Saturday 13 December 2008
end of this blog
This blog ended a fair while ago now, but head on over to pronouncedpurvis.com/ where you'll find all my illustration work (old and new)
Wednesday 14 May 2008
dissertation summary
just updating my blog here with a summary about my dissertation:
- What did you discover that was new?
When i started the dissertation i began with a vague idea about what i wanted to look at: grotesque characters, kind of thinking it would be more of an analytical approach. As my research went on and expanded I branched out into looking at the more psychological side of grotesque characters, why the audience respond in a more positive way than initially expected and the identities represented.
- What was enjoyable about this?
At the start i knew i would have to look at british politics in the 80's due to my subject matter of grotesque characters in The Young Ones. I prepared for a lot of bias concerning Thatcher and had to sift through this to find more objective views of this era. It was one of the more interesting aspects of my research, especially when it came to tying politics into alternative comedy and grotesque characters. Also interesting to note that certain grotesque characters only really worked as grotesques depending on the era in which they were shown. The 80's was a time of sitcoms that generally represented traditional family views so The Young Ones was seen as politically incorrect, much more so than it would be now.
- What was difficult?
The only really difficult thing was what was enjoyable about it; tying all my notes and research into a piece of coherent text. Also quite difficult was editing my essay to avoid repeating myself or rambling too much, quite a hard task having to delete 500 words because they've been said before or i could get my point across in a more concise way.
Also experienced the normal difficulties everyone had of citing and referencing. Especially hard as i have a horrible habit of not writing down where i got my info or quotes from. But i just took about a week to concentrate on just referencing and the more i did it, the easier it got.
- Summary:
The Design of The Grotesque: Explorations of Grotesque Characters in a Televised and Online World.
- Theme:
An analytical and psychological look at grotesque characters, what makes them popular, what is appealing about them when what they represent is unappealing.
- Main Points:
1) Grotesques in Television
looking at The Young Ones mainly, the context in which the show was made and broadcast, the representations and the comments it made on society
2) Avatars and their Representations
pyschology of cyberspace, what makes people design unnattractive avatars, what avatars represent
3) Absurdism and the Grotesque
more of a historical look at the grotesque from the Theatre of the Absurd and absurdist plays such as Waiting For Godot, tying this play in with Bottom and the Bottom Live shows.
Conclusion
- What did you discover that was new?
When i started the dissertation i began with a vague idea about what i wanted to look at: grotesque characters, kind of thinking it would be more of an analytical approach. As my research went on and expanded I branched out into looking at the more psychological side of grotesque characters, why the audience respond in a more positive way than initially expected and the identities represented.
- What was enjoyable about this?
At the start i knew i would have to look at british politics in the 80's due to my subject matter of grotesque characters in The Young Ones. I prepared for a lot of bias concerning Thatcher and had to sift through this to find more objective views of this era. It was one of the more interesting aspects of my research, especially when it came to tying politics into alternative comedy and grotesque characters. Also interesting to note that certain grotesque characters only really worked as grotesques depending on the era in which they were shown. The 80's was a time of sitcoms that generally represented traditional family views so The Young Ones was seen as politically incorrect, much more so than it would be now.
- What was difficult?
The only really difficult thing was what was enjoyable about it; tying all my notes and research into a piece of coherent text. Also quite difficult was editing my essay to avoid repeating myself or rambling too much, quite a hard task having to delete 500 words because they've been said before or i could get my point across in a more concise way.
Also experienced the normal difficulties everyone had of citing and referencing. Especially hard as i have a horrible habit of not writing down where i got my info or quotes from. But i just took about a week to concentrate on just referencing and the more i did it, the easier it got.
- Summary:
The Design of The Grotesque: Explorations of Grotesque Characters in a Televised and Online World.
- Theme:
An analytical and psychological look at grotesque characters, what makes them popular, what is appealing about them when what they represent is unappealing.
- Main Points:
1) Grotesques in Television
looking at The Young Ones mainly, the context in which the show was made and broadcast, the representations and the comments it made on society
2) Avatars and their Representations
pyschology of cyberspace, what makes people design unnattractive avatars, what avatars represent
3) Absurdism and the Grotesque
more of a historical look at the grotesque from the Theatre of the Absurd and absurdist plays such as Waiting For Godot, tying this play in with Bottom and the Bottom Live shows.
Conclusion
Television and comedy in particular use grotesques as something that malign the government, other topical news items and also other television shows. Grotesques seemed to become political alibis and a inherent rejection of mainstream which paradoxically became additionally mainstream and if the current trend of comedy is anything to go by, will continue to rise in popularity becoming more conventional.
Despite The Young Ones not originally being a rebellion as such, that is what it became. It was a rebellion in the way that rock ’n’ roll and punk music was. As eras, music and deviancy changes it is expected that television could do the same or vice versa, TV being a reflection of modern life or modern life being a reflection of television. Current TV show Shameless is an example of this, taking the current situation of working class, yob-ism and political circumstances and satirising them then mirrors it back to the audience.
Design of the grotesque was a comment on society of the different eras and also a comment on the identities commonly associated with the era in which they were made. This device harks back to the time of the Theatre of the Absurd and Commedia Dell’arte.
As far as user designed avatars go, it is true that the computer is becoming less of a tool and more of a mirror. Avatars are reflective of personalities and of negative features that are prevalent due to the confidence the anonymity the internet gives. As technology increases in popularity in terms of what it can do, we may not be surprised to see not just grotesque avatars designed, but the possibility of grotesque virtual worlds as a whole.
Grotesque comedy and plays seemed to provide an alternative to the more generic forms of entertainment but in current times it seems that it takes preference over the more light-hearted, ‘family’ entertainment. Even online communities and web spaces such as flickr thrive on the pessimistic and sometimes brutal honesty, with many users becoming despondent with pithy and non-specific comments and threads. Perhaps the simplest answer is the correct one and that the reason why grotesqueness, and sometimes aggressiveness, is popular is that it is just more interesting.
Freud claimed that humans are intrinsically aggressive. It's one of the two basic drives that make us tick. We can control or over-ride it, but it's got to go somewhere.
Wednesday 7 May 2008
Friday 25 April 2008
some cool vids
just looking around on youtube and found some pretty cool animations that use typography.
This one is the whole "what does Marsellus Wallace look like" bit from pulp fiction. I just think its really good how emotion and language difference were captured with different movements and different fonts.
This vid is the Abbott and Costello skit "Who's on First".. like this vid because it follows the conversation well and has the whole language games that i'm quite a fan of.
This animation is a bit from Dumb and Dumber, tis just great.. littered with deliberate spelling mistakes as well. The mistakes add to the humour whereas hopefully my animation the mistakes will add to the frustration and disorientation
more to come
This one is the whole "what does Marsellus Wallace look like" bit from pulp fiction. I just think its really good how emotion and language difference were captured with different movements and different fonts.
This vid is the Abbott and Costello skit "Who's on First".. like this vid because it follows the conversation well and has the whole language games that i'm quite a fan of.
