Kirstin Cuthbert
Lecture response for 1802HUM
Week 1 lecture and tutorial
This was our first lecture and mainly focussed on welcoming us and stressing the importance
that it is a creative and digital course.
We got to know our tutor and lecturer and given their contact details.
The most important thing I got out of it was to download the program FileZilla, a programme
I had never heard of before, but it is a vital programme for this course.
I was also made aware we needed to bring a USB to each tutorial so that we can save any
information on it.
We were told everything will be uploaded onto the heliozoa website and that
Learning@Griffith is not used. This is an extremely important thing to me because I had been
checking on the Griffith website and never finding information about this course.
Overall this lecture was a good welcoming and a good starting point for the course.
In the tutorial this week I was introduced to notepad for typing up codes. I had my first
practice at coding and struggled a lot. However with the help of Chris I understood a little bit
more but I still was unsure if I wanted to continue in this course.
Week 2 lecture and tutorial
In this lecture we received much information about our upcoming assessment, where we have
to design a web page using html coding.
A few beneficial points I got out of it were:
 To see a web pages html coding, you right click the page and press “view source”,
this is an incredibly helpful piece of information because as I get better at coding I can
try new things I see on other websites
 We were given two very helpful websites to use as informative pages for this
assessment, w3schools and colour picker
In the tutorial this week I did struggle a lot as my codes were not working out and I made
many mistakes. However today I learnt that I do want to stay in this course as it seems like it
will be very beneficial. We focused on tables and how to colour individual grids which in
incredibly helpful because this will make up the majority of our first assessment. Overall it
was a helpful and very beneficial tutorial.
Ideas for my first assessment:
I have had a few ideas that I could perhaps consider for this assessment. But as I am not very
good at coding I think some of them may be a little too technical
1. Good/evil or light/dark or colour/black and white of a certain image, maybe reflected
into a mirror or water, but two opposites reflecting into some sort of medium
2. Palm tree reflection in water, one image is very clear the other one significantly
blurry. Perhaps 2 or three palm trees could be used
3. Another idea I had is to have a close up of two eyes, perhaps even winking, then have
a colourful rainbow eye shadow, as seen on “Makeup Geek”. This idea sounds good
in theory but I doubt I could achieve this in practice.
4. Another idea I had was to use tribal patterns, from Fijian tapas to make various
patterns, it seems like it could be a relatively simple but effective idea
I am thinking a combination of 2 and 4 may be a good idea. I could have a
tropical/holiday/relaxation vibe. There would be a palm tree reflection and maybe even a
sunset in the back ground. I could use tribal patterns as a border to frame the image as well as
add a small cultural aspect to do.
I will have a few goes at drawing the idea up and show Chris in the next tutorial to see if he
thinks I could achieve this task!
Week 3 lecture and tutorial
In the lecture this week we had a brief history lesson on the internet which was incredibly
interesting and something I will definitely look up to have a better look at. I found it so
amazing that in such a short period of time we have come so far, it shows how much the
future has in store for us too!
We were also given some information on CSS, it is coding to help determine where things go.
We got to play around with this coding in the tutorial and I actually got everything right
(nearly). I am determined to do well in this course now.
I also showed Chris my design and he told me how I would create it, so I began creating it
when I had finished the work.
My final idea: I am doing a tropical/relaxation theme – not 100% sure yet – but there will be
a little island with 3 different sized trees on it and there is a sun setting behind them, in the
water below they will be reflected, as well as the sun in hopefully a rather shiny way. There
will be a basic tribal border around the image too, hopefully adding a bit of complexity. I’m
not sure what I will be writing, titling it or colouring the back ground with but I will see as I
go. I have just realised how hard it is to make a picture into a grid!
Week 4 lecture and tutorial
This lecture was predominantly taken up by Jason showing us very advanced codes that we
will be using over the following weeks. It was mind-blowing to see what you can create just
by entering in a code! We were briefed about dreamweaver, composer and gimpshop which
we will be playing around with later on in the semester.
In regards to our first assessment that is due on Saturday we were shown dynamicdrive.com
which has advanced html coding, we are allowed to use it but I did have a try at home and
found it next to impossible to actually make work! So in the tutorial I may have another go
otherwise I will just submit what I have made.
