Letter to Future Students

Hello future students,

My name is Michael Hicks and I was a proud member of the Seeing Sideways class for the Spring 2011 semester. This class is hard to explain, but I'm going to give it a shot. Seeing sideways is about finding how, why, when, and where you are the most creative and exploiting that place to create some fun and unique projects. To be honest, you are not expected to make the best thing ever, but simply to make "something". Of course, Ms. Lykins would prefer it to be amazing, but its more about making the actual thing than impressing her. I believe that it is more important, even to Ms. Lykins, that the person who made it stands behind it and shows it off. That leads me to another objective of the class, which is to present and show off what you make from project to project. This is a hard one to get used to at first, at least for me, because you are showing stuff off that you are probably not used to showing people. I finally realized that the projects are usually odd and everyone has to show them so it is better off just sharing.

I believe that I got quite a bit from the class. I learned how better to harness and exploit my creativity. This is a really important lesson, considering that I have to be creative quite often in this major, and usually under a time limit. It was also enjoyable to see what everyone else made for projects. I felt like this was really inspiring in itself. It's good to know what your peers are capable of, especially the ones that you share the program with.

As to how this affected my approach to future classes, I think that it will make them all a little less stressful and easier. I really do think that I'm more connected to my creativity than I was before I took the class. When I do need to be creative under a time frame again, I believe that things will go a lot smoother. I have also learned to trust myself a little more, which is very important. I don't make something and automatically think it's crap. I now can look at my own work more objectively and am better at finding ways to fix a problem. All I can say is that this class is fun, and unlike anything you will ever take in college. It's at least worth a try.

Sincerely,
Michael Hicks

Final Project

For my project, I decided to research censorship in advertising. I originally wanted to do something with censorship, but when I found that there was a rampant amount of censorship of advertising throughout the world, it piqued my interest. To convey my research, which is cited below, I made a PowerPoint presentation. The presentation seemed to interest the audience and even engage them at certain points. I talked about the unbelievable amount of advertising censorship that takes place in the Middle East with specific examples. I also cited specific examples that occurred within the United States. I was hesitant to share my project at first, thinking that it wouldn't be good enough to show the class. In the end, I'm glad I did and believe that advertising censorship is an interesting topic that deserves more research and attention. You can view my PowerPoint presentation by clicking here.


Sources:

http://creativebits.org/Visual_communication_crash_course

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/craigslists-forced-censorship-of-erotic-ads-saves-journalism-industry/

4-11-11: Reaction!

I think that last weeks class went extremely well. There were a lot of good projects and discussion. However, what I remember most about last week was someone's lack of a project. Last week, we showed and discussed our, "Why Are You Here?" assignment. One student answered by saying that she didn't know and that she didn't have a project as a result of it. This wasn't one of those times where I thought that she was just being lazy and didn't have a better excuse. She really looked frightened as she told the class that she didn't know what she was doing in this major. She claimed that she had lost her creative spark and was essentially drifting through the New Media program. She cried, as others have and probably will in this course. I felt for her. I think she is going through something that a lot of creative people do. I have certainly had feelings of insecurity and trouble coming up with anything creative. I think that she is in a funk at the moment and I believe strongly that she will find her way out of it. She seemed very intelligent and thoughtful and spoke about how she thinks it could be because she has no time to do anything creative. She spoke about how she used to do things for herself and not just for a grade. I think that she will find her creativity again. I'm not sure how she would exactly go about doing that, but she certainly seems capable. Other things were discussed in class, but I think this was the most important aspect of the class.

Remember That Cool Project That Time?

My personal wellspring of creativity simply comes from relaxation. This can involve a bunch of different things. I relax by reading comics, watching movies, laying around and watching TV, etc. If I am properly relaxed and comfortable I have an infinitely easier time being creative. Of course, doing this can sometimes lead to trouble when I'm asked to be creative on a deadline. Most of the time, however, it all works out just fine. For my project, I decided to re-attempt a project that I had done a couple years ago for a class where my creative process did get the better of me. This was for the N110 class. I have no idea what it's called now, but it mostly consisted of Adobe Illustrator. I found a project from the class on my jump drive that I hadn't really completed. I don't remember why I chose this, but what I did was draw over a photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger from Terminator 2. Here is the untouched picture.
When I found the file, I had only a few minor details done. Since we were talking about old projects that we don't think turned out very well, I thought that I would "finish" it. I'm still not sure if it's where I want it but it's definitely much closer than it was. Here is the final version.
This is definitely memorable for me. It was good to go back to this project and look at it in a different light. I'm honestly not any better at illustrator than I was, but I think that my perspective has changed a little over the course of the last couple years.