This animation is a bit from Dumb and Dumber, tis just great.. littered with deliberate spelling mistakes as well. The mistakes add to the humour whereas hopefully my animation the mistakes will add to the frustration and disorientation
more to come
Wednesday 23 April 2008
dyslexia as an excuse
It seems that now dyslexia is the new ‘bad back’ of excuses. Far too many people are becoming lazy or are looking for ways of getting out of a bit of hard work, so they blame or fake dyslexia. For the genuinely dyslexic this is infuriating. It makes a mockery out of how hard we have to work just to keep up with our peers and tars us all with the same brush. It’s a common understanding that dyslexic people struggle with reading and writing, but it is a lot deeper than that. Above all else it is a feeling of strong disorientation. Imagine yourself trying to commute in a foreign country. All the signs are in a different language and most of your time is spent in a haze of confusion merely looking around you. That is how we feel everyday and for those who blame dyslexia when really a lack of common sense or basic intelligence would have sufficed.
Not too long ago a man tried to sue a bank for letting him go overdrawn and become debt ridden just because he could not understand the bank charges. Guess what was blamed? Not just dyslexia, but the bank not understanding enough about dyslexia. Dyslexic people aren’t stupid, we know when to swallow our pride and ask for help. Usually we will prefer to work out solutions ourselves, and as someone who spent 18 years of her life going through education without dyslexia being recognised, I should know. Many dyslexics have their own coping strategies, be it learning the words they struggle with or re-reading texts multiple times, sometimes we just have to admit defeat and that we can’t do it all alone all the time.
This man who attempted to sue the bank states that he got a bad credit rating after becoming ‘inadvertently overdrawn’. It is this statement that puts a good spin doctor to shame that bothers me. I find it quite astounding that anyone can become ‘inadvertently overdrawn’. Number dyslexia aside, you know when you’ve spent a bit too much money even without checking your balance or statements, its called common sense.
The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) says that banks should do more to help the six million people in the
A date for the hearing has yet to be fixed, my guess is it’s going to stay that way.
Monday 21 April 2008
exam project proposal
'Hell is other people talking webspeak on mobile phones.' John Humphreys (2000)
The rising popularity and dependence of mobile phones has given lead to the obvious imperfections of technology. When mobile technology was first available, few thought how popular and used the text message feature would become. Initial growth of text messaging was slow, as it was originally designed for deaf and hard of hearing people, with customers in 1995 sending on average only 0.4 messages per GSM customer per month. Today text messaging is the most widely used mobile data service on the planet, with 72% of all mobile phone users worldwide or 1.9 Billion out of 2.7 Billion phone subscribers at end of 2006 being active users of texting.
Despite being an extremely popular tool, predictive text has its downfall. Users perhaps over estimate its capabilities, relying on it to fix their mistakes for them and it can be argued that this over reliance on technology is making users lazy and more careless
The Aim: To communicate the idea of miscommunication using the theory of parody and pastiche illustrate the imperfections and unreliability of this specific digital media, as if it were a dyslexic machine.
Pastiche and parody involve the imitation or, better still, the mimicry of other styles and particularly of the mannerisms and stylistic twitches of other styles… Pastiche is blank parody, parody that has lost its sense of humour…
Frederic Jameson (1988)
The Brief: Hand drawn images, animated within After Effects to demonstrate the frustration and miscommunication of predictive text. The images are in the style of an old alphabet poster, but with the words as they would appear garbled in predictive text. For example the letter ‘C’ could be ‘cat’ but the word would appear as ‘act’
The text would appear under each respective letter and be animated as if they are being written and constantly changes. Music would accompany this piece well and in particular, relaxing, royalty free music will be used, working as a good contrast to the frustration, disorientation and annoyance of a ‘dyslexic machine’. The style of the aesthetics will be ornate and old fashioned, another contrast, this time with the modernity of technology.
To avoid repetition, the animation will also contain other elements of text messages such as switching to manual enter a word, or entering a word into the phone’s dictionary.
The rising popularity and dependence of mobile phones has given lead to the obvious imperfections of technology. When mobile technology was first available, few thought how popular and used the text message feature would become. Initial growth of text messaging was slow, as it was originally designed for deaf and hard of hearing people, with customers in 1995 sending on average only 0.4 messages per GSM customer per month. Today text messaging is the most widely used mobile data service on the planet, with 72% of all mobile phone users worldwide or 1.9 Billion out of 2.7 Billion phone subscribers at end of 2006 being active users of texting.
Despite being an extremely popular tool, predictive text has its downfall. Users perhaps over estimate its capabilities, relying on it to fix their mistakes for them and it can be argued that this over reliance on technology is making users lazy and more careless
The Aim: To communicate the idea of miscommunication using the theory of parody and pastiche illustrate the imperfections and unreliability of this specific digital media, as if it were a dyslexic machine.
Pastiche and parody involve the imitation or, better still, the mimicry of other styles and particularly of the mannerisms and stylistic twitches of other styles… Pastiche is blank parody, parody that has lost its sense of humour…
Frederic Jameson (1988)
The Brief: Hand drawn images, animated within After Effects to demonstrate the frustration and miscommunication of predictive text. The images are in the style of an old alphabet poster, but with the words as they would appear garbled in predictive text. For example the letter ‘C’ could be ‘cat’ but the word would appear as ‘act’
The text would appear under each respective letter and be animated as if they are being written and constantly changes. Music would accompany this piece well and in particular, relaxing, royalty free music will be used, working as a good contrast to the frustration, disorientation and annoyance of a ‘dyslexic machine’. The style of the aesthetics will be ornate and old fashioned, another contrast, this time with the modernity of technology.
To avoid repetition, the animation will also contain other elements of text messages such as switching to manual enter a word, or entering a word into the phone’s dictionary.
Sunday 20 April 2008
wow, i've done something educational outside of college
me and beth went to the Brighton Children's Book Festival today, something we are both interested in, and i'm really glad i went. We mainly stayed for the 2 talks about how to get published and getting yourself noticed and some really useful stuff was said. I took a lot of notes, and this post is just putting them into some sort of legible format
A woman representing Tiger Press publishing was there to give her thoughts and tips when not only sending work off, but also when creating stories and illustrations.
- understand children, what will be important to them and what will engage them.
she noted how so many stories and images she gets sent that don't do any of the above things, which seems like a really obvious thing to do. Apparently a lot of authors assume just because they have children/grand children/slaves that makes them qualified in story telling.
- research - find out what is already on the market. Go to book shops and see what genres and styles are the biggest sellers. Read reviews of books to get other people's opinions. Research publishers to ensure you're sending your work to the right place.
- be adaptable and flexible with illustrations and look at the classics like "Not Now Bernard" and see why they succeed and the secret to their longevity.
- polite perserverance is also key i.e a follow up phone call perhaps 3 months after you've sent in your work is a good thing
Author and illustrator Liz Pichon was also there. She's written books such as 'Bored Bill' and 'The Ugly Bug'. She seems to write about animals more because apparently she's not great at drawing children... lulz. Regardless of that i've always liked her style of illustration and i looked a lot at her work last year for my exam project.
She studied graphic design and said this was more helpful than purely studying illustration as she was more aware of the layout of books, typography and the like.
Liz recommended getting an agent but when initially sending in work to publishers just send them a rought outline rather than finished artefacts of a new book as a lot tends to change.
Representing the agents was Penny Holroyde who works for the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency.
The thing she kept coming back to was how important it was to read, revise and research. They were the key things in succeeding in getting published and getting work. She mentioned that the common trends of the moment were series fiction and the industry were lacking in more books for boys aged 7-9, like 'Dirty Bertie'
A book by Martin Salisbury was also recommended called
Illustrating Children's Books which i have ordered from
everyone's favourite shopping site as we speak.