In this week’s tutorial we were given time to finish our assessment items. Most people did
not come to this tutorial but the people that did showed me their assessments and it was very
interesting to see what everyone did. I did look at some dynamic html however I thought my
artwork was good how it is and those effects seemed very difficult to use. Perhaps I should
have just tried to do one and put it in my assessment folder to show I attempted it, but I just
found it too confusing.
Reflection on my artwork: I found this assessment one of the most challenging assessments
of my life! It was time-consuming, tedious and such a difficult concept to grasp. I struggled
so much however I have now completed it and am proud that I could actually do it. Although
it was hard and made my head hurt so much it was very worthwhile, because now I have a
basic understanding of html coding and if I am using it in the future and something goes
wrong hopefully I can determine where the mistake is and correct it. I am pretty satisfied with
my artwork, it was quite simple and doesn’t look very impressive however I did it to the best
of my abilities and am happy with that. It is colourful and I think it does in fact create a
relaxing tropical vibe. I found the 500 word write up quite easy in that I had a lot that went
wrong and I did learn a lot too so I was just honest and creative and that’s all we needed to
be.
Here’s a screen shot of my final artwork:
Week 5 lecture and tutorial
This week we did not have a lecture, however we did have a tute. In that we had an
introduction to Dreamweaver then were encouraged to come up with some ideas for our
website which is due in week 8. It was a bit difficult to grasp many things in Dreamweaver,
however once I have; it will be so much easier because they make the codes for you!
For our assignment we need to have 5 pages, with lots of external links and fancy codes and
the site needs to be a homepage for a fictional character we invent or find. I have had a few
ideas but I am not sure if I would actually use any of them....
Firstly, I think I want my character to be multi-coloured, it will be more fun that way and
there are lots of possibilities, and besides I love colour.
1. Rainbow totem pole: this idea I came up with, I don’t particularly like it however it
would work quite well. Each layer could be different colours and colours could
represent different aspects of life. There could be a DIY page for it and discuss how to
make your own too. Now that I think about this however, it’s not really a character,
more of an art piece.
2. Rainbow person: it would look similar to a gingerbread man but be rainbow. It would
describe how it brings happiness to children and anyone who buys one. I could base
the character off an already existing toy and have links to where you can buy it. I
could have other pages showing made up studies of how coincidences occurred
between children’s happiness and receiving of toy. The colours could represent
certain things and have magical powers. I would need to discuss it as a fictional
character too, so I’m not quite sure how it would all work in together.
3. Rainbow duckling: I had this idea after feeding ducklings that have recently been born
and frequently visit the canal I live on. A new rainbow species of duck could have
happened and I could Photoshop a rainbow duck I have created into my own personal
pictures I take of the ducklings or (if I am allowed) alter photos I find on Google to
add in the duckling. There could be pages on how it was created, its personalities and
characteristics, where it was born and its habitat, photos of it swimming and feeding
with its family, its fear of bull sharks on the canals. It would have a lot of cute-ability.
4. A Popsicle: my sister created these material hand sewn items and my favourite is this
super cute Popsicle with a big smile on its face. I could create a personality and traits
for it, similar to that of an actual Popsicle perhaps. I could have links to where and
how you can buy them too.
I will look further into these ideas for the next tute then discuss my favourite one with Chris;
so far it’s probably the duckling one.
Week 6 lecture and tutorial
In the lecture we were shown various websites from previous students. These were helpful in
that they showed us what worked and what didn’t. It gave me a much clearer idea about what
is expected too. We were told the necessary thing such as: our website needs to be
content/image heavy, links need to work and images need to work on the internet.
Following the lecture we had a tute where we basically experimented with photoshop and
begun looking further into our ideas.
I have decided to go with the Popsicle idea. Here’s a photo of them:
Basically they are going to be a sort of team or public figures that make appearances for
mostly children but a few celebrities, I’m not exactly sure of what they will do but probably
some kind of motivational work. Here’s my sketch so far:
Basically they are called
Priscilla and Pedro. There will
be 5 pages: home, about (the
work they do/why they do it),
appearances (lots of photos
with children and celebrities),
video (a video I will make of
the two of them) and blog
(where they discuss their work
and daily happenings).
I have decided the webpage
will have a yellow and red
theme. I want the background
to have very faint red and
yellow children’s handprints
too and the text will scroll over
the background but the
background will not change.
I’m not quite sure how to do
that but we’ll see how I go!
