“Ms. Jenn Explains: The Law of Conservation of Energy” by Jenn White, licensed under CC BY-SA
Synopsis: Ms. Jenn explains the Law of Conservation of Energy by giving examples of energy transformations and energy transfers.
Video Creation: This video was illustrated and narrated by me. The stop motion video was created using Stop Motion Studio. The sound was edited using GarageBand. Final edits of the video were made using Canva.
Image Credit: At :14 seconds into the video, there is an illustration of Earth’s layers. I used a reference image to illustrate this and found it on Vecteezy.com.
“The Structure of the Earth” is used for educational purposes as a visual example of Earth’s layers and is considered fair use under Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This falls under Category 2 in Code for Best Practices in Fair Use for online video, “Using Copyrighted Material for Illustration or Example.” Demirci’s illustration is used as a guide to create one of the illustrations in this video. No other licensing information was found.
The sound was mixed using GarageBand. The video was made first as a presentation in Canva, downloaded as an MP4, then uploaded to Youtube.
Poem Credit: Dickinson, E. (1896). The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Series One, “Love, Poem 9: Have You Got a Brook in Your Little Heart”. Boston, MA: Roberts Brothers. Published before 1923, public domain, licensing under CC0 1.0 Universal
Sound Credits: Freesound.org, BandCamp, and poem recited by Jenn White
“Back Porch Sightings Podcast Art” by Jenn White, licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal
“Back Porch Sightings Podcast Intro” by Jenn White, licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal
One of my favorite things about living with my best friend is the time we spend together on our back porch. At night, we grab a drink and talk about our days. I talk about politics. Hanna talks about celebrity gossip. We always see something unusual in the sky: crazy fog, strobe lights, drones…and I swear that was a UFO. This podcast is a reflection of our time spent together– a little spooky but mostly playful. I think this comes across in the script, our tone of voice, the sound effects, and music. I incorporated the sound of our screen door slamming shut (quick, what is that?!). This was my first time using GarageBand. In this audio, sound clips are layered and I learned how to fade in and out and control the background volume.
Image Credits:
“The Open Cluster Messier 41” by the 2MASS 2 Micron All Sky Survey, licensed under Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal. This image was found using Wikimedia Commons. “Atlas Image [or Atlas Image mosaic] obtained as part of the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.”
Polaroid of Hanna and Jenn was taken by Caitlin Mellette, friend of the pod.
“Back Porch Sightings Podcast Art” was created using Canva Pro.
Sound Credits: All sounds not recorded by me were found using freesound.org
Original image found on Wikimedia Commons: “Palestine sunbird (Cinnyris osea osea) male in flight” by Charles J. Sharp. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Derivative has been created using Befunky. Image has been cropped, resized, and a text box with text has been added.
Wallack Company, “True to the Last”. Mathew Brady Studio, active 1844-1894. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian. Licensed by CC0 1.0 Universal
“The Man in White, on hold” Jenn White Licensed by CC0 1.0 Universal
I chose this image because I’m curious about these people. The original photograph was taken with a large format camera and a glass plate. This same photograph could be taken today with the same camera and be just as haunting, but we wouldn’t have the same stories to share. I think there’s something special about all of the space in the original photograph; the people seem more distant, almost intangible. The first crop brings them closer, the attention drawn to the Man in White. The image is weighted, the people rooted and more tangible. It’s a more formal portrait, maybe? I chose to edit out some of the missing spots from the negative using the “heal” tool in Pixlr.
“Silent but for all the Thoughts” Jenn White, Licensed by CC0 1.0 Universal
The second crop isolates the woman. I think she appeared a little removed from the scene to begin with. Now, she is surrounded by space above, her eyes pointed up, the viewer follows her eyes. Is she rolling eyes? Deep in thought? Saying a prayer? She could be looking at anything; thinking about anything. The viewer could also follow her pointed finger but this is more uncomfortable because there is nowhere to look, or perhaps a shorter distance to wonder. I used the heal tool to edit out those black spots again. The eraser tool and heal tool removed the rest of the Man in White from the bottom left corner. A deeper vignette was added to bring depth to the image.
The original image is part the Frederick Hill Reserve Collection at the Smithsonian.
To learn more about glass plate collodion negatives, I visited this PBS site.