Penny also said to think about transitional books. Many
children go from reading the wonderfully colourful picture
books, into books containing much denser text.
More research into publishers would include looking at the publishers catalogue to see what books they've done, again
making sure you're sending your work to the right place.
Another helpful hint was when to send your work out to
publishers. Apparently not after christmas and not in the March/April months, as this is just after the Bologna Children's Book Fair happens, the best time to send work out is the July period.
Penny also said that if you are just looking for illustration work, pick a scene from a story or fairy tale and illustrate it in your own style. All helpful for building up a portfolio. With the portfolio make sure there are drawings of children in there too, which seems like a pretty silly thing not to do, but apparently many illustrators dont or can't draw kids!
Other brief notes include:
- make sure everything is mounted and presented well
- cover letter is of the utmost importance, and to give it some character and personality
- stick to what you are good at rather than what you think you should do
- stick to one style of illustration rather than varying as it gives you a stronger brand and makes you more memorable.
The second talk was more about marketing yourself, which was stuff we already know, or are supposed to anyway, but still nice to have it reiterated. Online presence is so important and actually having a blog is sometimes better than a website if you're an illustrator. Readers and viewers like to interact and comment, leading to the lovely word "intercreativity"
Was also pointed out to get involved with stuff like festivals and fairs, send stuff to local papers, get publicity material and get involved with libraries.
All in all, a really good day with some excellent points raised. I felt very reassured from the whole thing, even tho it is a difficult and competitive industry, its not an impossible one.
A woman representing Tiger Press publishing was there to give her thoughts and tips when not only sending work off, but also when creating stories and illustrations.
- understand children, what will be important to them and what will engage them.
she noted how so many stories and images she gets sent that don't do any of the above things, which seems like a really obvious thing to do. Apparently a lot of authors assume just because they have children/grand children/slaves that makes them qualified in story telling.
- research - find out what is already on the market. Go to book shops and see what genres and styles are the biggest sellers. Read reviews of books to get other people's opinions. Research publishers to ensure you're sending your work to the right place.
- be adaptable and flexible with illustrations and look at the classics like "Not Now Bernard" and see why they succeed and the secret to their longevity.
- polite perserverance is also key i.e a follow up phone call perhaps 3 months after you've sent in your work is a good thing
Author and illustrator Liz Pichon was also there. She's written books such as 'Bored Bill' and 'The Ugly Bug'. She seems to write about animals more because apparently she's not great at drawing children... lulz. Regardless of that i've always liked her style of illustration and i looked a lot at her work last year for my exam project.
She studied graphic design and said this was more helpful than purely studying illustration as she was more aware of the layout of books, typography and the like.
Liz recommended getting an agent but when initially sending in work to publishers just send them a rought outline rather than finished artefacts of a new book as a lot tends to change.
Representing the agents was Penny Holroyde who works for the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency.
The thing she kept coming back to was how important it was to read, revise and research. They were the key things in succeeding in getting published and getting work. She mentioned that the common trends of the moment were series fiction and the industry were lacking in more books for boys aged 7-9, like 'Dirty Bertie'
A book by Martin Salisbury was also recommended called
Illustrating Children's Books which i have ordered from
everyone's favourite shopping site as we speak.
Penny also said to think about transitional books. Many
children go from reading the wonderfully colourful picture
books, into books containing much denser text.
More research into publishers would include looking at the publishers catalogue to see what books they've done, again
making sure you're sending your work to the right place.
Another helpful hint was when to send your work out to
publishers. Apparently not after christmas and not in the March/April months, as this is just after the Bologna Children's Book Fair happens, the best time to send work out is the July period.
Penny also said that if you are just looking for illustration work, pick a scene from a story or fairy tale and illustrate it in your own style. All helpful for building up a portfolio. With the portfolio make sure there are drawings of children in there too, which seems like a pretty silly thing not to do, but apparently many illustrators dont or can't draw kids!
Other brief notes include:
- make sure everything is mounted and presented well
- cover letter is of the utmost importance, and to give it some character and personality
- stick to what you are good at rather than what you think you should do
- stick to one style of illustration rather than varying as it gives you a stronger brand and makes you more memorable.
The second talk was more about marketing yourself, which was stuff we already know, or are supposed to anyway, but still nice to have it reiterated. Online presence is so important and actually having a blog is sometimes better than a website if you're an illustrator. Readers and viewers like to interact and comment, leading to the lovely word "intercreativity"
Was also pointed out to get involved with stuff like festivals and fairs, send stuff to local papers, get publicity material and get involved with libraries.
All in all, a really good day with some excellent points raised. I felt very reassured from the whole thing, even tho it is a difficult and competitive industry, its not an impossible one.
Thursday 17 April 2008
linkages and such
really interesting and helpful stuff from karen today. Talking about self promotion and some cheeky little hints as well. It made the real world seem much less scary which is always a good thing. Her presentation is on the shared space for all of you who missed it. Really recommend having a look at it.
Had a conversation with her about my idea too, which is going more in the animation direction. I'm liking the style of an old alphabet poster, but with the words as they would appear garbled in predictive text. I'm thinking of animating the text to appear as they're being written, and constantly changing. If all goes well and i have time it also allows space for any other smaller animations. Karen also suggested music as well so thinking about that i reckon that calming, relaxing sort of music would work well in contrasting against the frustration and disorientation of the text.
firefox appears to be randomly deleting my bookmarks, but i found a couple that are pertinent to my essay. It's about the psychology of cyberspace and although i haven't read it all, its very interesting and i know a few of you are looking at identity and what not online.
Deviance in Online Communities
Psychology of Cyberspace
Have also been getting into Second Life more, purely for research purposes because i still hate it. As my essay is looking at the grotesque i wondered what sort of reaction i'd get with 2 completely different avatars,
on a side note, programming lesson from mike. yeah... i'm not gonna be doing that.
Had a conversation with her about my idea too, which is going more in the animation direction. I'm liking the style of an old alphabet poster, but with the words as they would appear garbled in predictive text. I'm thinking of animating the text to appear as they're being written, and constantly changing. If all goes well and i have time it also allows space for any other smaller animations. Karen also suggested music as well so thinking about that i reckon that calming, relaxing sort of music would work well in contrasting against the frustration and disorientation of the text.
firefox appears to be randomly deleting my bookmarks, but i found a couple that are pertinent to my essay. It's about the psychology of cyberspace and although i haven't read it all, its very interesting and i know a few of you are looking at identity and what not online.
Deviance in Online Communities
Psychology of Cyberspace
Have also been getting into Second Life more, purely for research purposes because i still hate it. As my essay is looking at the grotesque i wondered what sort of reaction i'd get with 2 completely different avatars,
one that was aesthetically attractive, more clichéd; the perfect. The second was an avatar that combined the main features of what is considered unattractive: the grotesque. It was interesting to note the different responses each avatar received. The grotesque avatar seemed to generate more chat and get more attention, and perhaps this is where the secret lies, in that its an easy way to get attention with very little effort. It is indeed strange to think that in a virtual world of easy beauty that many users design themselves as 'ugly'
on a side note, programming lesson from mike. yeah... i'm not gonna be doing that.
Monday 14 April 2008
'Hell is other people talking webspeak on mobile phones.'
According to cultural critic Umberto Eco (2002), we live in an age where the diminutive, the brief and the simple are highly prized in communication; if this is the case, then there's little doubt that text-messaging embodies this zeitgeist.
Like many earlier communication technologies, however, the mobile phone has come to evoke and/or embody a range of projected fears and hopes (cf. Turkle, 1995).
[Text-]messages often bear more resemblance to code than to standard language. A text filled with code language expressions is not necessarily accessible to an outsider. The unique writing style provides opportunities for creativity. (Kasesniemi & Rautiainen, 2002: 183 - emphasis ours).
we believe that humour helps to fulfil the generally phatic (cf. Malinowski, 1923) function of text-messaging by which an almost steady flow of banter is used in order to maintain an atmosphere of intimacy and perpetual social contact. In this sense, text-messaging is small-talk par excellence - none of which is to say that it is either peripheral or unimportant (see Coupland, 2000).
and yes, since my last post i did get a text joke about mark speight's suicide.. and i laughed, im a bad person;
"Police are investigating the bigger picture of Mark Speight's death. It was sent in by 11 year old Susie from Reading."
more research for exam project
funny video from Armstrong and Miller about predictive text swearing, quite good, very similar to the history of the F word though.
The more i think about the 'dyslexic machine' the more i like the idea... no more jokes like a dyslexic pimp bought a warehouse, and the dyslexic sold his soul to santa. Not that they bother me, mainly because i don't get them at first, but they're so overused. I get the same text jokes practically every month, only changing when a celebrity dies. No text jokes on kids presenter Mark Speight as yet, though the day is young. But i digress, i think my point is that so many people are reliant on these machines and see them as perfect. Many write a text message and send it, relying on predictive text without checking it properly first. Only today i got a text from a good friend, who is very bright and normally very good at spelling. It said "i'm really bored, i foot want to be here".. i think it was supposed to say 'don't'... so perhaps these machines are making us dumber, or careless. I'm quite pedantic with text messages, and i will use punctuation and don't get me started on the subject of text talk. It seems i'm not alone with the hatred for text speak. So many forum rules are "no flaming, no text speak" it confuses people, they want the message instantly without having to decode or work out what is being said.
example text from my 13 year old neice "hiya, wot u up 2 u cmin ova l8r :D tk sn, tb bri xxx" i still have no idea what that says, so i rang her. A few extra letters in that and it would have saved me the effort.
anyway, i'm trying to be clever with no real point. Just posting my thoughts and research as and when i find them, helping me hone my idea more. Anyway, here's some links that i found.
- Predictive text creating secret teen language
- Misspellings on eBay can pay
- Predictive, yet unpredictable
oh there was also a fairly interesting article in a sunday paper supplement which i may scan and post at some point. It was just a filler really on the evils of online social networks, but useful for my essay.
Sunday 13 April 2008
exam project
ok have an idea, just getting it a bit more structured and finalised now. The basic concept behind this is a dyslexic machine. Taking something that seems reliable but isn't really, like spell check or predictive text that just one mistake can completely change the context of the message. Like now a lot of kids, or 'yoof' (chavs) are saying "book" instead of "cool" because when they type the word cool in a text the first word that comes up is book and they're too lazy or drunk on cider (not generalising at all here) to change it.
I've always been interested in the theory of parody and pastiche so i'm thinking of combining that with the above idea. A big inspiration to me has been the Comic Strip films, short films that are almost complete pastiches. If you can check out the films "5 go mad in dorset" or "5 go mad on mescaline" which are piss takes of the enid blyton books where everything are jolly good wheezes what ho. plus they're really funny. watch them if you can.
so yeah, kind of torn between doing an animation or illustration (or be ambitious and do both)
for animation i've had ideas about chain emails and text messages. Those really annoying jokes that aren't funny but you have to pass on to 15 people in 2 minutes or your eyes will fall out and your buttocks will explode. Its strange to think that years and years ago, chain letters from your postie would freak people out and technology has made things faster and easier, but chain emails have become all the more popular and annoying. Its hard to put what i'm thinking into articulate words, but i know what i mean.
As for the illustration idea, you know those alphabet posters? Think of one of those, but put into predictive text the words have changed. So a B for bed would be the image, but the word would be bee, or something similar.
Pretty pleased with this idea (thanks to a certain tutor) but am going to go through our old manovich essays and fine tune my idea to write the brief.
I've always been interested in the theory of parody and pastiche so i'm thinking of combining that with the above idea. A big inspiration to me has been the Comic Strip films, short films that are almost complete pastiches. If you can check out the films "5 go mad in dorset" or "5 go mad on mescaline" which are piss takes of the enid blyton books where everything are jolly good wheezes what ho. plus they're really funny. watch them if you can.
so yeah, kind of torn between doing an animation or illustration (or be ambitious and do both)
for animation i've had ideas about chain emails and text messages. Those really annoying jokes that aren't funny but you have to pass on to 15 people in 2 minutes or your eyes will fall out and your buttocks will explode. Its strange to think that years and years ago, chain letters from your postie would freak people out and technology has made things faster and easier, but chain emails have become all the more popular and annoying. Its hard to put what i'm thinking into articulate words, but i know what i mean.
As for the illustration idea, you know those alphabet posters? Think of one of those, but put into predictive text the words have changed. So a B for bed would be the image, but the word would be bee, or something similar.
Pretty pleased with this idea (thanks to a certain tutor) but am going to go through our old manovich essays and fine tune my idea to write the brief.
dissertation stuff
was just sitting here reading everyone's blogs, and skim reading those that ramble too much, and wishing that someone would challenge us all to post more. cheers sita! its a valid point that we dont have long left here, as scary as that sounds, and its our last chance to talk to other like-minded people and share ideas and have a general moan.
anyway, so i'll talk first about my dissertation. It been based around the design of the grotesque for a while now, with main referencing to The Young Ones
Not really that grotesque in terms of appearance but my essay was looking more at their personalities, interaction and their context within an 80's Thatcherite society. After a long and at first confusing talk with Micheál he pointed out that its not enough just to talk about television, especially something thats over 20 years old. He suggested that i look at online socialising and the avatars as well. I hate it when he's right.
so i had a think and did some research and the essay is still sticking with the theme of the grotesque but looking at online avatars as well. Its interesting to look at how users either make perfect versions of themselves, or become exaggerated grotesques. You just have to stroll a while in Second Life to either see 6 foot blonde babes or monsterous creations.
What's even more confusing is that some people combine both.. sexy monsters? That's something i haven't even started thinking about yet!
According to Sherry Turkle the computer has become less of a tool and more of a mirror in that we are ‘able to step through the looking glass’. We can live in virtual worlds, play and socialise. However the mirror analogy though relevant, is slightly redundant, in that now due to the age of the avatar and increasing popularity of sims, second life and world of warcraft to name but a few, we can change our appearance and change how others see us. The anonymity of the internet has huge allowances for escapism in that the user can be whatever and whoever they want.
anyway, so i'll talk first about my dissertation. It been based around the design of the grotesque for a while now, with main referencing to The Young Ones
Not really that grotesque in terms of appearance but my essay was looking more at their personalities, interaction and their context within an 80's Thatcherite society. After a long and at first confusing talk with Micheál he pointed out that its not enough just to talk about television, especially something thats over 20 years old. He suggested that i look at online socialising and the avatars as well. I hate it when he's right.
so i had a think and did some research and the essay is still sticking with the theme of the grotesque but looking at online avatars as well. Its interesting to look at how users either make perfect versions of themselves, or become exaggerated grotesques. You just have to stroll a while in Second Life to either see 6 foot blonde babes or monsterous creations.
