Extra Credit

            Ever wondered what it would be like if someone you grew to love, spend endless amounts of time, and learned many life lessons from would just completely forget whom you were? Conner’s grandpa had been experiencing signs of dementia around his eighth grade to freshman year of high school. He never really thought much of it, he just thought that his grandpa would forget common things like where he left his keys or questions he had recently asked. This turned out to not be the case. Around Conner’s sophomore year of high school his grandpa had full-blown Alzheimer’s. Still not really understanding the situation, Conner went to visit his grandpa at the nursing home he lived in. When Conner got to the nursing home with his aunt, they went upstairs to greet him. When they got to his room and went inside his grandpa had completely forgotten who the both of them were. Conner’s grandpa looked at his grandson as if he was a complete stranger whom he had never met. His grandpa had reached such a bad point that he barely even recognized his own kids. Shortly after living in the nursing he had to be moved into Conner’s aunts house because he would forget to eat. Conner never realized that any of this could happen. It was a very sad process to see his grandfather at family parties and not being able to talk to anyone because he didn’t know who they were anymore. Everyday was a struggle for Conner and his whole entire family. But from this comes a great lesson to be learned by Conner. He realized that no matter how bad things can get, you must always be appreciative of your family, friends, and things you have. One day everything may change and we must be ready for this. Conner learned that he must never take things for granted and must realize that the grass is always greener on the other side. 

Extra Credit

Charlie was a young 15 year old sophomore in high school that didn't have many troubles going on in his life. He had a great family, great friends, enjoyed high school, and was a very happy kid every day. One of Charlie's role models was his grandpa, who only lived two hours away in Davenport, Iowa. They would see each other often and loved talking about there favorite sports teams which were Notre Dame football and the Chicago Cubs. In early September during his sophomore year, Charlie got the bad news that his Grandpa had pancreatic cancer and was only expected to live a couple months and would be happy to make it to Christmas. Charlie was devastated by the news as he feared the day he would lose on of his role models. He would try and go visit him as much as he could, but it never felt like it was enough. He always felt he could have seen him more during this time period. Charlie's Grandpa lived much longer than the doctor's expected as he made it through Christmas and through Charlie's 16th birthday in April, and into the summer. In early July, Charlie and his mom and sister were driving out to Colorado and they made a stop to see his Grandpa. They only visited for a couple hours as it was time to hit the road. His Grandpa seemed to be in really good shape as he was able to walk around and communicate with everyone. 12 hours after Charlie and his family arrived in Durango, Colorado, Charlie's mom got a call from his dad saying his Grandpa had died. This devastated Charlie as he lost one of his best friends and truly wished he would have said more to his Grandpa a day before. Charlie told him he loved him, but he didn't know this would be the last time they would talk, so he didn't say everything he wish he did. He wish he would have told him all the fun memories he remembers about the kids, told him how much he meant to him and everyone else in the family, and that he is the nicest and most caring person he has ever met. Ironically, Charlie's Grandpa recorded tapes to send to all of his children and grandchildren a few months before telling them the influence he has had on their lives. Although Charlie lost his Grandpa and friend, he knows that it made him a stronger person. He realized to never hold back words from the people you love because it might be the last time you see them. He realized just how important family is and to always stay close to them. Charlie's Grandpa had a great influence throughout the 16 years they were together, and he will always have a positive influence forever to Charlie and many other people.

The Conversion of the Negative

Jenna was a sophomore in high school when she heard the heartbreaking news. Her grandma was diagnosed with lung cancer. Hearing this news was hard; Jenna did not know how to react. At school she acted as though nothing had happened, but at home Jenna was very emotional. All she could think about were memories of her and her grandma. It made Jenna sad knowing that one day soon her grandma would be gone. A few weeks later, Jenna’s parents picked her up from dance practice. It was unusual for both parents to pick her up, so Jenna knew something must have been wrong. Her parents told her the news, her grandma had passed away. Jenna sat in the back seat of the car and cried, but she did not want to make it obvious. When they got home Jenna walked into the house and went straight to her room, not talking to anybody. She looked at the pictures she had of her and her grandma. She remembered how her grandma signed her up for her very first dance class. Her grandma was her biggest fan. After mourning for days Jenna decided that she wanted to do something to make her happy and honor her grandma. Jenna decided to try out for the schools dance team. This was a risky move for Jenna because they did a different style of dance then she grew up with. She decided to try out anyway. After days of try outs and competition between almost one hundred girls, the time had come. Jenna had made it to the last round of try outs, and the list was about to be posted. She looked up on the paper list of numbers, searching for hers. Then she saw it, number 27- Varsity Dance. Jenna was ecstatic about this, never did she think she would make varsity dance her first year trying out. She jumped up and down and called her parents to let them know. This was one of the happiest moments of her life, and she did it all for her grandma.

Extra Credit story

We all have to deal with adversity sometimes, but what about a year of it. This is what Steve was about to experience. Dragged from his comfortable home town, to an inner city two states over Steve knew this was going to be a hard year.  Steve didn't know what to expect his first day of school, but he never expected metal detectors at the front door. After that terrible first impression Steve knew this year would be a hard one. His first day started with a metal detector and ended with the same. The first few weeks really opened his eyes. From constant fights to a drill sergeant as an assistant principle Steve began to see the world in a different light. Steve began to see the world from a perspective of the people he was around. People who don't have anything to look forward to when they go home. Steve started to realize what this year was meant to do to him it was meant to broaden his horizons. After this realization the whole rest of the year changed. Steve began to look at this year as an opportunity rather than a punishment. Soccer was really what got Steve excited about this school. They had middle school competitive sports meaning Steve would be playing against the best in the state. Steve ended up making the team. After making the team Steve realized this team was something special. A bunch of kids brought in from different back grounds to try and reach a goal of a state title. To the states surprise the middle school jumped out to an undefeated regular season. Only to follow that with a state championship after the playoffs. That was by far the highlight of Steve's year. He took the rest of the year with the grain of salt he said he would. After the year Steve moved back to his suburb. With a new view on the world.
This was a very dumb downed story detailing my move to the inner city of Denver. All the details I chose to include are true. 

Blog post 5

This assignment helped me discover so much about creativity and the creative process. Throughout class and the different readings by Csikszentmihalyi I have learned a lot about what makes up the creative process and what it includes. By doing this project I was able to put what I learned to use and see it first hand. I think that the most challenging part of this assignment was researching about different artists in the certain field we chose.

I chose photography, and as I was researching I realized that there are so many different kinds of photography and so many different styles. It was difficult finding a photographer whose style really interested me. However, when I did finally discover Brandon Stanton, I found it very intriguing and knew he was the photographer who I wanted to research about and imitate. After finding him, the assignment became much easier to do. When it came time for me to do an imitation of Brandon’s work, I finally discovered what “flow” actually meant. For my imitation I went to Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, and had conversations with random people walking around. I asked them questions and wrote down what I found most interesting, then I would take their picture. At first it was challenging and a bit awkward, but when I finally got into the swing of things I couldn’t stop. It was so interesting hearing so many different stories about people’s lives. Before I knew it the sun was setting and I wasn’t able to take pictures anymore because it was getting to dark. I lost myself walking around and talking to so many different people. The same thing happened when I did my own creative work. I walked around and asked people what made them happy, and had them write it down on a board. This was so fun that I didn’t want to stop. I could feel the creativity flowing and I could have done it all night.

I don’t think that there is anything that I would change if I could do it again. I think that everything helped make it what it was. I would say that the field I chose, photography, is important to me because it is something that I use in everyday life. Even though I am not walking around with a fancy $1000 camera everyday, I am constantly taking photos on my phone and sending them to my friends or posting them on instagram. It is a field that people don’t realize is used every single day.

I really admired Trevor’s beat that he made. I thought that it sounded so great for someone who is a novice and doesn’t have much experience in that field. To me, creativity is finding something that stimulates the way you think and allows yourself to become fully intrigued and invested in it. Whether its easy to you or more difficult, if it gets your brain working in a completely different way and allows you to fully lose yourself in the work I think that that’s being creative.

