For week 1 of #prisoner106, we were to introduce ourselves to our fellow Villagers via Twitter, Soundcloud, Flickr, and YouTube. Three out of four ain’t bad? I had everything except the video done, but was also working on an audio project for #burgeron106 at the same time. So much storytelling, so little time!
This post will not only serve as my introductions to my fellow Villagers, but also my week 1 review.
Introductions
I have signed up for #prisoner106 as the Village philosopher (click the link to see my ID card, embedded in an earlier blog post). The video I am working on will explain a bit of the backstory there, and a narrative about why I resigned (apparently I am to provide INFORMATION, so it will be there).
Image introduction
My image introduction is in the form of a postcard I made during my first week at the Village. I wanted to show how wonderfully relaxing it is here, and to let my friends back home know they should resign too!
You can’t tell from the picture, but I really am philosophizing here. I’m thinking about how great it is to resign, and coming up with all manner of good arguments for resigning. Because I’m told I will have to soon provide such INFORMATION. See how happy I am philosophizing? Don’t I look relaxed?
The process
I uploaded the background image into GIMP, then used the text tool and the Village font I had already installed from dafont.com.
But it was a bit hard to see the text over the image, so I added some backgrounds behind the text. I first created a new layer (transparent), then used the rectangular select tool to make a rectangle. Then I used the bucket tool to fill the rectangle with colour, and adjusted the transparency of the layer so you could still see through the background onto the image.
I did all three rectangular backgounds behind the text that way, but I did them all on the same layer. That meant that when I adjusted the transparency of one, it adjusted all the others the same. Lesson learned for next time.
Another lesson: when I did the rectangular selection and used the bucket fill tool, I was colouring right on the layer and couldn’t move those rectangular backgrounds without moving the whole layer. I need to think about how I might do this later so that I could move the text background rectangles separately. Maybe make separate layers and crop them.
Audio introduction
In this clip you can hear me move from a focus on Socratic examination of one’s life, to questioning such questioning, to, well, assimilation in the Village. I have assimilated quite well, I think.
Incidentally, the image I uploaded to Soundcloud was of one of the prisoner106 badges. It’s kind of cool all pixelated like this.
the process
This one was pretty easy. I scripted what I was going to say, recorded it into Audacity, and then added the two music tracks. I purposefully wanted the first one to sound creepy, like I was starting to slide away from my usual philosophical views and begin to question them, to see them as possibly strange, possibly sinister. Then, as I began to assimilate I wanted things to sound brighter and happier. Like they do, right?
Twitter introduction
Well, for this I am just embedding some tweets about my audio introduction…
Week 1 reflections
Watching The Prisoner
Unbelievably, I had never heard of this show before #prisoner106. I am really intrigued by it.
One thing that stands out to me is that each episode starts off as if anew. I honestly thought, when I started the second episode (the second in our list on the archive, which is “free for all”), that I had accidentally clicked on the first one again because it started off exactly the same. Number Six resigns again, he is gassed again, he wakes up in the Village again.
The only thing that changes in this opening sequence is Number 2: there is a new Number 2 each episode. But the first few lines said by Number 2 are always the same, the same conversation with Number 6.
What to make of this choice by the show’s creators? One thing is does is more or less get rid of the idea of a linear story arc. There is no single beginning and progression from there. It all starts again, and again, and again, in the same way, with different people in charge.
Okay, so now I’ve just talked myself into one interpretation: the social structures, the governance structures, stay the same no matter who is in charge. The rules are the same, the procedures are the same, the goals are the same. “Revolution” makes no difference–as “Free For All” showed–no matter who is in power, nothing changes. Even when Number 6 was Number 2, no real changes occurred. It all just started over.
Speaking of Number 6 being in charge in “Free for All”: I was also very intrigued by how when he ends up in Number 2’s office and is pushing buttons and telling everyone they’re free now, the woman who was serving him slaps him and says “tick tick” several times. Tick Tick? Obviously a reference to a clock (right?), but why? That is still puzzling me.
What else I did
I did manage one daily create, from Saturday July 4:
DS106 daily create for July 4, 2015:”Draw a picture on a napkin for somebody you love and give it to them. Take a photo and show us?”
Mine is called “Happy Caturday,” and it’s for my son Sasha, who is the biggest cat lover I know.
Here is the link to it on Flickr.
That’s it for this week. I will finish my video introduction tomorrow, I hope. I will be learning how to make a video that combines both still images and video footage. It’s a first for me!
