What
- What is your object? – Part 1: As you embark upon your post-graduate adventures, what do you wish to keep with you from your AADS and BC experience? Why?
The object that I will be embarking upon my post graduate adventure for this project will be memories collected over the years of my experience at BC. Through these objects that I hope to incorporate into my project they will have symbolic meaning behind them, telling a story of the experiences behind them. I will do this while capturing these memories/experiences through film, using the videos that I have created in the past to show the journey of my 4 years here at BC. Through this project, it will allow me an opportunity to keep something from not only from my BC experience but also something from the AADS department as well, given that it is through this course under this department that I am able to create such a project. I feel as though through this project as well I will be able to help those who will come after me and embark upon their own personal journeys at BC as a student of color at a PWI. As well as some of the lessons that I might incorporate into the video as a piece of advice for those watching can also apply to my experiences that I will endure post-grad and within my own adventures and experiences after as well.
- What is your object? – Part 2: What form will your project take? And why? How does the form of your project resonate with the object you mean to keep with you? Be specific. You should tell me not only about the medium (e.g. film, performance, visual art, paper, etc.) and the genre (e.g. If you choose to do a visual art piece, are you thinking about a sculpture, a photo essay, a quilt, a mixed media installation, etc.); you should also describe, to the extent that they are relevant, any details about how you envision the length, size, scope; location, potential audience, texture, specific materials, specific design elements, and/or any other relevant detail to the content and form of your specific project.
The form that this project will take place around is in the form of a video. I chose this representation for my project because I feel as though it will resonate with the audience more, and the audience are going to be able to see more of a visual image of what each place and thing means within the project and what it has to do with BC as a whole. I feel as though it would be effectively more understandable through the form of a video. If it were to just be a box of items then the deeper meaning behind each item can be misunderstood and lost in translation. A presentation seems too bland, and boring to say the least. An essay is too general, and so I felt as though a video best fit the form of what I wanted my project to be and what I wanted my audience to see. The form of the project definitely resonates with me because I love creating memories and having them for safe keeping in order to see them years down the line, and so through creating this video for the project, I know it will be something that I keep with me forever to remind me of my journey throughout college with those who have been with me every step of the way. In terms of the genre of the video, I wouldn’t necessarily know what it would be categorized as other than I want to show visual images as well as videos that are on different things while there is a narration in the background saying something meaningful, still debating on what that will and will not be. I also don’t know exactly how long I would like the video to be, but I know I don’t want it to exceed 10 minutes. I would also use different locations around campus as well. There might not be any specific design incorporated into the video, but I might have a vintage feel to the video in order to give it a old aesthetic feel.
- Please attach a file and/or provide a link to three existing texts that you might refer to as a model for your project. You might not find one text that perfectly models how you envision your project. The goal is that three models together will help you and me have a sense of your vision. As such, when you submit your three links and/or attachments, make sure that you also include A) complete and accurate bibliographic information for the source and B) a brief 2-4 sentence note about which aspect of this text you’re thinking about as a model for your project and why:
- Model 1:________All about Love _____________ citation:__bell hooks ____________ note:______Using the lessons and teachings of this book to be intentional about the work I am doing within my project and deriving it from love for all. Especially with the Black experience at BC.
- Model 2:____“Girl” and “Blackness” by Jamaica Kincaid_________________ citation:__Jamaica Kincaid ____________ note:_____Using what I learned through these readings to explain how and what my experience as a student of color was like at BC. How did that shift my experience? How would it have been different had I gone to a different school, an HBCU? __
- Model 3:_______“I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” (______________ citation:_________MLK Jr. _____ note:__What does it mean to do things for those who have come before you? What does it mean to inspire, and impact those who look up to you and come after you?
Who
- Describe your ideal audience for this project. Your audience may be you or may include yourself, which is fine. However, you should still work to be specific about your audience. If your audience is yourself, say more. Yourself in what context? Is the audience for you in the first three months post graduation to record your thoughts and/or make a plan? Is this for you to hold when you feel lonely and/or lost and/or nervous about where you’re going? Is this for you to keep yourself honest and accountable?
My ideal audience for this project would honestly be anyone who is still going to be in college while this project comes out, and or students who are going to be going to college for the first time. In some ways the audience does include myself as well because I am reflecting on my last four years of my college experience, as well as using this project to help me navigate life after graduation.
- When your audience experiences your project (its content and form), what do you hope your audience (even if your audience is just you) will experience or be able to contemplate and/or do?
When audience experiences my project, I hope the audience is able to resonate with the video and with the experiences that I have gone through and experienced during my 4 years at BC. I also hope that my audience is able to feel inspired to understand the importance of life as a whole, and also able to take something out of my project. I also think my audience will find it bittersweet if they are amongst the seniors who are graduating this year, and if they are not then they can potentially get a advice and pointers from my video in order to continue forward at BC.
