Reflective Blog Post #5 - Responding to Editorial Boards

Hello blog! Hello fellow classmates! It's been a long time since I've told y'all 'bout what's goin' on up in here, so let's get right into it.

First off, making the call for papers:

As most of you know, the third make cycle entails getting into groups known as "editorial boards" and writing calls for papers. Of the prepared topics, "creativity" interested me the most, so I elected to be on that board. I was put in a group with Sean, Christian, and John - all good men and true, I might add. We struggled with how to write our call for papers. We couldn't just say, "Write about creativity." It had to be personal and more specific. I can't remember which member exactly suggested the idea of drawing inside of squares - I think it was Christian, but don't quote me on that. The idea was that the responding writer would draw inside the squares whatever they wanted (using vague geometry provided inside each square) and explain how they came up with their drawings. Then they would try to articulate what it said about them as creative people. We originally were going to have nine squares, but we found it a bit unreasonable, so we brought it down to four.

This, I think, offered a challenge with great freedom in figuring out how to beat it. Still, it wasn't quite right - as open-ended as it was, some people may have found that the project required a bit too much from them. It was decided that the four-square idea was only a strong suggestion - the writer could reflect on their own creativity however they wanted. Even more open-ended, but still inviting insight.

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Notes written while we made this call for papers:

The guys want to do a weird visual creativity art chart or something. Is that allowed for this assignment? What if that’s outside the format?

Nah, Lacy’s a free thinker. She’ll be cool wit it.

Now we think that the table might demotivate people.

Imagination Table - draw in these boxes and tell how the drawings/their structure defines you as a creator

The Imagination Table might be imposing, making people conform to a format that they’re not comfortable with. It could also be seen as real cool and hip. Most people know how to write an essay better than drawing stuff, though.

3 boxes instead of 9?

4.

Draw around the shapes in the four boxes and a brief description (a paragraph or so) of what you drew in the boxes and how it relates to your personality.
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Writing my own responses:

I'm a lazy guy. I admit I saw a few calls for papers that turned me off immediately just because they required a modicum of work and dedication. I just found some stuff I had thought about and could share thoughts on - these being beauty and creativity, both very human subjects.

So, having chosen these two subjects to write about, I... wrote about them.

Not much to talk about here. I don't write with much preparation - at least, not for subjects I can talk about off the cuff. Not much documentation, either. There's a webcam video of me writing the paper on progressing technology - that was an hour that I edited down to 13 minutes or so. The Murray cards helped me a lot with the progressing technology paper. I was forced to come up with ideas when writing them - these ideas became several topics brought up in the actual paper.

So that was real cool.

The beauty one was a bit harder since I'm not personally affected by society's "beauty" as much as, say, a girl in college. I hope it doesn't show much. Perhaps I had something insightful to say, perhaps not. I tried my best, darn it all!

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Notes in Daybook on deciding which call to respond to:

The call about human beauty intrigues me. I'm not sure I have much new to add, but I could contribute.

The technology advancements is another likely candidate to write for. Videos obviously [sentence unfinished]

The empathy one might be good too, although I don't know how much I could talk about my lack of empathy.

Murray Cards:

1. It's a more open-ended, personal call for papers - just write about a technology most important to you.
So, it'll be easy, methinks.
I've been using a computer almost daily for almost a decade now. Maybe I could bring that up.
Mom's old VHS camera.
The Cyber-Shot point-and-shoot (accurate term? meaningful in anyway)
CoolPix point-and-shoot, Sanyo Xacti, JVC
YouTube

2. I didn't think about bringing up YouTube until I wrote it on that card. YouTube certainly is a technological advancement of video. Sure, it's not the first and only such service, but it's come to epitomize the "everyone can make videos" ideal, even providing some with a livelihood. I didn't plan on limiting the advancements I discuss to video, but with so much innovation in that subject, maybe I will.

3. I could do a cool parallel development thing.
Describing general advancements in motion picture and simultaneously describing the progression of cameras I've had.
Tripods!
I can't believe this is working. I'm done now, there's nothing more to say.

4. What would a scientist or technician say? Probably something more general and insightful, offering a perspective on the wide history of human technology that I've never considered before.
But I'm more narrow-minded, so, I'm going with movies 'cause they're pretty, dur-hurr.
Alas, my interests are few and my contemplations therefore limited.

5. (a drawing of a camera from 1890s, a camera from the 1950s, and a modern camcorder)

6. The third card is me fave, mate. It provides a very solid, interesting idea for at least part of my paper. I almost chose the first card as the best, but there's nothing there I wouldn't have thought of anyway. The third card is innovative and useful for the assignment.
Jeez Louise, 7 minutes? [referring to the time suggested for writing this card]
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More notes:

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I'm writing about the technological progression of motion picture. The article I found is an interview with Chris Nolan about film versus digital. In my writing, I already brought up the switch from film to digital, although I didn't express certainty about how the switch is affecting the big-time moviemakers of the Western World. I should use the Nolan interview and probably another, contrasting interview with a moviemaker to give an accurate idea of how the big-budget element of the industry is changing instead of just saying, "I dunno."
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Like I said, I don't prepare much before writing something lengthy as an essay. I gather knowledge about the topic beforehand if I must, and then I go on a ramble for an hour or so. I don't even proofread or edit myself - I rely on my good grade record with writing essays to hope I structured it well and wrote succinctly and insightfully. I talked about this a bit with others in the G+ community on the 1103 Writes page, but better yet, I made a video of myself doing it! It was an hour long video originally, but I only left in the important bits.