Something I have never experienced before. That was Literature and Other Arts for me this year. I have spent three years in college as an English major and not once have I taken a course with such a wide material base or that integrated so many skills. While occasionally having  such a wide open platform to deal with left me out in space, by the end I was  happily orbiting a galaxy of my creative content.  The unconventional nature, laidback atmosphere, and beta-esque style of both the course and Dr. Anderson allowed me to take the creative  power I as an English major and channel it into something that was not dictated for me. I became a broadcaster, a movie producer, a comedian, and a student. While occasionally the course was challenging in a technical sense, learning HTML or splicing together a podcast, I ultimately found that the technicality of subject can lead to enlightenment just as the content or the analysis of the content. I hope you enjoy my work, I have certainly enjoyed the class! You may reach any of my pages by either clicking on the image of the page or by selecting it from the menu on the left.

Hip-hop is the music of my generation. I know this because my grandparents hate Pink Floyd and thus my parents hate Young Jeezy. The podcast gave me an opportunity to attack a subject matter academics usually avoid. I had the opportunity to take MY music and scrutinize and modify all for a grade, its an empowering experience to take elements of your real life into you academic life.

I felt as if hip-hop had taken a shift in recent years. Moving from the chains, whips, pussy, and weed it had reveled in for so long toward a post-industrial, self-examining malaise. Hip-hop in my opinion finally overdosed on materialism and reached its apex  for over-masculine bravado.  This peaking led hip-hop to self adjust both in terms of sound and in terms of content. I was able to capture both of these phenomena in my podcast and my media page by allowing people both to hear the music and to read the lyrics. All in all this was probably my favorite assignment.

Below is my audio essay!

  Working with video was difficult. It took me over 6-8 hours to create a small film that only runs for 12 minutes. This project, however, did teach me perseverance and ultimately I am proud of my creation. To return once again to my cover letter, this specific project allowed me to bring my real life into my academic career. Both Moon and 2001 are favorite movies of mine and  the opportunity to discuss them for a grade is both a little scary and entirely empowering. Beyond the difficult technical nature I found that working with video is a completely different beast because you are responsible not only for what the audiences hears but also what they see. As an English major I am generally responsible for one thing, the words you read here. But the alternate task of creating an environment for the audience is multiple media certainly pushed me in a direction that I have never gone before, into space I had not yet explored (every pun intended). Thank you again!

Below is my video essay, enjoy!

} The photo essay was easy in a technical sense when compared to the video essay or podcast, however, it also led to the most complex insights of the course for me. While examining the millions of photos on Flcker I found myself drawn to pictures of older rusted ships and also ships that had been broken down for parts. Once I had collected a gallery of these older ships I began to find their contrast, new luxury ships. Slowly this project brought about the realization that all of the older ships were cargo ships and transports and the new ships were service based and cruise ships. This then lead to the epihphany that America’s economy has experienced a similar trend, with the old “working” structure being pushed out and the new “service” structure replacing it. It may seem like a distant connection, however, this type of open ended assignment really allowed me to make interesting and  sometimes esoteric connections such as this.

  There were several smaller assignments throughout the semester that helped to break up the larger pieces of work. The montage I found to be a great starter and an introduction to the course. The You’ve Got Voice assignment taught me microphone technique and also that MOST people do not like the sound of their own voice (including me), and how I could fix that. The parody  image assignment was fun although not entirely educational, since there was no direct subject or required elements the assignment felt slight loose and undirected. In contrast to that the Favorite Photo assignment felt firmer and I enjoyed both selecting and arguing about my choices. Below is a gallery of that work (also featuring some of my blog postings and an audio player featuring my poetry readings!

PS Some of these images will lead you directly to my postings or my blog entries by clicking on them! Enjoy!

I hope that you have enjoyed the content I have created, I certainly enjoyed making it. If you have any questions or comments you may contact me through Facebook via Corbin Haresnape or via the Teachmix.com website. Thank you again for your time and attention and GO Tar Heels!