Reflection

During this project I had the opportunity to learn a lot more about Disney animation . Growing up I always thought that I was going to study to be a Disney animator, I go to Disneyworld every year with my family and aspired to be like the people who worked there. As I got older my dreams changed and cartooning became more of a hobby and less of an aspiration. Through this project I was able to learn how hard it is to create characters and bring them to life. After completing this project I was able to see what it takes to be an annitmator and honestly I don't think I would be able to do it.
While I was working on the project I experienced flow when I drew the final project. I noticed that time was irrelevant and by the time I had finished more time had elapsed than I thought. It was really nice getting so involved and focused into my project. It seemed more enjoyablet when I was concentrating fully on my project. Also it was really easy to tell when I made a mistake. If I made the characters too tall or too short I could see that right away and correct it before going on. That's the really nice thing about drawing is that if you are imitating something it is easy to tell if you're going in the right direction or not. I really enjoyed getting to work on my own character becuase there were no strict guidelines. I had the opportunity to just make something the way I wanted to make it. On the other hand it was challenging to think of a way to portray myself in a drawing. Especially with putting myself as a dog, it's hard to put yourself into a different animal or setting.
It also helped me develop a better creative system, when I was working on this project I made a schedule and reevaluated how I creat things. I would sit down at my desk and put on some music and draw the initial sketch of what I was going to draw. Then I would shade it in and complete the coloration of the background. Then I would color the foreground, next I would either complete it and leave it as that or I would outline the images with a fine black pen. I found this system to be the more effective. Overall I really enjoyed this project as a whole it let me explore options of creativity that I have always wanted to know more about.  It also was just a lot of fun to work on. I have always loved creative projects and this was a good way to experience that.

Reflection

Through this unit project on creativity. One major thing I learned about creativity is that it is a process. Because this project was divided into 5 parts, we as students did not have to experience a complete creativity process. What I mean from this is that with each part of the project we gained more knowledge on our subject and carried it over to the next part. This made it easier (more me at least) to get my "creative juices" flowing. My problem when being creative is the coming up with the idea. Researching a subject, then a particular person from the subject, then looking into their work, mimicking a particular area of their piece, and then developing your own idea was not as difficult as it could've been because we had the building blocks to reach each level.

Photographer was chosen as my creative process because it has always been a part of my life. I have alway been eagerly interested in anything photographer. So when the opportunity came, I jumped at choosing my creative domain as photographer. Although many people from our class choose photographer as their creative domain, I feel that my take on photographer was different from theirs. My photographer took a different path for photographers. He captures stories and event through pictures. He also takes very intimate pictures of his subjects. I was eager to mimic and recreate my own because the pictures tell so much.

The readings throughout the until also helped my creativity. Each reading brought a new way of looking at creative. The reading that I believe particularly impacted me during this until was the different stages of creativity. Usually I am at a stand still when creating my own idea, but Csikszentmihayi's idea of coming back to the project, paper, or idea so that you can clear your mind influenced my creative thinking. Although Csikszentmihayi had many great ideas with creativity, this idea helped me with my project so that I could reach my maximum in creative thinking.

If I could do something different in this project, it would be with my post. Although I liked my last post, I wish I would of actually do a photojournalism story. The problem with photojournalism is that it take so much time to create and edit that I did want to turn in something that is not as great as it could have been. My end result in the 4th blog post is creative and different, and also still similar to the photographer.Creativity to me is when you create something that is different from what you have seen. It does not have to be something brand new and out of the box, but you add a slight twist to something, I believe that is creativity because you essentially thought of something nobody has before.

Learning the imporance of not burning a cake

Creativity is everywhere. Many of us experience at least a part of the creative process every day, whether it is while we are getting dressed for the day, or doing our homework, creativity is what keeps our lives interesting. But, by actually taking the time to look into what creativity really is and the process we go through to achieve it, I have developed a new appreciation for something that I used to take for granted.

When I first started researching my creative field, I just knew the basics and didn’t really realize the amount of work required to be an expert in the field. We all have seen those beautiful cakes on display in grocery stores or maybe have seen a clip of a show on TV involving the making of an elaborate dessert, Baking is something that not many people appreciate. Sure, they love to eat the delicious foods that come as a result of the work of the experts but we don’t think about the skill required to make such beautiful and tasty treats. I have learned about the creativity that is required to be in this field.

Trying to recreate something from my field was the hardest part of this project. I studied a baker, Buddy Valastro, who has been doing this his whole life and now has an entire business that revolves around his unique skills to make something that tastes delicious and looks like artwork. When you think about it, that’s an amazing feat to combine those two important things. So if I were to do this project again I would probably either, 1) Choose a different artist simply because Buddy’s skills are pretty hard to replicate without the proper tools and knowledge that he has 2) Focus on a different kind of cake that he makes and try to recreate that. The work that Buddy creates takes lots of time and energy, and so it is not easy to try to replicate that in a couple of hours which is what I tried to do.