That's about enough of that. For this course, I have also had a project that I didn't think went as well as it could. I think that my breaking the rules assignment could have been a lot better than it was. All I did was mess with script formatting and turn it in. The reason I did this was due to time. I think that is the biggest challenge with this course. I always want to do something more ambitious than I can get done in a reasonable amount of time or I wait to long to think of what to do. If I wait to long, I'm constantly rushing to get something done and it never turns out as good as I want it to. If I were able to reattempt this project, I would change everything about it. I would have a completely different concept and put some more effort into it. Off the top of my head, I would choose a rule that could have more done with it. I would probably choose a rule that I consider silly and film something with me breaking it. I think I was way too self-conscious at the beginning of the semester which also led to me thinking a lot of my ideas were "stupid". This has mostly gone away at this point. Regardless, it would have more put into it than that project did.

Why am I Here?

That is a good question. I've thought about this a lot since it was assigned and I couldn't answer it at first. I started to think, why am I in this class? The answer to that question was fairly simple. I am in N385 because I needed the credits and it sounded like an interesting class. I didn't think that was enough to go off of. Then I went bigger and wondered why am I here at IUPUI. Once again, this wasn't hard to answer. I'm here because I want to learn and get a better job than I would have gotten without going to college. The next time I asked the question, I went much bigger. Why am I here on this planet? This took a little more time. I struggled until I started thinking about the things that I enjoy most. Of course I here for my family and friends, but I don't think that it's even as big as that. I believe that I am here to enjoy the little things. Things like hanging out with the people I love, doing well in school, and entertainment. There are so many more things than that, but that was my starting point. Even though enjoying the little things is a bit of a cliche, I believe that it is for a good reason. Since I was very busy last week I didn't have as much time for this project as I have others, so I decided to show what I mean by writing exactly what I mean.

Why I am Here

Michael Hicks

I'm not sure if I believe in God or having been put on this Earth to serve some higher purpose. I think that I am on this Earth to simply enjoy it. More than anything, I enjoy the little unique experiences. I enjoy sitting around and talking with friends about bullshit. I love coming home after a class and talking to my nephew about how his day of preschool went. I love the feeling that I get after I watch a good movie or read a good comic. I used to lose sleep over the thought of why I am here when I was a kid. I imagined the endless universe and couldn't comprehend my place in it. I still can't, but that's the point of this. Instead of staying up all night and fretting about things that I have no control over I can simply realize that I am here to enjoy life. Of course I am here for the big events in my life as well, but those are few and far between so I feel that I have to focus on the day to day. The best way of doing this is trying to extract joy from the mundane. If I don't like what I'm doing at a particular moment I try to find something about it that I do like. If there is absolutely nothing that I can find that I like, I create something. Basically, this is how I stay happy. Being happy lets me enjoy things more. Honestly, I think I'm here just to be a happy person.

Fear Reaction - Part 2

I believe that the best project from last week wasn't even really a project. When Colby began her presentation, she showed a funny video of Charlie Sheen. At first, I believed that she had actually made it until I realized the production value after a few seconds. I then thought that she just showed the video because she didn't have anything. After her video was done, I didn't know if there was going to be anything more or if that was going to be it. Turns out, there was a lot more. When Colby admitted to the classroom that she was a drug addict, I was shocked. She is always the quiet girl in the classes that I have had with her. I was even in a group with her last semester and I had no idea. I remember that she didn't contribute a lot to the group and she was fairly difficult to get a hold of. I think that I now have an explanation that I never thought I would have. I didn't know what to think of her presentation, and to be honest, I still don't. I do know, however, that it took her a lot of courage to do what she did and I respect her greatly for it. I hope that she overcomes her problems and I wish her the best. I believe that last week could be viewed as a great first step.

Fear Assignment - 127 Comics

127 Comics



(Hopefully a higher quality version will be up soon. This is shorter than what I showed in class.)


I was surprised at the reaction to my project. I thought that the majority of people seemed to like it. Even though I said that I expected people to be entertained on my blog, I didn't think that I would succeed in the final moments before the presentation. Even with my video freezing and skipping, the class still seemed to enjoy it. I think that the project could have been better than it turned out. Even with the video playing back perfectly, it still isn't the way I pictured it when I first started the project. To make this project better, I would have proper lighting, a cleaner set, and proper audio capturing. I think that the video could have been shot better as well. I think that it could have had more funny moments put in and I could have used some more practice to make the takes better. Even with all that said though, I'm very happy and appreciative of the reaction my project received.