Week 7 lecture and tutorial
In the lecture we discussed the write up, I will now have to begin working on that. I have a
basic theme for the webpage so writing the what, why and how shouldn’t be too hard.
In the tute we just worked on our web pages, coming up with a basic layout to use for all 5 of
them.
Here are my main ideas:
They will be called Pedro and Priscilla, the Party Popsicles...
1. Home – contain welcome message. Describe briefly about the two popsicles which
are alternative style dancers/entertainers in the Brisbane/Gold Coast area. The page
will contain maybe 3 photos.
2. About Us – maybe contain one or two photos. Describe who they are and their
background. Their qualifications and training and previous experience. Brief
description of the events they can entertain at.
3. Gallery – contain a promotional video with a few short clips of some of their
performances. Also contain a variety of photos of the popsicles performing and just
posing in a variety of locations. Hopefully I can do some sort of code here to open a
mini box on the same page where you can browse through the photos or hover over
them or something like that. If all else fails I can just have the photos of decent size
and you just scroll down the page.
4. Testimonials – various previous customers will describe the party and the quality of
entertainment they received. A picture will complement each description.
5. Packages – children, young adult and adult parties will be described and the
entertainment for each event will be discussed. Prices and contact information along
with what the packages include will also be provided here.
Week 8 lecture and tutorial
In the lecture we were shows some jQuery things and had a go at modifying one in the tute. I
tried a zoomer gallery which would be a really cool way to display photos for any kind of
website, but I couldn’t get it to work properly. I’ll have a go at a few more and see if I can
make them work!
Our website was due this week so I spent the majority of the week working on it. I found it
really hard to make everything work. I only used one extra code (to make a light box) and
still it’s not very successful. However I am rather happy with my website. It’s colourful and
fun, even though I struggled to make it, I did enjoy it after all. I really like the video I made
and I think the Photoshop work I did worked out pretty great too.
Week 9 Lecture and tutorial
This week we were briefed on our next website. We need to make a creative website or a
portfolio style one; I am not sure which type I will do yet. Layout needs to be an important
factor and it needs to be much better than the last website.
In the tute we looked at layouts, I slightly modified a quite simple one however it was hard.
This next assessment is going to be hard if we need to use already created layouts then go in
and change the code. The website I created did work however and it had like a slideshow of
images on the homepage which could be a good thing to use to give a brief look at the
content that the website will contain.
For the moment I am thinking I should do a creative website. I have not done much
photography or digital artworks and such so I think I could make a creative one and create a
bunch of work to put on it. I think the layout is maybe a more important factor than the
content, however I know the content has to be of high quality.
We cannot use our previous websites to build upon however Bryana has made a lot of those
little material creations so maybe I could incorporate them into the website somehow. Like
they could be a talented family. Or the webpage could be of that nature... I will have to think
of some better ideas I think!
Week 10 lecture and tutorial
This week in the lecture we discussed the next website some more and were shown some
templates for responsive design. I think it is such a cool aspect because I know my last
webpage was very amateur in that respect. It’s also good that content is compatible with
phones, laptops and iPads, because so many people use them all these days. However the
responsive design templates looked hard and as again, we have to change the code so much
that the template is barely recognisable. Although it does seem hard I really want to try and
use it for my website.
I missed the tute this week, the first tute I’ve ever missed! I had some family problems and
just couldn’t make it. However before Friday’s tute I will try some responsive design stuff
out myself and try to get a webpage working. If I struggle too much I will just ask Chris for
some help in the tute because I really would like to know how to do this stuff as it’s definitely
something I want to use.
After the lecture I got to thinking more about my webpage and the more I think, the easier
(and better) it seems to do a portfolio. I tried to think of all the work I have done and what I
could incorporate, here are a few ideas:
- In yr 12 art I created a series of quite good drawings/paintings of Fijian children
which I could make into a little art gallery
- I have visited Europe and Fiji, so if I had any really good travel photos I could make
like a little travel blog/advice column/or even just a gallery to incorporate them. I
have kept detailed journals wherever I went, which are both humorous and
informative so maybe they’d be interesting to use.
