Un Idioma Visual

Storyboard

Project 3 Proposal

My literacy narrative will be about the time I was told, "someone like you will never get anywhere in life," because I was an immigrant with a heavy accent in a predominately White institution. As a result, I resorted to writing and jewelry making as a way to tell my story. I first started out with small poems, and basic rubber band bracelets. But as my poems matured, so did my jewelry, and I began to pair up poems with different types of jewelry pieces. Now, I have noticed the stages of my life through my writing and my jewelry.

Sequence I wish to use:
1. What my teacher told me
2. Dealing with it by writing
3. Making Jewelry to fight off my anger
4. Developing more mature poems
5. Jewelry getting more complex
6. Performing Spoken word
7. Matching my jewelry pieces with the themes in my poetry
8. Shaping my identity as an artist

Draft of Project 2

Upon getting my comments back from my web text analysis, I realized that I need to organize the visuals in a way that proportions are consistent. Because I kept the original format of my website, I am struggling with setting the limitations/border height/width. I think that because not everything is the same size, I might add the posters to the powerpoint, and see if that works best. Also, since the powerpoint might not play my videos, I can rearrange it for the videos to be next to the powerpoint. Since the videos are on youtube, I am going to have to make sure that the powerpoint and the video are the same size. This is definitely going to be a challenge, especially since I will be using both videos and posters.

My Sources

A Multimodal Annotated Source List, Part I

Official Coca-Cola “Big Game” Commercial 2014
This source is a short-clip from a commercial that aired during the 2014 Superbowl. Right after it aired, it raised a lot of controversy, as people spoke in different languages, and comments regarding living in “America” and speaking English began to spark. This is an important source because it highlights all types of migrants, as opposed to focusing on one group. Because it was aired in a popular and national sporting event, the commercial received immense amount of views, so it will help me understand what popular perception is.

Server—Commercial from fwd.comThis source was produced by the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, which places it at a unique position in social media, as the producer owns one of the biggest social media outlets. This commercial is good at highlighting the experience of one immigrant, but may be weak at portraying other migrants, especially on the basis of age, gender, and migratory status.

Family Guy
Instead of taking an entire episode of Family Guy,  my analysis will focus on an 18 second clip that addresses “border-crossing”. The clip will be helpful because it is an animated perspective of migrants. I can talk about the migrant experience in a humorous perspective because Family Guy opens that space, but I am unsure if it may weaken the argument. However, it can also strengthen it. Because this commercial is about creative expression, it will be drastically analyzed compared to the past 2.

Fairimmigrationreform.org PosterThis source portrays two different family images, which are great assets to concentrate on. The idea of family unity is obvious at the top with the two mothers and their daughter being held in their arms. This is an asset because it triggers emotion. I could take part of the poster and analyze it, and then compare it to the other poster.

BrokenCountry.com MemeThis meme also invokes humor based on the format. The asset would be the quotation, as it is strictly making a comment on “immigration reform”, and the text is all capitals, and huge, clearly calling for attention. The image will be good to contrast the image before.

Part 2: Because the videos are taken from YouTube, they have become immediately accessible to the audience. According to the literature in the Ethics of Collecting Sources and Assets chapter of Writer/Designer, I believe that I can use these sources for educational purposes. In addition, these are sources taken from mainstream media, and most were also produced by mainstream media for the purpose of mass sharing.

Webtext Organizing

Analyzing Marcus’s Web Text portal, I enjoyed seeing the black background and the solid white text. The most effective part of his outlet is that the text is at a great size that doesn’t stress me out when I see it. I also like that he includes a box with an image in every section, and is consistent. I would have probably liked to see more visuals, because I think that I understand things better when I see photos and motions. The alignment and arrangement were cohesive, and the use of the same tab bar in every page looks very professional.

Looking at Shannon’s webpage, I like her coding, and when I click on the Webtext Analysis tab, it directs me to an entirely new page. While the page has a similar feel to that of Marcus’s, I feel that the colors he sticked to and the font style and size are more effective. I like that Shannon had all of her webtexts on the same page, as it makes it easier to compare and contrast one another. In looking at the placement of objects, I am not sure about the color she used for her “Project 2: Multimodal Analyses of Webtext” title.  I would have liked to see her webtext analysis stay in the same format as her website, as it was very original and stylistic.

Ali’s analysis and set up is by far my favorite. I think that the use of color and text adds to the emphasis of recycling. When I click on the tabs, there is a sense of cohesion because each element is highlighted through the arrows, and explained. For example, the summary at the top of each page sets the precedence for what the rest of the project will look like.

For my project, I hope to maintain the layout on my website, but try to use the space as Ali did to explain the visuals. The reason why I want to maintain my website is because it has the dark background, like that of Marcus’s, and I see it as very effective. Something else to think about is if I want to take some screenshots of different parts of the videos I am analyzing, or just have the video up for people to watch, and hope that they can remember what scenes I talk about when. 

Visibility of Immigrants in the US

Let's take a look at how immigrants are represented in videos and posters. 

For this project, I will be analyzing the representation of migrants in the United States. The first two videos were produced by international corporations, each with a different style in mind-- one focusing on the immigrant community as a whole, and the other focusing on one story. I will then look at popular television, Family Guy, and analyze the impact it has on people's politics as well as humor. The two last posters focus on local art/memes to analyze modern culture and expression. 

Coca-Cola Commercial:

taken from youtube 

FWD Commercial- Produced by Mark Zuckerberg:

taken from youtube

Family Guy talks Immigration:

taken from youtube

Immigration Poster 1: 

taken from fairimmigration.org, Fair Immigration Reform Movement, a national coalition of grassroots organizations fighting for immigrant rights at the local, state and federal level.

Immigration Poster 2: 

taken from BrokenCountry.com, a perspective on news, politics, and current events from the right side of the left coast