User:Richardfoster

Always Wanted To Schedule

 * Topic

To create my own personal web site, for the purpose of creating a customized and personalized online presence; a single go-to place which will act as a jumping off point for all my online endeavors. Since I plan on this being a very open a social concept, I will be working on this project only in public spaces; in parks, in coffee shops, at the beach, etc. Any place that involves people interacting with one another in a public setting.


 * Research Component

This project will push the boundaries of what I know regarding the web and it's intricacies. Consequently, I will have to research the bleeding edge of current site design and development, hopefully combining both in a way that will last and stay relevant for some time. I will have to research the various technologies involved, and explore new technologies that may not have reached a mature and stable state.


 * week 1

Forfeit


 * week 2

This week we researched a pseudo-topic; I chose the topic of HDR photography. Without the clear direction and focus of the nature of this assignment, this topic was chosen in haste, and has been retracted.


 * week 3

I will spend this week developing the 'concept' of the site. What is it's focus? What is it's ultimate goal to communicate? How will it be laid out, and how will the focus be translated into the site's functionality and design? There are a virtual cornucopia of design sites out there, and I will be spending much of this week gaining inspiration through these, while at the same time keeping in mine the actual communication, which is the true point of the site. I will also research the technologies I will be using to create the site, both on a server level and on a graphical "front-end" level.


 * week 4

Once I have a more solid idea of how I want the site to look and function, I will begin creating static, mock-up designs in a graphic layout program. With these prototypes, and the research from the previous week, I will be able to start brainstorming about which technologies I will need to implement to translate from static graphic to interactive website. A couple of mock-up prototypes should be the result at the end of this week, as well as an understanding of the technologies involved in developing it.


 * week 5

By this week, I will be ready to begin construction, and will have selected a design to start turning into "web language". I will start with the basics; creating a template based on this design, in a modular and re-usable manner to prevent having to repeat any steps along the way.


 * week 6

Next, comes creating the interactive functionality; how the site will respond to, for example, page 4 of the Gallery section. Again, this will rely heavily on the research done in the previous weeks.


 * week 7

Now, the site is almost complete. I must now fill it with media content; a virtual resume, if you will. I will scan images I've drawn, select photographs I've taken, record songs I've written, and fulfill the rest of my selected topics for the site. If need be, I will also use this week to tweak the site, making (hopefully) subtle changes here and there to polish and smooth the overall user experience.


 * week 8

This week will be the wrap up; evaluation and reflection.
 * How well was the project executed?
 * How could I have done better?
 * How accurately did I predict the steps involved?
 * Which ones took longer than expected?
 * Which ones took less time than expected?
 * How well did I manage my time in relation to the above?


 * Overall, how successfully did I accomplish my goal?

Why Do I Like What I Like?
I first took a short wander through the sculpture park last Monday after class. My intention was to get a first impression, unbiased by knowledge of each individual artist’s intent as described on the accompanying plaques. Overall, most of the pieces on display invoked a positive reaction, however one piece in particular struck me as somewhat dark and oppressive in mood and tone: “Sky Landscape I” by Louise Nevelson.

I kept this piece in mind as the week progressed, and attempted to determine why I had such a reaction to it. It’s painted a very striking black, and the sharp angles and chaotic placement of elements suggest a sense of danger. These elements contradict what I consider to be aesthetically pleasing, so I took it upon myself to try and understand something of the artist and her motivation, to hopefully gain a new appreciation of the dark mass of twisted metal before me.

According to the information provided with the piece, the artist was Russian born in 1899, yet was an American by the time the piece was constructed some 80 years later. Also included was a quote by the artist:

“I fell in love with black; it contained all color. It wasn't a negation of color...black is the most aristocratic color of all...you can be quiet, and it contains the whole thing.” - Louise Nevelson

This brought to mind all sorts of preconceptions. I visualized this artist growing up in a dark and oppressive world surrounded by horrors of both mind and body, building a distorted perception of the world, perhaps finding comfort in the stillness of absence; absence of sight, of light. After a bit of research, I came to understand that my speculation was somewhat correct.

Louise Nevelson was indeed born in Czarist Russia in 1899, however she immigrated to America when she was very young. Her Mother never accepted her new home in America, rather she felt the intense detachment of being a displaced person; not being able to create a new identity in the new world, and to let go of the identity that she was prior to diaspora. Unfortunately, this meant considerable depression, and this left an impression on her daughter. Louise later described her mother as "a woman who should have been in a palace." Her Father suffered a similar breakdown after going from being somebody in the old country to being nobody in the new world. He went on to being a peddler of junk; wood and scrap metal, rags and bottles. She later developed an acute empathy for objects such as these, describing them as being “accumulations of thought”.

Having a better understanding of the artist’s background and motivation helped me to understand the dichotomy of form within this sculpture. Without any real context or relation, a piece like this may or may not invoke a positive response, and in my case did not. However, by the end of my research, I at least had a better understanding of how the artist developed her motivations and perceptions of the world, and how that translated into her sculpture. More than just an introspective collage of angles and curves, it gives insight into the human mind, both my own and the artist’s. I tend to shy away from expressions evoking dark imagery, and this assignment made me give thought to that. I’ve realized that it’s a conscious choice, and perhaps reflects my own reactions to experiences throughout my life. In essence, for me this sculpture now represents choice, in who we are as individuals. Within that context, I have indeed come to appreciate it, whereas before I was repulsed by it.

Donna Seaman. . "The Empress of In-Between: A Portrait of Louise Nevelson. "

Triquarterly 1 Sep. 2008: 9-31,280. Research Library. ProQuest. 2 May. 2009

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1637143601&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=53945&RQT=309&VName=PQD

How Am I Manipulated?
Audi Q5 identity theft nightmare http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ggaef4Emik

This commercial plays deeply into Western society’s preprogrammed self-identity and starts out with a crisis – none of the cars she tries to open are hers, and after some increasing frustration and drama, she realizes that all of the vehicles in the parking garage are Lexus SUV’s. “Identity theft can happen to anyone” the caption says, as the intense and dramatic mood noises come to a crescendo… and cease abruptly. Suddenly, out of the confusion and darkness comes a sleek and sexy Audi SUV, roaring to attention, blasting away mediocrity and despair with aggressive abandon. Be free! Speed out of a parking garage! Leave those beige Lexus’ behind!

It also fits the criteria for a number of the listed Logical Fallacies:

Non Sequitor: “If you buy a Lexus SUV, you’ll lose your sense of self-identity, and maybe your economic identity as well”

Oversimplification: If you buy an Audi SUV, you’ll have a guaranteed sense of self-identity, and stand out among the masses of Lexus owners.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: This woman purchased a Lexus SUV, and therefore isn’t able to find where she parked it due to everyone else having the exact same vehicle.

Proof by Example: This woman drives a Lexus, so therefore has no self-identity!

Allness: “Identity theft effects everyone”

False Dilema: “Either buy an Audi SUV, or you will suffer from identity theft”

Bandwagon Argument: “Everyone has a Lexus SUV and therefore has no self-identity, so if you don’t buy an Audi you will lose your own sense of self-identity”

Accidental Fallacy:

On a number of occasions, a member of my family has made comments regarding drivers with certain gender and racial stereotypes. I do not agree with these generalizations, both on an intellectual and empathetical level. Pointing this fallacy out leads to unproductive posturing, therefore I've learned to (quietly) agree to disagree.

It's interesting to me how much of this viewpoint is rooted in the concept of critical thinking, or the lack thereof. These types of assertions are rooted in a purely emotional, irrational, and xenophobic hatred of all that is different or misunderstood; it's a very "us vs. them" mentality, which paradoxically reinforces itself with logical fallacy.

The Slippery Slope:

"All Asian women drive like shit" becomes "All Asian women cause accidents on the road" becomes "All Asian women are dangerous" becomes "All Asian women must be feared" etc, etc, etc.

Final Project Presentation
“I’ve Always Wanted To”

1. The Goal

My goal was to create for myself a personal website, where I could establish a centralized online presence. Parts of me, and my interests, are spread out across the internet, with no clear interconnection and through this project I hoped to change that.

2. The Research

There were two specific areas that required research for this project; the design element, as well as the programming element. My intention was to take a good look at web designer portfolio sites to find some inspiration for my own design, and also to look at programmer blog sites relating to the development environment I had chosen (as I was most familiar with it). I have done some work with this framework in the past, doing bug fixes and implementing basic functionality on already established sites, but I had not created a site ‘from scratch’ using these tools and language.

As I researched the aforementioned design sites, I did my best to analyze the structure and layouts, and get an understanding of why the creators built their pieces the way they did. I realized, that there were elements to their designs that I did not understand; I lacked the education and experience that would be necessary to break their works apart into elements that could be translated into something different that I could use. Due to the fact that I was integrating functionality of other websites into my own, I had to research and implement how best to do that. The web framework I have chosen offered a plugin for the Flickr photo gallery site, which I use, and that allowed me to directly access my gallery in an objective way, and provided methods to manipulate the image data they provided. The developers provided only rudimentary documentation and examples, but I was able to take a look at the source code for the plugin, and see how it worked which eliminated the need for more complex documentation.

Some design examples I looked at:

http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/213/213.css&page=0 http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/210/210.css&page=0 http://www.webleeddesign.com/

For the programming aspect, I used the online manuals located here:

http://www.rubycentral.com/book/ http://qa.poignantguide.net/

as well as the framework documentation here: http://api.rubyonrails.org/

3. The Accomplishment

After realizing that I wouldn’t be able to create the site that I had intended with my current skill level, I set out to find a design that was simple and effective, yet still conveyed what I was intending. I created the main template successfully in CSS and HTML, as well as basic functionality for my photo gallery.

4. The Post Mortem

This was a somewhat daunting task for me for a variety of reasons, not just technical. I have yet to do this for myself because I have had an aversion to building a website for myself up until this point – I felt that my skills weren’t up to par with my creative vision, and I was afraid of trying in excitement and with enthusiasm and to fail miserably, as has happened every previous time I tried to build a website for myself. So, giving this to myself seemed to be both a just reward for the time and effort I’ve put in learning this stuff, as well as a valid project for this assignment.

I initially laid out a timeline which I felt would be appropriate based on what research I had already done. Everything seemed well paced and doable given the time space available. Along with this confidence, I felt an exultation at the fact that I would be finally doing this for myself, and I believe this enthusiasm somewhat clouded the reality of the situation – that this would be a lot of work, and a heck of a lot of trail and error, since a number of the technologies I was working with did not in fact have proper documentation and would require me to reverse engineer their source code to figure out how they work. In this field, this practice is not uncommon, but it is still time consuming, and to someone being fully self-taught and without a computer science degree can be a major roadblock.

My biggest concern going into this, and what I felt would be the biggest potential hangup was coming up with a good design, and then being able to turn that into templated HTML and CSS code. I made the mistake of looking at and trying to draw inspiration from ‘top of the line’ websites, which are sometimes very specialized and are often created by people with many years of design experience, not only for the web, but in other fields as well. I do not have this experience, so it was often difficult to relate to their motivation, and to objectively see what they had produced as anything familiar. This initially led to some disappointment, as my attempts to construct something complex usually ended with hours upon hours of tweaking in Photoshop and nothing cohesive or polished enough to turn into HTML. I finally settled on a more simple design, one that I was able to turn into an html template successfully.

The programming side faired better, as I was able to use my past experience to help me along. Without it, I would have been doomed to failure, as this stuff has a 90 degree learning curve.

I found that during the course of my project, my trepidation was mostly caused by my own insecurity as well as overconfidence in my ability. I believe that overconfidence was caused by the enthusiasm I felt; finally, I was going to build myself a website. Ultimately I was distracted by both my job and my other school work, and combined with my overconfidence, lead to a final product that isn’t quite as final as I had hoped for.

5. Things you should know…


 * Clearly define every functional aspect of your website before you begin


 * Try and base your design at least in part with that functionality in mind


 * It is never too early to get started on a project mentally, despite the apparent deadline. Create a timeline, and if you’re too inexperienced to know exactly how long something will take, be flexible enough to alter the timeline as the project progresses.


 * Try not to let enthusiasm overwhelm you; it’s great to feel excitement about a project, but that excitement can set a high expectation which might inadvertently cause you to delay.


 * Don’t expect yourself to be perfect when you’re first starting out – don’t compromise or be afraid to push your current ability, but also don’t set out to create a masterpiece as you will most likely fail. Work your way though what you’re trying to do, and make little steps. Little steps make little failures, which are much easier to digest and learn from than big ones.

Self-Assessment
* "What did I learn in this class, and what do I have left to learn?"

This class was quite interesting for me. I've always been prone to think critically; it's a very large part of how I learn about the world. Reading between the lines, so to speak. Without questions, there can't be answers. The proverbial "Why?". Everything is connected, and an understanding of those connections is critical to understanding the world in which we live.

* "What did I do well in this class, and what could I have done better?"

I would like to think that I did well in this class. Every assignment we had was designed to make us really think about our own perspectives, and to take a step back and look at ourselves objectively. If there's anything I could have done better, it would have been to set a more realistic end goal for the final project. What I chose would have been fine if I hadn't been also going to school full time, as well as a mostly full time job, but I suppose that is something I've learn in and of itself. Doing something like creating a web space for myself, or doing anything for myself in that sense, is something that has always been very difficult for me.

* "How do I feel prepared, or unprepared, to continue my studies at this point?"

I feel quite prepared, actually. I'm at a point in my life where the focus and dedication I've applied toward my education is an intrinsic part of my waking reality. I can honestly say that I've never been more motivated or driven about anything else, in a realistic sense, in my entire life. I've gone through the processes of learning many times, and have a fair amount of life experience to apply towards my scholastic career.

* "How did I contribute to the experiences of other students in this class?"

This one is more difficult to express, since we didn't do much interaction besides the in class lectures. In all truth, I had approached my final project with this in mind; how could I take the life experience I have acquired and use it to present my final in a way that would be of the most benefit to other students who may not have gone through the life experiences I have. Ultimately, that was the purpose of my final in my eyes, and I hope I could have helped someone who would otherwise be struggling.

* You are also encouraged to consider any other questions relevant to your experiences.

I really enjoyed this class, believe it or not. I would have liked it to be more hands on and involved, but it was a broken quarter, what with your unfortunate illness and the holiday during week 8. Despite those setbacks, the tools were all there laid out for every student to take and use as effectively as they needed to, to achieve the understanding that is the fundamental purpose of the course. Honestly, a few students may not have realized the importance of this class at this point in their lives, but I believe that further on in their academic careers or life they will remember this class and hopefully something will just 'click' into place.