APD - Week 8

Theme : Play and Body

http://magistudio.net/work/apd-week-7-body-isolation-snowflakes

Collaboration with Nicholas Margerison.

Reflection

Playing with the body, literally.

This was my first collaboration with Nick Margerison. We had come out with plenty of different ideas that mostly involve the idea of being active even in isolation, but in the end we decided on the body parts snow globe, as we think it’s a hilarious and achievable idea that we can do within the timeframe that was given to us for APD. While Nick set up the stage in Unity, I present him with the elements for the project such as the background and the cut out body pieces.

I had the idea of illustrating our faces and body parts and replace the actual photos. But I think if I had done that, it will take away the meaning of playing with the body literally, and it won’t seem as playful.

I think having the faces and arms and legs cut out badly is the essence that hold the playfulness of the project together. It might sound a bit disturbing when the idea was first presented, but with this badly cut out pieces, and the background that change when you interact (shake) the phone more, gives it a funny and playful outcome.

I had the opportunity to be the chooser for the faces that would come up in the snow globe. And since we don’t really have to worry about people seeing our faces up close, I tried to choose the most exaggerated, overwhelming, perhaps unnatural expressions. The sense of play that I’m trying to explore here is the different ridiculous expressions that you can make, and how amusing it would be when they are jumbled up together in a small space. Snow globe tend to be a fun way to pass the time, and they’re usually very pretty and sparkly. In the digital world, using gyro functions, I guess we tried to recreate that feeling of a fun way to pass time, but with our faces and hands and legs instead. I find the final product to be hilarious, and exactly the type of playfulness that is needed in this time.