Projects

Fall 2007: Student Projects
“New Media Literacies & Popular Culture”

I. Experimental Video | Short Documentary | Fictional Film

Alan – “Boiling Point” >>
Betsy – “Oppees to Appan” >>
Fiona – “Challenging Gender” >>
Michael – “Politics, War, and Aftermath” >>
Ryann – “Black Woman’s Revenge” >>

II. Interactive Media | Website | Blog | Wiki | Zine

Jess – “Asian American Film” >>
Katie – “Third Term” >>
Ly – (NML writing project) >>
Valerie – “Immigration” >>
Wyndam – “Gay Experience at University” >>

Interested in more? Visit our blogs >>

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Project Descriptions (links above)

• “Asian American Film” — This website/blog offers a forum for Asian American filmmaking to explore the tensions between different aspects of representation, gender, history, and memory. It is intended to be a space where anyone concerned with the reconstruction and reification of fictionalized histories in film can discuss how Asian American media can be subversive in the mainstream. And perhaps, for the prejudices of the past, this can also be a space in which to find justice and resolution.
• “Black Woman’s Revenge” — This experimental video is in response to the negative images of Black women in the media. It stems from a discussion by Dr. Carla Stokes, founder of HOTGIRLS (Helping Our Teen Girls In Real Life Situations), on the need for more positive images to influence both young girls and others about the vibrancy of Black women. This video begins with negative, degrading and misogynistic images and shifts toward a more complete and accurate portrayal of Black women. The only way to stop bad images is to fight them with positive ones.
• “Boiling Point” — This fictional film attempts to tackle incidents that continue to haunt Asian Americans today while provoking the audience to explore the origin, progression, and possible solutions to destructive acts of expression. The project was initially inspired by the unexplained disappearance and death of a Stanford graduate student, Mengyao Zhou, in January of 2007 and the subsequent lack of media coverage. Conflicting details about the case emerged, yet whether or not it was a suicide or homicide is yet to be decided. Later in the year, the Virginia Tech killings occurred, and the public was inundated by images and sensationalistic coverage of the event. In the two cases, the media represented both these Asian Americans as repressed and lonely.
• “Challenging Gender”
• “Gay Experience at University” — This website examines gay life at university through the eyes of four gay men. It looks at the stigma still attached to the homosexual lifestyle on college campuses. It also examines the home life of the subjects, their coming out, their views on the gay rights movement, and more. Through written and audio narratives (podcasts), the audience can see and hear how life at college can vary not only from sexual orientation-to-sexual orientation, but also merely from person-to-person. Resources and other links to support networks are also available.
• “Immigration”
• (NML writing project) — This website addresses the dominant ideology espoused by most modern, popular, fictive media via the online display of themed, collaborative works with other fiction writers. As cultural anthropologist, Mizuko Ito, has written, ““The Imaginary [...] refuses to be contained within the sanctioned networks and contact points of mainstream industrialists marketing hegemonic narratives.” Writer represented on this site have reinterpreted, subverted, and transgressed the privilege granted to those narratives by coding minority experiences onto mainstream characters and evolving their narratives into something representative of the often overlooked stories of ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. This writing is an outlet to address mass media popular discourse through individual creativity.
• “Oppees to Appan”
• “Politics, War, and Aftermath”
• “Third Term” — This interactive zine represents average folks resisting every day by being themselves and refusing to fit neatly into a prescribed positions. It is a shout-out to those who put themselves and those in their lives out there for us to work with through their assignation of a Creative Commons license to these productions. Images are not always pretty, but they all have something to say. The pictures and videos in this zine are designated for others to continue the conversation. They focus primarily on representations of Asian Americans, but will be expanded to include other groups.