What's even more confusing is that some people combine both.. sexy monsters? That's something i haven't even started thinking about yet!
According to Sherry Turkle the computer has become less of a tool and more of a mirror in that we are ‘able to step through the looking glass’. We can live in virtual worlds, play and socialise. However the mirror analogy though relevant, is slightly redundant, in that now due to the age of the avatar and increasing popularity of sims, second life and world of warcraft to name but a few, we can change our appearance and change how others see us. The anonymity of the internet has huge allowances for escapism in that the user can be whatever and whoever they want.
Monday 31 March 2008
easter break update
Start with the good news first. D&AD is done, handed in and on time, which is nice. Other good news is dissertation is coming along, its a bit of an uphill struggle but managed to churn out a good 2000 words in one sitting thanks to a few cans of John Smiths... those widgets really work
bad news is, i forgot about the client proposal... completely. So going to have to work really hard on that, but hopefully shouldn't take as long as what i think its going to.
As for the stuff we were supposed to talk about today:
Accidental discoveries were:
- America's Next Top Model - yes i know it is a completely superficial pile of tripe, but its easy watching. The main thing i got from it was the end photos of each episode in how a narrative is told and how characters are formed in just one still image. Not really directly relating to my dissertation, as i'm looking at alternative comedy and the design of the grotesque, but a good point was made in that a joke being told within just one image. I suppose the best example is the funnies in the papers, but also Jerry Lewis movies do a lot of this, namely the Bellboy, because it is based on silent movies it uses a lot of visual gags.
will probably have to re-look at my dissertation and narrow things down a bit more. I hate writing so much, so not a happy bunny at the moment.
Something that directly relates to my dissertation is Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot. The tv show Bottom was heavily influenced by this in that the 2 characters have a symbiosis, and the banality of their lives. Also how the show, and the live tours, nothing really happens. The language and word games also have similarities.
other similarities are:
- pantomime - use of facial expressions to convey meaning
- tableau - presents audience with moment of frozen action
- dialogue - starts with assertion, develops into uncertainty
- little sense of time or day
- one physical character one cerebral
- references to god and the bible - lost absolutism as they can't stand up to scrutiny and trying to establish certainty in an uncertain world
- brought together by solitude only to find themselves imprisoned in a mutual dependency they'd like to break
- scene/setting backs up characters bleak lives and outlooks
- aware of audience
bad news is, i forgot about the client proposal... completely. So going to have to work really hard on that, but hopefully shouldn't take as long as what i think its going to.
As for the stuff we were supposed to talk about today:
Accidental discoveries were:
- America's Next Top Model - yes i know it is a completely superficial pile of tripe, but its easy watching. The main thing i got from it was the end photos of each episode in how a narrative is told and how characters are formed in just one still image. Not really directly relating to my dissertation, as i'm looking at alternative comedy and the design of the grotesque, but a good point was made in that a joke being told within just one image. I suppose the best example is the funnies in the papers, but also Jerry Lewis movies do a lot of this, namely the Bellboy, because it is based on silent movies it uses a lot of visual gags.
will probably have to re-look at my dissertation and narrow things down a bit more. I hate writing so much, so not a happy bunny at the moment.
Something that directly relates to my dissertation is Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot. The tv show Bottom was heavily influenced by this in that the 2 characters have a symbiosis, and the banality of their lives. Also how the show, and the live tours, nothing really happens. The language and word games also have similarities.
other similarities are:
- pantomime - use of facial expressions to convey meaning
- tableau - presents audience with moment of frozen action
- dialogue - starts with assertion, develops into uncertainty
- little sense of time or day
- one physical character one cerebral
- references to god and the bible - lost absolutism as they can't stand up to scrutiny and trying to establish certainty in an uncertain world
- brought together by solitude only to find themselves imprisoned in a mutual dependency they'd like to break
- scene/setting backs up characters bleak lives and outlooks
- aware of audience
Saturday 15 March 2008
it's only bloody done - part III
d&ad project finally put to bed after blood, sweat and, on one occassion, tears went into it.
pretty chuffed with the images, think i let myself down with the binding which pisses me off no end but not much i can do about it now. I really need to stop getting bored with things and stop losing my focus/concentration/temper half way through which is always going to be my downfall.
Probably my favourite project thus far, despite the 5am bedtimes upon finding out about how i completely screwed up with the resolution (i'm still going to be moaning about the resolution cock up for years to come yet)
i probably should have thought more about the look of the actual book, but that went completely out of my head when i saw how incredibly complicated the binding looked (it wasn't in the end), but at that point i'd given up on perfecting it and got a little craft-knife happy
there's not really a lot more to say about it, so onwards with the dissertation.
have put all my images up on flickr if anyone fancies a nosey
Friday 29 February 2008
sooooo, thought i'd better edit my last post. It was just a petulant, childish outburst that was made in the wee small hours of the morning when i had been staring at vector images for hours upon end. Considering I can't come into uni today because a bit of wind and rain has public transport grinding to a halt.
Which is very annoying because some last minute tutor input would have been marvellous
Progress so far:
- not bad at all. All images are finished, with the exception of the contents page which i need to just add some text to. It's also part of my 16 page quota so need to put my illustration in there.. pretty basic should take me all of 10 minutes, touch wood, fingers crossed, salt over shoulder etc etc
- need to get it printed, which i should be able to do today from my local printers (which makes where i live sound a bit royston vasey)
- need to bind it - figured out how i'm going to do this, what its going to look like and how many cigarettes i'm going to bribe my sister with to do it for me
- write up a little blurb about my book as to what its actually for
- figure out what my book is actually for, without saying 'its for the d&ad comp'
- sketchbook stuff - just need to write in it because i've printed and stuck in everything as i've gone along which has saved me so much time in the long run.
i think thats everything. No doubt something will crop up on thursday that will throw my whole project into complete disarray
P.S note the non-sweary blog post as well
Monday 18 February 2008
(re) touching myself
ok, my idea as it stands so far is still to have Kelly Doll's (all of which could kick Barbie's arse) but instead of having a brochure or catalogue like layout to have the book more like an instruction manual.
The style i want to use is kind of a mixture of illustration and photos, think monty python style and also the Rik Mayall 'Me and My Goldfish" animation
So far I've written all the text that I want to include and have started making all the me's. I've also learnt the art of retouching photo's, so goodbye hangover eyes and my harry potter style lightning scar. I've only been working on the different heads so far but this is quite quick to do so i can draw the different bodies and accessories (maybe) once the faces have been done.
Above: First Thing In The Morning Kelly Doll
The plan is to have the layout so it looks like an instruction manual, i've been experimenting with different layouts on paper but its difficult to get something that looks like its a manual but also looks interesting. I think this is the part of my project that is going to take the longest. Theres a couple of ideas that I've got at the moment but while they look alright in sketch form i'm not sure yet how its going to translate onto the computer and into book form, its kinda hard to imagine how the finished thing will look.
The style i want to use is kind of a mixture of illustration and photos, think monty python style and also the Rik Mayall 'Me and My Goldfish" animation
So far I've written all the text that I want to include and have started making all the me's. I've also learnt the art of retouching photo's, so goodbye hangover eyes and my harry potter style lightning scar. I've only been working on the different heads so far but this is quite quick to do so i can draw the different bodies and accessories (maybe) once the faces have been done.
