a discussion of noelle testing and improving
transcript of audio
00:00 In this third and final segment of Noelle’s case study, I will talk about design step five, to test, and step six, to improve.
00:07 The artifacts that I will examine for each of these respective steps are design journal two for project four in its final iteration which was a redesign of Noelle’s project one.
00:16 I begin with Noelle’s second design journal here, and it may be unexpected as this artifact has been selected to evidence Noelle’s work in the fifth design step, testing
00:28 is not conventional in the sense that it does not directly discuss peer responses or feedback. However, Noelle’s design journal entry is showing part of the feedback loop.
00:38 Noelle’s first project received positive responses from their peers. They were very enthusiastic about Noelle’s gallery walk, performance, and audio recordings with poetry and spoken word.
00:48 Having been so effective, Noelle’s peers felt encouraged to share their own experiences, which in turn helped Noelle to develop confidence picking back up with Project 1 and remixing it for a new audience.
00:59 So here too, I am using the term improve loosely. Rather than improve the artifact, Noelle was asked to redesign it for a new rhetorical situation.
01:08 It is important to point out that the testing step in Project 4 was unique for all students, not just Noelle, compared to the other large-scale Projects 1, 2, and 3.
01:17 The sequenced journals and project builders that students produced for each step of the design process were at times out of order or even asked that students revisit previous steps.
01:27 Especially with a remix of a project, students completed earlier in the semester, the design process became heavily recursive. The objective for Project 4 was to redesign Project 1, so testing in Project 4 asked that students demonstrate an awareness of the feedback they received in Project 1 to inform
01:44 the rhetorical moves they would make in Project 4. I’m going to zoom in on Noelle’s second talk. In this entry, Noelle was asked to draw on outside sources as inspiration for their new approach to, or redesign of, Project 1.
01:59 Noelle could also begin brainstorming how to work with a new modality to connect with a new target audience. The first part of their entry is a link to the music video for Gotye’s song, “Somebody That I Used to Know.”
02:10 Beneath the video is a small paragraph where Noelle discusses their plans for the fourth project. They want to create a photoshoot for an editorial spread where the models’ makeup would be abstract and geometric, instead of enhancing the natural features of the models.
02:23 The models would be Black females between the ages of 18 and 20, and Noelle would also engage them in counseling.
02:41 Noelle explained to me that they drew inspiration for Project 4 from Gotye’s’s music video, in addition to some other pieces.
02:49 It is a single shot of Gotye in front of a wall, which develops into a geometric painting. Then, Gotye’s nude body is painted to match the wall, and he becomes camouflaged.
03:01 As the video progresses, Kimbra, the featured singer on the track, is shown to Gotye’s right. She is also painted in the same manner and blends into the background wall.
03:09 But, her body is turned away from the camera. By the end of the song, the body paint is erased by reversing the painting process and leaves both their new bodies exposed.
03:19 Based on the premise of the song, the body paint is meant to symbolize the two people and their romantic relationship with one another.
03:26 The relationship between them has come to an end and their love has turned to turn into resentment. So, what was once holding them together is broken.
03:34 The viewer may also interpret the use of color and shape to symbolize shared feeling. What is internal to the musicians Gotye and Kimbra has now become outwardly painted on them.
03:43 If Noelle is drawing inspiration from the visuals used in the music video, it is reasonable to say that Noelle recognizes strength of symbolism through the use of pattern and color.
03:52 Noelle is also exploring how feelings may materialize for viewers, how those feelings may be interpreted based on the viewer’s prior experience and knowledge.
04:00 Taking a moment to think back on Noelle’s position in their first project, Noelle asserted that only White women are acknowledged for their outward beauty.
04:08 In Noelle’s live performance, Noelle put on makeup that was much too light for their skin tone. It was warm beige and created a stark contrast.
04:15 The audio that played during the performance described the difficulties Noelle faced being a Black woman and how they were unfairly perceived by White men.
04:22 Noelle’s peers wrote responses to such assertions on Post-it notes. One student wrote, ‘this is very inspiring. Because women never feel like they should look like themselves naturally.
04:33 Your performance shows this case very well.” Another student said, “I am sorry that people of my color have made you feel that you need to change your skin to be beautiful and respected.
04:44 I am ashamed.” On a third Post-it, a student wrote, “the way you smile when you put the wig on gave me nostalgia.”
04:52 So when Noelle began to draw on media that they had seen in relation to their topic for the final and fourth remixed project, the Gotye music video made even more sense.
