Extra Credit Assignment

TMA 112 Extra Credit Assignment

            One of the things I would have loved to explore more in this class is how to create meaning or how to get an idea across through media. When creating our projects, we often times were trying to communicate an idea or make a point and it would have really helped if we better understood how to create and alter meaning in our pieces.

            This assignment I have created allows students to explore how they consume and interpret messages in the media as well as how to create meaning in media.

Assignment Description: "Each student will find a piece of existing media and discern it’s meaning through what they feel it is trying to communicate. Students must then ask and record what others believe the meaning is. They will then alter the piece to significantly change its meaning in order to communicate something entirely different. The meaning can be subtle or overt. Students are encouraged to use their unique artistic voice to communicate something that they feel strongly or passionate about. After completing it, they must ask others and record how they interpret the new piece."

            This assignment could go under the "exploring and experimenting" unit because the students are exploring the ways we engage with media and interpret it, and then experimenting with creating meaning. This assignment in a lot of ways goes along with the textual poaching assignment. It could also go under the “discerning and documenting” unit because students would be discerning messages and how we interact with the media. They are also documenting how others interpret and interact with media.  I feel this assignment would be important to do early on in the semester as it lays a foundation for the student to develop their own voice and better understand how to communicate and create meaning.

LINKS: 

This is an example of a project like the one I have created, The authors of this piece noticed that the audio was key to communicating certain feelings in the film, "The Shining", so they replaced the audio to give the scene a new feel and experiment with creating new meaning. Here is the original scene.

This is a clip of the Kuleshov effect, which shows one way to create meaning by juxtaposing images:

Here is part of a book that can be used for reading selections. There are some good sections that address being consumers of media as well as different ways meaning is created.