Above: First Thing In The Morning Kelly Doll
The plan is to have the layout so it looks like an instruction manual, i've been experimenting with different layouts on paper but its difficult to get something that looks like its a manual but also looks interesting. I think this is the part of my project that is going to take the longest. Theres a couple of ideas that I've got at the moment but while they look alright in sketch form i'm not sure yet how its going to translate onto the computer and into book form, its kinda hard to imagine how the finished thing will look.
Monday 11 February 2008
3 responses
Illustrated Book:
Response 1:
Clichés of what makes people interesting.
Think about what makes a person interesting with life experiences and perhaps apply to self. The brief doesn’t state that the book has to be true to life but perhaps this is a way of subverting the project. Concept could relate to online avatars and communities and how much of this is true and what is fantasy. A way of visualising ideals.
Response 2:
Major events vs. different choices.
Think about the events that have happened in my own life and how much control I had over them. How could my life have changed if I made different choices. Think of the movie Sliding Doors. This project would have more of a narrative to it.
Response 3:
Brochure.
Taking brochures of toys and using a similar layout but make myself as different sorts of dolls, like Barbie. All the individual aspects of myself given separate identity and as a doll. Could be a mixture of humour and serious traits. Each page would be a different character (different personality and looks) with price details, accessories and extras like speech or movement. Has degrees of truth and ambiguity, like having a different person on every page.
Prefer third response but will partially look into the first one as well
Response 1:
Clichés of what makes people interesting.
Think about what makes a person interesting with life experiences and perhaps apply to self. The brief doesn’t state that the book has to be true to life but perhaps this is a way of subverting the project. Concept could relate to online avatars and communities and how much of this is true and what is fantasy. A way of visualising ideals.
Response 2:
Major events vs. different choices.
Think about the events that have happened in my own life and how much control I had over them. How could my life have changed if I made different choices. Think of the movie Sliding Doors. This project would have more of a narrative to it.
Response 3:
Brochure.
Taking brochures of toys and using a similar layout but make myself as different sorts of dolls, like Barbie. All the individual aspects of myself given separate identity and as a doll. Could be a mixture of humour and serious traits. Each page would be a different character (different personality and looks) with price details, accessories and extras like speech or movement. Has degrees of truth and ambiguity, like having a different person on every page.
Prefer third response but will partially look into the first one as well
Wednesday 6 February 2008
I was going to update this thing with more about transmediale but without copying and pasting from the website, there’s not a great deal more to say on it. I kind of wished I’d taken more notes, but conveniently forgetting a pen and more conveniently not being able to buy one anywhere, this wasn’t to be.
Touching down in Germany me and Colin decided to do what any other British person in Germany would do (if they were fans of the Izzard that is) and stand at the top of the steps, pride in our voices and sewage smells in our nose, and say “Ich Bin Ein Berliner”.. which means “I am a doughnut”
Hotel Transit was actually very awesome, but I’m cheap and easy and they won me over with there 24 hour bar that you can smoke in. They had me at “hallo, ashtray?” Given that I have been smoking since I was 13 (16 if my dad asks) I couldn’t smell the wonderful smog of nicotine and chemicals. Upon lugging my suitcase (mostly empty for extra fags) I was greeted by everyone else excitedly telling me we were allowed to smoke there. That was giddy knickers moment one.
That night also taught me, when drinking huge beers with the lads to always, always lace your stomach with food. I was one of those great people that decided to inform everyone else how completely fucked I was. But the main thing was, I wasn’t sick. I also earned the respect from the boys for downing what was practically a pint. I say practically a pint because the quantity increases every time I tell this story.
The rest of the night’s sort of blur into one of beer, fags and early morning bed times. I earned extra cool points for staying up till 7.30am and waking up at 9.30am strolling into breakfast looking as fresh as a daisy or a crazy Romanian bear.
Other noteworthy points were walking for hours before finding anything of interest, esp. the trip for the magical panorama bar. Stoneman’s look of terror and not being able to go will haunt my dreams forever. We did find it, but I buggered off home, deeming it to look shit. Glad I did because I got the early and restful night of 3.30 am that I needed.
Last noteworthy point was our film. I can’t put down all the details here due to legal reasons and I don’t want to really upset people, but let me say it was MY idea. It started with ME saying to other people equally as drunk as ME… “if we were all in a horror film, who would die and who would survive?” No one survives. Looking back this was at best an in joke that passed a few hours of boredom, although Me, Chris K, nice Pete and Zach were thoroughly convinced it was going to be a masterpiece and a new generation of wiki-movie making. Really all it is is being able to pin point the exact moment I got completely and utterly pissed just based on my handwriting.
As for the rest of the trip.. what happens in Berlin, stays in Berlin.
Monday 4 February 2008
berlin and transmediale
Just a quick post to note down all my thoughts and experiences in berlin before i forget most of them.
overall i found transmediale a bit hit and miss, there were some aspects of it i really enjoyed and came away with a lot, the things i didn't really like were probably just the ones that didn't apply to what i want to do or am interested in.
Embedding Fear. The Internet And The Spectacle Of Hightened Alert:
4 speakers about the internet's 'open system' and terrorism. From the program it says that the open system makes it not only the worlds most powerful tool of conspiratorial narrative generation but also creates the broadest 'extranational' platform for the creation and dissemination of political, military and corporate propagand. Sounds interesting, but you'd be wrong. Only one of the speakers engaged the audience through storytelling and animations. The others just really talked at the audience, and while some people liked this conference i found it incredibly dull and disagreed with a lot of it. This was probably the only thing i really didn't like out of the whole event.
Constraint City - The Pain Of Everyday Life:
'Constraint City' is a critical performance in urban space, which stands as a scarcastic contribution to the discussion of 'locative' and 'wearable media' linking into a tradition of psychogeography, the philosophising of pleasure and pain.
I really enjoyed this talk. To sum it up very quickly, Gordan Savicic has designed what looks like a corset and tightens when there is a lot of wifi signals being sent in an area. Interesting use of something wearable interacting with newer and increasingly popular technologies and the elements of control the wearer has. At first i thought that the wearer had little or no control but thinking about it more, the wearer can change route, walk away or towards strong wifi signals and therefore controlling the amount of pain they are in. I thought of this film and talk as being representational of the pain and pleasure technology can give. I suppose just relating it to mundane pc use, the pleasure comes from playing games or chatting and the pain elements from slow connections, crashing and losing work?
When You're Strange:
A group of different films
Stranger Comes To Town:
Six people are interviewed anonymously about their experiences coming into the us. Each then designes a video game avatar who tells their story by proxy. Jacqueline Goss focuses on the questions and examinations used to establish identity at the border, and how these processes in turn affect one's own sense of self and view of the world.
Really enjoyed this film, and interesting how we can relate to avatars and sympathise with them and get a feel for their identity and story even though they are animations and computer graphics. What i liked about this film was that we would hear the persons voice before we saw their avatar which may have helped more in creating identity. Humourous in places too and reminded me a lot of the creature comforts adverts Nick Park did.
Arameans:
Video questions the mobility of the Arameans in the Lebanese social context. The film tells the story of an Assyrian Woman who experienced bombings. I'm not sure this film got its point across that well and felt a bit forgettable to me. Not really applicable to what i'm doing or interested in.
