Research

Research and Reflection – Analogue Game Design – Project Three (2330)

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Original Story From Project Two

Horror Story  – Final Version

 

Abstract Takeaways

  • divine punishment
  • hunger
    • insatiable
    • insanity-inducing
    • murderous
      • only relieved by consumption of human flesh
  • moral conflict
    • eat oneself?
      • hurts
      • can kill you
      • still hungry
    • eat another?
      • murder is wrong
      • dangerous, damages reputation and psyche
      • full, not hungry anymore
  • coming to terms with terrible outcomes

 

Themes

  • divine intervention, fate, and unfairness
  • moral conflict, murder is wrong, is sacrifice any better?
    • can you call it “murder” if it’s to survive?
  • madness, insanity, slowly succumbing to temptation, the pull of evil becoming stronger every moment

 

Potential Message

  • there is no right answer in desperate times
  • survival is a test of morality, not fitness

 

How Interaction and Play Can Communicate the Message

The themes of succumbing to an ever-present creeping madness definitely can be a conflict within the game design, the goal being to simply make it to the end, whatever that means (time-based? challenge-based? experience-based?). The machinic of the game would likely be something to do with surviving each day to the end, but facing various effects of the hunger each day. Perhaps this is a card game, the goal to last a week long with this ever-growing hunger within you. Maybe each day you draw an additional card that has the chance of serious setbacks upon them each day, drawing one on day one and seven on day seven. I would like this game to be played alone, if possible, a game between yourself and fate and random chance. The concept of keeping up facades, reputation, and not being creepy could play into the game design as well, perhaps including a player card that has a series of stats (health, reputation, suspicious, hunger) that change as you draw cards, and as one gets too low, you must react accordingly and potentially hurt other stats.

Research and Analysis – Gifting Design – Project Three (2130)

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Research on Rhys Grubel

I have emailed and been in light contact with Rhys, my gift recipient in visual communications. He has replied to me, stating he will answer the questions I have sent him within the week, but as of writing this post, I am answerless. As I already had some ideas in mind, I asked some quasi-pointed questions aiming at a few aspects I plan to focus on in my designed gift. The questions I asked Rhys were:

  1. What is your relationship to live performance (theatre, dance, stand-up, dynamic arts)? Have you ever performed in front of a live audience? If not, have you ever wanted to?
  1. What is your relationship to board games? What are your favorite AND least favorite design elements within them? Do you like to play with small or large groups? Do you not like to ply at all? Why?
  1. What is your relationship to subtlety? Do you prefer to be loud and proud with blunt communication? Quiet and complex with mysterious character quirks? Do you prefer things to have subtlety or lack subtlety? What is your favorite AND least favorite example of subtlety?
  1. Define these words/phrases as they relate to you:
    “my own body”
    “the body of another”
    “myself”
    “other”
    “human form”
    “human shape”
  1. What is the best way for you, logically, to receive a gift from me? In person? Mail? Digital instruction?
  1. If you want me to know more about you, what are your social medias?

 

Since I was unable to get these answers before the time this post was due, I stalked Rhys slightly online. I looked up his name on Instagram and Facebook to no avail but found his name motioned on the Twitter for OSU design. There, I found his MFA thesis proposals and what interests him in design. One of the first things he mentioned about design was “storytelling” in design and how that can reshape things. He has a strong interest in the political space, particularly about sustainability and how we can repair the recycling system in America. He is a family man. On that same Twitter I found out that Rhys also was awarded Global Arts and Humanities Graduate Team Fellowships, further supporting our shared interest in the arts.

 

Designer Quote

From the wonderful mind of Marcel Marceau, a French mime who revolutionized the craft with his design of sixteen fundamental emotions in silence called The Conventions of Character: “Mime makes the invisible , visible and the visible, invisible.” So often in design do we talk about great design being invisible, and this is no different. In his craft, he deliberately designed The Conventions of Character to be invisible tools within mime, much like how designs goal is to be entirely invisible, to be great.

 

Attached is my wonderful friend, Taylor Moriarty (a theatre major who studies mime), and her best representation and description of each of the sixteen conventions.

Marceau’s Conventions of Character (Taylor’s Representation)

 

Narrative/Concept Statement

From the information I have currently received from Rhys (none), I can’t perfectly describe quite what I want to gift yet, but here is my idea for what I plan to do regardless:

I want to show off the invisible conventions of visual communication and design in the most visually communicative way possible, human performance and mime. No words, just deeply meaningful and subtle poses that represent the sixteen Marcel Marceau’s Conventions of Character. I plan to create a set of sixteen (or more – some poses have movement, requiring two figures for one pose) clay figurines as the gift, enclosed within a gift box representative of a stage with the curtain rising to reveal the figures. Oven-cured-clay will be the easiest material to work with from home, and an additional layer of paint/glaze to further emphasize the subtle differences in form would help distinguish some of the similar poses. I plan to create these clay forms in all sixteen Conventions of Character poses, although heavily stylized, the eyes simply being arrows on where they would be looking, and the mouth enlarged for detail. Each figure has an accompanying card (digitally done) that describes the pose, how to do it, what it means, what it is based off of, and why it was included in the conventions.

