L'elisir d'amore (An Elixir of Love)

For this assignment, I had to watch an opera written before 1920 and write a three page paper.  The paper had to answer the following:

What did you discover watching this opera?

How do you think audiences reacted to it when it was originally presented?

Why do you think this piece is important in the chronology of opera?

How is technology used in it?

If you were a twenty-first century director, how would you turn this piece into a video game?

If I'm being honest, the two hours I spent watching this opera were probably two of the most boring hours of my life.  The entire performance was in Italian, so I had no clue what the characters were saying, and I had to basically guess what was going on.  After I finished watching the opera, I went to Google and used this site to get a summary of the opera and are sure I understood it.  

The video I watched is at the end of this post.  If you're interested, you can watch it.  If you ask my honest opinion, I wouldn't waste my time watching it.  I just felt I should attach it so you knew which specific performance my paper is based off of.

To read my paper, click here, or follow the link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_OOASXTBpLsY1huODFnSk82RU0/view?usp=sharing

COM222 Redesigned Website

In my COM222 class, after creating a new mascot for UT, we were asked to redesign the UT website.

The current website is extremely user friendly if you are a new student who is applying to UT, but not so user friendly if you are a current student trying to find anything.

What I have done is essentially created two separate home pages for the website.  In my version of the website, when a person goes to ut.edu, the first picture shown is what will appear.  Basically, you will click either "NEW STUDENT" if you are applying to the college, or "RETURNING STUDENT/FACULTY" if you are currently enrolled in the university, or are a faculty member.  On the bottom of this page are links to UT's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages, along with the most recent posts on each.  In the background is an image of the minaret, which is an iconic image in association with UT.

With my redesigned webs, by clicking the "NEW STUDENT" option, you will be redirected to the current UT website, as it is currently user friendly if you are applying to the college.

However, by clicking the "RETURNING STUDENT/FACULTY" option, you will be directed to a new home page.  An example is shown by the second picture.  Essentially all of the content is the same, it is just presented in a way that is easier to navigate.  Along the top of the screen are quick links to direct students to Blackboard, student email, and SpartanWeb.  Down the left side of the page is a menu with different categories.  All of these categories are somewhere on the current website, they just aren't as easily accessible.  By clicking on one of the categories in the menu, that specific page pops up, along with all of its content and any links associated with it.  In my example, I have the "Campus Life" tab selected, and as you can see, all of the information that has to do with campus life appears on the page.  Subsections of "Campus Life" are listed below the heading, and if students click on one (for example, "Student Services") they would be brought to that section of the page.

Any forms or other links associated with a certain category or subcategory appear in red and will open a new tab bringing you to the page associated with that link.

There is also a search bar located at the top of the page for quick searches, which can be used instead of the menu.

To check out UT's current website, click here

New Home Page

Returning Student/Faculty Page

Madama Butterfly

In class, we have been discussing Opera, and were assigned to watch a Madama Butterfly animation, and to leave our comments here on our blogs, so here are my thoughts:

This animation is beautiful and tragic.  The Opera music provides a sense of emotion that allows viewers to know how the main character feels throughout the story.  I can't help but feel sorry for the main character.  She gave everything to a man, got pregnant with his child, raised her child, and when he arrived home from war, he takes their child to raise with his new wife.

In the animation, with the rises and falls in the music, you are able to feel what the woman is feeling, and you can sense the pain that she is going through.

I also thought it was genius for the animators to physically show the damage done to this woman.  All while raising her child, the mother and daughter have a connection that is shown through a rope connecting their hearts.  When the father returns home, he takes the child and brings her to his wife, and physically breaks the rope, literally tearing the mother from her child.

After this, the woman runs away into the darkness, and tears herself apart, quite literally.  She tears her skin off, and then proceeds to break her insides.

While all of this is happening, the Opera music is rising and falling with the emotions of the woman.  This animation was a beautiful tragedy.

COM222 New UT Mascot

For my COM222 class, I was assigned to come up with a new mascot for the University of Tampa, and in doing so, answer the following questions:

1. Why did you chose this mascot?

2. Why is this mascot better than our current mascot, the Spartan?

3. What element of UT is represented by this new mascot?

And so, I present to you, the University of Tampa Snowbirds!

