort of conclusion of the theme (what to do to change the status quo of the gender relations and representations) and a short presentations of the authors of music (MASSKOTKI& PESZEK) and my friend Ewa who made pictures I used in the compositions.
I already see limitation of such structure. As my composition should be in a landscape orientation, I will not be able to use the images I spent so much time on as they are in the portrait orientation! That's such a shame! This is the reason I am still considering splitting the swf into separate bits which would be placed on separate pages and linked. The leaves image (the menu) would be in a jpg format and treated with hotspots that would be linked to the pages with swf files. As my idea of placing the gif images on the swf file failed (and it is impossible to place hotspots on the swf too!), I am thinking of placing several rollovers underneath the swf file which would say for instance "go right", "go left", "jump", "go back" and each of these rollovers would take the audience somewhere else, to another page with another swf file. This would make sense and would be consistent with the design of the index page. It is far from what I wanted to achieve though... It is too late to cry over a spilt milk though!
Thus, it seems to me that I will have to compromise. The final decision which of these two ways I would follow will be probably made today when I get down to production.
I must criticise myself again- why did I left everything till the last minute? I clearly see that I have to develop time management skills. New Year's resolution?.... :)
I must admit that I had severe problems with defining how the website should be structured. I was struggling with the technological constraints. What I mean by this is that I did not know how to make sense of the pros and cons of Dreamweaver and Flash and how to make the most of it. I started to feel that I will have to find a compromise between the effect I want to achieve and what I can really make using the software. There was a problem for me considering the linking of the pages. I did not know if it's better to place a chunky swf which would include the most of the website content or to split it into several swfs which would be placed on separate pages. Both ideas had positive and negative sides and I did several tests... which showed that both ideas fail at some point... I wanted to use swf files as objects that could be linked to the other parts of the website, but Dreamweaver did not work the way I supposed it to do. I imported an invisible gif file as I thought I could place it in front of swf and use it as a link to the rest of the content. It worked when I tested it in safari browser on a MAC but it failed in Mozilla Firefox... I don't know why. What is more, I tested my website draft on a PC using the Internet Explorer and it was a disaster... And I entirely don't know WHY!!!
However, at the moment I think that the structure will be as follows
- index: the entrance. swf and a rollover underneath that will be linked with the menu page
- the menu page: a swf starting with the motive of leaves which will be linked to the rest of the composition
underneath the swf file there will be a rollover that will be linked to the "get me out of here" section with the sort of conclusion of the theme (what to do to change the status quo of the gender relations and representations) and a short presentations of the authors of music (MASSKOTKI& PESZEK) and my friend Ewa who made pictures I used in the compositions.
I already see limitation of such structure. As my composition should be in a landscape orientation, I will not be able to use the images I spent so much time on as they are in the portrait orientation! That's such a shame! This is the reason I am still considering splitting the swf into separate bits which would be placed on separate pages and linked. The leaves image (the menu) would be in a jpg format and treated with hotspots that would be linked to the pages with swf files. As my idea of placing the gif images on the swf file failed (and it is impossible to place hotspots on the swf too!), I am thinking of placing several rollovers underneath the swf file which would say for instance "go right", "go left", "jump", "go back" and each of these rollovers would take the audience somewhere else, to another page with another swf file. This would make sense and would be consistent with the design of the index page. It is far from what I wanted to achieve though... It is too late to cry over a spilt milk though!
Thus, it seems to me that I will have to compromise. The final decision which of these two ways I would follow will be probably made today when I get down to production.
I must criticise myself again- why did I left everything till the last minute? I clearly see that I have to develop time management skills. New Year's resolution?.... :)
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