work-in-progress

Well this is my work-in-progress critique about my Independent Project. My project is to make a web-site that is Aphasia friendly. The site is to promote education and awareness about Aphasia and using photography as an alternative source of communication to People with Aphasia (PWA) and their families. I am still working on what audience I want to target most, and if I want to make this a site that educated the public too.
So far I have been doing research, and trying to organize the site (and layout). I want to include all the material I have gathered from the course. I still want to add an overview of the Rollins course, and the students/clients experiences. I still have some questions for the site:
1. Other ways/ideas to make the site more Aphasia friendly?
2. What information is missing, or should be taken out?
3. Should I add a page about UCF and if so what should it include?

I look forward to hearing feedback!

Here is my SITE

Latest class UCF visit

Our class’s most recent trip to UCF was pretty fun! First we did our class discussion at Rollins about our “home” photographs. Normally we split up in groups of three to critique, but this time we split up in groups of five. I though the larger groups were fun! During the critiques we describe the elements, what pops out after a while, and how the images related to the ideas of home. As a group we pick the strongest and list three descriptive and interpretive terms.
When we went to UCF we used our images selected in class with the UCF clients. They had to describe the images by themselves. Our goal was to see how many similarities and differences there would be between the clients and classes description. In my case there were many similarities. They described all the same descriptive terms, and even surpassed the interpretive.
I liked this exercise because it allowed me the most communication with the client. Also I felt excitement when the client made the same connection with the photographs us Rollins students made during our critique! This class is pushes me, but is very rewarding emotionaly.

Assignment #3 HOME

Making the selections for the top three for assignment has been easiest yet. The assignment was to photograph anything that reminded me of home. My first selection first got my attention by its lighting and clarity. It is of two rocking chairs on a porch. The viewpoint is as if someone is peaking around the entering gate. There is a reflection in the French doors that helps bring together the complexity of the right side of the image to the sterile left side.
The next image is much more abstract. It is a close up of a garbage disposal and a catcher from a stove. The water is running and is out of focus, but the bubbles and text are in focus. The only color is burnt orange of burnt grease and food build up. This shows the domestic side of a home. The dirty pan shows how much use the stove gets, and cooking that goes on.
The last image is my favorite for this assignment. In a second the first thought the viewer gets is HOME. The picket fence, green-cut lawn, trimmed bushes, and an American flag makes this a home universal. The house seems full of life and presence. This image is full of details and reminds me of an older veteran.

RESPONSE TO "PRACTICES OF LOOKING"

For class we just read a short expert from “Practices of Looking.” The chapter started with the fact that looking is a choice. By willfully doing so one is practicing this choice and influence. We see images everyday with little thought about how, or why we look at things the way to do. This expert really made me start to think why. We can view images in multiple ways, looking can be fun, depressing, safe, and harmful. Images also produce multiple emotions, and have multiple purposes, meanings and contexts.
Today technology is a big part of our everyday images with paint, photos, and electronic images. All are becoming more interdependent on each other. This has to do with an increase in our image drenched society.
Images are representation and help give meaning to the world around us. How we express and interpret these meanings changes from culture to culture. Overall images are seen as a shot of truth/ documentation, but because taken with a camera are lingered with a hint of subjective choice. Someone has to select, frame, and personalize the photo. Still the camera is mechanical and seen as more dependent than humans and holds strong objectively. Yet, the combination of the two view points lead to tension and debate.
The chapter goes on to say that images are seen on two levels: denotative and connotative. That myth allows “connotative meaning of things to be denotative.” Looking is also linked to ideology (shared values/beliefs of their social structures). To conclude images have multiple uses in our visual culture, but each change in context gives a change in meaning.