Blog

Mini-3 Disabled Women Are Able Women

Content
The vid remix that Guy and I attempted was designed to show disabled women overcoming their disabilities and being perceived as “abled” women. We conducted research to find video clips to use. I searched on You Tube and found five videos while Guy plunged into making clips from the “Firefly” science fiction television show. I had never heard of this show before, but I was confident Guy had a great idea and we would compare notes in class at the workshop session.

Preparation
To start this project, I carefully reviewed Dr. Lothian’s class presentation to learn how to create the vid. I again reviewed “Pipeline” by Sumana Harihareswara to get a better idea of what we should achieve. Then I reread Harihareswara’s notes in “Vids I Learned From,” but did not gain much information except in her comments about “We Didn’t Start the Fire” where she said it is helpful to create a spreadsheet to track the sources used. This was a good tip because I wanted to be careful about copyrighted material and detail my clips. Then to gain knowledge of how to handle the technical aspects of creating a remix I opened the link for Elvira Sweeney’s website at http://www.elvirasweeney.com/iweb/ElviraSweeney/Top_technical_things_that_confuse_vidders.html. After reading her comments I clicked on the hyperlink for Vidding 101, but was disappointed when it took me to www.api.viglink.com and displayed the message “This forum’s URL has changed. Please update your bookmark to fpvideo.proboards.com.” Every tutorial hyperlink on Elvira’s site took me to the same place. Hence, I did not find the Vidding 101 tutorial. I even registered (or thought I registered) in the forum, but still could not find a tutorial hyperlink that worked. Bummer!!

I read most comments on Elvira’s site to learn what I needed to make a remix. I noticed that editing formats are AVI and MOV files, so I decided to convert the You Tube videos to AVI files for editing in class. After reviewing eight videos I selected five, downloaded Windows Movie Maker and Freemake on my computer, converted the vids to AVI files and copied them to my flash drive.  Then I reviewed the movies and created a detailed listing of “in” and “out” times for clips I wanted to use so that Guy could easily pull them in with his clips for the remix.  Of the five videos, my favorite was “It’s Our Story” that has some poignant scenes and dialogue from disabled men, women and children.

It’s Our Story (1)
Remix Class
Guy inserted my flash drive into the Mac, but the files did not download. Dr. Lothian suggested there may be a problem with the codec(s) in the AVI files. Needless to say, after spending so many hours viewing, analyzing, reviewing and cataloging potential clips, I was very disappointed. We could not use any of my material, but Guy was ready for the challenge.

I have to admit, Guy’s clips from the “Firefly” show were much more exciting than mine would have been and the audio track of Dessa singing “Skeleton Key” was very cool. Guy was very skillful in syncing the music to the emotionally telling scenes of the character he called “Summer” (actually River Tam of “Firefly”) who seemed to have uncontrollable episodes of mania. I researched “Firefly” after Guy sent me the remix and learned that “Summer” had been told never to touch a gun because the crew of the space ship knew she was mentally unstable (or maybe psychic). However, at the end of our remix “Summer” saved the crew from attack by shooting the enemy with that same gun. Guy’s imaginative visual of transformation by “Summer” from out of control emotion to very controlled “masculine” protective behavior was absorbing and freeing. “Well done, Guy!” for accomplishing such a challenging task in such a short amount of time.

Reflections
After class I downloaded utility Gspot from http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ to check the codec(s) in the AVI files. All of them said, “Codec H264 installed,” so there should have been no problem downloading to the Mac. Despite this, I am glad I reviewed these vids because I learned some interesting facts about the history of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). I saw the sit-ins and other protests by disabled men, women and children to force the American public to understand their frustrations with discrimination against the handicapped. In fact, it was the televised picture of a 9-year old girl, Jennifer Keelan, who crawled out of her wheelchair and up the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., that convinced Congress to pass the landmark ADA legislation (see “It’s Our Story” at 2:10-2:23 minutes). Consequently, I have a deep appreciation and gratitude for the people who participated in those demonstrations. The law did not end discrimination, but at least now there is hope for disabled people to live their lives with fewer barriers and less discrimination.