The most fun part about my field is all the possibilities it holds (and the fact that I get to eat what I create). Each cake is completely different from the next whether it is the batter used or the icing put on top, there is a lot of room for change and creativity is very present in making each decision. Nut mainly the best part about this field is eating.

With my original creation part of the project I experienced a lot of flow. While I was deciding what to make, I went through the creative process that we learned about and then while actually making my project I got completely caught up in it. Baking has always been something that relaxes me and so being able to experiment with it.

This project taught me a lot about the process of creativity. I have been taught to look at things in new ways and think of original solutions to everyday problems. This has been my favorite unit of the class so far because of the skills that I have gained from it. I would love to do a project like this again. After all of the failed baking attempts I have had in the past, it was nice to finally know what went wrong and how to fix it (using creativity of course).

Reflection

For my whole life I have played golf and never really questioned other creative ways it could be played. I just went with the flow of what I was taught and what I observed by the professionals. Not many people have challenged the techniques and variety of ways golf can be played. Shortly after starting this project I was questioning whether the creative domain I choose was a good option or not. I never really thought about the creativity that goes into the sport of golf until this project. The techniques and other aspects that are involved create a one of a kind sport unlike any others.

This was by far the most fun I have had doing an English project this year. It was very fun going out and completing all of the tasks at hand while tying it all together into five blog posts. The best part was seeing whether my skills could match the creative ideas I had. While watching the Tiger Woods golf ball-juggling video I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to pull of anything close to that. The third blog was my favorite to complete because it challenged my skills as a golfer, while also challenging my creativeness to come up with other tasks besides the ones Tiger Woods used. The most challenging part of this project was blog four. I had a hard time thinking of other ways I could change up the traditional techniques of golf to make it more exciting. During this thinking process I experience flow by thinking hard about the topic for long periods of time, then taking my mind completely of the topic until something hit me.

If I had one thing I could change about this project it would be that I imitated the Tiger Woods commercial perfectly. I am still happy with the video that I came up with but I feel that the blog would have been much better if I could have copied his every move.

The field of golf is very important to me because it is my favorite sport and has led to me creating friendships that I will have for a lifetime. I was very interested in taking a deeper look into the sport other than what is shown on television.

My imitative work was different from my original work in many ways. My imitative piece was me just imitating the juggling done by Tiger Woods while my original work could be a completely knew way the game of golf is played. The “Happy Gilmore” swing could actually be a revolutionary way to tee off or hit approach shots.

Creativity is taking an idea that one has and making it a reality. Whether it’s a variation of something that already exists or a totally new creation. Out of all my classmates that completed the project my favorite was done by Zac. I thought that the magic trick he came up with was very creative and must have taken a long time to think of. If he didn’t tell the class how he completed this trick I’m not sure if I would have figured out how he did it. 

Creativity Reflection

I thoroughly enjoyed this project. It was nice exploring a domain that I was interested in. Prior to this project, I had no idea what really went into music production and it’s insane what equipment and how much time really goes into that field of work. Imitating such a complex field proved to be a very difficult task. Although I was not able to the first time, it was fun when I figured out how to do it for the second blog post. Playing around with the sounds and getting them to flow was actually a lot of fun. Pin pointing the right beats and timing was important and is what made the challenge actually enjoyable. If I got a second shot at this, I would have taken more time to try and imitate my artist’s work. My artist used a lot of complex and expensive equipment to get his sound and it would be an insult to try and imitate it with a 14-day trial of a random music program.

This field was so important to me because music is so important to me. It is rare to find me in my free time without headphones in. My music taste goes from hip hop to 80s pop to hard rock. All music is amazing to me because it brings people together unlike any other. I wanted to explore what goes on behind the scenes of my favorite artists and albums.

I definitely experienced flow during my new creative work process. I lost track of time so quickly. I stopped many times in the middle of creating my music to go hang out with friends just to come back and have even better ideas. I sat on the music program for a good two hours listening to every sound they had to offer. I had a whole bunch of different sounds in one song and took at least another hour trying to piece together what sounds worked the best and what sounds really worked alongside others. Organizing the pieces also proved to be a challenge and I loved every minute of it. Since my imitation post wasn’t the greatest, I decided to try and mix a new creative work with the sound of my chosen artist, Steve Albini. He mostly worked in grunge rock, so I mixed it with psychedelic rock and even hints of hard rock in it.

