Response to Essay Exhibit

              I thought the Essay Exhibit was a interesting idea.  Allowing everyone to go around the classroom and survey each other's work allowed for constructive criticism as well as allowing the class to view the many creative ideas everyone else had. I had a great experience going around the room looking at the different presentations my classmates had. Two in particular peaked my interest, Morgan Shumaker's and Luke Whiteman's. 

             Morgan's exhibit looked into online identities constructed through social media as well as the importance and why so many people use social media. Her Prezi utilized a variety of different media types ranging from videos to pictures. It was very interesting to hear about some of her findings as to the reasons why people use social media. The first reason is surveillance, she goes on to say one of the reasons people obsess over social media is a need to keep track of our daily physical and human environment.  Another reason is personal identity. Personal identity helps us to discover who we are, what we stand for, what will make us feel satisfied with ourselves, and how we are living our lives. I find this to be fascinating as I personally do not use social media too much. To have a look into why social media means so much to people is refreshing and it gives me a new perspective on social media that I previously didn't have
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               Luke Whiteman's Exhibit showcased video games as being more than just games but an art form. His essay of video games as an art form looks at the immersive narratives video games tell as well as the stunning graphics in games. He looks at many different video games as examples, such as The Last of Us. The Last of Us has an amazing story line with incredible graphics which is why it had good reviews. In these examples he tells us about the beautiful graphics in the games immersing the player and really entering the realm of true art. The stories that these games tell are very surreal. Some of the games displayed invoke real emotion in is players and fan base, showing the depth of video games as not only being beautiful to look at but also emotional to play. 

             Both Exhibits looked really promising and I can only imagine how good their essays will be. I liked that each took different approaches to  displaying their information, Luke used a slideshow and Morgan used a Prezi. Luke's presentation was more broad with his information but that is not necessarily a bad thing as it made things simpler and easy to look at. Morgan's went into a lot of depth showing she did a lot of research and is very knowledgeable about her topic. Both did a fantastic job and I couldn't find anything they need to improve on.