The answers to the questions are written on the page, but I will also type them out here in case you can't read them.  Plus, there's a lot going on on the page, so typing it out might make it easier to read.

1. Why did you chose this mascot?

Snowbirds are a driving force in the Tampa economy (pushing development of housing, car dealerships, etc.) when they all come down to Florida to escape the harsh cold of northern winters.

2. Why is this mascot better than our current mascot, the Spartan?

Snowbirds are a better representation of Tampa, Florida because all the snowbirds from up north find there way south for the winter year after year, rather than a Greek symbol that has nothing to do with Tampa whatsoever.

3. What element of UT is represented by this new mascot?

The snowbird is symbolic of the fact that a majority of UT students are from the northeast, and they traveled south to Tampa, Florida, which is essentially what snowbirds do.

I have also decided with the change of our mascot to change our school colors as well.  Purple, blue, and white are just better colors for a snowbird than red, yellow, and black.

I hope you all find the humor in this like I do.

GO SNOWBIRDS!

Art Vs Design

After reading Art Vs Design, I am in agreement with the fact that if an artist creates a piece that is a replica of past artists, they are simply a designer.  Art should be individual and unique.  If I am an artist, I want to convey my message in a way that is unique to me.

However, I also feel that it is okay to take some influence from past artists.  For example, in my final project for my ART204 class last semester, my entire project was inspired by Andy Warhol (although, the project was to mimic another artists).  If that were not the project, though, I feel that there is nothing wrong with me creating a piece that hints at inspiration from Andy Warhol, so long as I am not completely copying his style, as I did in this project.

In my opinion, artists are designers, and designers are artists, and there is a blurry line that separates the two.  If you would like to check out the article for yourself, the link is in the beginning of this post, or you can simply click here.

And, as I have discussed it in this post, I leave you with a picture of my final ART204 project, because it would be a shame to mention it and not show it off.

RAUL CUERO’s Interview About Creativity

For my next assignment, I had to watch Raul Cuero's interview about creativity.

This video was interesting, but honestly there were only a few key points that sparked my interest.

The fact the Dr. Raul Cuero came from nothing, yet still became a successful scientist is interesting to me, but more interesting is how he did it.  When he was discussing his college career, and how he was able to attend college due to a basketball scholarship, I was honestly not surprised that he said he was discriminated against, and thought of as 'less than' when he was off the basketball court and instead in the classroom.

But what I loved about his response to this, was that when others told him he was wrong, he took that comment not as a negative, but as a positive.  He used that comment of people telling him he was doing something wrong, and instead of letting it tear him down, he used it as inspiration to try and do better.  It is inspiring how he used what is normally thought of as a demeaning comment to build himself up.

The second comment he made that I agree with was his statement about children playing and connecting with one another.  In today's society, children area playing more with video games and computer screens than with toys and each other.  The fact that children are losing this interaction is damaging our society, because, as Dr. Cuero stated, ideas are formed in nature, not through a screen.  When children are playing with toys and talking to one another, they are forming ideas and building off of one another.  When children are staring at a screen during 'play time' the ideas are being lost.

The final argument that Dr. Raul Cuero makes that I agree with is the problem he has with the American educational system.  In the American education system today, we are teaching children to get jobs.  We are not teaching children in order for them to gain knowledge.  The problem with this is that now, children are focused on getting through school to get their degree to get a job to make money to send their children to school to get a degree to get a job to make money...It's an endless cycle.  If you instead teach children simply for the purpose of gaining knowledge, they will not turn into a product of the cycle.

The rest of what Dr. Cuero had to say, while important, honestly did not capture my attention all that much.  If you would like to check out the video for yourself, I have attached it below.

ASCII Art

For the first assignment for my ART211 class, we are supposed to create ASCII art.  ASCII art is where you create (or recreate) a picture using ASCII characters (characters on a keyboard).

To do this, I selected an image, uploaded it to http://picascii.com, and generated the picture.  ASCII art can be made in black and white or in color, and as you can see, I decided to use both.

Below is my ASCII art image, along with the original image I used.