The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art. – John Lasseter
We want to take a moment to introduce the concept and voices behind this project. We are Stephanie Steiner, Krystal Schulte, and Chad Pribyl. As three media students at Buena Vista University (BVU) who are fully engrossed in our technology, we crafted this story for our Digital Journalism class as a way to show our skills in multimedia storytelling based on what we’ve learned throughout the semester. But this project is not about us and our digital use, but rather, it is about how some people choose to slightly push back and go against the grain of society by making their own path that is meaningful to them.
Our project revolves around Miranda Pollock, who, without even knowing it, gave us many reasons to feature her and tell a unique story about the way she lives her life. First, we wanted to know who this new BVU professor was that makes her own soap and used to live on an Amish farm {or something?} and yet ended up landing in Storm Lake, Iowa to teach graphic design. Second, we wanted to think critically about our own digital use and how that might make us different than members of a family such as Miranda’s, who are not so digitally-laden. And third, we wanted to tell a story that would leave our readers feeling wondrous, surprised, inspired, and analytical — and most of all informed about what it is like to live under a rock in a digital age.
We hope you will take the chance to see the world through Miranda’s eyes, as well as some of the people Miranda interacts with on a daily basis. As the BVU community, we should take the time to get know our professors and learn where their teaching style derives. Miranda is an inspiration to a technology driven society as she advocates shifting our attention away from our screens and onto the relationships we have with the world around us. Our goal is that you take away as much exploring this story about Miranda as we did crafting it.
Images provided by Miranda Pollock