http://www.justwhitenoise.com

We’ve been developing our ideas lots since last week:

In class: 11/18/09

Nancy – idea of Son et Lumieres

Concept 1:
Around the Table

Idea of grandmothers

“Round the Table”

Meeting together – where the conversation happens

- Rituals around eating
- Objects – eg pottery or sewing, the table cloth
- Food as the central theme with peripheral things/object

Idea of the lazy Susan – each sitting represents a different family

Web casting possibly

MoCA to liase with top 10 Chinese American communities (and museums)
10 dinners – maybe on Chinese New Year
Web link up for Show and Tell
Web link-up between more than 2 locations

Chinatowns of America – the stories behind them
Differences in cuisine between different Chinese communities in America
Wikipedia Chinatowns entry
- 6 Chinatowns in NYC alone (1 in Manhattan, 2 in BKLYN, 2 in Queens, 1 in NJ)

“New York City‘s metropolitan area now contains at least 6 Chinatowns, comprising the original Manhattan Chinatown, two in Queens (the Flushing Chinatown and the Elmhurst Chinatown), two in Brooklyn (the Sunset Park Chinatown and the Avenue U Chinatown), and one in Edison, New Jersey.” (wikipedia)

Concept 2:
Chinatowns in NYC – photography

- Photography in each of the Chinatowns in NYC
- Online and in the museum
- Get local schools, photography classes to take pics of the neighborhoods
- Workshop on photography (perhaps Susan M)
- Can be a new theme every month
- Eg 8 students per semester
- Have a party – a gallery opening once a semester
- Touch screen – more about the area
- MoCA to add material and curate an explanation of each of the different Chinatowns.

Magnum

Discussion of the Gates and Susan M’s work in Nicaragua

Concept of a tent exhibition
Modular exhibition – ‘shake a tent’
How to set up an exhibition in eg a station
Multiple exhibitions – not just Mined in China.

We have 3 weeks to develop presentations to make to the Museum of Chinese in America and Susan Meiselas of Magnum on the Mined in China project following on from our visit a few weeks ago (write-up here).  I’m working with Juri and Sara.   Here are the notes of our initial discussions this week:

Notes from prelim group discussion Sat 11/14

MoCA

Problem: as museum expands to become a national institution, how do they engage with the local community?

Need to get the community interested
Is the museum intimidating for locals?
What is the relevance to them?
How do they participate and tell their stories?

How about community nights akin to the Tenement Museum’s Tenement Talks
Food as a theme
Local restaurants showcasing
Older people showing traditional recipes
Accessible but not dumbing-down

What about young Chinese Americans at college
Would they be interested in Chinese American clothing designers?
Eg Anna Sui
CW cites Vivienne Westwood show for young members of her friend’s London club to engage younger people

Not so keen to focus on education – they seem to have that covered
Community linking and building is the focus.

Susan Meiselas – Magnum

How do you engage people on a topic they really may not want to hear about
Of interest on this problem: Emma Thompson’s Emma and Eleina’s Exposing the Sex Trade installation, at Washington Square Park at the moment.  Example of how to tell a story people really don’t want to hear.

Concept of scale is one way to do this.  What if a mine was in the middle of Manhattan, how much of the island would it take up?  How many Empire State Buildings or yellow cabs wide is on of these mines?

What is the effect of the mine on us?

What are the stories of the people who work in these mines – need to add the human element, otherwise its just a concept – eg the card of the person given when you visit the Holocaust Museum.  Make the numbers real.

Need to clarify what the task is with this project.

Mtg with Nancy 3pm 11/17

In the last class go to MoCA and we’ll talk about the problem set we’ve been given and the solution we’re proposed.  10 – 15 min max pitch, each group will get 30 min total so each presentation will be 12 min + questions.  Work on both but option to have one more fleshed out than the other.

MoCA – have a home base, want to future how the place can meet out to the large Chinese American communities. how does the museum enable other groups to take pride and connect, more of an outreach.  Eg – show and tell on Chinese New Year, much rider reach. National thing.  Museum full of object, website of objects.  Tales of my Chinese Grandmother book.  Social networking also.

Magnum – How could you put the collection in front of people, used to be in magazines, exploring a different venue, what are other venues to put into investigative reporting to show people – good places, in the nature of broadcast, people are watching narrower channels, Life Mag etc dying out, so how do you put it into the public square and public conversation – put it in the public sphere but letting people have the opt out, ie you didn’t have to have a Life subscription.