Bilder aus dem Tagebuch eines Wartenden:
This is a search for the lost, or to be more exact wasted time spent during obligatory military service on the edge of Schengen country, which is embodied by the absurd micro-performances of the young showoffs and in banal, everyday monologs about the sense (or lack thereof) of their presence, enlarged to almost Becket-like dimensions.
Probably my favourite film i saw over there and very memorable. Like a video diary and reminded me very much of a blog with the mundane activities of people you don't know. Clever how it was made to be very funny and made you care about what happened to the people in the film, which has given me more to think about for my own work.
Beach
A personal account in the form of an out of tune TV broadcast; an accelerating stream of images, depicting a family on the beach in Tel Aviv, is juxtaposed with a video of a girl running frantically on a bombed beach in Gaza, only about 100 kilometers away.
overall i found transmediale a bit hit and miss, there were some aspects of it i really enjoyed and came away with a lot, the things i didn't really like were probably just the ones that didn't apply to what i want to do or am interested in.
Embedding Fear. The Internet And The Spectacle Of Hightened Alert:
4 speakers about the internet's 'open system' and terrorism. From the program it says that the open system makes it not only the worlds most powerful tool of conspiratorial narrative generation but also creates the broadest 'extranational' platform for the creation and dissemination of political, military and corporate propagand. Sounds interesting, but you'd be wrong. Only one of the speakers engaged the audience through storytelling and animations. The others just really talked at the audience, and while some people liked this conference i found it incredibly dull and disagreed with a lot of it. This was probably the only thing i really didn't like out of the whole event.
Constraint City - The Pain Of Everyday Life:
'Constraint City' is a critical performance in urban space, which stands as a scarcastic contribution to the discussion of 'locative' and 'wearable media' linking into a tradition of psychogeography, the philosophising of pleasure and pain.
I really enjoyed this talk. To sum it up very quickly, Gordan Savicic has designed what looks like a corset and tightens when there is a lot of wifi signals being sent in an area. Interesting use of something wearable interacting with newer and increasingly popular technologies and the elements of control the wearer has. At first i thought that the wearer had little or no control but thinking about it more, the wearer can change route, walk away or towards strong wifi signals and therefore controlling the amount of pain they are in. I thought of this film and talk as being representational of the pain and pleasure technology can give. I suppose just relating it to mundane pc use, the pleasure comes from playing games or chatting and the pain elements from slow connections, crashing and losing work?
When You're Strange:
A group of different films
Stranger Comes To Town:
Six people are interviewed anonymously about their experiences coming into the us. Each then designes a video game avatar who tells their story by proxy. Jacqueline Goss focuses on the questions and examinations used to establish identity at the border, and how these processes in turn affect one's own sense of self and view of the world.
Really enjoyed this film, and interesting how we can relate to avatars and sympathise with them and get a feel for their identity and story even though they are animations and computer graphics. What i liked about this film was that we would hear the persons voice before we saw their avatar which may have helped more in creating identity. Humourous in places too and reminded me a lot of the creature comforts adverts Nick Park did.
Arameans:
Video questions the mobility of the Arameans in the Lebanese social context. The film tells the story of an Assyrian Woman who experienced bombings. I'm not sure this film got its point across that well and felt a bit forgettable to me. Not really applicable to what i'm doing or interested in.Bilder aus dem Tagebuch eines Wartenden:
This is a search for the lost, or to be more exact wasted time spent during obligatory military service on the edge of Schengen country, which is embodied by the absurd micro-performances of the young showoffs and in banal, everyday monologs about the sense (or lack thereof) of their presence, enlarged to almost Becket-like dimensions.
Probably my favourite film i saw over there and very memorable. Like a video diary and reminded me very much of a blog with the mundane activities of people you don't know. Clever how it was made to be very funny and made you care about what happened to the people in the film, which has given me more to think about for my own work.Beach
A personal account in the form of an out of tune TV broadcast; an accelerating stream of images, depicting a family on the beach in Tel Aviv, is juxtaposed with a video of a girl running frantically on a bombed beach in Gaza, only about 100 kilometers away.
Thursday 24 January 2008
mmmm.. scotch eggs
DJ Scotch Egg visit:
Found the concept of limitations in the work an interesting concept, and how you can make something quite complex from something so minimal. Comparisons with modernism design and theory that it is about the materials used.
Sentimentality also an interesting point, how he uses a gameboy to create music but not other consoles. Could also link in with nostalgia, as the sounds used were mainly from our own childhoods.
Overall and interesting visit, and some things i could think about for my own dissertation, especially the cartoon like energy and changes which directly references to what i want to write about.
Found the concept of limitations in the work an interesting concept, and how you can make something quite complex from something so minimal. Comparisons with modernism design and theory that it is about the materials used.
Sentimentality also an interesting point, how he uses a gameboy to create music but not other consoles. Could also link in with nostalgia, as the sounds used were mainly from our own childhoods.
Overall and interesting visit, and some things i could think about for my own dissertation, especially the cartoon like energy and changes which directly references to what i want to write about.
Sunday 20 January 2008
it's only bloody done - part II
ok animation done.. could be better but i quite like the design of it. Thats the project done and never to be looked at ever again.
Thursday 17 January 2008
change of idea
Since the last time I updated this blog I've changed a fair bit of my original idea.
Before the idea was centered around:
- narrative of children's nightmares
- user control and maximum freedom
- different interfaces
- mass collaboration
- more sophisticated or different ways of interacting i.e making the solution to the puzzle instead of finding it
but since tutor discussions it appeared that not only do i have too much going on but also some of the ideas contradicted themselves. For example the idea of nightmares and user freedom were contradictory as when you think about nightmares you tend to think of feelings of being trapped and loss of control.
So i had to edit my idea and take out some points that I really wanted to include. However, the new idea just focuses on one of the above points. It is now a variation on the online point and click games that involve escaping from a room. The difference is that instead of searching the room the interactivity comes with creating the solution on the screen by drawing something.
To give the game a bit more validity there is no real narrative but as I am comfortable designing for a younger audience I thought of the theme of escaping from a school. So one of the levels could involve having to distract a teacher whilst the player sneaks out of the room, and because the user has to create the solution the game gives them more freedom of choice.
There is a brief animation i've made of this which i will post sometime tomorrow.
Before the idea was centered around:
- narrative of children's nightmares
- user control and maximum freedom
- different interfaces
- mass collaboration
- more sophisticated or different ways of interacting i.e making the solution to the puzzle instead of finding it
but since tutor discussions it appeared that not only do i have too much going on but also some of the ideas contradicted themselves. For example the idea of nightmares and user freedom were contradictory as when you think about nightmares you tend to think of feelings of being trapped and loss of control.
So i had to edit my idea and take out some points that I really wanted to include. However, the new idea just focuses on one of the above points. It is now a variation on the online point and click games that involve escaping from a room. The difference is that instead of searching the room the interactivity comes with creating the solution on the screen by drawing something.
To give the game a bit more validity there is no real narrative but as I am comfortable designing for a younger audience I thought of the theme of escaping from a school. So one of the levels could involve having to distract a teacher whilst the player sneaks out of the room, and because the user has to create the solution the game gives them more freedom of choice.
There is a brief animation i've made of this which i will post sometime tomorrow.