I chose the song first, picking “Everybody’s Crazy ’bout the Doggone Blues, but I’m Happy” because 1) it’s a fun tune and 2) it’s relatable in a if-I-keep-saying-it-to-myself-then-it-will-come-true kind of way. This weekend my brother came to visit me. It’s always nice to see him but I was already feeling overwhelmed by other responsibilities let alone having play host. This happens to all of us; the to-do’s pile up and seem to surpass the amount of time we have. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the things we have to do and lose sight of the many wonderful things we get to do. I told myself, “You’re okay. It’ll get done.” I put my to-do list aside and had a great time with my brother.
Images of garbage fires, giant stacks of paper, and tiny animals pushing things uphill all came to my mind. Then, I found this print of Vasilisa in the Forest; one of Bilibin’s prints illustrating the Russian folktale, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”. The TLDR is that Vasilisa is sent into the woods to get light from Baba Yaga; overcoming impossible tasks along the way. It’s fun to imagine her singing this song; swaying her hips to this early American ragtime tune as she and her doll outwit the infamous witch, Baba Yaga.
The meaning of the two combined is enhanced. I believe this new creation maintains its status as CC0 1.0 UNIVERSAL because both the image and the audio are public domain. The image was created around 1900 and the song was recorded in 1917. Regarding the spelling of “Visilisa”, there were many spelling inconsistencies between sources. I made the choice to use this spelling because it seemed most common.
I often think that introductions are the worst part of being in community. I’d rather not be perceived at all. Can we just pretend to know each other and jump right in? No. Okay, let’s start over.
Greetings! I’m Jenn White and I live in Palm Coast, FL. I share a house with my dog, Sky, my bestie, her daughter, our cats, and Rosie the Tarantula. We have a peaceful home full of things that bring us joy and the more than occasional sassy attitude. At night we like to have a drink on our porch and watch the sky for possible UFOs (those can’t all be planes and planets and stars, right?). During the day I’m a middle school science teacher. I started as an Early Elementary Montessori Teacher 12 years ago. About 6 years ago I was offered a position teaching science in middle school. I earned my professional teaching certification through the Florida Department of Education and now I teach at a public school. 7th grade curriculum is my favorite because natural history and ecology are my favorite. There are a few hobbies that I wish would take up more of my time. I like to read about herbalism, the evolution of life on Earth, and whatever sci/fi or fantasy book I can find. I enjoy being on the water and meet up with friends to paddleboard in the summer. I am fascinated by Thanatology and learning about the different ways cultures view death and dying. I’ve been learning how to nålbind socks, which is a cozy winter hobby. When stressed, I like to be in my kitchen–baking is usually my go to. Sometimes I make beautiful and delicious loaves of bread but other times they’re just delicious. Music is life and lately I’ve been listening to Colour Me Wednesday, Camp Cope, and Amyl and The Sniffers.
I’ve always been a wanderer–moving from one opportunity to the next. A collector of experiences, never living in one place longer than 3-5 years. I graduated with my BFA in Fine Art in 2007. I thought about joining Peace Corps but became an AmeriCorps VISTA member instead. Which was fun. I’ve been an environmental educator, a youth case manager, a vegan baker, a milker and herder of goats, a bartender, and a teacher. Despite the fun, I can’t say that I’ve ever felt a sense of purpose. How do people know what they want and then also make it happen? I don’t know. Somewhere along the way, I got really lost. I stopped collecting experiences and just coasted; kind of frozen. I became a sort of hermit but I wasn’t always a snail hiding in her shell. Life can lead us in some interesting directions I suppose. Anyway, it finally happened for me, like a spark lit in my spirit. I want to be a librarian. Who doesn’t love the smell of an old book? The thrill of having access to artifacts, specimens, and special collections? Over the years, even my classroom and house have morphed into a library and natural history museum. A path and purpose became clear for me and I decided to set two goals for myself. One is more short term and it’s to work in service to my community as school librarian. The second is my dream job and that would be to become a librarian at the The National Museum of Natural History.
And now I’m here, with you. I’m excited to be here, nervous about socializing, but happy to have found a new community. I’m taking a page from younger me, putting fear and overwhelm aside to live in the moment. I look forward to being in community and leaning into creativity. Thanks for reading. This wasn’t so bad.
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