I admire every piece of work done by my classmates. It was fun to see what they came up with using the wide range of creative fields offered to them. Personally, I enjoyed Trevor’s the most because the beat was so well put together and reminded me of a beat that some of my favorite rappers would definitely use. It was obvious that he put a lot of work into it and it turned out amazing. It was original and well put together.

Creativity to me is someone’s ability to successfully express themselves through an original work. Whether it be photography, painting, or even ghost hunting. If a piece of them is in their work, then it is creativity. 

Final Reflection

During this assignment, I have learned a lot about creativity. I have learned how to create flow, which increases creativity. I have also learned what type of creative aspect I appreciate most, and that I am able to replicate similar art pieces as a professional artist. The most fun aspect of making my creative work was being able to take beautiful pictures of San Francisco. I had a lot of fun during this because the weather was beautiful and the pictures turned out great. The most difficult aspect of my creative work was having to imitate another artists work. This was difficult because I had to find a picture that I could imitate, and since it was a nature picture, I had to wait until the weather was nice to take my picture. Next time I have to compose my own creative work, I will try and take more pictures of different things. When I was taking pictures, I took multiple pictures of the same thing. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the city of San Francisco, not just the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The field I chose was very important to me. I think photography is a beautiful form of art. Photography is important to me because I take pictures daily to remember events. The work that I imitated was different from my original work in many ways. In the work I imitated I only took pictures of clouds. In my original work, I took pictures of a whole scene, not just the clouds. In my original work the image has many different components. There is a bridge, a sunset, an American flag, the sky, and the bay. My original work was much more complex then the work I imitated. During my creative process I did experience flow. When I was taking my pictures I felt as though time stopped, I also feel that I experienced flow because I could not stop taking pictures. I took close to one hundred pictures when I was photographing the bay. To me, creativity is any form in which a person can express themselves. When a person is able to express their emotions they are portraying creativity. The classmates’ work that I admired was Katie Andersons. I liked her work because she came up with something entirely new, and it was delicious.  

Reflection

When this project first started I remember we were asked if we found ourselves creative. I answered with a strong no, as I had never felt like a creative person. However, slowly throughout this project I started to feel a sense of creativity almost. I never thought I would actually care about this project other than a grade but when it came time for the imitation work I actually spent time finding the right area's to take pictures at and deleting the ones I didn't like or think were good enough. I slowly found myself enjoying this project as whole. I liked the actual taking the picture part more than all the stuff you have to do after to get it onto the blog. Once we reached the final project I had an original idea which was originally supposed to be a combination of a bunch of pictures into one, then I realized Photoshop is hard. Then the inspiration for my creative work came, the storm was happening and I was looking at twitter and say ll the different pictures, I saw that everyone filmed the storm in some different creative way. So my idea was to have friends send me pictures of the storm with no instructions other than that. This was to achieve two goals, to get pictures of the storm from different locations as well as to see how others would use their creativity to take pictures.

If I was to do this differently I would involve plenty of other people. I would also give them more time, a lot of people I texted didn't get back to me until the storm was over. I think my original project was completely different than the imitation, the imitation was a generic picture set in a specific style while my creative work brought others creativity in as well as my own. I chose Photography because I thought it would be easy honestly, like I said I was only in this project for the grade to start. I didn't really notice flow because photography is such a stop and start field it is hard to get lost in the project. I really liked Trevor's beat, it sounded like something you could here on a hip hop track any day. I was really impressed at how he made that, something like that is above my head.

Lastly, creativity to me is the process of making something new. It is what gets a person lost in their own thoughts and working throughout the night without noticing it. It is that thing that allows people to make the great pieces of art we see constantly.

Reflection

     After all the research and imitation and creativity, I can honestly just say actually trying something out of my boundaries, and stepping into a new world, was the most exciting and thrilling thing I have done for a class. Ever. I have told countless people how I can't even watch scary movies or do ouji boards with my friends, but I can gather up the courage to ghost hunt in my own room, and research what it means to have a ghost present inhabit your home, and to choose to live with my experience. The thing that made this project so difficult was putting together all the clues, that what I experienced during my experiment, was the last thing I thought it would be, a ghost.

