Individual Evaluation

The project my group and I have created is a stop motion animation with inspiration from a song. The song we chose was “Dance Dance Dance” by the Swedish band Lykke Li. The idea for our project was to tell a story based on the lyrical context introduced in the melody. When evaluating the project in accordance to our proposal it is comparatively close to what I had hoped it to become. With the lyrics in mind, we wanted to create an artistic piece by adding our theoretical knowledge through the use of appropriate equipment and software. The purpose was to remediate the lyrics into actions. As there was no specific story to tell other than portraying the lyrics in a creative way, the final presentation of the project proves this.

Because the lyrics entail both a concrete and abstract meaning, it allowed us to explore a range of possible outcomes for our project. The finished product reflects our awareness of topics mentioned during lectures and seminars. In our suggested proposal we had a varied range of inspirations, finally deciding to explore concrete poetry, typomania and semiotics for the animation. We also made use of the song itself as a source of creativity for the development of the animation. Although we have applied much theory from this specific module, one of the project’s weaknesses is that it lacks research and depth from other modules. Our focus was within Digital Media Foundations, thereby possibly missing a scope that could have improved the final result.

We have gained much knowledge on the history of concrete poetry and its original purposes. Maria introduced my group members and I to some books, giving us a more historical understanding of concrete poetry. This was helpful in gaining a perspective of the different contexts concrete typography has been used before. Prior to the proposal writing, we watched some lyrics videos on YouTube for inspiration as well. This shows that concrete poetry has not resigned in value despite being in use for centuries.

The expectations of what we thought we could produce were probably slightly unrealistic due to some of the avant-garde inspirations we had watched prior to creating our own project. Even though the project itself might look simple, it has taken countless hours to produce. Admitting that it doesn’t look particularly advanced, this doesn’t affect who we have considered to be our target group, notably those who are interested in this specific musical genre. However, we also noted in our proposal that we also wished to reach out to people who appreciated creative works. Seeing that our finished product is supposed to be a portrayal of our imaginative abilities, it might not live up to the expectations of this particular target group. Due to lack of time we had to develop the project, we needed to limit our own anticipations of what we would be able to produce. However, I think we’ve managed to take an initial idea and developing it into an original concept.

The narrative of the project has definitely made the development of the project easier than expected. Because we based the animation upon the lyrics, we just needed to make the music and images correlate to one another. When it comes to reading the media, I think we’ve made sure it’s comprehendible for every person willing to watch it. It demonstrates much knowledge gained from this particular module, whilst allowing those who may not spend their time being digital to understand the project. 

Despite the simplicity of what we have produced, we could have chosen an even more concrete approach. Because we wanted to create an animation purely with digital tools, we have developed great insight in combing both theory and practice. Applying much of what has been taught during our workshops combined with lectures and personal research, we have been able to achieve what we wished. This entails a better understanding of the software introduced in this module and ability to work successfully within a group.