Map your presentation to the main theme, scale may be one part of it, or environmental, or the stories of the people working there.  Remember they were Chinese photographers – the main part is the photos, we’re trying to make it a 3D experience.  How do you turn the photos into an exhibit.  Think of it outside a museum at the moment.

This week, the class went to the Tenement Museum.  I’d already visited earlier this semester for Nancy’s Cabinets of Wonder class, here is my write-up.  I joined the class after for a post trip discussion:

Post Tenement Museum Discussion

It was interesting to hear how different people responded to the tour, some found it quite a personal experience as they fel they understood a little more about their grandparents who lived in tenements when they first emigrated to NYC.  Others were slightly disappointed, in the sense that they didn’t feel they’d had their questions answered sufficiently.   In terms of storytelling done by a museum, I still find the Tenement Museum in a class of it’s own.

Final Project Further Development

Preliminary Thoughts on Memory and Storytelling Paper

1) Introduction

Following trauma, we are encouraged to give the narrative of the traumatic events, combined with attempting to express how we feel as a result of these events, whether this is done on a psychiatrist’s couch, within a group or as part of a wider community.  We also tell stories to remember, to commemorate but initially, the purpose is simple: to get the trauma out of our bodies: out of our heads and our hearts, that in the process of telling, and sharing, there is understanding – not just in telling other people, but also, to attempt to make sense of something ourselves.  One way of thinking of it, is to quantify the pain inside us, these powerful feelings may, through verbalizing, may become in way anchored, the telling is a method to understand what actually happened.

As years pass, we are further removed from the trauma by time, and so the story that we articulate, when first told, often with extreme pain, and fear, becomes the memory that we carry, forever.  We never forget.  It doesn’t matter how much therapy, how many pills, how much meditation.  Unless we have a chunk of our brains lopped off, our memories are always with us.  And come back in sometimes the most unexpected times, or places, triggered by the seemingly craziest things.  They are ours.

In the sense of dealing with trauma, this is the limit of the healing power of telling a story, because the memory will always be there.  Not to be flippant in discussing such weighty matters, but an ex-boyfriend said to me once as we were breaking up, “I can forgive, but I cannot forget.”

That one sentence summarizes the limits of memory.  Our memory of events is what it is – it is what actually happened, and it did happen. Sadly, we cannot turn back time, words cannot be unspoken, acts cannot be undone.  You can’t re-write history.  No matter how much regret or remorse are shown by perpetrators.

In understanding the limits of memory, the question becomes, how do you manage these memories.  How do they stop being our principle driver in our lives, how does the pain of the memory when recollected not drive our actions in a destructive sense? [cf. how does the comparison of idolizing a dead person ie choosing to remember the best bits – is it suppression? Or is there the concept of selective remembering?]

2)  Description of what happens after the memory is formed: moving on

Individuals
Our instinctive responses form the first part of healing from the trauma.  Some of the examples in this paper are genuinely awe inspiring, such as when I first was told of them, and then went home to follow up more, I was moved. [Cite example of Ubuntu in South Africa.  Contrast with other world-views on healing/revenge/justice eg eye for an eye, love unto others as they do to you. Compare/contrast].

Governmental/Legal Redress/Compensation/Justice
There are further attempts, to heal after injustice. Often legal methods for redress, justice.  [Give examples of TRC and restorative justice in SA, contrast with more traditional? concepts eg Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia – is it criminal or are civil penalties enough – look for other examples, consider Nuremberg].

Communities
Communities [consider inserting above justice section] such as Northern Ireland post troubles – Hillary Clinton etc meeting with women in tea shops.  Does it really work or is it just a few minorities eg case of Jewish/Palestinian Israeli olive oil makers – and is it really impossible when a whole generation is prejudiced, mindset, the memories are stronger than the new reality?

Glue Figures/Respected Voices
Key figures to respect – cherished on both sides?  Or if not cherished, respected enough, Mandela, Peres? How far can they go?

3)  Problems to look at in this paper: What Next?  It’s not enough right now.  Looking at 2 aspects: creating dialog and secondly, improving quality of life.

All of the above is very good, but how long can it hold the strength of the memory, how do you neuter the power of the crippling pain of the memory after the initial hope following a regime change dies away?  Not just in a bigger scenario to quell the desire for revenge that could lead to destruction of a nation, eg civil war, or uprising of a previously suppressed minority (SA, Iraqis) but on an individual level, how to you make peace between individuals?

