Entrance

Summary of week 1

This is about the weekly summary which regular students of ds106 http://ds106.us/ are obliged to do to gain some grading. As an open participant I am not, yet, may decide it is not just useful for grading issues but to get out most of the great opportunity I am given here for free.

My motivation to participate to this open online digital storytelling course is a keen interest in all about media and art. As an artist without any degree I always feel I have to learn more, because all the guys with a degree know so much more than I do, at leas they have a kind of insider knowledge I wouldn't have. I hope I may gain some of this hidden knowledge here.

Alan Levine http://cogdogblog.com/ as the instructor of Digital Storytelling provided material for the first week, which should be reflected on. I am most occupied with the "Ten rules for students and teachers from John Cage" (Why not "by John Cage?").
I think they are great in this context where students and teachers have to communicate in a certain way. Then again I know John Cage as a person who loved making rules, even to produce art, and often advised other to follow these rules. I don't know anything about in which way he dealed with given rules. How to make knew rules when following the old ones?

 I was pretty impressed by the TEDxPhoenix talk with Kelli Anderson about “Disruptive Wonder”
However, I did not find out what the "Disruptive Wonder" means. Maybe this is a language issue (I am a German native speaker). The last project the video introduces is about a newspaper with positive coverage and advertisements which may appear in the future (buying a wind turbine with domestic dimensions). Maybe to some people this feels disruptive. I personally already live in a world like this, at least in my inside, which by the way often feels disruptive to the people around me. I guess it is a kind of visionary thinking some people do not feel comfortable with.

The video about ideas (Stephen Johnson on Where Ideas Come From) I already knew but I interpreted it new in the storytelling context. It is quite interesting how the little drawings one connected to the other. This illustrates one message of the video that is to say that ideas are connected via people/ teams/ institutions and history (time).

Last but not least there was the video on what art is with Robert Hughes what art is with Robert Hughes. I think you have to see it historically in any way. War is a horrible experience. The negative reaction to this in the world of art I would not condemn. Then again I can understand Robert Hughes critique in his time. People needed something positive to go on and had to let heal the wounds after they have nursed them thoroughly.

I really had fun with this weeks ds106. I loved the dailycreate option as an inspiration but I know I should keep track of my own ideas, too. I had a conversation with an instructor about technical issues and this is new to me in MOOC's, which are usually far more impersonal. It was troubling to set up all these pages, but this may serve me well in the future. I love watching that my blog was visited not just by me but by others as well, which is an effect of the ds106 organisation. All in all "THANK YOU DS106" :)