     I don't know if I would try this again on my own, but I am proud to say I've done it. I can cross this off my bucket list. But if I decided to ghost hunt on my own next time, I would definitely go somewhere where I know there is a presence when I see/hear/feel it. That way, I can attempt to communicate, and actually do something once I find a ghost.

     My chosen domain is important to me specifically because I know what it is like to have unexplained occurrences, and sit and wonder what or who is trying to communicate to me. Several years ago, I was woken in the middle of the night to things moving around in my bedroom. The sound was light, but I could sense a presence and that's what startled me awake. I was young, and I was scared. I put it off in my mind, and fell back asleep, but all these years I had wondered if it was something trying to tell me something. I have always believed in the afterlife, and ghosts, but I also believed in evil. So it was something I was torn on doing, because I didn't want this to end up being a mistake later on down the road for me.

    My imitative piece is different from my original work, because for my imitative piece I toured a haunted house and received information on spirits there and where they usually inhabited frequently, whereas my original work, I sat in my room, waiting for ghosts to come to me, waiting for answers to pop out of thin air. Which is how I learned, if you want to communicate with a spirit, you go to them. They do not come to you.

     I experienced flow and other steps of the creative process while I was ghost hunting. I experienced flow when I was touring the house, and researching my videos and looking at them over and over again to see anything off or different. You could say I lost myself in my work, I got so tied up in trying to find the ghost and try to just believe in it once more, that I completely forgot this was all just for an English class assignment.

     Some original works by my classmates, really surprised me just because they were all really different from the ideas I was coming up with in my head. I really thought Patrick and Zac's creative domains were really unique seeing as, they had no way of copying other's original works. They took their time to make their own original work and to make it creative and stand out from everyone else's creative domains. They actually had to think over their's and get involved in their project.

     Creativity to me, is stepping outside your own personal comfort zone, or box, and using your brain to come up with something no one else has experienced or seen.

Reflection

Shadow art is such a straight forward concept. Ironically though, it takes real talent to think outside of the box and create brilliant works of shadow art. I am talking about shadow artists like Kumi Yamashita of course. It is clear that shadow art is not my calling in life but, it was fun trying something new and exploring the creative process. Shadow art is an important contribution to the artistic field because there is nothing else like it. It incorporates lights and objects that we may see every day and think nothing of.  

Kumi Yamashita makes shadow art look so much easier than it actually is! Imitating her work Fragments  was not easy. It will always be a mystery to me how she made each face so novel and unique.

Coming up with something completely new with shadows was a bit of a challenge. The most difficult part was trying to create the shadows at first. I really tried to be original but nothing I made looked like an animal or a silhouette. So, I settled for using cut-outs of objects. My incense burner/shadow bowl turned out pretty decent I believe. If I had to do it again, I would try to make colored shadows using colored saran rap. 

Looking back, I realized I did experience some flow making my incense burner. It wasn't obvious at first. Flow is sometimes about challenging yourself and trying new things, even if they don't always work out. I originally just created a shadow bowl without any incense. I realized that wasn't challenging myself enough so I added my own personal touch of incense. I was proud of myself for trying new things, although I ended up starting a fire. Challenging your creative side is all about trial and error because you get immediate feedback. 

I thought everybody in our class did a great job with this project. Below are just a few of my favorites.

 I really loved Katie's Fusion Cupcakes! They looked so delicious (maybe because it was close to lunch time). I have also never seen anything like them or even thought to have used marshmallows instead of icing. Not only is that creative and so cute, but a great trick to remember if I ever forget to buy frosting for my cupcakes. Thanks Katie. 

Dominique's picture of the Golden Gate bridge from the boat was so beautiful. I only wish you posted a few more scenic pictures from your trip. Some Kansans (like myself) don't get to see beautiful ocean pictures like that often. 

Katie V. did a project called "What makes you happy?" I thought that was awesome because you incorporated other people. Everyone has a different answer to that question and I'm sure you made some people's days by going out of your way to talk to them. It is a beautiful and timeless gesture.