There were two class readings that reminded me of how female gender restricts women from reaching their full potential, yet somehow, women sometimes overcome barriers. The character of “Summer” in the remix (really Guy’s remix) reminded me of Ada Lovelace, the English woman who wrote the first example of computer programming. As quoted in Sadie Plant’s “Zeroes and Ones,” Ada said, “very much afraid as yet of exciting the powers I know I have over others, & the evidence of which I have certainly been most willing to admit, in fact for a long time considered quite fanciful and absurd . . . I therefore carefully refrain from all attempts intentionally to exercise unusual powers.” (Plant, 1997) “Summer” seems to be a woman also afraid of showing her true self for fear of being misunderstood or considered “absurd” and saves the crew by showing her courage and strength when she uses her powers to defend them. Also, vidding is defined by Francesca Coppa in her article “Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding” as “a visual essay that stages an argument, and thus it is more akin to arts criticism” (Coppa, 2008). Guy’s remix is true to Coppa’s description of fan vidding. It is definitely artful and I considered it to be an example of a vid that “heals the wounds created by the displacement and fragmentation of women” (Coppa, 2008). “Summer” triumphed by “kickin’ ass” and I wanted to be her!

Spitfire – Zoe (Firefly) – YouTube [360p]

Sources:
Coppa, F. (2008). Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish viding.
Transformative Works and Culture, no. 1.
Harihareswara, S. (2015). Pipeline. Retrieved from
https://brainwane.dreamwidth.org/2015/05/23/pipeline-vid.html
Harihareswara, S. (2015). Vids I learned from. Retrieved from
https://brainwane.dreamwidth.org/2015/05/23/vids-I-learned-from.html
Plant, S. (1997). Zeroes and ones. Digital Women & The New Technoculture, Fourth Estate
London.

Twine games to play over Thanksgiving Break

Please leave comments for the game creators! Tell them what your experience of their game was like, what you enjoyed or found difficult, what you think they could add if they are developing this game further.

Write the title of the game in your comment’s subject line.


From UMD’s class Transforming Cultures and Technologies: Gender, Race, and Digital Media.
These games were made by individuals and represent preliminary explorations in Twine creativity; games were not required to be 100% complete and some students will be developing their games further for their final projects.

To Gym Or Not To Gym (about exercise addiction)

Just a Girl at a Show (about sexual harassment at live music shows)

First Day of Computer Science Class (about being a woman subjected to sexism and harassment in a male-dominated field)

The Party (about college house parties, alcohol, and sexual consent)

Living in the Digital (about everyday life in the digital age)

The Web (about navigating the internet)

Why Me? (about the aftermath of sexual assault)

Sorority Recruitment (about sorority recruitment)

Friday Night (about a 20-something-year-old woman as she ventures into her Friday night escapades)

White & Black; Right & Wrong (about social perceptions of young men of color, inspired by #blacklivesmatter)

Industry Standards (about trying to break into the video game industry)

Comfort (about the challenges faced by a gender nonconforming Vietnamese-American pre-teen)


From MIT’s class on Technology and Culture
These games were created by groups of around four students.

Twine Group 1
http://philome.la/brenesrob/twinebook/play

Twine Group 2
http://philome.la/wwnlee/smile-were-watching

Twine Group 3
http://philome.la/ariostas/research-simulator

Twine Group 4
http://philome.la/Chevalant/cyborg-journey

Twine Group 5
http://philome.la/spikeoren/paws

Twine Group 6
http://philome.la/jesszwang/identity-theft/play

Twine Group 7
http://philome.la/21a500twine/21a500

Twine Group 8
http://philome.la/karsonota/debbies-journey/play

Twine Group 9
http://philome.la/danimman/adhd/play

Twine Group 10
http://philome.la/mizanrk/menarche-madness

Celebrity White Feminism (mini-project #2)