How do you begin communication between people from different sides following a repression or battle?  Is it by further the further telling of the stories to promote understanding and empathy – to humanize each other, how do we do that?  How do the memorials built do that effectively (eg Freedom Park).

This paper suggests though, its all potentially fruitless if people’s lives don’t improve, because although the terror aspect of the memory may no longer be reality, if life is still full of injustice, its hard to place the memory into the past, because to some extent, it is not a memory, but a reality.

What else do we need to do?  Are remembrance and commemoration enough?  This paper argues it is not, because if nothing else has really changed in people’s quality of life, or their view of others, then the memory is still the overriding stage setting – the scene that people live in within their heads and their hearts. How do we improve dialog, communication?  Are the keys increased opportunities, and economic improvement?  Does a healthy economy and wealth trickling down to the wronged, and also to the perpetrators (insecurity in a new regime will breed a sense of longing for the past), will this help people to move on?

Memories are always there, but the bad memories can be put into the background if the reality of life is reinforcing positive progress.  Even with improved quality of life, the limit is still there, “I can forgive, but I cannot forget.”  Memory itself is the limit.  With that absolute constraint, how do we progress, as individuals and a collective following a period of intense trauma?

I keep returning to communication.  Dialog breathes life into the seeds of understanding, or, if understanding is impossible in some cases due to such polar viewpoints and irreconcilable differences, by communication, the boundaries are defined, which is helpful to at least begin to attempt progress.

Last week’s feed back in class was really helpful.  For example, the large block color squares were deemed a little overwhelming.  Katherine suggested using one color for the square, for example, grey, and then adding an accent color.  Also, the class thought 6 boxes too much – it made me look too dispersed, and not focused enough.  I agree, so have cut the categories down to three, with an additional one for contact details and resume:

The sections are now:

• legal (incorporating legal work in London, policy work at Harvard)
• museums (work in PR dept at Tenement Museum, classes on museums)
• writing (creative and technical – possibly fitting in Noisy Idiots and thesis work?)
• contact/cv (I prefer cv rather than resume here, the two c’s look more pleasing).

I think in reality, work on online social networks could be abbreviated to research – and replacing the contact square, which -  can be a link at the bottom of the page.

So far though looking more like this:

I’ve found this happens to me sometimes at ITP: I have an idea, talk it out, get feedback, wrestle with it, and it sometimes just.won’t.sit.right.  This is happening with my idea for my final project.  And then sometimes, something falls out of no-where and yells ‘pick me! pick me!’  So, out with the mapping of emotions project, it was beginning to make me cringe, and in with a giant show and tell concept – originally presented in Nancy’s Cabinets of Wonder class here.  My idea was to have a show and tell for the class, with the our objects and their corresponding stories uploaded to a website.  Still though, something wasn’t sitting right, it seemed a little contrived.  I still had creative indigestion.

Meanwhile, I discussed with Marianne a paper I’m working on for submission to a conference in March at the New School, on the limits of memory.  I recently brainstormed with Tom Hennes of Thinc Design, the agency behind the 9/11 Memorial Museum and the Freedom Park in South Africa.  We discussed in particular, how in telling the story of the trauma someone has suffered, it breathes life into a memory.  The question is, how are these memories managed?  How do these memories take their place in a society that is being rebuilt?  So – in a fit of creative indigestion banishing, we finally decided that the paper I am writing for the conference in March will be my final project for Collective Storytelling.  Much better.  Here’s the abstract:

By looking at the case study of The Freedom Park in Tschwane, South Africa, this paper considers the limits of memory as a tool for reconciliation and forgiveness.  Few places in the world have had such a violent past. The hope for the future depends entirely on their ability to move beyond their past divisions and become one nation. This cannot happen if the past is either ignored or used as a justification for revenge.

The Park aims to ‘transform community pain stemming from past conflicts into a shared strength with an explicit objective for a way forward.’   There is risk in this. When an individual first recounts a memory, his narrative breathes life into a statistic or event. Issues emerge: how does the telling affect the teller, how do the victims’ (and their descendants) stories affect the oppressors (and their descendants), how is it recorded in the nation’s collective memory; how can the nation recover?

