Please visit my website at: www.cs.trinity.edu/~ksilva

www.cs.trinity.edu/~ksilva

Making my own website was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I used Expression Webs to help with my website's HTML coding. I am most happy with the design and layout of my navbar. I used a picture of a poleroid online and edited in my own photographs using Photoshop. I would have liked to have made my photographs framed so that they didn't look like they were floating ontop of the background. I had a difficult time figuring out how to link the pages to each other, but once I understood the coding on Expression webs It became easy. my biggest design challenge was picking photographs that displayed my own artwork and other artists artwork well. I am glad I know the basics of HTML coding because I would eventually like to publish my own professional website for my artwork.

Larry Hechler Class Talk

Computer maintenance of your hardware is extremely important to ensure the safety of your work and lifespan of your personal computer. Larry Hechler shared some tips in class about saving work and prolonging the lifespan of your computer. Mr. Hechler pressed the importance of saving and backing up work on an external hard drive. Once a hard drive dies, it cannot be recovered. As for cleaning computers, it is important that you do not spray anything on the LCD panel or keyboard, especially not ammonia or acetone. lap tops have a vent in the back of the keyboard that should never be covered by placing the laptop on blankets or pillows. this vent functions to keep the computer from over heating. If I were to purchase a new computer, I would buy a DEL with a warranty plan. Mr. Hechler let us know that the warranty plan will replace the computer up to 4 years if it should incur any damage.

my own Photoshop creation

I chose to manipulate a photograph I found on the web of people swimming in the ocean. A friend of mine posted this photo on her blog and I chose to use it because it was an interesting black and white image with lots of negative space that I could fill with another form. I manipulated it by inserting a shark below the people swimming. If my photoshoped image was published it could be harmful because it portrays a fake shark in shallow waters where people usually swim. The image I manipulated shows how photoshop can be unethical and lie to the viewer, just as my article I found discussed.

Photo-integrity

 "digital photo manipulation -- commonly referred to as 'photoshopping' -- has recently become a popular pastime, and many consider this photographic fakery to be a new art form. But when it works its way into photojournalism and the media, the issue of ethics comes to the forefront. How far can we take digital image manipulation and still maintain photographic integrity?"

Larry Gross, John Stuart Katz, Jay Ruby. Image Ethics in the Digital Age. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c2003.


This quote pulled from an article in the presents the issue of photoshop ethics.

Power Point Presentations

Overall I am happy with my power point presentation on becoming a museum curator. I wish that I had added more animation and sound to make the presentation more engaging. I am glad that I learned how to insert a video clip in one of my slides because that is a tool that I can use later for other presentations. I enjoyed watching Langston's power point presentation because his custom animations he added were very helpful when he was describing plate tectonic movements. I thought his class presentation was very professional and easy to follow. I also enjoyed Laura's presentation because it had interesting graphics and she discussed an important topic of how the media may be a corrupting force. I enjoyed this assignment because it was interesting to see what other students are interested in and what career paths they would like to take.

Chris Nolan's Presentation

Chris Nolan discussed search methods online, and I found it to be very helpful to be able to learn how to recognise quality information online by wording and site type. google is currently the most used search engine on the Internet, so we used google for in class practice. The right hand column of google is the business advertisements area, and where google makes its money. the top results that come up from a google search are chosen by common words and how popular a link is. the top links have high relevance because many people have used those sites. It is also important to take into account the type of sites that come up. .org sites are usually not selling products on their sites because they represent an organization. .edu is a higher education site. key things to assess when choosing a site are author, publisher, intended purpose/audience, objectivity/bias, substantiation for claims, and date of information.