For our remix video, Liv and I created a video that exposes the flaws that encompass white feminism. We focused on celebrity white feminism, as that is where it is most prevalent. We pulled examples from celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Lena Dunham, Demi Lovato, and Patricia Arquette. Taylor Swift is a prominent white feminist as shown in her music video for “Shake It Off” and it’s cultural appropriation of blacks and twerking. Screen Shot 2015-11-09 at 2.05.42 PMShe also displays a white washed Africa in her music video for “Wildest Dreams.” Screen Shot 2015-11-09 at 2.07.19 PMHowever, her most relevant display of white feminism comes from the twitter feud she had with Nicki Minaj back in August over VMA nominations. Minaj had originally tweeted about black artists not being fully represented in the nominations; Swift had thought Minaj was indirectly mentioning her, making the issue about herself and not the issue of blacks and other minorities being misrepresented (a white feminism ideology). Screen Shot 2015-11-09 at 2.05.56 PMWe used audio from Lena Dunham’s extremely white feministic show ‘Girls,’ which follow the lives of four upper class 20-year-old New Yorkers. The show’s cast is predominately white with little incorporation of minorities or those with ethnic backgrounds, a misconception of a place full of diversity. The audio exhibits the extremely white and venal problems the four girls face as they try and make it in the big city. We followed the images and examples of celebrity white feminism with examples of good and inclusive celebrity feminism and pulled quotes and images from celebrities such as Emma Watson and 13-year-old Rowan Blanchard Screen Shot 2015-11-09 at 2.07.37 PMas well as a clip from Destiny Child’s “Survivor” music video, all things that exemplify and exhibit inclusive and all-encompassing feminism.

Liv and I were able to finish our video but if I were to extend it, I would definitely include more video clips of other celebrities such as Miley Cyrus and some of her antics at the VMAs that were highly offensive and her argument that they weren’t. I would also focus more on the editing and placement of clips, as I know some of them did not match up well with the audio we selected. I had used iMovie several times in the past so I did not have to worry about technical difficulties as I already knew what I was doing, it was just a matter of getting the material in the right order and narrowing down our content, as we had a lot of choose from. This allowed us to finish our video in the allotted class time.

Remixing definitely allowed me to draw connections that I probably would not have emphasized before. I would not have drawn the parallel between “Girls” and Taylor Swift or the other celebrities for that matter. Remixing definitely allows for the creator to drawn a multitude of connections and parallels between the source work and what you are remixing.

After watching Brainwane ’s video “Pipeline” and reading the comments following the video, I really got a better sense of what exactly I was trying to convey through my video. Brainwane’s video projects the message of gender inequalities in the Computer Science/Technical field and she includes examples from movies/TV shows, advertisements she gets on her computer, and images that promote women in the technical field. In Brainwane’s second article “Vids I Learned From,” Brainwane compiles a list of videos and what she took away from them. For example, Brainwane mentions that she learned each video has a message; in this case, she exemplified that through her message of inequality in the technological field. She also mentioned more technical aspects of editing such as using stills. Brainwane mentioned that the use of stills is just as impactful as using video clips and zooming just the right way and in on a direct subject in the still really emphasizes the point the image is projecting to the audience. While creating my vid, I took all these things into consideration and what they presented to the audience.

Overall, I thought the remix project was a really interesting and compelling project that allowed us to get first-hand experience in what it’s like to create your own remix video. Creating a remix video is a lot different than simply creating a montage of images or clips from a vacation. With the remix vid, we had to come up with an argument or message and then find examples of that and then actually create the vid. We had to match up the video or picture clips with the background audio and tell a compelling story or argument that was also entertaining. The project was a great learning experience and it really made me realize how much time and effort people put into creating a powerful vid that expresses a major and persuasive argument through the mash-up of video clips, images, and audio.

link to video: http://sendvid.com/l4vsji6d