2009. First day. An exercise on creative composition.II

I dedicated some time yesterday to experiment on strip creation a little bit more and to do some creative composition. This is the result: a first project to combine a phantasy story and strips in which I can refer to many different sources and references in an exercise on intertextuality. Apart from personal expression I consider this kind of activity useful in several ways: you explore new technological possibilities, you have to practice compostion, you have to refresh your background encyclopaedica knowledge to be accurate. A project of this kind can be done either individually or collectively if you find a group of people who'd like to work with you. Nowadays, the web 2.0 can help collective, cooperative work enormously.

Pragmatic Deity.

Dean Deity Athena and the Grim Humanoids from Hades.

A Philological Cartoon Series Project by E.V.

I

Et sine fine Chaos, & sine fine Deus;

Et sine fine magis, si quid magis est sine fine....

[S(amuel) B(arrow)?]

[John Milton. Paradise Lost]

Many years ago in the origin of Time, when the dispute between the deities of the living and the deities of the death had been settled, and Zeus had built the lofty Olympus and Hades his severe Mansion, some resented minor wizards who feared the Dark Lord's reign decided to become outlaws and prey on the humans. They took refuge in the misty marshes of the Western End and lived on roots, slimy dark fish and eels and the odd rodent. This abominable nutrition provided them with a dark, negative force that made them more and more lethal and cunning. In fact they had become the servants of the Sweaty Slippery Sinister Snake, but they did not realize. They lived in constant alarm because both the deities of the living and the deities of the dead were after them. The Olympians feared their deadly, negative influence on the humans. In the Hades, on the other hand, they needed them to round off their account of souls and control the shadows. However, none of the deities was strong enough to reduce them. Perhaps the old Chronos could have been successful, but this would mean stopping the sequence of the days for that and this would raise chaos in the cosmos. This strife had kept our heroine, Dean Deity Athena, a sweet minor personification of the most intellectual of the goddesses, busy for many centuries when this story starts. She had already had to act in Bologna, Pisa, West Minster, Salamanca and the Sorbonne in the past. Now the evil forces had concentrated on a young promising new intellectual emporium: Allomorphia. Acting from their dens in the Salt Mines they had invaded the roof and pipes and the neighbouring trees of that unfortunate and well reputed School of Humanities. Their objective.... to hypnotize and gain control of the minds of the students, made them disappear and supplant them in the world of the living so that the students' souls would have to occupy their place in the Hades. With respect to the scholars and university personnel they had even a more sinister plan: to sell them as slaves in the Salt Mines where some extra workers were always appreciated by Napoleon, the local manager.

The Pit and the Pendulum -the local newspaper- had already reported two mysterious disappearances. Two students had ben reported missing for early breakfast in the School cafeteria last Monday after a routine weekend without any apparent reason. They lived in a small apartment in the city center and their behaviour had always been uneventful according to their girlfriends and other acquaintances. Dean Deity Athena, had already received a message from the lesser local nymphs in her laptop computer. She was fast: a small suitcase, a pair of new sandals a golden belt and a blue raincoat and she was there. She established her headquarters in the Misty Mountains, a granitical range quite near the site, where the fairies of the Forest welcomed her warmly in their spa. She was downtown patrolling the school from her teledesk when she noticed that two lurking masked humanoids had selected their third victim....

SOME REFLECTIONS ABOUT TODAY'S WORK.

A quite fruitful first afternoon-evening in the new year 2009. These holidays have helped me to think a little more about the past and present and to get some extra practice in computers. Today, I've been able to combine in my self-study cartoon creation and image and text edition using the Web 2.0. All this reinforces my convictions about some of the weaknesses of the learning process at University nowadays. Of course the neo-liberal sequels from the past and the economic and social crisis play a decisive role in the present impasse, same as political uncertainty, but there has also been a lot of imprecision, many hasty -interested?- decisions and a process of debate and curricular design in which the consolidation of 1) the traditional body of knowledge, 2) the actual training in the new abilities skills and competences have never been actually inforced. One thing is acquainting students -usually quite young, many quite disoriented, an imprecise number of them not too much inclined to hard work on some subjects- with some ideas and techniques -old or new- in a university course and test them, a very different issue is giving their teacher time and resources to be able to grant that this learning process actually takes place. I suppose that I could explain all I have done today in a three-hour session and a sketchy practice, but we all know that to guarantee a satisfactory result that enables somebody to feel at some ease with a new technique takes time and effort, some frustration and some repetition. Besides, learning the new technique is not enough. I've have worked on a creative clipart strip and have written a short narrative. All this fills me with concern. How and when am I going to have some time in class to share this kind of activities with my students in the present circumstances?

[P.S. Not only lack of recognition but also actual negative evaluations. Something is not functioning. Not me. I'm positive about that. Some definite, real measures should be taken to back teachers who may be working 12 o more hours a day to prepare their classes, design materials and do research in these moments of imprecision]