3/5/2025
The project I’ve been working on so far this semester has been the Virtual Titular Head project with Adam Kelley-Chown. This project is sort of like 3 separate things that combine under a larger title—a virtual celebration held for alumni and students after the on-campus Tithead event, a WordPress site detailing history and information surrounding the Tithead tradition, and an Omeka Database similar to IMDB that hosts and records information about various films archived over the years. Each mini project has its own set of relevant skills, and various parts to balance. While Adam oversees almost all of the content related to the virtual celebration, working with the WordPress site, of course, requires knowledge with WordPress and also with a plug-in for higher customization known as Elementor, and Omeka requires knowledge with its own UI which is a bit of a beast. There’s also a bit of graphic design that goes into it all and understanding how website accessibility has to be implemented on each page. One of our big plans this semester is to try to make both the sites a bit more fun to look at, as well as more accessible to those who might have less experience futzing around in databases. Omeka can be pretty dense, but we’d like the Tithead Archive to be a bit more approachable. So far, this first half of the semester has been a lot of training on various programs (as I am a new Vivello) and working on getting familiar with the websites and where we might go with them. It’s been a lot of learning how and where to access certain folders, how to get into the back end of sites, where to document my work and access old documentation, and clicking endlessly around the sites to notice things for changes in the design later. Recently, I’ve also been able to test out some new formatting for the Omeka site and we’ll see if it’s something we want to stick with. My next steps for after spring break are to go continue my training and utilize those skills to make these websites look like something out of an tech-y art student’s portfolio—colorful, detailed, creative. I want to make sure the site is approachable to alumni and students alike so that current and future Tithead creators feel like there is support in the larger Grinnellian culture for this tradition and its campus-wide importance. As for obstacles, the only things that are keeping me at a slower pace has gotta be the amount of homework I’ve got between everything else—It’s hard to find time to work on the project when I’ve got tests and assignments breathing down my back. Right now, I haven’t got any questions either, but as they pop up, I’ll make sure to bring them up to people who might be able to answer them. Excited to keep working!