Digital and Social Media Adaptation

    

 After reading through and pondering on Larry Woiwode's Ode to an Orange, I created this media adaptation: a collage made using a pen, orange construction paper, pages from a beauty magazine, and few oranges.  Using Benjamin Thevenin's Creating essay, I was able to follow his method for making effective adaptations that draw upon and reflect the original text while being completey original and personal to me, the creator.  Through this project I was able to better understand three terms that Thevenin outlines in his essay: Texts, Processes, and Literacies. 

Texts:

When creating media adaptations, engagment with the original text is very signifiant.  After all, its contents will contain the essence of your adaptation.  During this examination, Thevenin states that we should "identify salient themes, stylistic conventions, as well as the affordances and limitations."  I observed several elements of Ode to an Orange in my own examination, including the use of vivid imagery, descriptions of various sensations, praising and glorifying, and instructing the reader.  The main limitation I felt from this essay was the lack of actual imagery, so I knew right away that I wanted my adaptation to be visual.  I also studied the notes following Woiwode's essay as part of my research, which stated that "the goal [of an ode] is to evoke longing in your readers."  In another defintion I found, an ode is a poem "praising or glorifying an event or individual."  With all this in mind, I eventually came to the idea of making a collage of sorts with oranges and a beauty magazine.  I felt that the essay had the same feel as a sensational advertisement; trying to sell something, or convince us of something, or at the very least make us want something, just like a beauty product in a magazine.  I decided that my media adaptation would be advertising oranges as if they were a coveted beauty product.  The essence of the original essay, I decided, was that feeling of longing, which is a common emotion felt while looking at a magazine, therefore, I found the connection to be suitable for my project. 

Processes:

Processes is all about continuing to analyze and reflect on your creation and how well it fits the text.  My idea to display oranges in the format of a beauty magazine came before I knew what magazine I was using.  Miraculously, I found a small beauty magazine in the mail (from a subscription that I had canceled as soon as I joined it).  I looked for visuals that matched lines from the original texts.  I was able to find several connections--skin of an orange connected to skin care, the continuous ribbon of the orange peel connected to long, flowing hair, and I even found a picture of a girl holding something in the palms of her hands, perfectly fitting the line "the packed heft and texture, finally, of an orange in your hand."  I looked for words in the magazine that were specfically connected to oranges and the essay (fragrance, sweet, perfect, etc.) and I looked for words in the essay that reminded me of phrases that could be found in a magazine or advertisement ("this is it!" "the sweetest morsels of any," "the skin so perfect for slicing," "if you want an orange, why don't you ask for one?" etc.)  Going back and forth in my analysis between the original text and the media form kept the works connected in my mind and allowed my creativity to be focused.

Literacies:

The idea behind this term is that an adapted work can be completely creative and original in spite of being based on another text.  Although I quoted several lines from Ode to an Orange, having it in the form of a collage rather than an essay was my way of making it my own.  I had the liberty to choose what images I wanted to use, what layout I wanted to make, and what fonts I wanted to write in. I also found creative ways to incorporate real oranges in my work--using the peels, the orange slices, squirting juice on the page, etc.  When students draw from texts to make their own original work, they bring some of themselves and their interests and their excitment to the final product.   They are able to take away the essence of the original text, not only because they've analyzed it so thoroughly, but because they've taken its key elements and used them to creative something meanginful and relevant to them.