Surviving Bootcamp

It has been a very long and slightly challenging week so far but as of today, Thursday, January 15, 2015, I can proudly say that I have completed DS106 bootcamp and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. Computers have never been a strong suit of mine, however I’m not completely technology illiterate. The first few tasks turned out to be a lot easier than I thought they would be! I ran into a bit of trouble along the way but with time, patience, and a couple emails to @mburtis, I finally got it all figured out. I already had a google account and a twitter, though I did make a new twitter specifically for this class.

After setting up all of the technical aspects to the bootcamp task list, I finally got to delve more into my personal discovery of what noir is, which was a process I really enjoyed. Though the readings helped me get a basic understanding of what noir is, it was the visual and audio examples that really helped me fully understand. I chose to use the Courageous Cat, Bugs Bunny, and Pretty Little Liars episodes along with the podcasts, Moon Graffiti and NightVale “The Shape in Grove Park” for my audio and visual examples. A constant archetype of noir in the above examples was the “mood music” and, in the visual examples, the appearance of the villain. While listening and watching these examples of noir I found myself thinking of my own examples of noir. What I came up with are the rock musical, Spring Awakening by Steven Sater, and The Great Gatsby, 2013 movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. Both of which have an air of mystery and darkness to them, which I associate with noir.

That’s it for this week. I’m excited to learn more about noir throughout the course of the semester.