Creative Gallery Draft

These are a couple of examples of ethical photo editing. I'll be adding more examples over the next few days, as well as some unethically edited photos.

The first is a picture from the 1970 WVU ID of a family friend, which I've edited to remove the crease lines and general wear that have accumulated over time. I also painted the jacket and background.

The second photo is one I took in California last summer. I added a light to the yacht, deepened the hue of the sky and ocean, and sharpened the image.

Both examples of photo editing are ethical because the pictures are for personal use, and no one is harmed by the alterations.

Clicking on these photos will open the full-sized images:

Question I (1-35)

What tasks/aspects of your academic life are impossible without the Internet?

-- Email:           Notification of class cancellations

                        Questions for professors

                        Corresponding with classmates

                        Explaining class absence due to illness

                       

-- eCampus:     Online quizzes

Reading assignments (also on e-Reserves)

Participating in discussion boards for class

                        Assignment submissions

                        Class Powerpoint slides

                        Class notes

                        Viewing grades

-- Research for homework (library website; EBSCOhost)

-- Online-based classes

-- Watching videos for classes

-- University event updates                  

-- Computer coding classes

-- Accessing library book call numbers

-- Blogging for classes

-- Online textbooks

-- Accessing school accounts

-- General information about college

Creative Gallery

For my creative project, I'm planning to do a practical demonstration of some of the ethical and unethical uses of photo editing software.

Some examples of ethical modifications that I'll apply are:

--minor cosmetic alterations for personal or professional use
--removing obtrusive objects from photos (only if they aren't important to the meaning of the photo)
--photo enhancements like improving lighting, contrast, etc.

Some examples of unethical modifications that I'll apply are:

--major cosmetic alterations for professional use, like extreme thinning of models
--removing or heavily altering photo components that are important to the photo's meaning
--photo enhancements that alter the meaning of the photo's situation

I'll probably ask my friends to donate pictures of themselves or of anything that can be modified.

Google Map -- Parkersburg, WV

View Parkersburg in a larger map

Final Essay -- Positive and Negative Uses of Photo Editing

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Multimedia Essay -- Google Docs

Multimedia Essay -- PDF Format

Note: The pdf file is much easier to view, as headers and page breaks appear in the appropriate locations.

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Found Magazine

FOUND magazine is an online archive that anyone can contribute to, after registering an account with the website. Users post notes, photographs, drawings, etc. that they find in random locations. They also write a caption for each submission stating where they found it, and sometimes the date or some background information about the situation that surrounds the note, if they know that information.

This type of site is addictive, since the "More Finds" section appears under each submission, allowing visitors to the site to keep clicking endlessly on more submissions. The variety of types of submissions (they can be anything that is written or drawn on) keeps the site fresh and interesting for a longer amount of time than if there were only notes, or only photos.

The site's format, which allows comments, creates a community of people that can share and interpret random things. The comments are largely humorous interpretations of the notes, or jokes about them. Some people seriously analyze the submissions and become involved in heated debates about their meanings. It's interesting that even with something as informal as these submissions, people can still view them as serious literary works.

The Night of Melvyn's Murder

"The Night of Melvyn's Murder" is an engaging web project that describes the activities of numerous people on the night of a man named Melvyn's homicide. I'm not sure whether the small stories are clues meant to point to the culprit, or if the project is meant to be a brilliant feat to be marveled at rather than solved. In any case, the layout of information--a network of people connected to each other through linked activities--is both dizzying and impressive.

When I read the first bit of story, I was a little bit confused as to what I was meant to do. After clicking on one of the names in the story, though, I quickly discovered both how to interact with the project and exactly how vast it was. It's the sort of thing that makes a person want to create an information web to keep all of the information straight (or maybe I'm just OCD). Every time I started to think that I had nearly read every person's story, five new characters would present themselves.

I do think that this is the sort of project that's far easier to create than it is to read and comprehend, like how a necklace can become impossibly knotted without much effort, then take an hour to fix. The complexity of it is great, and I'm tempted to sit down and actually try to find out whether the murderer can be found, or if Melvyn and the circumstances of his murder are even explained.