We’re excited to share that on April. 27, the Media Studies Peer & Academic Mentors published their year-end event Hidden Gems: BMS First-Year Virtual Student Showcase to showcase the talented, and multimedia works of our First-Year Media Studies students!
Here is what the Peer Mentors shared in their launch:
“Inside, you’ll find diverse and creative works by your peers that inspire curiosity, knowledge, and perhaps a different perspective on the courses of your first year! Although the transition to online university has restricted us from meeting in-person, we hope that Hidden Gems shows you that your cohort has all had similar experiences throughout the year, and connecting with your peers can be as simple as a shared feeling.”
Over this past year, our Peer Mentors – Vidushy Avasthi, Ky Kim, Claire Lin, Jueun Park, and Hui Wong organized and led monthly virtual mentorship sessions structured around our First-Year students’ courses to support students’ engagement in, and achievement towards academic success and develop life-long learning habits. Especially in this year’s unique online learning environment, the Peer Mentors created a space for First-Year students to create connections with each other, and meet students from different years of the BMS program.
—
Check out the creative and multimedia works by First-Year students Teann Lee, Dhra Patel, and Anna Shubina below!
Bravo!
—
“Happy Place” by Anna Shubina
“I entered university life with extreme motivation to work towards my goals. I had never experienced that feeling of eagerness to learn as here in the university. However, being stuck in quarantine with the large amount of homework lead me to have several emotional breakdowns. Meanwhile, a thought about being unproductive and unmotivated could not leave me alone. Thus, I was seeking something that would bring me that ray of light in my life again. Luckily, dance gave me that chance. It turned out to be my comfort zone where I can express my feelings. It is my way to get back on track.
My video Happy Place talks about these challenges when studying. By creating it, I wanted to address other students about the importance of self-care. I aimed for experimentation and atmosphere. The application of new cinematography techniques learned in FIST 100 and attention to every detail in mise-en-scène helped me to properly represent my character. The only difficulty that I was faced with was a static camera. The reason is I could not invite anyone inside my home due to health restrictions. Therefore, I had to find alternatives to the ideas of smoothly moving shots I imagined in my head. Thus, improvisation and the initial goal to experiment in the video came into play.”
“Dentistry During COVID-19” by Dhra Patel
“This work was created for one of the assignment for the JRNL 100 course. We were required to create a vlog based on how COVID-19 has affected our lives or community. As the daughter of a dental hygienist, I thought it would be cool to explain what it is like to visit the dentist during COVID. I wanted to include information that many people may not know about, such as the meticulous infection-prevention practices put in place to keep everyone safe.
Going to the dentist can often be overlooked, so this was a little reminder to everyone that the dental hygiene practice, along with everyone else, has also been putting in extra effort to keep everyone safe while still providing service to citizens.
“Catch Me if You Can” by Dhra Patel
“I created this short stop motion to start experimenting more with animation and familiarize myself with more digital editing software. The VISA 110, requires you to submit an animation made in photoshop, but because I wanted to explore this medium a bit more, I decided to try stop motion out. This work is quite lighthearted and simple, but I think that’s what gives it charm.”
“Zoom University” by Anna Shubina
““Zoom University” is a drawing series assignment for VISA 180 class. This artwork represents constant challenges students experience while learning online. The order of the drawings : (1) overwhelm about a huge number of tasks to do, (2) confusion about an assignment, (3) eye pain from continuous work in front of a computer, and (4) rapid fingers work to finish an assignment before a deadline passes. In addition, clippings of lecture notes helped me to emphasize endless learning space where students “exist” every day. This idea was inspired by Simon Evans’s artwork, who is one of the artists I did research about for the class. The artist’s goal is to explore everyday life routines in a scrapbooking style. Meanwhile, for my project, I incorporated this goal into university life routine.
The process of making this artwork started with randomly gluing notes on pieces of paper. Afterwards, I took and edited photos of myself to use as a reference for drawings. The last step was to draw, cut out and glue my characters on the paper with lecture notes. The challenge was to find the method to show the learning process exaggeratedly; because students might frequently overcomplicate things and then act dramatic. Therefore, I come up with the idea of creating a caricature look of the characters. In my opinion, students sometimes feel like a child who is under the adult’s wing. With this thought, first of all, I bold outlined the drawings and then coloured them using markers, as children enjoy colouring their favourite characters.”
“Teann Comics” by Teann Lee
“Short comics from CRWR 208.”
“Listening Helps” by Teann Lee
“The final blog project for CRWR 213 Introduction to Writing for the New Media. This transmedia Tumblr follows the story of three individuals, all dealing with their own fears and insecurities as a new middle school year begins and ends. Associated with each story are various media pieces that enhance each writing piece and make each character more relatable and connected with the reader.
The curated multiple media experience truly feel like it’s intersecting across multiple media for engaging storytelling.”
