In week one we discussed various forms that play can take, and were tasked with the assignment of creating a self portrait that incorporated play in some way. I chose to abstract my physical self and tried to engage in play as both a methodology as well as a result of the work. The reason I chose to create my desk is because I spend so much time here that it’s possible to get a feel for who I am, and how I’m feeling from the objects around me. By randomising the objects and colours that appear I can also show people that there are also many versions of me. I also used the sound of my heartbeat as an opportunity to play with sound and how it impacts a project.
To gather the colours I needed for the project, I asked a group of people I know to anonymously associate a colour to me. This idea was partially inspired by the project Matt showed us by Joe Hamilton, where strangers were asked to contribute to an animation by drawing a frame. They were only told that it was for a uni project and to have fun with it. It also facilitated tinkering with code to get the functions required working. Ultimately, I ended up asking a friend to help and it became collaborative as we worked together to determine why the script wasn’t working.
I am overall pleased with the result, and people have expressed that they enjoy “rerolling” to see what other results they can get. In the future I would like to add further variation, the ability to reroll without quitting the application and ideally give the user more control so that the end product is less of a passive experience.
About This Work
By Hayley Wilson
Email Hayley Wilson
Published On: 28/07/2021