Here is the video we did to explain and frame our project
Turned out pretty well I have to say
Especially for the fact it was in the elevator hallway
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Our Final Frame
Here is the video we did to explain and frame our project
Turned out pretty well I have to say
Especially for the fact it was in the elevator hallway
Monday, December 3, 2012
Project Eval: Successes and Failures
This project turned out a lot differently than we originally envisioned. This could be because we had a hard time picturing what we wanted. We changed the project a little to fit our intended "launch" audience: The Copyright office at BYU.
In some ways, we failed. We dithered and changed our minds and politely disagreed for a good chunk of our allotted time. As a result, we got started on the actual product very late in the semester. In addition, we chose a format that was hard for all of us to work on; effectively leaving most of the heavy lifting to Curtis. All of this added up to an incomplete product.
But, we are ridiculously proud of what we DO have and what we HAVE accomplished. The first half of our story is a pretty professional and impressive product. Not only that, it fits many of the original dreams that we had for it: it's a remix. It's a re-telling of a classic. It is in a form of New Media that will hopefully generate interest from a diverse group of people. It's a positive use for remix. It, along with our blog, is educational and informative about both remix and copyright issues. We will soon have a site to post the final product to. We had a successful launch and generated quite a bit of interest from {the gentleman at the copyright office; what was his name??}, who even stated that he would be interested in posing an updated and finished version on the copyright office's website.
That last bit more than anything means that we've succeeded in the ways that matter. We've created something that can change the world, even in a small way.
In some ways, we failed. We dithered and changed our minds and politely disagreed for a good chunk of our allotted time. As a result, we got started on the actual product very late in the semester. In addition, we chose a format that was hard for all of us to work on; effectively leaving most of the heavy lifting to Curtis. All of this added up to an incomplete product.
But, we are ridiculously proud of what we DO have and what we HAVE accomplished. The first half of our story is a pretty professional and impressive product. Not only that, it fits many of the original dreams that we had for it: it's a remix. It's a re-telling of a classic. It is in a form of New Media that will hopefully generate interest from a diverse group of people. It's a positive use for remix. It, along with our blog, is educational and informative about both remix and copyright issues. We will soon have a site to post the final product to. We had a successful launch and generated quite a bit of interest from {the gentleman at the copyright office; what was his name??}, who even stated that he would be interested in posing an updated and finished version on the copyright office's website.
That last bit more than anything means that we've succeeded in the ways that matter. We've created something that can change the world, even in a small way.
Case Study
A) a narrative documenting the development of the project
http://themonstermashup.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html
B) an evaluation of the project as a whole, including the launch
http://themonstermashup.blogspot.com/2012/12/project-eval-successes-and-failures.html
C) finding a destination audience for their case study and delivering it to them
http://themonstermashup.blogspot.com/2012/11/destination-audience.html
http://themonstermashup.blogspot.com/2012/12/carl-and-where-do-we-go-from-here.html
http://themonstermashup.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html
B) an evaluation of the project as a whole, including the launch
http://themonstermashup.blogspot.com/2012/12/project-eval-successes-and-failures.html
C) finding a destination audience for their case study and delivering it to them
http://themonstermashup.blogspot.com/2012/11/destination-audience.html
http://themonstermashup.blogspot.com/2012/12/carl-and-where-do-we-go-from-here.html
Carl and Where Do We Go from Here
We had our meeting with Carl. It went very well. He was very interested in our project. He said we were dead on with our research and arguments. He encouraged us to submit for a grant and finish the project. He said that he would love for us to have a spotlight on their copyright page. He also said that he would love to share our project at his copyright director's annual conference. The only downfall that he saw and that we also know is that the semester is coming to an end. Our though and encouragement now from Dr B is to get our project into a state where it speaks for itself: get this blog up to par, get the flash posted, etc. Also, it has been suggested that we write up a grant proposal. The ORCA grants pretty much just require a project summary which we could do. The group will have to decide what we would like to do.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Destination Audience
We will be proposing our project to the Copyright Office here on campus. We decided that that was the best outlet for our project. Our hope was that they will see the importance in teaching copyright in a new and modern way rather than simply text information. We would love if they could see it fitting into the goals of the office and find use in adapting our project whether they post it on their website or use it in presentations or some other way. We have an appointment with Carl Johnson tomorrow to discuss it all!
