This post may ramble a bit in a disorganized fashion, but it is because I’m in the midst of brain sparks but I’m also tired and want to go to bed but don’t want to lose the thought. It may be nonsense, but it makes some semblance of insight to me, and after all, Spinning is my place for thoughts.
It ties together a whole slew of notions: the tendency to include my latest infatuation into all my entries(new media), the education process in the adult student, the process of thought itself. The easiest example I can give is this:
You buy a new car, let’s say a ’97 green Honda CRV (it was new at the time!)–the first year the CRV came out. All of a sudden, the road is filled with Honda CRV’s, and what’s more, most of them are green. In reality, they were there the day before you bought yours, but it is the awareness of them brought about by the relationship that makes them seem abundant.
This concept relates to the “been there, done that” attitude of learning in the older student. BUT, and this is the important part, I think that what happens is that we are suddenly looking at things, understanding them better, noticing what we’ve become used to, or take for granted. This is why perhaps–overriding even my obsessive nature–the world is viewed with the influence of the newly learned knowledge. Why, for me lately, even the sky is seen in the elements of new media, with layers of sound, visuals, natural cues of cause and effect. Just this morning as I drove to campus I noticed the leaves falling and while I’ve seen this a million (or at least 50-plus) times before, I perceived the wind to be the main narrative line that set up keyframes of sound, visual movement, and changes that moved the story along.
What brought up all this thought tonight was the discovery of Powerpoint’s ability to “transition” a slide show effect; that is, the methods of moving between slides which by the nature of the format, tends to jump rather than flow in linear narrative form. The transition ability allows one to manipulate those spaces between slides into cut, fade, wipe, dissolve, etc., all techniques used by and recognizable within the film medium.
And now the tie-in: This is exactly what we covered in our New Media class this morning.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology