Assignment Idea

Wiki Game

Play the Wikipedia Game. If you’ve never played, this is how: You have two words, a starting word and a finishing word. These “words” can be anything that has it’s own wiki page. For example, your starting word can be “persian cat” and your ending word can be “mocha.” You go to the wiki for starting word (i.e. persian cat) and by only clicking on links on the wiki page (e.g. on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_cat you will see the linked words “cat fancy”) you must end up at your second word, in this case, “mocha.” Usually, you play this with another person and see who can get from word 1 to word 2 the fastes. It’s fun, but since it’s only you, write a story, poem, song, or any other form expression using words using the words from the links you clicked to get from your starting word to your final word. P.s the example I’m showing you is actually just the link to the persian cat wiki page.

Time of Day

Take a picture of the same spot outside several times in a day, then merge them all together in a way that shows the differences in appearance over the day.

Light Switch Art

The purpose of a light switch is simple, but we fail to notice the canvas behind it: the plate. There’s so much that can be done with the metaphor of a light switch, and there’s even space to do it. That’s your task today. Create a work of art that incorporates the switch into the art. For an extra challenge, create a design that incorporates a pair of light switches for a double-gang switch. Print it out and display it somewhere. Post a digital copy of your design (a pdf would be great) online so others can download & print it out as well. Soon we’ll have our campuses covered with these fun and creative light switch covers!

This idea comes from the book by Stephan Mumaw, “Caffeine for the Creative Team.” I highly recommend it along with “Caffeine for the Creative Mind,” for excellent creativity exercises.

Optical Illusion

Take a photo that manipulates distance to create an optical illusion. For example, I created an image of me holding the Washington Monument in my hand.

Is that a… GHOST?!

Take a photo in which there is a ghost like subject by either using a long exposure or 2 different pictures in a photo editing software. Check out the example here.

Tarantino your story!

Write a story–can be about anything, but put the last image (can be more than one sentence) at the beginning of the story. Similar to some of Quentin Tarantino’s films–starting the movie with the end. Make it interesting and fun!

Word

Pick one word. Select one single typeface, and communicate your word. Do not use colors or any other graphical elements. The goal is to select a type face that represents the meaning of the word, and if needed manipulate the font using different sizes, bold, italics, counterform (spacing) etc to visualize the word.

A Whole New World

Take a picture of your subject (grandparents, pet, yourself) and put it into a totally different background in which they appear abnormally too small or too large. Think of Honey, we shrunk the kids…

Animated Pet

Take a picture of your pet, and make an animated GIF from the photo.

Hear It Here

This is an audio assignment where you will need to use homophones – words that sound the same with different meanings (hear/here, bee/be, dear/deer, etc.). Using as many homophones as you can, write and record a brief story or poem.