Category Archives: DG13E

Pretty excited to be working with Suzan and Ling. The poem I chose is Good Mirrors Are Not Cheap by Audre Lorde. Suzan’s poem was also Good Mirrors Are Not Cheap and Ling’s poem was Contact Lens so it won’t be that hard combining our ideas. First time I read it I had a story board outline going through my head. The other poems didn’t stand out to me except that one. We’ll probably do something like the Lonely Clouds; still not sure what program to use or how we are going to do it. Been busy with essays so I haven’t written out a thesis, but I have an idea of what I’m arguing.

So as a stated in class I wanted to work on Audre Lorde’s “Good Mirrors Are Not Cheap”.

For the essay I have going to write something about beauty and self reflection.I think I’m going to write about how society creates the definition of beauty through its media. We, as individuals, shouldn’t blame others or ourselves for who we are not but we should blame the media for creating these “distorted mirrors”.

In the Digital Essay, I hope to portray this idea through a cartoon animation. The animation will follow the words of the poem  through a character. The character [still debating on whether it should be girl or boy] will be looking at a mirror until a light flickers and he/she will see a flaw in him/herself. After the character punches the mirror, they will enter into a realm of distorted illusions and mirrors. I’m not sure how the ending will be yet…

Also, I will be working with Ling Ling and Vivian Zhu. Vivan is also working on the same poem but Ling will be working on Audre Lorde’s “Contact Lens”. I’m thinking about incorporating both the ideas of the two poems together since they do have some similarities. Now that i think about it, I could probably make the character put on glasses and enter the realm and in the end put on contact lens. The problem is… how do i do that with animations and do i have enough time to do that?

So Since our poem is about living your life to the fullest, i was thinking that maybe we could have two different scenarios of people and show how one is living a great life, and the other one is sort of just rolling by in the shadows. Also i want to incorporate some cool effects in the video, like a short film. Im actually glad that we have this video because it got me back into the script writing mood again, and god knows i haven’t picked up a pen and note pad in forever. Also i want to play with light, and music. i think the video is going to be more than 5 minutes though, i hope thats alright.

I have decided to do my digital essay with miaolong huang. Even though we are doing different poems, our ideas pose as a great antithesis. My poem deals with loneliness, while his deals with friendship. So far we decided to do a short video of picture slideshow reflecting the themes of loneliness and friendship. At first we start with a slideshow of a person alone in the park. The color tone is grey to add to an atmosphere of loneliness and the depression associated with it. Afterwards, we move to a slideshow of the person accompanied by a friend. suddenly the depression is gone and the mood is much more positive. That is our ideas so far, until we find even better ones. I am unsure about a good choice of music to accompany the video. Since the video is divided into two parts, the first part would make use of a more somber tone while the second part would be jubilant.

Yes, yes I know it’s not that type of proposal. This may not be allowed but I’ve narrowed it down to two poems: Manatee/Humanity by Anne Waldman and Into Such Assembly by Myung-Mi Kim. I’ll split this entry into two parts, each about one of the two poems.

Manatee/Humanity: What drew me to this poem was actually a documentary that I watched over spring break, The Cove. The Cove is about the inhumane slaughter of thousands of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. The haunting images are still running through my mind and Anne Waldman’s poem really struck a chord in me. For this digital essay I would splice together images of how manatees and humans are similar (i.e. interaction between parents and offspring), images of human slaughter of these animals, images of people who are trying to save these creatures, etc. etc. The message I want to convey is that if we continue to believe that our species is superior, we will continue to destroy the lives of countless animals.

Into Such Assembly: I was excited when I found Myung-Mi Kim for two reasons: she’s the first female Korean poet I’ve ever read and we have the same last name (I know I know.. “Kim” isn’t exactly that unique, but still.)! Her poem is about trying to hold on to one’s culture while being almost forced to accept a brand new one. It also reminded me of Li-Young Lee’s poem Persimmons which is also about a clash of cultures and trying to find some balance between who you are and where you live. For this poem I would film clips/take photos in areas where it is obvious who the majority is (i.e. “Chinatown” or “Koreatown” in Flushing),  find images of American icons, etc. etc. For this video I want to show how American pride can coexist with love for one’s country of origin.

I know I need to make a decision pronto. Hopefully you guys are on a more sure path than I am…

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great weekend. For the digital essay proposal, is it a blog entry or are we handing in a hard copy to Professor Kaufman on Monday? Yay for me being completely clueless about this assignment! Thanks guys!

For the final project of this class, I chose the poem titled “School Note” by Audre Lorde. This poem, I believe, speaks to the treacherous hellhole known as school. Whether it be through horrid teachers, a ridiculous curriculum, or a restrictive environment, the lower education system of America has become notorious for repressing the creative sparks of children, ultimately shooting them and the country’s future into a downward spiral. As a back up to this argument, I shall bring to the reader’s attention an article titled “The Creativity Crisis” from Newsweek. With these two sources in hand, I shall prove my thesis that today’s school system is not adequately equipped to propel our country into a prosperous future due to its inability to nurture creative minds. (MY MOST SINCEREST OF APOLOGIES FOR THE LATE BLOG)

Hello everyone!

I just noticed something went wrong when I tried to post this afternoon, so here it goes again! It was very hard for me to choose a poem for this project, but I think I just found the perfect one. I’m going to work with “A Quiet Poem” by Frank O’Hara, which is a short poem that has a lot of simple images and an important message, and that’s just what I needed.

To make the video I first had the idea of drawing the poem in a sort of RSA Animation, but this weekend I came up with the idea of making a sort of collage by using a white board as “the stage” and then mixing drawings with clippings. I’m not sure if I’m explaining myself very well, its hard to describe, but I hope I can give you at least a sense of what I’m planning to do.

At this point I’m not so scared about the video anymore (I still am, but I feel like at least I have some ideas), but I’m having trouble finding my thesis statement because I haven’t come up with a concrete and specific argument about my poem yet.

I wish we could discuss all this further in class tomorrow. I’ve read some ideas and they look pretty cool, good luck to everyone.

Hi, everyone! It is Saturday morning and I am trying to start my rough draft for paper#3. I am planning to write about the poem “Contact Lenses” by Audre Lorde. The reason is that I recently started wearing contact lenses and I think I can understand how Audre Lorde feel about wearing contact lenses. I initially had an idea in my mind. However, after doing some research about the poem, I am now lost in confusion and try to get my thoughts together again. On Wednesday, after discussing with my partner, we came to a conclusion that we are going to focus on how society changes our original view on this world and sharps us to view the world differently. However, the research I found analysis the poem a little differently. The poem is more about the ethic and methodological problems. It talks about the women’s place in society and church. Women were being discriminate, however, they were fighting back to have a position in society. I guess there is a connection between my idea and the research. I hope I can come up with a interesting thesis for this poem 🙂