Reflection

Before unit 3 I was very unsure if I was a creative person, but after completing this unit on creativity, I now have a better ability to tap into my creative ability. The funniest part of the unit was shooting the photos that I used in the blog posts and the using the different filters on Photoshop and manipulating the pictures to get the right amount of light. On the other hand the most difficult part of this process of shooting sports photography was using the sports action mode to capture the perfect motion and getting the angle to shoot was also difficult, but once I was able to get the angle to shoot, the photos came out the way that I wanted. If I were to do this again I would choose a different location to shoot. This is because the lighting from being outside made it difficult to capture the detail. Photography to me is important you are able to capture a moment in time that will never happen again. Also, by taking pictures you are able to remember special times in your life. My imitative piece was a single photo, while my original work was a series of pictures that showed a full motion of a person dunking a basketball. During the process of creating my blog, I experienced the concept of flow. At first things were very stagnant, but once I found an idea I was able to continue to building and improving on top of the original idea.  The works that found to be the most interesting was the baking and the ghost hunting creative work. I found these interesting because for one we got to have cupcakes in class and the process in which she made them was interesting. By using two different batters to make them and the way they turned out was very cool. When it came to the ghost hunting, I never thought that there was any sort of creative process behind ghost hunting before this unit. Creativity to me is a concept that is the ability come up with a solution to a problem or a physical object or an idea that betters society. Overall, this was one of the best English projects I have done because instead of being told what to do; I was given minimal directions and I am free to do whatever I feel is necessary to meet the requirements.

Reflective Post

            I have come to find a better understanding of creativity after my research and creative work. I think that one of the most important things that I learned about was developing a creative process. Before this project, I didn’t have much of an idea what an artist’s creative process was like, but after watching some videos I got a better idea and it ended up helping me when I did my own creative work. Before I started to work on my creative work I would do things that stimulated my mind and got me in the mood to work on it.

            I personally thought that this has been the most fun unit we have had so far, and I enjoyed the process. These assignments felt like less of a burden and more of something I genuinely got some enjoyment out of. I think the blog posting format resulted less pressure than a normal paper, and I liked how we were forced to work little by little on the project as we were going throughout the unit instead of procrastinating until the end. I thought that one of the most fun things about this project was seeing a song come together little by little, and seeing the contrast between the original song and the finished product. It was also fun deciding which music I wanted to sample. One of the things that made this project difficult for me was the inability to save my project and work on it later, forcing me to do all of my work in one sitting or a limited amount of time.

            The field I chose is important to me because music is such an expressive thing. Oftentimes the music someone listens to can correlate with their moods, world views, and experiences. I love how music can give you a feeling that you can’t describe, you just feel it. Music is also important because it’s one of the most influential things in the world. My original creative work differed from my imitation because I sampled a song from a video game, rather than normal music released on a record that people sample. I thought it was cool because it’s not something you see many people doing. I feel like I felt flow while I was working on my creative works, because at some points I would just get in a zone and not really worry about anything else. A few of my classmates’ works that I enjoyed were the golfing one and the ghost hunting one, because they aren’t things that you would normally think of when you think about being creative. Creativity to me is thinking outside the box and making something that is unique and meaningful, whether it is meaningful to just yourself or a wide group of people. 

blog post 5

After doing all the research for my last 4 blog post, I started to realize that magic and illusions tricks are mostly tricky and complex but often times the ones that you see the most are the easiest ones to preform. But I also learned that even if the tricks that you are learning to do are simple, the most important part of the magic trick is the execution that you have while doing the trick.  

            Overall though, I enjoyed doing magic as my creative field to study. Of all the blog post that we had to do, my favorite two were number 3 and 4. This is because I got the chance to study magic and how it works and was able to preform other simple magic tricks that I watch and it even inspired me to modify a trick that a previously watch and make it my own. One thing I realized while recording myself doing this tricks is that it is harder than it looks to hide all the gizmos and gadgets that go on behind the scenes of the magic trick. For example, for my blog 3 post I used a string to help float a ring on a pencil. The only problem with this was trying to find an angle where the audience wouldn’t be able to see the string connected to the ring. Even though it was a small string it was noticeable against the backgrounds of your shirt and surroundings.

            The hardest part of this project was blog post 4 and having to come up with my own trick. This is because I’m not a magician so I don’t have equipment to preform a magic trick and even if I had an idea I wouldn’t know how to preform it and execute it so it was a good one. While contemplating what to do for that part of the project, I experienced the most creative flow. I immersed myself in the culture to by watching endless how to videos and videos of magic tricks for beginners. Then I would stop and think about what I just saw and how I could use any one of those as inspiration for a magic trick that would be simple enough and wouldn’t take the most supplies to use as well. I also experienced a lot of frustration because creating a magic trick is a lot harder than someone may think. Finally after a couple hours I experienced the A-HA moment that is so important during the creative process. Thus I ended up with the colored pencil mind trick that I modified from a previous mind trick.

