Christopher S. Childs

NMIX 6110

New Media Production was intergral to my foundation understanding of numerious front end web platforms. Of those, I improved upon previous skills and expanded my expertise to include HTML5, Bootstrap, Wordpress, and even a little bit of Javascript! I completed several projects which you can browse below.

Hand-coding a website

Implementing a Bootstrap theme

Implementing a Wordpress theme as a storefront

Implementing Javascript

Final Project: The Atlanta Punk Archive

The most rewarding aspect of the course was seeing my skills develop with each project and how intergrate the various front end web platforms can be.

I chose to work on a simple portfolio with my hand-coded website (looking ahead towards the end of the semester.) When I began my Bootstrap project, I thought it would be nice to have a fully functional CV (which was previously included as a PDF in my hand-coded website. Using Bootstrap gave me the opportunity to make my CV/Portfolio far more dymanic and interactive.

The Wordpress project allowed me to grasp a good understanding not only of installing Wordpress on the server side but also add and edit Wordpress plug-ins and themes. This was very insightful in regards to understanding what future projects may be best a Wordpress site versus either hand-coded or Bootstrap sites.

Working with Javascript tested me a great deal but I'm excited to find new ways to implement the code into my future work.

The culminating efforts of all my work this semester led me to finally complete a passion project of mind that has been “on the back burner” for as long as I can remember. Nearly 2 decades ago, I began filming bands in the Atlanta area. At the time, I was attempting to film a documentary that I felt would make a great feature-length film. However, I had more energy than skill back in those days and as a result the film never came to fruition. With hindsight, I’ve come to realize that I now sit on a treasure trove of history. Hundreds of hours of video of a particular piece of music history. It eventually occurred to me that it would be archived and made available to all for posterity. The initial result was the YouTube channel Atlanta Punk Archive but with this course, I was finally able to give history and context of the video collection and my work in that time period a more permanent home.

NMIX 6111

This class explored how design permeates every aspect of new media. It covered traditional graphic design topics like color, composition, and typography and in completing the course, I mastered the basics with Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, Photoshop, Spark, and XD).

I explored emerging fields like interaction and user experience design. I took the tools and principles learned throughout the class to dive deep into user experience design and strategy while learning modern UX principles, prototype design and creation.

I truly enjoyed each aspect of this course. From learning how to iterate design elements based on client feedback, to designing rough sketches, and finally taking them digital. (My "chicken scratch" is real, y'all. I embrace it!)

Of particular note, I absolutely loved diving into photography section of the coure in which we learned several critical pillars (simplicity, asymmetry, eye line, POV) of photography as well as the basics of photoshop. Here, I channel my inner-Ansel Adams, if he cared for shallow focus and close-ups.

Equally, I enjoyed our typography assignment in which we created postcards, which also served as a wonderful introduction to Adobe Spark.

Addtional postcards: NYC, Gulf Shores , Forest Heights

I am most proud of my work on the final project. My responsibilities for the group project included a designing a style guide and the prototype application. The product/service we decided to pursue was an art-centric geocaching app, which we quickly dubbed "Musi," short for "museum" as the app is focused on exploring geo-tagged artwork in phsyical spaces (and not just museums.)

Moreover, the users are actively creating, cataloging and archiving of art. I love the idea of creating an app in which one can go into the "real world," capture ephemeral art works, and in a sense, curate their our personal "museum" of media as a result.

For me, this represented a deep dive into Adobe XD, which also allow me to utilize each of the skills previously learned in the course. I’m incredibly proud of the result.

Musi - The art-centric geocaching app

In closing, I would like to give special recognition to all my teammates. Each of their contributions and time dedicated to our final project led to what I feel is an incredibly strong final project. Their feedback, creativity, hard work, dedication, and insights were inspiring in ways that propelled my personal and professional development.

Thank you Enid, Haley, and Grant. We made Musi together! (I'll see myself out now...)

JRMC 7010

NMIX class descriptions

JRMC 7011

Course description and projects coming soon.

NMIX 6310

One specific thing that drew me to the NMI master’s program was the notion of learning iOS app development. Needless to say, I was excited to begin learning Swift programming in this course!

While I initially struggled with the foundational elements of Xcode, I did find that over the course of the semester that I was beginning to understand not only good workflows for app development, but more importantly I began to grasp a solid understanding of Swift as a coding language. As the semester went along, using Xcode and my understanding of Swift became much more intuitive.

From the early stages of the course where I learned foundational techniques, such as building a user interface, navigation, displaying images, and most importantly understanding how stacks work, the assignments helped me further develop my skills and encouraged me to think critically about app development.

This gave me the confidence to step outside of my comfort zone (as well as our assignments and course text) for my midterm project, where I delved into the implementation of Apple's PencilKit. As a result, I was able to implement a drawing canvas, complete with tool and color pickers.

I most enjoyed the assignments in the course that overlapped with NMI 7110 in which I could see the connections and value of other languages to Swift, such as javascript, JSON, and the implementation of APIs. I could immediately see how this could be useful in coordination with Swift programming.

In fact, for my final project, I had originally intended to re-create my random card generator (from 7110) but after several days of failed attempts to replicate a similar code in Swift, I decided it would be best to re-approach that project at another time. (My hurdle was and still is pulling an image from the API to accompany the text. I experimented with Webkit and UIImage but neither seemed to be a truly workable solution to my issue.)

However, this got me thinking more about “randomness.” And specifically how I could control it a bit and present it in a meaningful way. I was also struggling with a creative block about what app I could create after that failed attempt. I still had an idea about using “cards” of some sort and that’s when it hit me. Why not develop an app that would recreate the Oblique Strategies card-based tool?

In some ways, my original plan led me to my current result, which I’m absolutely pleased with. It’s an app that I actually plan to use as I’m often struck with creative blocks, be them in coding, filming, photographing, etc.

To say that I’m happy with the skills I’ve begun to develop in this course would be an understatement. From booting up Xcode for the very first time to developing several fully functional apps, this course has been a critical introduction to Swift and modern app development.

NMIX 7110

Advanced Media Production furthered the skills I established in previous NMI courses. Specifically, I was able to expand my skill set in the use of HTML, CSS, flexboxes, arrays, and ultimately developing a foundational understanding of Javascript. This course represented my first, true introduction to Javascript.

The varied assignments, types of web development techniques and languages taught throughout this course not only kept me on my toes but encouraged me to think critically about the ways in which various coding languages intersect, diverge, and how they can be used in conjunction to make any given web development project more successful.

One thing that absolutely intrigued me was being introduced to APIs and how transformative translating data from APIs can be in terms of web development and app programming. As a result, I decided to dive into the scryfall API, which hosts data about every single existing Magic The Gathering card. This API represents a dictionary-like repository of information on each card.

Being that I enjoy opening packs of the physical cards, I thought it would be interesting to sort of reproduce that feeling with random card draws. I drew upon my understanding of Java, JSON, and APIs to develop 5 different random generators, found here. Some draw cards specifically from limited sets, some only draw cards valued over a certain dollar amount, and my favorite draws any card that has ever been printed.

Had the course not covered such a wealth of types of web development, I would have struggled with understanding how to use elements of CSS, HTML, and Javascript to culminate in my final project.

NMIX 7005

Course description and projects coming soon.

JRMC 8016

Course description and projects coming soon.

JRMC 7012

Course description and projects coming soon.

NMIX 7015

Course description and projects coming soon.