2330

Narrtive Style – Story Iterations – Project Two (2330)

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Horror

Mystery

Science Fiction

Instruction

Create three iterations on your story template using three different genres.

 

Purpose

Explore and research genre and how tone, mood, and setting can influence the same core story and transform it into something entirely different and new, even changing the narrative.

 

My Interpretation

I decided to use the genres of horror, mystery, and science fiction as I feel they fit best within the potential for my story.

Narrative Style – Art Style Exploration – Project Two (2330)

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Instruction

Explore and research possible art styles for your final submission to be in.

 

Purpose

Understand the fundamentals of the style you’re choosing to represent and be able to properly recreate the style with your personal story.

 

My Interpretation

I knew with horror being my selected genre that I wanted to learn into the twisted aspect of it all. I explored older dis of art, specifically gothic and Romanesque. Gothic was a nice place to start, but far too plump, flowing, and colorful. The general feel of it was more religious and ethereal than what I aimed to produce, so I moved on. Romanesque style painting was deliberately flat, had confusing and impossible geometry, a lack of proper human anatomy (thin wrists, strange hand forms, unnatural symmetry) and inclusion of words, text, backgrounds. The overall compositions were often more faded, usually only one vivid color, often red or gold. The contrast was extreme and usually the compositions and a whole were relatively dark. These elements combined and slightly twisted could definitely create a horrific scene that I want to pursue.

Narrative Style – Story Mind Maps – Project Two (2330)

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Instruction

Create mind maps for the three genres you will apply to your genre-less story.

 

Purpose

Apply conflict, add characters, and create a narrative arc where people change and they’re is a resolution.

 

My Interpretation

I decided to pick the genres of mystery, horror, and science fiction.

For mystery, the conflict arises in a person finding themselves living in a dulled out world, only the festival of color being vivid, but they detest it. The realization of this strange behavior shocks the character, leading them, to investigate themselves as, in a parallel B plot, another investigator catches wind of rumors being spread that the yearly summer festival is haunted by a ghost. The resolution is when both parties develop their own clues and the reader makes the connections that the main subject of the story was a ghost who died at the festival one year, the investigator finds nothing but this information.

For horror, the conflict is in man vs. beast. A town is terrorized by a terrible monster (human or otherwise) that sees in grays and vivid colors only. It hunts within the gray, the areas removed from the vivid world. The monster often finds itself coming across the color festival, becoming scared and fleeing from what it deems as dangerous (too many hunting humans). Resolution lies in the beast being killed.

For science-fiction, the world is destroyed and our main character is a survivalist learning the ropes of this newly changed world. Aliens have invaded and have taken the minds of many human, making them slaves who only serve the purpose to find more human slaves and work. The slaves/aliens have learned that humans are drawn to thriving civilizations, so they create fake scenes of grandiose fun and joy (the color festival) to trick unsuspecting humans into the area where they can attack and enslave them. The resolution lies in the explanation of this new world, a bittersweet continuation of humans living on regardless of adversity.

Exercise – Character Art Styles – Project Two (2330)

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Instruction

Using on of you characters from the previous character swap, draw them. From this drawing, spin a wheel to re-draw the character in a new art style. Repeat.

 

Purpose

Iterate the same character in different styles and identify what matches the most and the least with their context. Explore emphasizes their features and what thwarts it. Allow yourself to learn about various art styles and what make them unique.

 

My Interpretation

I decided to go with the more flamboyant character of Daisy Buchanan for my subject of this exercise as I figured she’d have a more rigid character to pull inspiration from (compared to Gretel as an alternative). I was given the arts styles of futurism, minimalism, de Stijl, and art nouveau. After initially designing Daisy in her traditional 1920’s flapper garb, going into futurism was an exploration of how to reject her organic form in replacement for sharp, hard supportive-like structures that hide her form. Futurism focuses on color and movement and firmness in the present with hope of the future. The next arts style was simpler, literally. In an effort to reflect how minimalism only shows the most important aspects of a subject, I only included the essential parts of Daisy’s character, namely her hair, her over-the-top clothes, and her pearl necklace. For de Stijl, I was forced to abstract the form, focusing on a set of three colors (not including black and white)  and straight lines creating rectangles and squares. I attempted to create a human shape and colored clothes and designs on tops of it accordingly to help emphasize Daisy. Finally, using art nouveau to represent my character felt relatively natural, a side profile with emphasis on ornate backgrounds and flowing hair on top of a plain, solid-colored face. A good reflection of how Daisy is as a character, flashy and impressive in her surroundings, but unremarkable in herself.

Narrative Style – A Story Without Genre and Genre Research – Project Two (2330)

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A Story Avoiding Genre

The day starts as any other, another mundane weekday, another gulp of water as they roll out of bed. They take their vitamins, the usual. They make a cup of coffee, the usual. They get dressed, the usual. They leave home and begin walking to work.

