It's a new term.

(It's a new term, only my second as Assistant Professor. I have decided to dedicate more time and energy to blogging, like I once did to my personal blog at my last institution. I use blogs as a space for personal reflection, class discussion, distribution for media that I make, and as a repository for links, videos, news items, or things that I want to revisit or show others.

This term I am teaching two courses: Advanced Videography and Media Stories in the Digital Age. I am asking my students to keep their own blogs as part of those courses. For teaching and learning, I use blogs, either one large blog with all the students posting to one site, or as individual blogs that are linked as a community through the "follow" option on this site. This term I am having students keep their own blogs. They have some assigned posts where they share reading reflections, responses to videos they watch, a space to post links to media that they like, and as a space to share the projects that they make for class.

For "Videography," students use their blogs as visual journals, as discussed in their first reading (chapter 4) in on of their text book's Cinematography for Directors. For their first assignment, I have them gather images that are visually compelling - things that speak to them. In class we talked a little bit about aesthetics, style and film form. They are looking for light, framing, composition, color, etc... that's coming in their next reading in their other text, Grammar of the Shot.

For "Media Stories," students have to do a self-portrait or some visual or auditory representation of themselves. I've linked them (on our private course e-learning site), to lots of examples of self-portraits by artists like Vivian Wen Li, long portraits on YouTube and Vimeo, self portraits on Vimeo, and a few other examples. This assignment is due Tuesday but one student posted his already!

I hope that I can (once again) be an active blogger because using my old blog became a way for me to really connect with folks with similar interests. I think that I stopped blogging because of the dissertation writing process (it's extremely stressful and isolating), and when I returned to "the world" I was "connected" to so many people through facebook. But, there is only so much that I really want to know about people I went to high school with (and what they've cooked for dinner). So, I'm less on FB and back on the blog tip --- fingers crossed!

My goal is to post (most) assignments, along with my students... so here's my (first) long portrait:

Dr. R's long portrait, January 18, 2010, 7:12 am

According to this vimeo member, a long portrait is,

"A long portrait is exactly like it sounds, a portrait that is long. It's like a photo of someone, but stretched out in video form to show the person's small expressions, mannerisms and gestures."

I woke up this morning, took a shower, got dressed, sat down at my home office desk, turned on a single lamp that was slightly pointed toward my laptop and opened photo booth. I decided to try a "long portrait" because it's something I'd never done. I'd never tried to just sit and stare while the computer's camera recorded me. I've used the webcam before but always with a purpose - chatting with a friend, recording a clip for a video, taking snapshots of my kids and I being silly for facebook. It was a strange experience, I had trouble sitting still (even for just a thirty second clip). I also wanted to keep my eyes fixed but I didn't. Before I clicked record I told myself to just look down. But I didn't. My eyes sort of dart around. I also felt like I had to do something, so I put on my glasses. Most people never see me without them. I guess overall, even just for the half a minute recording this clip, I felt exposed. And now, I decide to post it on this blog to share this discomfort over and over again. Identity is strange in (web)space.