Since 1994 there has been considerable success, aided by: 1) Ubuntu, an African worldview, stressing interconnectedness, has restrained the impulse for revenge.  2) The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s practice of restorative justice and 3) highly respected leaders such as Nelson Mandela.

Still, lack of employment and disparity in opportunity threatens the fragile memory-management that has largely succeeded thus far.

This paper investigates these issues.  While such disparity remains, traumatic memories will always remain in the present, unable to take their place in the past despite efforts thus far to constructively engage the nation’s collective memory.

]]> http://catherineatitp.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/collective-storytelling-week-10/feed/ 0 catherineatitp http://catherineatitp.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/collective-storytelling-week-9/ http://catherineatitp.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/collective-storytelling-week-9/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:25:27 +0000 Catherine http://catherineatitp.wordpress.com/?p=518 ]]> Final Project Continued…

I presented my final project idea to class this week, and was given some great feedback.  In particular, fleshing out how exactly to get people to participate.  The method of participation changes how people may respond. Thomas and Marianne pointed out that people will respond differently if you actually ask them to go to the place where something significant happened rather than just asking them to write about the story.  Also, the questions you ask people are important.  Is it a smart idea to be quite broad or instead ask direction questions, for example ‘where were you first kissed?’

Other ideas included asking people to take pictures of a place they feel great fondness for, and upload to a website via their phone.  I was slightly concerned the story element would be lost though if that was the case.  It was also suggested people could send in audio recordings of their memories, but that smacked a little too much of the Tree Museum to me.

In the end, I’ve decided to ask people three questions via surveymonkey, anonymously (I’ve found from previous collaborative projects that people are more likely to open up and share if it is done anonymously).  Questions such as ‘when was the moment you realized your parents couldn’t do everything – where were you’ (me, 6 years old,  at home in the country, asking him to fix my doll, and he said he couldn’t do that, I was crushed.)  Or – another question, ‘first kiss – where?’ (At nightclub, with boy from school…  He was wearing a shrimp colored shirt.)

These snippets of people’s lives, will then be mapped onto a world map, using mapping software.  Getting there…

• Discussion: Part 2 and Final Projects
• Guest Lecturer, Larry Smith: SMITH Magazine
• Assignment:
  • Read: Read Henry Jenkins Convergence Culture, Chapter 3, “Searching for the Origami Unicorn: The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling”
  • Review Stephen Fry’s “The Dongle of Donald Trefusis” at http://www.stephenfry.com/dongle/
  • Write: Reaction to both, post to blog. Be prepared to discuss in class.
  • Write: Final Project Proposal – be prepared to present in class

“Searching for the Origami Unicorn: The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling”

In this chapter, James discusses transmedia storytelling, and the importance to the movie industry of embracing it, to gain access to the widest audience.

Some points he made were particularly pertinent with respect to collective storytelling:
-”Media convergence makes the flow of content across multiple media platforms inevitable” (pg. 106)

- He discusses the future of the concept of licensing, moving from its current model to “co-creation” (pg 107), most pertinently: ” If media companies reward that demand, viewers will feel greater mastery and investment; deny it, and they will stomp off in disgust.”  Looking at the audience as co-creators will potential have big effects on the fanfic world.

- “Stories are basic to all human cultures, the primary means by which we structure, share, and make sense of our common experiences.  Rather than seeing the emergence of new story structures, which create complexity by expanding the range of narrative possibilty rather than pursuing a single path with a begining, middle and end.” (Pg 121).  Again, the world surrounding film tie-ins will in all likelihood be revolutionized over the next few years.

- 3 types of consumers: “the actively engaged real-time viewers … the more reflective long-term audience … [and] the navigational viewer who takes pleasure in following thhe connections between the different parts of the story.” (pg 121 quoting Janet Murray).  This is useful advice, in telling a story, must be aware of the different types of audience member.

Stephen Fry’s The Dongle of Donald Trefusis

I grew up with Stephen Fry, he is one of my favorite comedians.  Particularly his performances in the BBC sitcom Blackadder, the show has a cult following in England.  Its a great example of a long, long story – each series has the same actors, playing different historical characters in different periods of time.

He is a great storyteller, I’ve read his autobiograhy.  And he is the epitome of someone embracing transmedia storytelling, he has over 1 million followers on Twitter – he tells his story of his day to day life in detail in 140 character bites.