Group Project Overview
PROJECT OVERVIEW:
Twenty years ago, getting published was a major undertaking. One had to go through tens of gate keepers: editors and publishers, producers and managers. It took weeks to go from creation to execution and even still, there was little guarantee anyone would have access to it. Today, we publish things several times every day. Everything that goes from our brains to the internet is considered published. With such power at our finger tips, the world of copyright has never before been so controversial.
The purpose of our project was to present copyright issues in an interesting and creative way that would interest a target audience of 13-30 years old. Despite the ease at which copyright is broken, very little education is given to these ages. In truth, copyright is more than under attack, but under change. One side sees a world where the elite create and the public watch. The other side believes in a society where creativity builds upon each creation. The world of fan fiction and remix. The price of such creativity, however, is the violation of copyright laws.
Our Frankenstein project metaphorically presents these two sides in a way we hope will allow the users themselves to develop their own opinion.
REMIX:
Remix is a growing industry that doesn't always have a good reputation with higher institutions of learning or with copyright issues. We wanted to address both of these issues in our group project. We created a remix of a classic novel (Frankenstein) that is inviting, educational, and entertaining. In the flash animation video the player gets to choose different remix genres to put together their own monster. The very last thing the player can choose to do is to kill the misunderstood (remix) monster or to allow the creation to run free. This ending is paired with a blog that gives insight and information on remix and copyright to inform the player about the complexities of the issues facing remix creativity. Our purpose in using remix is to renew interest in literature and to inform about the issues surrounding the remix culture.
COPYRIGHT/ FAIR USE:
Often working against the idea of remix is copyright. Copyright is a law that gives the original creator of a work the exclusive rights to reproduce that work, and determine who else may use and reproduce that work. Imagine that you work for hours on a paper for school and post it on Digital Dialogue. When you gather together as a class to critique each others' work, you find that other students in the class have taken parts of your paper and put them into their own paper, some changing it slightly, some using it word for word, but not citing your paper in any way. How would you feel? Most of us seem to agree situations such as this or plagiarism are wrong, so why do we often forget copyright? Though these two things aren't exactly the same, they do both involve the same principles: using someone else's work--and legally protected work, in the case of copyright--without permission. So to hardcore copyright believers, remix is often an abomination.
The mediator between these two words is fair use. Fair use puts some restriction and limitation on the exclusivity of copyright, allowing for people to have a limited use on things that are copyrighted. This includes uses such as for news reporting, education, research, criticism, and other things. However, just because your use falls into one of these categories doesn't mean you're automatically given free-reigns to pull the fair use card. To fall under fair use, your purpose of using the content must match four categories: 1) Is it being used to make money or any other forms of business or not? 2) It sometimes depends on the kind of copyrighted material actually is. 3) How much/what portion of the work you're actually using. 4) How/how much your use of the copyrighted material will affect its value or how much the owner could potentially make on it.
If your purpose checks out okay with all of these points, then you're most likely good to go. And as we discuss here and portray in our interactive remix of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, you can potentially use or remix certain materials for good, even educational purposes--even to educate about copyright.
OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE:
Remix has the potential to be a powerful tool for educators. Remix can present a subject matter that might otherwise be uninteresting to a student. It can generate interest in a topic in a flashy and interesting way. It can serve as a tool for summary, parody, or analysis. Our original goal was to remix the original story of Frankenstein with the goal of generating interest in Mary Shelly's original classic novel. By doing this we hoped to show a positive use for remix.
Twenty years ago, getting published was a major undertaking. One had to go through tens of gate keepers: editors and publishers, producers and managers. It took weeks to go from creation to execution and even still, there was little guarantee anyone would have access to it. Today, we publish things several times every day. Everything that goes from our brains to the internet is considered published. With such power at our finger tips, the world of copyright has never before been so controversial.
The purpose of our project was to present copyright issues in an interesting and creative way that would interest a target audience of 13-30 years old. Despite the ease at which copyright is broken, very little education is given to these ages. In truth, copyright is more than under attack, but under change. One side sees a world where the elite create and the public watch. The other side believes in a society where creativity builds upon each creation. The world of fan fiction and remix. The price of such creativity, however, is the violation of copyright laws.