Monday 7 January 2008
character design and other thoughts
Bit of a serious post this one
Found some research that's quite interesting and made me think about my own design in a different way. Cartoonist and visual theorist Scott McCloud wrote about the abstract nature of cartoon characters and how the "lack of details in characters allow viewers to identify with them (more than they would with more detailed, photo-realistic characters) because it encourages the viewer to see or position "himself" in or as the character."
This makes sense to me because i've also looked at Chris Crawford's word where he states that "graphic realism stimulates the imagination, but it must leave room for the imagination to run free." I took this to mean that the imagination is stilted when films, tv, games etc are presented as ultra realistic, where as if the elements or characters lack detail and realism the viewer and user has to piece things together and use their imagination more and this could also relate to ellipses in Manovich's "Myth of Interactivity"
"ellipses in literary narration, missing details of objects in visual art and other representational "shortcuts" require the user to fill in missing information"
The argument is from a guy called Steve Poole who believes that "players are more attracted to recent, almost lifelike characters such as 'Lara Croft' ... over the abstractions of Pac-Man, but because these characters aren't "too real" either, the player comes to care for them and feel badly if they die"
I can't agree with the above statement as i found an online game called Interactive Buddy, which although it has little to no detail I think it still produces an emotive response from the player due to the character being anthropomorphised by cowering or shaking when hurt or showing a smiley face when happy.
Hosted by Daily Free Games
SLightly more intense online games usually involve the player maintaining that characters and advancing them causing a greater deal of identification (Gary Fine). He also found that players would cheat to prevent the deeath of a favourite character or refuse to play with other gamers that would not help protect the group, World of Warcraft springs to mind.
This has given me a lot to think about, especially the thoughts on realism vs less detail, when designing my game. I personally agree more with the identification and ellipse process of less realistic and detailed design as it seems more plausible, i think that imagination is more powerful than merely taking something that someone else has created and immersing yourself in it, with little thought on your own part, as well that also links back to the navigational systems and mistaking someone elses thought process for your own, as i mentioned in a previous post.
I think that's all for now, need to just carry on with what i'm doing which is adding colour and neatening up my sketches in photoshop then animating it to show how the game would work.
Also need to do that rationale thing or before I do, note down the specifics of the game, how it works and what i want it to acheive, and then post it here.
Found some research that's quite interesting and made me think about my own design in a different way. Cartoonist and visual theorist Scott McCloud wrote about the abstract nature of cartoon characters and how the "lack of details in characters allow viewers to identify with them (more than they would with more detailed, photo-realistic characters) because it encourages the viewer to see or position "himself" in or as the character."
This makes sense to me because i've also looked at Chris Crawford's word where he states that "graphic realism stimulates the imagination, but it must leave room for the imagination to run free." I took this to mean that the imagination is stilted when films, tv, games etc are presented as ultra realistic, where as if the elements or characters lack detail and realism the viewer and user has to piece things together and use their imagination more and this could also relate to ellipses in Manovich's "Myth of Interactivity"
"ellipses in literary narration, missing details of objects in visual art and other representational "shortcuts" require the user to fill in missing information"
The argument is from a guy called Steve Poole who believes that "players are more attracted to recent, almost lifelike characters such as 'Lara Croft' ... over the abstractions of Pac-Man, but because these characters aren't "too real" either, the player comes to care for them and feel badly if they die"
I can't agree with the above statement as i found an online game called Interactive Buddy, which although it has little to no detail I think it still produces an emotive response from the player due to the character being anthropomorphised by cowering or shaking when hurt or showing a smiley face when happy.
Hosted by Daily Free Games
SLightly more intense online games usually involve the player maintaining that characters and advancing them causing a greater deal of identification (Gary Fine). He also found that players would cheat to prevent the deeath of a favourite character or refuse to play with other gamers that would not help protect the group, World of Warcraft springs to mind.
This has given me a lot to think about, especially the thoughts on realism vs less detail, when designing my game. I personally agree more with the identification and ellipse process of less realistic and detailed design as it seems more plausible, i think that imagination is more powerful than merely taking something that someone else has created and immersing yourself in it, with little thought on your own part, as well that also links back to the navigational systems and mistaking someone elses thought process for your own, as i mentioned in a previous post.
I think that's all for now, need to just carry on with what i'm doing which is adding colour and neatening up my sketches in photoshop then animating it to show how the game would work.
Also need to do that rationale thing or before I do, note down the specifics of the game, how it works and what i want it to acheive, and then post it here.
Friday 4 January 2008
what's that coming over the hill..
..is it a monster
hurrah, i'm at the drawing stage. I've really got bogged down with a lot of theory work, which has been really helpful especially with fine tuning my idea. There's been a lot of umming and aahing about the more precise elements of the game and how much control to give to the user and what, if any, limitations to set. During my research i've looked more into the control the user has and the control the designer has and certain navigational methods that the user has to follow to get through the game, even though there seems to be a lot of choice the way the game is played and the conclusion is still the same.
"... we are asked to follow pre-programmed, objectively existing associations. Put differently, in what can be read as an updated version of French philosopher Louis Althusser's concepts of "interpellation," we are asked to mistake the structure of somebody else's mind for our own".
From what i'm thinking at the moment, my game will possibly challenge the way it is navigated so the creator has little control over it. As users can create and upload challenges it seems likely this will probably be quite endless, but there will still be a narrative set to the game to still rein in some degree of control, otherwise the project would seem pretty pointless if my idea was that gamers can do whatever they want.
Explained the narrative in a previous blog, so i'm not sure there's much to add. I'm gonna post some brief sketches of some monsters (yay monsters) which are works in progress, so hopefully i can take them into photoshop and have a muck around with colour, shading at that bloody pen tool.
weird zombie type thing that was inspired by some halloween mask or other
everyone loves clowns
ooh, also found something that has a similar element of game play to what i want to achieve, design isn't fantastic but it doesn't pretend to be, guess the clue is in the name "crayon physics" but the whole drawing on the screen, using a pen/touch screen is relevant to my project
hurrah, i'm at the drawing stage. I've really got bogged down with a lot of theory work, which has been really helpful especially with fine tuning my idea. There's been a lot of umming and aahing about the more precise elements of the game and how much control to give to the user and what, if any, limitations to set. During my research i've looked more into the control the user has and the control the designer has and certain navigational methods that the user has to follow to get through the game, even though there seems to be a lot of choice the way the game is played and the conclusion is still the same.
"... we are asked to follow pre-programmed, objectively existing associations. Put differently, in what can be read as an updated version of French philosopher Louis Althusser's concepts of "interpellation," we are asked to mistake the structure of somebody else's mind for our own".
From what i'm thinking at the moment, my game will possibly challenge the way it is navigated so the creator has little control over it. As users can create and upload challenges it seems likely this will probably be quite endless, but there will still be a narrative set to the game to still rein in some degree of control, otherwise the project would seem pretty pointless if my idea was that gamers can do whatever they want.
Explained the narrative in a previous blog, so i'm not sure there's much to add. I'm gonna post some brief sketches of some monsters (yay monsters) which are works in progress, so hopefully i can take them into photoshop and have a muck around with colour, shading at that bloody pen tool.
weird zombie type thing that was inspired by some halloween mask or other
everyone loves clowns
ooh, also found something that has a similar element of game play to what i want to achieve, design isn't fantastic but it doesn't pretend to be, guess the clue is in the name "crayon physics" but the whole drawing on the screen, using a pen/touch screen is relevant to my project
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