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

Research – Abstracted Metamorphosis – Project Four (2310)

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Finding Objects

The goal of this research was to find at least six objects on OSU’s campus that had some sort of organic shape. It was necessary to take pictures of it from all or most angles or simply take a video of the subject while rotating around it.

 

Chosen Subjects

Walking around campus I spied for various levels of organic and semi-organic shapes. The first examples I had were a red chair shaped to the human body, and next to that was some covered outdoor heat lamps on Curl Market’s patio that also had a vague organic feel. After this on another day, I walked around and found a small structure/sculpture, a mailbox outside the journalism building, and a flower and bench just in front of Hitchcock Hall. My goal was to explore truly organic shapes found in nature (the flower) to objects that are only partially organic (the mailbox).

Research – Spatial Assembly – Project Two (2130)

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Room Dimensions – 200 square feet

I love tight spaces and long corridors. I have styled my own personal room in my home so it follows a more close and narrow appearance. I want the walls to be close and cozy, but distant enough to have two people walk by each other comfortably, including furniture. I like the idea that this studio was just an unused hallway that I repurposed. I plan to have a very high ceiling. I want to create a subtle hierarchy with they length of the room. The beginning being open and inviting, but as you delve deeper into the room, more and more personal items, work spaces, and less areas to sit exist.

  • 10 by 20
    • Definitely enough room in width to pass by anyone, even with furniture in the way.
    • Only doubly wide as long, loses hierarchical importance and narrow pathway feel.
    • More of a rectangular room than a corridor.
  • 8 by 25
    • Potential problem with space and people passing each other, must be careful placing things.
    • Longer room, but still relatively room shaped. Inoffensive.
  • 6 by 33 1/3
    • The most potential problem with space. Heavy attention to location of furniture and ability to move about is necessary.
    • Unique opportunities with the space.
      • Could create faux doors/doorways by placing furniture and pinching circulation to force people through certain areas one at a time or establish an emphasis between spaces.
      • With a high ceiling, claustrophobia is extremely reduced and the awe of the space invites a wandering eye.
      • Office/work space defined by the very end of the room that you must walk all the way down to.
    • More corridor than room, cozy and repurposed feel I’m going for.

A. “A wall or structural detail.”

  • coffers
    • subtractive, adds more space in an already cramped area
    • potential shelves or storage areas
  • columns/pilasters
    • additive, takes away space available
    • creates hierarchy and emphasis
    • ability to subtly separate areas of studio
  • half/quarter walls
    • subtractive, allows for unique areas
      • benches and social sitting areas for quarter walls
      • shelves and high storage for areas with half walls
    • can separate areas of the studio, much like columns or pillars

B. “An area for sitting.”

  • half/quarter walls
    • can be an elongated bench
    • social area
  • specified chairs or sofa
    • lessens space for walkway
    • social space, although cramped

C. “An object for a workspace.”

  • design desk (with lots of ascending shelves)
  • some nice chair lol

D. “A personal item no larger than a person.”

  • music stuffs
    • ukulele
    • guitar
    • trumpet
    • keyboard
    • microphone set-up
  • posters and personal junk
    • posters of shows
    • frames of important photos
    • medals and sashes of fun importance
    • stuff I’ve collected

Research – 2D Principles and Squares – Project Two (2110)

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a. Order

  1. (noun) The arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method.
  2. (noun) An authoritative command, direction, or instruction.
  3. (verb) To give an authoritative direction or instruction to do something.
  4. (verb) A request (something) to be made, supplied, or served.
    • themes of conformity, submission, discipline, and linearity
    • feelings of oppression, boredom, and rebellion

b. Increase

  1. (verb) To become or make greater in size, amount, intensity, or degree.
  2. (noun) An instance of growing or making greater.
    • themes of improvement, acceleration, size, progress, and loss of control
    • feelings of being overbearing or overwhelmed, confidence in improvement, and development

c. Bold

  1. (adjective) (of a person, action, or idea) Showing an ability to take risks; confident and courageous.
  2. (adjective) (of a color or design) Having a strong or vivid appearance.
  3. (noun) A bold typeface or letter.
    • themes of uniqueness, strength, leadership, and importance
    • feelings of fear of being the only one, confidence in being individual, breaking conformity, and demanding attention

d. Playful

  1. (adjective) Fond of games and amusement; lighthearted.
    • themes of childhood, innocence, fun, expression, and euphoria
    • feelings of happiness, giddiness, the longing to do it again, the hypocrisy that “more people should act playful” but being playful is frowned upon professionally
      • be playful, please

e. Congested

  1. (adjective) (of a road or place) So crowded with traffic or people as to hinder freedom of movement.
  2. (adjective) (of a part of the body) Abnormally full of blood.
    • themes of sickness, plague, disease, anxiety, claustrophobia, and discomfort
    • feelings of wanting to escape, wanting to stay uninvolved, fear of being too close, the need to find a place other than this, and pathological fatigue

f. Tension

  1. (noun) The state of being stretched tight.
  2. (noun) Mental or emotional strain.
  3. (verb) Apply a force to (something) which tends to stretch it.
    • themes of strain, distraught, trauma, globophobia, breakage, and release
    • feelings of mental debilitation, the want to change the current state of being, on the edge of snapping or releasing calmly, and the fear of something going wrong