Introducing the Shelfie: a fun opportunity to hear from current NMCC students
and to learn about what they are working on.
Shelfies are selfies (informal self-portraits) that show NMCC students and faculty in their native habitats–surrounded by bookshelves or enmeshed in other media workspaces.
By giving an inside look into the workspace of NMCC students, we hope to promote the great work our students and faculty are doing, and create a fun and engaging dialogue within the NMCC community.
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NMCC’s first Shelfie feature is Laurette Garner:
Laurette Garner:
Master of Arts Candidate in Arts Management
Peace Corps Campus Representative (GTF Career Center)
I interned at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon, where I was a Programming Coordinator. The Hollywood Theatre is a very well known for their inventive programming and use of old and new media to entertain audiences.
As an Arts Management student with a concentration in Media Management, I have noticed through the course of my studies in the Arts and Administration program, how important the role of new media has become. Many nonprofit art organizations require their administrators to be savvy in many areas because the money just isn’t there to have separate jobs for every function within an organization. I believe new media will play a large part in how art organizations survive, advertise and continue to function as innovators in their prospective communities.
I learned some basic design skills and how to use Adobe programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design and Dreamweaver during a core class in AAD. This class helped create my initial interest in new media. From then on I continued to look for courses that would aid me in understanding how new media changes the way our society as a whole learns and operates. Within AAD, I took courses like Participatory Media and Social Practice, Media Management and Art in Society.
All of these classes addressed the role and theory of new media and helped me to start thinking about my Master of Arts research, which will be the study of audience participation from vaudeville to early cinema (film serials) and address issues such as interactive marketing, non-linear methods of entertainment and an emphasis on participatory cultures. I also knew I wanted more exposure to classes outside my program that might help me hone my research concept. And that is when I discovered the New Media and Culture Certificate.
The NMCC certificate gave me more ideas for what kind of classes I might take to cultivate my interests. I am currently taking a Digital Audio and Sound Design course through the School of Music and have taken basic Computer Information Science literacy classes to help me build a better foundation in New Media. I will be taking Habitual New Media, Digital Scholarship and an Introduction to Web Programming in Winter of 2015. (Check out what other courses are being offered winter term with NMCC!)
I am currently working on creating a sound design for the city of Eugene’s mural project documentary that documents the creation of a stunning mural by artist Esteban Camacho Steffensen for the skate park in the Whiteaker neighborhood area.
Follow the projects progress on their facebook page.
In the past I have been a coordinator for the Adrenaline Film Project, that is part of the U of O’s Cinema Pacific Film Festival, and I have been the social media coordinator for the Chinavine project on campus.
I think that my interest in new media has really motivated me to be a part of all of these current and past projects and has helped me develop my research. I look forward to next term so that I continue on with my explorations!
Some fascinating reads that have been influential:
Gere Charlie (2008). Digital Culture. London: Reaktion Books.
Singer, B. (2001). Melodrama and Modernity. New York: Columbia University Press.