            After all of this, I think when I have to try and define the word creativity I wouldn’t just leave it as coming up with something new. That is because after watching a lot of magic trick videos, they usually do the same tricks they just find a different way to do it. So for me creativity is finding a different way to do something that’s already been done.

5th Blog Post: Reflection

My creative field was Baking and when I decided to do my own creative baking project, I decided to make Hawk’s Nest Cookies. The most fun part of this project was the actual making of the cookies. I love to bake and if I had more time, and was better at it, I would do it to relieve stress and to just get my mind off of school and work. The most difficult aspect of this project, for me, was deciding what to change to make it my own. With baking, you don’t have a lot of options because most of the ingredients required are important and if you change or add an ingredient, it could change what you are baking, either in a good or bad way. It took me a long time to decide what to change about these cookies. I hadn't actually figured it out until I bought all the ingredients. I saw the bag of m&ms and it just clicked. I knew that it had to be a small change, so I just changed the color of the m&ms to make them more special to me by incorporating KU. In doing this, it makes the cookies more original. Some people may have had these kind of cookies before, but probably not specific to their college and probably not specific to KU. While I don’t know if that is 100% accurate, I do know that it isn't something most people would think of to do. I feel like I did experience flow while making my cookies. I lost track of time, except while the cookies were baking. I found myself lost in the directions. When it was time to roll the dough, I just focused completely on that and nothing else. It was fun to not have anything else to worry about, besides making the perfect cookie. I really liked Mackenzie Schutz’s way of making shadow art. I thought it was really creative and would be fun to try sometime! It was neat because you could cut out any animal or shape and make it into shadow art. I didn't know anything about it and so it was cool so see how she created something on her own like that. Creativity, to me, is taking something and learning a new way to go about doing or creating it. Putting your own spin on things and making them your own. 

5th Blog Post

          After doing research on my last four blogs, I have learned many things about photography that I did not know before this creative process. Before doing this creative process, I thought photography was just simply point and click. I never thought it was a lot of skill to be a photographer, or that you needed an expensive camera. After doing the previous blogs, I found I was completely wrong and it does in fact take skill and a nice camera clearly works better.

            I really did enjoy this entire process especially the two blogs where we had to take pictures. I thought the Michael Jordan reenactment with Pat and Christian was really fun. This is where I found that a nice camera would be very beneficial because I took it off an iPhone and it took me several tries. Also, I wasn’t able to zoom in as much as I had hoped, but I still really enjoyed it because it was funny taking a picture of one of the more famous dunks. I also really enjoyed blog 4, where I had to do a time lapse of the Budig flowers. Some people gave me looks like I was a tourist or that kid posting a picture on Twitter or Instagram of their campus, but it was actually really interesting. It was cool seeing how much the flowers actually changed every single day, and I was pretty shocked at how well it turned out. The nine-day span for blog 4 couldn’t have come at a better time because I was able to take my first picture when there was only one tulip, and my last picture had every flower fully bloomed. Maybe next time, I would have also gotten a time lapse of a tree to compare how quickly the flowers bloomed, compared to all the branches to fully gain their leaves.

            I think photography is important to me because it’s crucial to having pictures of your life. Whether it be a trip you took with friends and family, or a school picture, or any picture you can take daily, it is always fun and good to reminisce on those days. It sound cliché, but when you do have that picture that counts as a thousand words, or is a priceless photo, it is great to have framed and hung in your house, to remind you. I just think photography is very important in this day of age with social media, because it makes keeping up with people you don’t see a whole lot much easier because you can see any changes in them since the last time you saw them, or what they are doing. I think I experienced flow during this blog and blog 1 because it was writing, but I don’t think I did with the photos because I had to take just one a day in front of Budig, and get one picture of Pat acting like Michael Jordan. I really enjoyed Dylan’s golf videos because I thought the juggling of the golf balls was really skillful, and his new ways to make golf more fun for viewers was very interesting. I think creativity is trying to do something in a different way than normal, or becoming more adapted to that topic than you were before.

4th Blog Post