Author: ChristopherOdom

Dr. Christopher C. Odom earned his PhD in Texts and Technology, Digital Media at the University of Central Florida; his MFA in Film and Television from the University of California, Los Angeles; and his BA in Film and Video Production from Georgia State University. Throughout Dr. Odom’s 30-year career in the entertainment industry, as a filmmaker, Dr. Odom has produced, directed, written, shot, and/or edited +500 short and longform creative projects. In addition, for over a decade as a Course Director at Full Sail University, Dr. Odom has supervised and developed an additional +500 student short scripts and films. A published author and domestic and international award-winning filmmaker and voiceover talent, Dr. Odom’s work has appeared in major cities worldwide, including Cannes, Berlin, Tel Aviv, New York, and Los Angeles. A former story analyst for Creative Artists Agency and a member of the Writers Guild of America Independent Writer’s Caucus, Dr. Odom’s directing, producing, writing, cinematography, editing, and on-camera credits include feature films with international distribution through Entertainment One, promos and trailers for the nationally televised ITVS-produced PBS series Independent Lens, and aviation news stories for Airborne-Unlimited on the Aero-News Network. Dr. Odom recently finished his short documentary film “Justice for George Floyd: The Tipping Point?” about the visual imagery emerging on social media from the Justice for George Floyd Protests, as a social movement. He is currently in postproduction on the feature documentary version of the same film. Learn more about Dr. Odom’s background on LinkedIn.

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Fourteen students from across the university will serve on UCF’s first Graduate Student Advisory Council beginning this month.

The students were selected from a pool of more than 150 applicants and represent all colleges across the university, including UCF Online, who are attending part-time or full-time. They will serve for one year and work directly with the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies Elizabeth Klonoff.

“The overwhelming response to our call for volunteers demonstrates our students care about creating a supportive environment,” Klonoff says. “I look forward to working with them to build a community where none of our graduates feel invisible and instead are a critical part of UCF’s community fabric.”

The council members will share experiences, identify, and suggest solutions to challenges unique to graduate students and make recommendations to the college to build a welcoming and inclusive graduate community.

Candidates must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and no record of any violations of UCF’s Golden Rule. They will meet monthly with the dean.

The council members for 2021-2022 are:

College of Arts and Humanities

Christopher Odom, Texts and Technology Ph.D.

Still I Rise: ReMix ✊🏾

“Still I Rise: Remix” is a visual, lyrical, digital interactive fight song for civic action for the #BlackLivesMatter social justice and social change movement. Created during and by the stressors intensified from the global pandemic, this JavaScript interactive poetry remix embraces the digital activism made exponential during the pandemic through the platformization of counternarratives. The remix blends multiple digital mediums with cultural artifacts of the past and present to weave together a rhetorical and semiotic interactive experience that enlightens society and uplifts the human spirit. Through multimodality and intertextuality, “Still I Rise: Remix” exploits the aesthetics of the digital interactive experience through multiple artistic forms of expression, including code, video, audio, and hypertext. This COVID E-Lit interactive exhibition is a multimodal expression and declarative statement for the #BlackLivesMatter movement which embodies the spirit of change, inclusion, and social justice. “The medium is the message.” Experience “Still I Rise: Remix.”

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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – MAY 26: Protesters march on Hiawatha Avenue while decrying the killing of George Floyd on May 26, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after a video taken by a bystander was posted on social media showing Floyd’s neck being pinned to the ground by an officer as he repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe”. Floyd was later pronounced dead while in police custody after being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Through the narrative retelling of the events leading up to and through the Capitol Riot and George Floyd protests, I reveal the point-of-views from polar opposite cultural viewpoints and how the cultural context changes the visual social semiotic meaning of the same imagery through the vantage point of an alternative concept. I do not believe that this visual analysis alone will change what people believe about the Capitol Riot and George Floyd protests, but it is my goal to use the narrative information visualization for this visual analysis, as a tool to broaden the audience’s understanding of why people believe what they believe about the Capitol Riot and George Floyd protests. Perception is reality and everyone’s perceptions are unique; thus, peering into reality is no more distinct or precise than peering through a prism, to see what color is on the other side. Culture and context are the prism, and reality is the rainbow of refracted light on the other side.