Our Frankenstein project metaphorically presents these two sides in a way we hope will allow the users themselves to develop their own opinion.
REMIX:
Remix is a growing industry that doesn't always have a good reputation with higher institutions of learning or with copyright issues. We wanted to address both of these issues in our group project. We created a remix of a classic novel (Frankenstein) that is inviting, educational, and entertaining. In the flash animation video the player gets to choose different remix genres to put together their own monster. The very last thing the player can choose to do is to kill the misunderstood (remix) monster or to allow the creation to run free. This ending is paired with a blog that gives insight and information on remix and copyright to inform the player about the complexities of the issues facing remix creativity. Our purpose in using remix is to renew interest in literature and to inform about the issues surrounding the remix culture.
COPYRIGHT/ FAIR USE:
Often working against the idea of remix is copyright. Copyright is a law that gives the original creator of a work the exclusive rights to reproduce that work, and determine who else may use and reproduce that work. Imagine that you work for hours on a paper for school and post it on Digital Dialogue. When you gather together as a class to critique each others' work, you find that other students in the class have taken parts of your paper and put them into their own paper, some changing it slightly, some using it word for word, but not citing your paper in any way. How would you feel? Most of us seem to agree situations such as this or plagiarism are wrong, so why do we often forget copyright? Though these two things aren't exactly the same, they do both involve the same principles: using someone else's work--and legally protected work, in the case of copyright--without permission. So to hardcore copyright believers, remix is often an abomination.
The mediator between these two words is fair use. Fair use puts some restriction and limitation on the exclusivity of copyright, allowing for people to have a limited use on things that are copyrighted. This includes uses such as for news reporting, education, research, criticism, and other things. However, just because your use falls into one of these categories doesn't mean you're automatically given free-reigns to pull the fair use card. To fall under fair use, your purpose of using the content must match four categories: 1) Is it being used to make money or any other forms of business or not? 2) It sometimes depends on the kind of copyrighted material actually is. 3) How much/what portion of the work you're actually using. 4) How/how much your use of the copyrighted material will affect its value or how much the owner could potentially make on it.
If your purpose checks out okay with all of these points, then you're most likely good to go. And as we discuss here and portray in our interactive remix of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, you can potentially use or remix certain materials for good, even educational purposes--even to educate about copyright.
OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE:
Remix has the potential to be a powerful tool for educators. Remix can present a subject matter that might otherwise be uninteresting to a student. It can generate interest in a topic in a flashy and interesting way. It can serve as a tool for summary, parody, or analysis. Our original goal was to remix the original story of Frankenstein with the goal of generating interest in Mary Shelly's original classic novel. By doing this we hoped to show a positive use for remix.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Another post from the evolution of the project
Monster Mash
I am so crazy excited for our project that we just launched the proposal for. I feel like it will be great to collaborate with all of the people that are in the group to turn out an amazing project. I've been looking at remix projects of Frankenstein online and found a review for the app that Dr. Burton showed in class: http://www.salon.com/2012/04/30/frankenstein_remixed_salpart/. Laura Miller hit home when she said, "The app is a creative, subtle and sensitive adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novella, and it has singlehandedly renewed this critic’s hopes for interactive fiction."
I also found a website that lists every appearence that Frankenstein has made in today's films, commercials, cartoons, songs: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/19810. It is incredible detailed question and answer sequence where I learned a ton of very interesting facts. One of the remixes of Frankenstein caught my attention in particular.
"Q: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was spurred on by a natural disaster. Dean Koontz updated the story in a series that began in 2004. What natural disaster served to stall his Frankenstein series at Book Two?
A: Hurricane Katrina. In the book, Dr. Frankenstein is a present-day New Orleans resident. Koontz had to start over on Book Three after the flood, and has apparently struggled in his attempts to incorporate the real-life tragedy into the story. The third book was initially due in 2006, and fans are hopeful that the revised publication date of this third book – sometime in 2009 – will hold true."
There is a whole fan fiction side to Frankenstein that I had no idea about. Now I am more excited to start working on the project to give a more fleshed out and true to lit form of Frankenstein that hasn't been seen in a while. Read through some of the articles I've posted and watch the monster mash up video. It will be a scream.
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