Why
- Content: How does the content of your project relate to black study? Please be sure to address how the content responds to and/or draws from your experience of black study at BC as well how the form speaks to and/or might facilitate your efforts to continue black study beyond BC?
This content of my project relates to Black studies because it has to do with Black students at BC such as myself. The project is personal to me, but it is larger than just me attending this PWI. It is a representation of everyone who has come before me, and those who will come after me. For those students of color who are thinking about attending BC, and I want to be able to provide more insight and perspectives of my journey and own experiences of that. Overall, that is Black studies because of the lens that I am looking into the project. The project and the content responds from the experience of Black studies at BC as well as facilitating efforts to continue Black studies beyond at BC because of what I had mentioned with my project I want to provide information and advice for students who decide to attend BC. Whilst, also speaking on my personal experiences, and the different approaches of how one can navigate through the campus.
- Form: How does the form of your project relate to black study? Please be sure to address how the form responds to and/or draws from your experience of black study at BC as well how the form speaks to and/or might facilitate your efforts to continue black study beyond BC?
The form of my project relates to Black study because it is being captured through the lens of Black students at BC, I want to be able to capture the beauty of Black studies at BC and by doing so I want to capture and record Black students all around BC’s campus. This form and or approach draws from my own personal experience of Black studies at BC because it encapsulates the beauty that the Black community holds at BC as well as honing in on the diversity that is brought up in the school. Despite the microaggressions, the racial undertone, the experience of being somewhere different than what we are usually use to is all something that can all help facilitate my efforts with continuing Black studies beyond BC.
HOW
- What supplies and/or materials will you need in order to create this project?
The supplies/materials that I need in order to create this project is my laptop, a vlogging camera, which I already have, and also a phone just in case something needs to be communicated or captured on a smaller device.
- Do you need any special technology or software to assistance for the project?
I would need a camera for recording, luckily I already have a video camera that I will be using specifically for this project and I will be able to use the footage taken from that camera to show the class what I have been working on after doing the edits. I think I am going to have someone else do the editing just because that isn’t what I am great at, and I want to make sure that I am able to be as concise as possible through the video.
- What skills and/or technical know-how might completing your project require?
The skills and or technical things I would have to know in order to complete this project would have to be knowing what to film and what not to film or incorporate into the video. I want to narrate the background of the video and so I would need to write down what I want to say before hand in order to do that as well. There isn’t anything that I have to learn from scratch in order to complete the project completely.
- Reflecting on your responses to 1-3: Please organize your lists of necessary supplies, technology, and skills into two columns. Column A – Items/Skills which you have and/or can acquire, and Column B – Items/Skills which you neither have nor know how to acquire.
Colum A: Video Camera. Skills that I would need to know: How to use the camera/ extract the footage in order to edit to my liking. Column B: Items that I have collected over the course of 4 years that will be going into a box. Skills: Nothing much.
- Please break the project down into 5-8 detailed and actionable steps or tasks, with specific dates and times (i.e. deadlines) by which you plan to accomplish each of the 5-8 tasks.
- Finish thoughts/outline and receive feedback from professor on the project and what I decide to do for the overall project (Done by: March 31, 2022)
- Draft prototype of what I want the project to look like and what I want the message to be for the audience (Done by: Mar 31, 2022)
- After that feedback and presentation of the prototype then finalize everything that you want to do for the project (April 1, 2022)
- Start gathering the footage needed/conversations that you want to include into the videos and find someone to edit the video. Also, come up with items that you are going to use as demonstration (April 7, 2022)
- Check in one more time with professor about video/ items that I have presented outside of the video (April 14, 2022)
- Finalize video and box with the items that I have included for the project and submit everything (Due Date: whenever it is due)
QUESTIONS
Include at least two questions you would like me to answer about your project in particular about the project assignment in general:
1. Would it be effective for me to display this project through the form of a video, or would it be more understood in a different form?
It would be effective for me to display this project through the form of a video because I feel as though I would be able to incorporate more through me speaking as well as provide a visual representation of what my experience as a Black woman at a PWI is. Especially with my background and everything, I just don’t think all those components can be included without a form of some sort of video where I am able to bring in a lot in a simple video.
2. Should the object that I am focusing on and studying be somewhere on campus? Can it be more than one object?
The object that I am focusing on are things that come from BC in terms of different items that I have been collecting during my 4 year college experience. These items are personal to the experiences and things I have been able to do here at BC, and so although it isn’t a particular place on campus it still represents BC as a whole entity. As well as, the video that will be implemented into this final project will also incorporate different locations around BC, not sure if they will have symbolic meaning behind each place, in terms of it being places that I personally enjoyed going to around BC, but it will represent something bigger in order to connect to the message of the video.