Wow. What an experience? I had never heard of anything called Makey Makey and I was quite enthused and grateful that I was among the first to ever experiment with it. I wish I had been allotted more time to play around with it as I am sure I would have been able to construct a better idea and carry it out. One of the first thing that came to mind was, “Hmm…someone needs to jump on this and invest. It seems promising for the future.”As a musician, the first thing that came to mind when Prof. Gershovich was showing videos of the ideas and uses of it was an ultra portable keyboard. Every week I travel to churches and play the piano. Any musician knows that every instrument is different, as are different brands and different versions. It would be amazing if I could make a 66 keyboard with all of the sound, samples, and loops already on my computer. So many musicians have the same problem. My instrument is very heavy and it may be difficult to carry it from place to place and keeping it protected. Yamahas, Korgs, Rolands; all these keyboards/ pianos have alot of parts and some, including one of my favorites the Roland DP-90S, are impossible to carry with you from place to place. So as this gets experimented with more and more I would be very eager to see what comes of this.
That being said, I still liked my group’s idea of the remote control. Let’s see. The evolution of our controller was a quick but difficult one. What materials to use, what to use it on, and how to use it were all questions that we tried to answer. We started with a Sega Genesis looking arcade controller then I thought, “Why not use directional buttons since we are playing Dance Dance revolution?” Then we were to make it a variation of the game but as a team game. For the buttons we used Play-Doh but it was hard to press the buttons hard enough for the the touch to be registered without breaking the play-doh apart. Still, I thought it was a great idea and very aesthetically pleasing as well. On to the next one! We then decided to use small clementines as the directional buttons and then a banana to replace the space bar needed to jump. It worked out but was not exactly what the group had been reaching for. But overall, it was a fun time and a great experience.
How to relate the process to writing? Coming up with a thesis I believe at times could be the hardest part of an essay. I heard so many people in class say things like “It was hard for me to stay on track” or “It was hard for me to stick to one idea” or “I just did not know where to go from ‘here.'” At times I feel the same exact way. For me, the best way to start writing is to just put pen to paper and write, see where it leads me, and then focus on a central topic with supporting ideas. The final step would be to put it all together and after numerous rough drafts, the final product would and should be a great work. The writing process is not an easy one for me. It is so easy to get frustrated and quit. Writing, as I am learning can be done many different ways and for many different purposes. As I learned the word essay translated from French means “to try.” So what this activity taught me was to try and think of all the possibilities before you pack it up and quit.
Thanks Prof. Kaufman, once again, for a great experience!