05:01 The musicians communicated in their lyrics, of course, but they used visual symbols and gesture to emphasize their point. Much like Gotye’s video after Noelle’s performance.
05:10 Noelle’s first project performance, one student had even commented, “I love the meaning behind what you are saying and what you are doing.”
05:17 For Noelle, symbolism was an effective vehicle for their message, but they needed to take that thread they had already begun in the first project and weave it into something new.
05:26 Most importantly, the fourth project needed a deliverable that communicates directly and clearly a change in mode and method. This shows value for aligning the writing and designing processes as the writer/designer must think about their approach and fully understand their rhetorical situation, to whom
05:42 they are talking, and for what reason. So in examining how others have exchanged information, as when Noelle said they would not necessarily reading academic
05:50 essay, Noelle considered popular approaches that appeal to the viewing demographic of which she belonged. As they moved into the fourth project, I can still see evidence of their consideration for not merely their peers, but a broader audience that uses social media.
06:04 More specifically, Noelle considered transitioning out of the classroom space and into a digital space where more viewers could access their work.
06:12 In this design journal, I can see Noelle expanding on one of their previous points. Noelle is probing at some of the content from project one and speculating possibilities for communicating in a new modality for project four.
06:24 The directive given in the project four assignment addendum advised students to think about how to encourage their audience to take action.
06:31 As their target audience in the first project was their fellow peers, many chose to provide information on a topic or issue instead of taking a position.
06:39 Although Noelle was quite impactful on their audience in the first project, for example, Noelle was using the space to share their experiences in the hopes that their fellow peers would also be willing to reflect on similar realities.
06:51 In the final lines of their work, Noelle did in fact ask that all women be strong and unite to overcome sexism.
06:57 Now, as Noelle returns to these ideas for Project 4, they are narrowing the focus from Black feminism to how it presents in the beauty industry, specifically makeup products.
07:06 Noelle seeks a change, to consider and include the needs of Black women. How can they do that? In their final iteration of the project, which you can view from the case study page, you woven a thread of personal experience, personal confession, and testimony in moving from project one to project four.
07:33 If only fleeting, Noelle had been inspired by Gotye’s artistic spin on representing feeling in the music video for “Somebody That I Used to Know.”
07:41 However, Noelle chose not, or maybe could not, reconcile showing their feelings about Black feminism and inclusivity in the beauty industry using only conceptual and abstract approaches.
07:53 Although Noelle did not share the reasons for changing so late in the development of project four, what I suspect based on their previous work in the course is that Noelle was thinking more about building credibility and urging their audience to make a change.
08:05 This is not to claim that art does not have the power to inspire or affect, but rather that Noelle had to be mindful of the project’s potential circulation.
08:13 If Noelle only had a few moments to capture their viewer, would being assertive and would including multiple voices be enough?
08:21 Ultimately, these elements have come together to produce a video reel that young Black females may encounter on platforms such as YouTube or Instagram.
08:28 So Noelle has a target audience in mind, especially one that they are likely to have rhetorical impact. Instead of a full editorial photoshoot with behind-the-scenes style footage, a sort of documentary-style project, as they originally planned, Noelle has changed it up a bit.
08:43 They spliced black and white footage of themselves in profile, performing confessional-style poetry, with both editorial-style color photographs of and interview footage in color of their discussing their personal perspective on Black beauty,
08:59 the representation and inclusion of Black skin in the beauty industry, and fitting into European standards. Noelle includes the photo montage in the beginning of the video as the viewer listens to Noelle recite their poem.
09:11 The six-minute video proceeds to go back and forth between the interview and Noelle’s spoken word. It becomes evident fairly quick that Noelle has extended their personal reflections on the issues from the first project.
09:23 Now, Noelle is audibly agitated and direct. Noelle asserts, “I am deserving to be in the spaces that I take up with my Blackness.”
09:31 Noelle’s tone has changed, and they are no longer communicating with symbolism. Instead, they’re communicating directly. Noelle has demonstrated that they have a critical eye on awareness of the rhetorical uses of diverse languaging practices and adapted such from one project to the other.
09:46 In one segment, roughly halfway through the video, while Aniyah is being interviewed about the problems of skin color, one of Noelle’s paintings is superimposed beneath Aniyah’s chest and midsection.
09:56 The painting shows a Black woman wearing bright red lipstick and an afro. Two pair of white hands wrap around the woman’s face and hair.