Everyday is the same for them, hardly anything changes and plans and routine dominate the day, spontaneity is tacky and shunned. They see the same people, do the same work, get the same paycheck, spend the money on the same things. Life is systematic, planned, mechanical, and dull.

The day is gray. Overcast. The colorless clouds blanket the earth holding rain just waiting to fall, there are no shadows, there is only just enough light to make out the off-white concrete path they walk on. The path winds adjacent to a muted river, dulled from human intervention and industrialization, it is unremarkable despite it’s size and power. The reeds that hug the bank are uninspiring browns and beiges eroded from the river, even the green grass seems dusty. However, they continue to trek through the filtered world and they are ecstatic. The wonderland of washed out colors intrigues and excites them, swaggering down the street in a gleeful jaunt, a skip in their step. The in-between and the transitions of contrast, saturation, and value from something to near nothing is a pleasant sight to them. The lack of anything is a rare sight to see.

The town’s home days festival is in the midst of being up for the summer season once again. Bright reds and sharp whites line the cloth roofs of tents, suspended by poles and trees alike. Stark blue and violet flashing lights spin and flash on a mechanical ride that would surely make anyone’s stomach twist. Fresh green bills from children’s pockets are exchanged for unnaturally yellow lemonades and pastel pink candy floss. Metallic orange carts ride high into the newly lit sky accompanied by the deep black support beams to keep the rider’s safe. They happen to cross paths with the festival as they commute. The vivid livelihood disgusts them. A crinkled nose, a turned cheek, and a lifted chin locked onto them until the sights and sounds of the festival are well out of view. Back to the mundane. Back to the same. Back to the comfort. This is how they like it.

 

Reimagined

  • Slice of Life – a story about a non-binary person simply walking to work, nothing of note truly happens except the mundane world is intriguing to the subject of the story and the bright and vivid world is seen as wrong and uninteresting
  • Mystery – a story about someone (something?) traveling through a gray universe, everything dulled and boring to outside readers, but in this world, color and vividness is rare and disapproved of, the reader must find out why as the story unfolds
  • Horror – a story about a creature who can only see the world in grays and genuinely despises anything joyous, a twisted and evil thing that aims to destroy saturation in the hopes to make everything gray, to make everything comfortable, to make everything the same, to give no one a choice
  • Science Fiction – a story about how a futuristic/parallel universe earth is shrouded in a “disease” of gray, where people are drawn to the mundane and resistance forces are using value of traditionally beautiful and fun things to try send remind those infected in hopes to restore the world to a better previous state
  • Historical Fiction – a story about a person in the past who was colorblind or who genuinely detested colors and vivid forms of life, a highlighting of their crazy outlook on life and how it impacted them and others

Exercise – Character Swap – Project Two (2330)

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Hansel and Gretel

  • characters
    • Hansel and Gretel – the children of a poor woodcutter, left to fend for themselves in the woods by their stepmother after famine strikes and family is unable to support them. Hansel is the naive boy character, easily falling for tricks, Gretel is the skeptical and cautious girl, smart and observant
    • The Witch – manipulative antagonist who lures the children in with food and sweets with the secret goal to fatten them up to eat them
  • setting
    • 1812-ish Germany, in a forest
  • conflict
    • children left to fend for themselves
    • an evil witch plans on killing and eating them, just evade danger
  • resolution
    • Gretel sees past the Witch’s tricks and feigns stupidity, allowing her time to trick the Witch into the oven, leaving her to roast and die. The children steal the Witch’s wealth and live happily back with their father, their stepmother passing away while they were gone.

 

The Great Gatsby

  • characters
    • Nick Caraway – the unreliable narrator, claims to be impartial and unbiased, is not, prefers to stay silent over causing a fuss
    • Jay Gatsby – the unbelievably rich neighbor of Nick in the West Egg, longs for Daisy in the East Egg, they have a past
    • Daisy Buchanan – ditsy cousin of Nick, previous lover of Gatsby, unhappily married to Tom, relents about being a smart woman in such a world, kills Myrtle on accident
    • Tom Buchanan – husband of Daisy, traditionalist, friends with Nick and Gatsby, cheats on wife with Myrtle and tells Nick
    • Jordan Baker – Nick’s love interest, Daisy’s good friend
    • Myrtle Wilson – Tom’s love affair, killed in freak accident by Daisy (Gatsby accompanying her)
  • setting
    • 1920 New York, the East and West Eggs
    • Gatsby’s mansion
    • Tom’s mansion
    • Nick’s humble home
    • the Valley of Ashes
  • conflict
    • Gatsby longs for Daisy and is unable to reach her. Once Daisy’s cousin, Nick, moves in next door, Gatsby sees an opportunity. Gatsby and Nick quickly become friends and the tensions of Daisy’s married life and Gatsby’s constant flirting and attempt to win her back result in an accidental murder.
  • resolution
    • The victim of the crime blames Gatsby for the loss of his wife, seeking out and finding Gatsby and killing him as well as himself. Nick moves away, Daisy resumes normal life with Tom.

