Project 1 Final Post

Project 1

I took a completely different route than I had planned for Project 1. Originally, I had planned on using a longer piece of literature--a passage from a novel or something of that nature. I found that my ideas for a longer, more complex piece may be a little too complicated for this particular assignment. I had prepared a PowerPoint presentation for part of Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body, and realized that it definitely fit more of the criteria for Project 2.

I then decided to look at this project on a smaller scale. That is how I chose the quotation for my project. After taking four semesters of Latin during college, I've grown an appreciation for the language. It is complex and interesting, and many texts originally written in Latin have paved the way for modern literature and language. I chose this particular quotation because the content itself is somewhat abstract--"We are more easily led part by part to an understanding of the whole." It deals with cognitive process and understanding--something we cannot see. However, the first thing that comes to my mind when talking about pieces forming a whole is a puzzle. Using puzzle pieces separately (per partes) to form the whole (totius) is a concrete way to express an abstract idea. I feel this is an appropriate project because one of my blog comments said to think of the different parts of my project working together to create a meaning. This, in a somewhat literal sense, does just that.

The placement of the text for my project is significant to the understanding of Latin translation. Though the words remain in the order in which they occur in the quotation, I separated them into grammatical segments. Facilius, which means more easily, stands alone as a comparative adverb. Per partes, an ablative of manner, means part by part. In cognitionem, is accusative, functioning as the direct object (leads us to what? -- an understanding). Totius functions as a genitive, meaning of the whole. And lastly, we get to the verb--adducimur. In Latin, verbs usually come at the end of the sentence, which is why I chose to leave it there, even though the translation comes toward the beginning of the sentence. Adducimur is a passive verb, meaning we are led. The line-by-line animation of the text and art also serve to supplement the piece-by-piece abstract and grammatical intentions I had for the project.

I layered the words per partes and totius over puzzle pieces and a put-together puzzle. This was to supplement the understanding of the words in an illustrative way. I also made the font different for these words to emphasize them, as I feel they are the most important words in the quotation. Revealing the English translation of the quotation as the last piece of my project sums up the whole--the audience can see each part come together, and then the English words shown last take the idea full circle.