- Over the years I have made many scrapbooks for friends and family... I don’t know if
that’s something I could put on a website though
- I always write poetry and could put some on the internet, although a lot of it is very
personal but I’ll have a look and see if I can find anything useable
- I haven’t done much Photoshop work, however maybe I could learn to use Photoshop
and create a few artworks on there
- The main thing I do is write a book, about what it’s like to be a twin. I have written
hundreds of entries and maybe could put some of them up. Although they are quite
personal I would be happy to share them. I have written poetry, gathered together
journal entries, Bryana (my twin) has written entries and I have written reflections and
memoirs. I could hopefully use some of these!
So after looking at all I have done, I kind of have a few possibilities for a website
1. I could just do a regular portfolio with sections for each of these
2. I could do a portfolio just for all my twin stuff, I could do some Photoshop work with
some photos too, although I’m not sure if there would be enough content
3. Or even (if I am allowed) I could make a semi-fictional website, where it’s a look into
the future, like where I would like to be in 10 years... a famous author for the twin
book and it could have awards won, media, bio, a blog, some excerpts from the book
and where to buy the book. Although I’m not sure if we are allowed to do this.
I kind of like the third idea the most, it seems fun and would be a good thing to look back on;
I’ll talk to Chris about it and see if I can do it.
Week 11 lecture and tutorial
This week I tried out some responsive design things and just could not get anything to work. I
will not be using it for my final website. Instead I think I will find a very good template that I
will change dramatically. I don’t want it to be too complicated however because it will take
away from the content. I will also try and get a lot of j-query things happening to make the
page look good, while still keeping a rather simple theme.
I am still deciding between two ideas and have elaborated further on them:
1. Present actual portfolio of work I have done
- Homepage: Brief welcome and description of who I am
- Life story: Not too in-depth, Brief and specifically about twin stuff, What I
am studying/my passion for writing and Why I think it is important to
know more about twins
- Gallery of general twin photos: Baby  now, With family/friends and
Doing similar activities/wearing same clothes
- Excerpts from books I hope to publish one day: An exploration on what it
is like to be a twin (the good, the bad and the ugly) and A book of advice
for twins, their parents, friends, and society in general
- Gallery of digital artworks: Collages, Stereotype pieces and Fun pieces
- Creative twin pieces: Poetry and sayings
- Twin videos I have made: from 18th, general home videos and slideshow
of fun pictures
2. Future portfolio of what I may have achieved in the future
- Homepage: welcome and Say who I am/why I decided to be a twin writer
- Life story: Baby  now, What I studied and What I work with
- Galley: Baby  now and Help to tell life story
- Books I have published: An exploration on what it is like to be a twin,
Advice for twins, parents, friends and society in general
- Digital artworks: For advertising and personal purposes, Stereotypes/bold
statement ones, Collages and Fun ones
- Creative pieces: Poetry and sayings
- Videos: Advertisement for equality and 18th/other home videos
- Foundation (twin quality/awareness): Brief description of foundation,
Work we do and How you can get involved
- Media: Attention from books, Attention from foundation, Interview and
Newspaper articles
As you can see, they are both pretty similar however I feel I have more options to work with
and could play around with, and have more fun with the second option. Although then it is
not really real. I am still undecided but need to make my mind up quick!
Week 12 lecture and tutorial
The lecture was cancelled this week. In the tute we worked further on our web pages. I talked
to my twin about my two ideas as well as my older sister and they both think I should do the
current one, so I will just show what I have actually done. That way, if someone stumbles
across it they may want to publish it for me! Haha, unlikely.
So now I’ve got to get to work on this website and make it super mega amazing.
I realised this is my last blog entry so I thought I’d reflect back on the course... Basically I
came into this course thinking it was literally “writing for the web” like blogging and stuff. I
had very little previous computer knowledge, I could use facebook and things like that, but
actually creating websites was totally new to me. I had even tried to create a blog last year
but within a few days I had messed it up so bad that I not only couldn’t access the URL but I
also couldn’t log into my account to fix it! I’d like to think it was a scammer or hacker... but
it was probably just my awful skills! Within the first few weeks I realised it was not this, it
was actually a form of torture. However after many tutes and much anger over not being able
to make codes work I realised how much I have actually enjoyed it. Although HTML coding
will always be on my most hated list and I won’t become a professional website developer, it
was a lot of fun. I have learnt some incredibly vital things and my skills in this area have
improved tenfold. I can down design a (simple) website and read (some) code. It has also
really sparked my interest in creating website and blogs and I will most definitely be doing
Digital Publishing next semester or next year because I still would love to learn how to blog!