Matthew Lovett

ID# 20566522

Slowing Down Part 1 Reflections

 What have you learned about your writing/creating/feedbacking process during

this experience? Did you find that your writing process is very similar to your creation
process? Is it totally different? Is creating an artifact basically the same thing as
writing a paper?
I’ve learned that I create my best work “on the fly” or when I’m short on time and during the
entire process of creating whatever it is I’m assigned. I also thrive when giving restraints or limitations
that I have to obeyed by, I don’t begin a project with a plan usually and if I do it’s more of a rough outline
I don’t necessarily have to follow. My creative process is very similar to my writing process, a lot of what
I write is spontaneous and during the moment. I never have a set idea I follow and it’s not intentional, it’s
just how I operate, and I believe it to be key when producing my best work. Sure, this may seem as
unproductive and not the most practical of creative processes, some may say detrimental, but I find it to
work and it has certainly been proven exceptionally useful for me. I have explored other methods of
creative conception but none of them have proven to be as effective as my current creative process. But
creating an artifact is more different when compared to writing a paper, I find writing a paper to be more
difficult because you must organize your ideas in a coherent intelligible manner. When creating an
artifact, you have more freedom to utilize different methods of creation and forms of media, which you
can combine to form an insightful well-crafted artifact.

 Which texts -- whether they were complete texts or just excerpts -- and videos
were especially meaningful for you during this series? What kind of impact did they
have on you? How did you use these resources (including peer feedback) to make
choices about your artifact? Why is it the form/genre that it is? Why that audience?
Most helpful and important pieces during this series were the feedback I received, as I felt my
peers were all in the same situation as myself. We all were creating artifact and trying to accomplish a
certain goal we all were striving towards. So, our feedback in a way reflected that sentiment as there was
a sense of comradery, we all wanted each other to improve on their artifact and we intended to aid in that
effort through the feedback we gave. As for me, the feedback had a tremendous effect on me and my
artifact as I had a group of individuals who were relatively the same age and had the same mindset as me
giving me constructive criticism. I could understand their perceptions of my artifact and the aspects of my
artifact they found needed improvement. It also brought to light some glaring issues I wouldn’t have
noticed or realized without their initial mentioning. I perceived and treated the peer feedback as almost a
“test audience”, a foundation I could use to build my revision from. The reason why I decided to create
my artifact as a video is because advertisements and commercials are primarily a visual form of
communication and their intention is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a certain product and I am trying
to support my claim that visual education is a more effective form of learning. The audience I’m
targeting are young students who may feel discouraged over the way they’re taught in school. As many of
them may perceive that traditional methods of teaching don’t aid or allow them to learn important
concepts and they are unable to identify what is hindering their development.

 Overall, what are you thinking about multimodal artifacts and creating
communication that can be aimed at different audiences? What did you find
particularly challenging or interesting?
 Matthew Lovett
ID# 20566522

This project has opened my mind to the possibilities various form of media can be utilized to
communicate a message, it has given me a new perspective on how several aspects of the world around us
operate and function. I now understand how certain forms of marketing are utilized and I have a basic
insight as to how companies and ad agencies that produce commercials model and plan their
advertisements. I’ve also have grown to realize that particular audiences identify with certain forms of
media, an audience comprised of younger individuals identify with more current methods such as video.
While older comprised audience may identify with an older type or media such as an article or auditory
method of communication. That recognition is what I found to be the most interesting throughout the
series, for I could know observe history of how the people and the world interacting with each other. The
most challenging aspect for me was the decision of whether I should transform my initial draft into a full-
fledged video or remain an image with improvements of course. That was a particularly difficult decision
to make because I had to consider the amount of time I had and what I could accomplish with the
resources at my disposal. Evidently, having my artifact remain a image was the easier choice but I knew
that format couldn’t communicate entirely what I envisioned as my message. So eventually I settled on
the video format as I felt that could properly exhibit my intention and argument more effectively in
comprehensive, engaging and fascinating way and I believe I made the right decision.