Project 3

Website Link: http://misenhart4.wix.com/wrtgproject3

Poetics:

I am an organized person. Thus, I tried to create a relatively thought-out layout and overall design. I did incorporate collage/mashup effects, as well in order to convey the overall composite nature of my personality and identity. The most organized layout was the professional persona page, since that a characteristic with that part of my identity. The plural persona included some overlap as that part of my identity is shaped through interaction with others. I sampled from all 4 databases and did so through use of some of my own pictures, by creating a gif and memes, and sampling such materials from online to create a representation of my identity. I also chose to use some galleries because I often click through galleries online, and it was an effective organizational tool.

I chose to separate the project in the pages entitled Private Persona, Public Persona, Plural Persona and Professional Networked Persona since I realized that those are four areas of my identity that I enact. There are things that I partake in online which I don’t share, which I share but still relate to me as an individual, activities that have influenced my identity but through interaction with other people, as well as the identity that I would classify as professional which my professors are readers of my applications for various positions see. I also included links in a specific manner. The private persona is very isolated, so does not have a link. The public and plural persona pages are linked because related in that they represent my identity that I share with others. I included a link to the plural persona page on the professional network page because there have been cases in which I know that a potential employer or someone looking at me as a candidate for professional will see my digital traces that are social (and not strictly professional). I did however keep the menu bar because I myself can access any facet of my digital identity at a given time. Additionally, the Professional Networked Persona includes a quote as my professional digital identity is also definitely molded by text.

I included music across those three main pages because music will always be a part of my life. The music I chose is very personal, as they are recordings of the concert band that I play in here at CU. They are therefore digital traces of identity which have spanned all angles of my persona. I did attempt to select music that demonstrated the mood of the page it is on.

Overall, most of the elements included represent Electracy in that they attempt to portray emotions or sensations not readily conveyed through an essay, as in Literacy.

Reflection:

Some insights that I gained from composing this project include the realization that a lot of my experiences have been mediated and captured through technology. Sampling from my personal entertainment database definitely proves that I identity with a lot of avatars and characters in shows or characters on the internet. Furthermore, even my autobiographical, real-world experiences were mediated in that they were captured as photographs and then shared in a manner that conveyed an identity, such as “traveler”. I have made some of these representations public through social media, though I also keep many more photos private. Community also has become an increasing aspect of my life, though. This is perhaps due to the phenomenon of social media which facilitates the gathering of groups of people. Maintaining those ties has shaped my digital identity. My life would be very different if I hadn’t kept in touch with certain friends and family who no longer live in Colorado through social media or email. Additionally, I realize that my academic/professional identity is mostly personal and private, though my presence online in non-professional capacities may be accessed by employers of those evaluating my candidacy for professional school. This may provide insight about a condition of Electracy. The increasing ease of sharing aspects of our lives makes privacy the exception instead of the norm. This also means that a lot of our identity can be networked and influenced by others instead of being strictly a singular creation. The apparatus of Electracy, therefore, appears to be a bit more complex than that of Orality or Literacy. The internet is probably the closest thing to an institution for Electracy; however, this project made it clear that I construct my digital identity is elsewhere, as well (such as in text messages, television and movies). The things I included also made me realize that there are internally-generated aspects to my digital identity personality (such as my compulsion to organize, why I relate to certain characters, etc.) These traits were harder to convey, though.

It was much easier to convey a sense of self through an affective and aesthetic approach as opposed to using a quantified approach (using things that are fully comprehended through “Machine Vision”). Humans are complex, so there are emotions and context embedded in the components that I included in the project that only I will fully understand. Through this project, I therefore came to a more thorough understanding of why the only way to grasp every nuance of an activity or experience is to live it-not to reconstruct it through application of Dataism, or even obtaining capta. Dataism, even capta, will not recreate the moments we live. Those experiences are so powerful because they are not fully reproducible. Thus, they shape our sense of self. To convey a sense of sense of self through a screen self-portrait meant attempting to bridge Dataism and aesthetic. The more I included, the more comprehensive the self-representation became.

One other conclusion that was gained from this project was that various forms of knowledge (scientific, social, sensory, religious) all contribute to how we view the world and the identities that we assume. These are not necessarily separate components of the world. Instead, they blend together to uniquely mold our entities.

Photo and video credits:

Discovery photo: rebuildcreditscores.com

lonely robot innerconflicts.com

parent trap gif http://giphy.com/gifs/disney-sister-wZXb2uGZrEVfG

Switched at birth gif: source-youtube.com

Caring/Adoption www.isiahfactor.com

Apples to apples boardgamegeek.com

Buelle Theatredenver.eventful.com

monk gif http://giphy.com/gifs/jennifer-lawrence-gif-144X1yAX3yw8Xm

psychiatrist gif http://giphy.com/gifs/dance-images-laugh-z0gyp60FssbkY

praying hands: www.coolchaser.com

Christmas presents happyholidays2016.com