10:04 Aniyah discusses her experiences with girls wanting their skin to be different than what it is. Light skin wanting to be dark and vice versa.
10:12 She says, “the gag is we just want to be each other but we’re hating on each other because we can’t be that.”.
10:18 It is simply put in startling. As expected, the beauty industry that idolizes white European beauty has only given women the tools to make their skin appear white.
10:29 Not only are they perpetuating racist and exclusive practices, but they are also out of touch with what consumers actually want.
10:36 On the surface, the issue that Aniyah and Noelle speak about seems a practical issue of the available makeup shades, but it is representative of a larger performance of racism, which Noelle has addressed earlier in Project One.
10:48 Aniyah points out that it was only with the famous music artist Rihanna’s Fenty line that an expansive and inclusive range of shades was offered.
10:56 Aniyah is conflicted by this. She says, :it should be celebrated, but like why did it take her? Why did it take so long?
11:03 Because like wasn’t that released in like 2016? Why did it take like up to the time to be oh f*** like look at all these ranges and shades?
11:11 Like those shades should have been there especially for like top beauty brands. A black person is the first to do something in the 21st century? And we’re celebrating and it should be celebrated, but it’s like should have happened already.”
11:22 So Aniya is clearly touching on the same historically racist issues that Noelle pointed to in their performance piece. These features are effective in amplifying some of the same messages that Noelle shared in the first project through anecdotal evidence presented in the interview with Aniya.
11:38 It resounds and reifies the need for change in both beauty industry and society. The project continuum from one to four bridges a gap between Noelle’s identity as a student to that of a research researcher and writer, especially with the absence of conventional expectations which would ask that Noelle
11:55 adhere to speaking and writing a certain way. Having moved through a design-focused approach, Noelle was able to gain and sharpen rhetorical skills that would position them to contribute to such larger conversations as a citizen, a student, and a budding professional.
12:09 Noelle was adept in understanding their audience and purpose and being flexible enough to communicate effectively in different genres. Noelle admits that “well the difference I think for me is just with the multimodal.
12:20 It gives you a lot of practice of designing an idea and making sure articulating it in a way that the production matches what you’re saying. And so, like, the aspect of that course really helped me to you know like, differentiate, oh- if I do like a podcast- this is great for the topic because a lot of people
12:35 listen to this. Okay, or I did like, you know, like, the feminist project that was really cool. Because that, um, could be could take that a lot of different like aspects like I did in the art exhibit. So that I think writing an essay- it might think of creative ways that I can take like a boring topic and twist
12:53 it so it like helps me to express myself in a way that’s like formal, but creative as well. And I think with me struggling with like essays,
13:01 writing, to just like write in a way that’s formal, I guess like academic- because it’s like not how my brain processes information.”
13:10 With this insight, they have demonstrated a keen awareness of their composing processes. Noelle has become an agential in their work as they are able to think through each rhetorical decision.
13:20 In English Composition as a Happening, Geoffrey Sirc supports students using materials and methods of which they are familiar and comfortable in order to communicate ideas.
13:29 They are bringing themselves to their work in an effort to share with others. Sirc draws on the artist Jackson Pollock, who was famously photographed while he created his large expressive drip canvases with household paint.
13:39 Because of various reactions Pollock produced, was nicknamed the “King of Process.’ The series of photographs taken of Pollock provide an insider look at the value of how something becomes a thing, which inevitably leads to a conversation about the what of the thing.
13:53 How does it represent meaning to its maker? And how does it make meaning for its consumer or viewer? Scholar Jody Shipka echoes the same idea.
14:01 In her seminal 2005 CCCC’S article, “A Multimodal Task-Based Framework for Composing,” where she argues that “a multimodal task-based framework precisely because it demands that students both think and act more flexibly as they assume responsibility for determining what needs to be done along with
14:21 how it’s might possibly be achieved, positions them in the thick of things, and in doing so foregrounds these complex issues in ways that are more prescriptive prompts may not.”
14:32 Looking back over Noelle’s journals and project builders allows all of us a similar understanding to Pollock in the mechanics of the design process and how each step prompts deliberate action and
14:42 efforts on the designer’s behalf to think about their purpose. The remixed project 4 demonstrated that Noelle could effectively design situation-specific solutions.
14:51 Noelle both wove herself through the spoken word elements and other Black female voices through Aniya’s interview together to leave the viewer with some hope.
15:03 Noelle was able to bring themselves to the work, but more importantly, bring a unique perspective on how racism and sexism can manifest in the most mundane aspects of everyday life.