Charlene Makley, Anthropology
Murdock grants awarded to me between 2000-2003 have allowed me to develop various media modules in an integrated system for use in my teaching and research. Since I arrived at Reed, I worked with staff in the Faculty Media Lab to investigate software and develop an image database that is now the centerpiece of my multimedia curricular goals in anthropology and Asian studies. We decided on a database program called Portfolio, and I now have 3 separate databases cataloguing over 2000 images.
I also developed three course websites, an Image Archive site for visual anthropology and an Anthropology Department website, all of which I have linked to an Anthropology research website for students.
I have been able to generate online slide shows from my image database which I then linked to thesyllabus in my Introduction to Anthropology website. Perhaps the most successful of these efforts by far has been the website I developed on Sexism and Racism in Advertising as part of my larger Image Archive site. Using Portfolio's built-in features, we generated "exhibits" automatically from a Portfolio "gallery" (a selection of images) and linked that site to my Sex and Gender web syllabus. The site is a passworded online exhibition of sexist print ads, with links for each image to student analyses and critiques of the images. Unexpectedly, the site has found users all over the country and internationally as well. I have received requests for the password and enthusiastic feedback from educators and students in Turkey, Mexico, Australia, England, Nigeria and elsewhere.
Most recently, I have been using Murdock funds to add an audio component to my media databases. Staff in computer services researched audio digitizing software and with a student worker, we have begun digitizing my archive of taped interviews with Tibetans that I conducted in 1995-96. These audio files will serve to archive the interviews for posterity, but they will also be available for my teaching and research. Files will be catalogued and keyworded using Portfolio.
Finally, I will be adding another exhibit site to the Image Archive when I teach my course on China and Tibet. These new multimedia materials will be integrated with my existing course website, so that each week will have associated images, easily accessible via a click on the syllabus.
On November 1st, 2002 Professor Charlene Makley of the Anthropology Department demonstrated her work with digital images. Professor Makley showcased two projects. The first was a collection of images depicting sexism in advertising. Using Portfolio, a digital asset management tool, Makley created an electronic archive of images. She also used Portfolio to create web-pages from the images which were used by her students. Her second project is a large database of images from her fieldwork in Tibet. Also created using Portfolio, this database is a fully searchable index of several years of research. Makley further demonstrated how she has used Photoshop in tandem with Portfolio to create labeled graphics for publication and to compare images on-screen.
The presentation was very well attended, with eighteen people from throughout the campus present. Attendees included faculty from Classics, Religion, English, Art History, Psychology, Anthropology and Chemistry.