Week 3: HTML – Grace Currier

http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~gmc439/Wk2_html/

This website was definitely a labor of love. I dedicated so many hours to making a product that I was proud of. I’ve never coded before, nor do I have any prior experience with CSS, so this process was one of mostly trial and error. The background picture is one that I took, and I wanted to showcase a photo that I took because it is something that I’m very passionate about. I had extreme difficulty getting the flexboxes to work in my favor, but I eventually figured out the root of the problem. I also wanted to make them a sort of gradient, from light to dark, while maintaining a similar color palette to the background picture. The header also took a very long time; I spent many hours trying to align the text and center it within the header. Regardless of how long it took me to complete, I’m very proud of the final product. 

Week 2: Combining Three Images – Grace Currier

I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to use photoshop, combine images, add layers, rotate them, edit them, etc. It was a difficult process but I am very proud of the final product. It may not look like it took a lot of time, but there were many failed attempts and long hours prior to completion of the final product. I wanted to combine mediums (photography and graphic illustration) because I think combining 2- and 3D images creates something really unique. 

Week 2: “The Medium is the Message” Reading Response – Grace Currier

The underlying message in Marshall McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Message” is that the medium through which a thought, idea, opinion, or belief is viewed directly impacts how one might react or behave. A message conveyed through different forms of media may yield different reactions based on its audience.  He delves very deep into the idea that with the emergence of modern technology, our reactions are no longer black and white, but vary across a spectrum depending on the medium. Prior to the ‘electric age’, many only considered the content of the medium rather than the medium itself. However, now it is much more easier understood that the medium is in fact, the message. He states that “people retained some sense of the whole pattern, of form and function as a unity.” Form and function are in fact, one cohesive unit, as one without the other is incomplete and ineffective in conveying a particular message.