 

Character Swap

  • the characters
    • Daisy Buchanan – faux ditz, secretly depressed and lonely, unhappily married, remorse over past, does not take responsibility for her actions, spiteful, protective of family, dependent, observant
    • Gretel – impulsive, childish, ultimately outsmarts antagonist, cautious and skeptical, smart/witty, observant
  • Daisy in a 1812 German forest (after being kicked out of home)
    • Daisy would take the hit of her stepmother kicking her out very very hard. She would overthink every internal flaw within herself instead of seeing that the stepmother’s motives were not out of hate, but irresponsibility and neglect. Obviously, her high-profile lifestyle would be entirely upended in the harsh forests of the time. She would trip and fall, stumble and stagger all across the land. Once approaching the strange house, Daisy would quickly latch onto the kindness the Witch fakes, becoming quickly acquainted and probably asking for help in any way for herself and Hansel. Once the Witch tried to trick Daisy and Hansel, she would quickly become protective over Hansel and immediately doubt the Witch’s motives, becoming cautious from this moment on. She may not kill the Witch, but both would inevitably escape and return home, possibly without any wealth. It is unlikely that Daisy or Hansel would change much as a result of this experience.
  • Gretel in 1920s New York wealth districts
    • If she is young girl in the hustle and bustle of a reformed world after the First World War, she would undoubtably be overwhelmed. Living under the stern fist of Tom, life would be regimented, but comfortable. Gretel would appreciate the life she is given, it may be tough as a kid and some creativity may be stifled by discipline, but she would be a strong and powerful child. However, if she was of age and married to Tom, having the same experiences as Daisy would have, the story is different. In this case, Gretel would be content in her life with Tom, happily acquiescing to his painfully toxic masculinity and not worrying about her past, certainly not letting it trouble her. As she reconnects with Gatsby, the meetings would be purely of friendship and any moves Gatsby would try to make on Gretel would be politely declined. As Gatsby would inevitably push harder and harder, Gretel would stand her ground and if it got too out of hand, request aid from her husband. The main conflict of The Great Gatsby would be completely thwarted by Gretel’s ability to be a healthy and happy human being. Life would continue in a state of “above average, but not perfect” until their lives naturally end.

Dynamic Page – Progress – Project One (2330)

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Instruction 

Further progress on the project to reach a final deliverable.

 

Purpose

Reach towards finishing the project.

 

My Interpretation

Instead of goin in through the mouth, I decided to zoom in/out on the figure of a person themselves. The four states being a human face, a brain, a thought bubble, and the same person but from a farther distance. By following the form of the craft the narrative the new idea provides is that of someone thinking of themselves… thinking of themselves… thinking of themselves forever. Either zooming in or out the narrative is still the same, the face open to their brain inside, the brain opens to a thought bubble inside, and the thought bubble opens to a distanced shot of the same face that opened to the brain. To allow for continuity, I changed the background of each phase to match the previous one (if zooming in) or matching the next one (if zooming out).

 

Dynamic Page – Draft – Project One (2330)

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Instruction

Create a draft of your final project for critique.

 

Purpose

Finalize and idea and get a basic idea on how the final presentation of that idea will be communicated with paper craft.

 

My Interpretation

I wanted to “fly into” the mind of someone, specifically using their mouth as an entry point to allow a glimpse into their thoughts (in this case, a flower, but not for any particular reason, more of a placeholder until I had the right idea) and exiting back out through the mouth. This created a cyclical process that could be worked with. In my critique it was brought to my attention that I have ignored the previously mentioned zooming in/out aspect of the form of a 3D hexaflexagon, and I was suggested to explore that aspect again. Also, the idea of going into the mouth of a person implies going down into the throat, stomach, etc., not necessarily the head and subsequently the thoughts of that mind.

Dynamic Page – Revised Model – Project One (2330)

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Instruction

Further progress on the project, begin creating a draft model for critique.

 

Purpose

Start working towards a set idea and proof of concept. Find a theme and pursue it for it to be later critiqued and drafted upon.

 

My Interpretation

I decided to entirely ditch the flat hexaflexagon model in exchange for a 3D version. This version has four visible phases that are accessible cyclically by being turned in or out. This also means I had to scrap the adventure theme idea in favor of a constantly zooming in/out theme.