I will be downloading the Donald Trefusis podcasts to listen to, in the meantime, the trailer was riveting.  Its interesting to see an established actor become very tech savvy and engaging with a completely new audience.  Reminds me a bit of Kanye’s blog – oh, did you know, Kanye loves ITP?!  Another example of a celebrity investing in connecting with a new audience via a new medium.

Final Project Proposal

Last year I wrote an essay for Red Burns’ Applications Class.  Paper posted here.  I rode the M5 bus from La Guardia and Houston up to the George Washington Bridge, and just wrote.  What showed up on the paper was the fact our perception of a city or other place is colored by the emotions we have felt there.  Even the crappiest looking street, or the most mundane bodega can evoke the fondest of memories, especially if these are places we have felt loved, or given love.  I’ve had the idea to make a map of these places, and the stories behind them.  I really need some feedback on how to do this – how to gather information, an online questionnaire perhaps using surveymonkey.com.  Maybe an interactive online map, or simply a huge wall hanging.  A world map, or just Manhattan?!  Lots of questions.

This course has been one of the most eye-opening I have taken at ITP.  Its also been challenging.  Mostly challenging on two levels: firstly, and easiest to describe – production classes are ones I find tough.  That’s ok, its been a great experience trying to work on new skills such as audio work, and animation.  Still, there’s a sense of frustration with that also.  Secondly, stories are sometimes hard to listen to, and also, in telling people’s stories, in being a narrator or a facilitator, this carries responsibility.  I hadn’t focused on this aspect of the course when we began, but each week – as we listened to more and more stories, and began to tell ours, or other people’s, it dawned on me how important this work is.  Not only that, but how powerful the effect of telling a story can be, both to the teller, and the listener.
This midterm aims to address those two challenges I’ve faced on this course so far.  Firstly, its a paper, I’m alright at those, so no tearing hair out.  Secondly, I’ve tried to capture the nuts and bolts of what I’ve learned and figured out over the last half-semester with respect to storytelling.  It’s had a big effect on me.

Some Elements of Storytelling - Midterm Paper

Stories are powerful and our reasons for telling stories are infinite.  This paper considers these two elements of storytelling: why we tell them, and their impact.  Until taking this course, I had never properly considered the role of storytelling in our lives, and the role of storytelling in society as a whole.  As I’ve researched, my conclusion is that utterly everything in life, begins and ends with a story.

A Review

This course so far has been incredibly instructive in showing the different methods of telling a story: written (from 6 words to a book), oral (interviews), visual and oral (a movie).

We were shown the different environments where stories are shared, from a book, to a museum in the traditional sense, captured on a film and shown in a theater or on the web, to a tree in a park combined with a cell phone.  The possibilities are endless to communicate with others.

We have also learned basic elements of how to tell a story, for example, the importance of structure, how to interview someone and edit their responses, sound considerations (minimizing background noise, stopping your subject messing with the microphone – all those technical things),  to working with the utmost sensitivity with interviewees who are telling difficult stories (in particular Alison Cornyn’s work at the Brooklyn Historical Society with Vietnam Veterans – and the Tenement Museum’s work on telling the story of immigrant families in the US – my blog post my visit is here).

Power

In thinking about a midterm assignment, I started to consider the type of stories I consumed with gusto on a regular basis.  It became apparent quite quickly that I’m a current affairs junkie.  In fact I am sitting here with the Economist by my side, reading the obituary of Ludovic Kennedy, one of Scotland’s finest storytellers, whose stories about various people convicted of murder shed light on some miscarriages of justice, and is said to have been one of the key figures working towards the abolition of capital punishment for murder in the UK in 1969.  More on Kennedy’s life here in his obituary in the NY Times.  His life makes for a fascinating story.  But in making a cause known, like Kennedy did, via your talents as someone who can engage others on a topic that they may not be initially interested in, is the very essence of two huge cornerstones of society: legal decision making and policy formation.  The Judiciary, Legislature and the Executive are the division of political power, espoused by Montesquieu, but each area is fundamentally based on effective persuasion via story telling, be it a litigator to the jury in a court, a parliamentarian arguing for a law to be passed in a political chamber, or the President persuading his electorate on the healthcare debate.  Storytelling is an art form – and a powerful art at that.

It could be argued that the power of persuasion described above is not storytelling, it is a form of effective argument.  I disagree, mostly because you can’t persuade someone to do something you want them to unless you either get them to agree with you (very rarely happens), get them to empathize and understand to a degree that persuades them away from their point of view – even if they don’t agree with you or finally, to convince them that your view is the best to agree with to avoid a greater problem.  Its the second of these areas – the empathy and understanding element where the storytelling moves from being a purely ‘I want you to do what I want – no matter whether you are affected by my words’ to attempting to have an impact or indeed change someone’s thinking.  That’s huge.

Telling someone’s story can be immensely powerful -as shown by Ludovic Kennedy’s work.  Every week I listen to the BBC Radio 4 program ‘From Our Own Correspondent.’  The 30 minute weekly radio broadcast captivates me in 10 minute chunks of time, on topics I just would never really run into in my daily life.  This week, I heard about the hideous ordeal of childbirth for mothers in parts of Pakistan, the reality of life in rural Afghanistan, and life in the town Vincent Van Gogh spent time painting in.  So diverse, and for the 10 minutes I listen, am completely absorbed in the story that is being told.

Another example of this is Matt Frei’s Americana program, also on BBC Radio 4.  Its sort of an update on the legendary Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America (he is also known in the US as the host of PBS’ Masterpiece Theater).  Cooke’s weekly radio show was how I learned about American life, from a very early age, I used to listen on a Saturday morning as the radio played throughout our home.  He reported as an Englishman in America for an astounding 58 years, it is to date the world’s longest running radio show.

These examples of journalists taking listeners for a short while to a different world – even though part of the same world, are important not just for entertainment value – but in bringing a little perspective and understanding to us.  In telling a story that takes us out of our daily lives, we grow inside a bit, our horizons are broadened – even if at the time the effect is latent, I’m sure it must affect us somehow.

Why We Tell Stories

So many reasons, some of them are:

-    to entertain
-    to remember
-    to commemorate
-    to share something of ourselves
-    to communicate
-    to persuade people about something
-    to pass on knowledge

The sheer variety in the above list is fascinating.  Adding into the mix the even greater permutations for our motivations when the collective element of storytelling is added in.  One of these is community building.  We heard from Mathew Belanger, an new media artist who was one of the architects behind Lumens, described here:

‘A project of Networked Realities: (Re)Connecting the Adamses, Lumens was an installation of lamps networked across three spaces. Scores of personal lamps that usually inhabit and illuminate the interiors of homes and shops were borrowed from the residents of Adams and North Adams, Massachusetts, filling two gallery spaces: Greylock Arts in Adams and MCLA Gallery 51 Annex in North Adams. In addition, their images and stories are represented on Turbulence, which also served to connect the two locations telematically.

Lumens reconnects North Adams and Adams, originally a single community, through an exploration of location, influence, history, and the present.’

The project brought two communities together, in a highly effective and beautiful way.  People connected via objects.  This concept is a fascinating one, that objects (in this case lamps) can hold a story, which in turn connects people.  My midterm for Cabinets of Wonder focused on the stories behind objects also – a show and tell for adults.  It worked really well, as sat there, showing object of importance to us – we discussed, learned about each other, laughed, and by the end of the 20 minute session I felt closer to the people I work with, perhaps understanding a little more of what makes them tick, how they respond to others.  The greater importance of this is that this new understanding informs our interactions and relationships with each other, and hopefully strengthens these connections, and in turn, increases the ties within the community of which we are a part.

Conclusion
Stories can transport people away from their day to day experiences, place them in new territory or conversely, take them to a place that is completely familiar.  Stories can be emotive and persuasive, and as such storytelling is the key method we use as members of society to gain consensus on issues.  This paper has laid the groundwork for the direction of my work over the rest of the semester, the background and effect of storytelling fascinates me.

This week we continued to focus on color, were introduced to the hallowed Pantone Matching System Guide.  We also discovered how different a color looks on-screen compared to when it’s printed.

Thoughts begin to turn (as in all classes right now) to our end of semester projects.  For this class, we’re tasked with creating a portfolio website to show case our work.  I’d like to keep mine very simple as a splash page split into several image maps linking to the areas of my blog for each of my areas of interest.  As far as colors go – at this stage I’ve two ideas: 1) very simple grayscale or 2) very bold colors.

For example, each square represents a link to an area of my work:

- Legal/Policy Work

- Online groups/collaboration/Noisy Idiots

- Museums

- Creative Writing

Maybe a square for “about me and contact” and “personal statement”

Here is the bold color version: