Theme: Play and Time
Context:
I started off this week by thinking about the way I have experienced “timelessness” when playing games. I wanted to examine that feeling of being so involved in a game that you are not aware of how much time has passed around you. Rather you feel no time has passed, or only invested in the way time passes within a game. For me, this was a very nostalgic memory, as I remembered spending hours playing the Sims and feeling like I needed to play more, even when it was my siblings turn to play next. In more recent memory, I thought of the way sound in games often has this effect, like the horse riding music in Breath of the Wild.
I found insight into this experience when reading Costello and Edmond’s work. Within their 13 frameworks for pleasure in play, this feeling of ‘timelessness’ is a part of the captivation framework. In my experiences, this captivation was in part enjoying the game driving my actions.
I also noticed that these features were also often combined with the pleasure of creation within character creation and customisation.
Initially, my plan was then to create a game which combined multiple features to magnify the captivation experience, but also poke fun at the way time is moving around the player. My initial idea was to create a character creation game, which involved a background world where days and nights pass and random animations occur. I wanted this to also have a kind of nostalgic effect, referencing the games like Sims and random dress up games I would spend hours on.
However, I haven’t made a game before so after attempting to code this, I learnt it was out of the scope of this week.
Hence, I made an object that is a kind of interactive tribute to this time spent. In a way it is about the time that was lost playing these games, but also that feeling of captivation is a part of having fun with play. I wanted to capture this with this three tiered moving piece.
Method:
I made this with paper, cardboard and toothpicks. All the tiers contain 4 drawings, which play out a little animation. Every tier can be rotated by hand, but the whole thing can also be spun.
Reflection:
I was a bit disappointed I wasn’t able to complete my original idea, however I still learnt a lot about coding in the process. I also think it’s important to try these new ideas, and begin the process of learning new tools to expand what I can make. I also had fun in the process, as I had made all the drawings (/assets) in Paint in a very loose, fun way. This made me reflect on the way forms of play are lost to time, like the loss of flash games, as the platforms they exist on come and go so quickly.
This idea kind of fed into the making of my second object. I think there’s a comedic aspect to the way it’s made: using paper to replicate one of the oldest forms of animation, to communicate what feels like an old technology I played with. I think it would be interesting to develop this further by bringing in old parts and making the object more interactive.
Theme: Play and Self
Context:
When exploring this week's theme, I wanted to move away from the idea of representing the self and think more about what the process of making the self is. When creating something that is meant to be a representation of who we are, we automatically have some end goal in mind because we have a preconceived notion of what the end result will be (something that is like us).
However, in the actual formation of who someone is, there is no control or understanding of the end result. The formation of identity is totally random, so I wanted to explore this idea and play with the automatic connection we make between our identity and the ‘self’.
In The Ambiguity of Play, Sutton-Smith explores Gadamer’s idea that the game ‘plays’ the player. The player's reactions are often reflexive or involuntary, and thus takes the player outside of themselves. They are instead bound to reacting to the game. I felt as though this treatment of the self is similar to the understanding that your ‘self’ is a result of scenarios the self has no control over, but must react to.
I wanted to encapsulate this process in a playful way, which brought me to Vandenberg, Fein and Rubin’s (1983) exploration of fun. One of the criteria they use to characterise play is a focus on the means, rather than ends. I wanted my project to shift the participants' attention in the same way, looking at the process of the self rather than the result.
Hence, I wanted to try and adapt these notions together in a playful way to communicate the randomness of the individual self. My concept is for an interactive experience, where the participants are given a material like clay, and use different parts of the exhibit to shape, mould, colour or change their object in different ways. The exhibit would have multiple paths, but the participant could take any path they choose.
Method:
Each participant is given a substance like playdough, and then enters the exhibit in any way they like. They continue to walk through the different rooms and can use the different objects installed in any way they choose, but once they reach the end they are not allowed to do it again.
Response:
Video exploring my model: https://youtu.be/pAuvfnsQh8A
I first brainstormed different ways a material like clay or playdough could be changed physically, and then thought of ways I could make something that would have those effects. I came up with different models and sketches, but the real determining factor was the resources around me. I didn’t want to make something digitally because originally I had envisioned my concept as something self contained and physical, like a machine or gizmo which could be installed on a wall. I also wanted to be resourceful, and only use items I already had so it wasn’t wasteful.
Some of the materials I found I knew what they would be used for, others I first altered and then discovered how they could be used. My main tools were cardboard, masking tape and scissors. I made the object in sections and included multiple paths in all the sections until the last one.
Reflection:
It took me a while to work out how to communicate these ideas. I did a lot of brainstorming and sketching, and originally envisioned something that was hung on a wall and the participant simply drops their object in and it randomly rolls through and they receive the end result, like a gacha machine. However, it was as I was making the model I realised that the original idea removed the ‘self’ too much.
Originally, my solution to this was having the participants able to move the little sections around, as long as all the sections still had at least two paths so there was some randomness and participation. But, as I was making the object, I felt like controlling the path of the clay didn’t involve the actual player in the message about the ‘self’ I was trying to represent with the clay.
When I laid the model horizontally, I realised the player should be focusing on the object which goes through the exhibit. I was absorbed in the aspect of the model I was making, the little sections, and realised it should be about involving the participants in the making. This was a more accurate representation of this metaphor I was trying to communicate, and a more fun process. Hence, I re-envisioned the prototype as a model for an exhibit, which more closely embraced what I wanted to communicate: we don’t choose who we are, or what we are faced with but we make the choices along the way.
On a more critical note, the unfortunate thing about this prototype is that some aspects are more representational than functional. However, I still feel the idea comes across and the limits I had were a part of the fun in making something.
Storyboard page 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nExL8dRdfR_-tx8_Xk1zRJYLo4fdchiW/view?usp=drivesdk
Storyboard page 2:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RN1l6YS90upofCBxEJ0fWlrjjdwWpWg4/view?usp=drivesdk
Storyboard page 3:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_h0pdPhY3GfrCXx_YDV-zh8DJeWc9k5B/view?usp=drivesdk
Storyboard page 4:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/170ZnW7z38ofEG1FnqZ-r8nLMKmKQwMUY/view?usp=drivesdk
This work is about developing the treatment of time within my animated tapestry concept. I started by developing a story following the events of The Hunt of The Unicorn tapestries in reverse order, as a knight’s journey re-traces the events.
The story takes place after the events of the tapestries, and thus I had to carefully consider the way I edited the scope of the story for the plot. As I edit the animation, I plan on including the original tapestries as title cards between the ‘chapters’, allowing the viewer to immediately see the connections between the two and witness both timelines at once. I also explored imitating the pacing of the tapestries: a slow beginning, before more action and movement takes pace.
This treatment of time is similar to ‘Last Year at Marienbad’ (1961), wherein a man insists a year has passed to a woman he has had an affair with, whereas she claims they have never met. The film shifts between flashbacks and the ‘present’, offering pieces of multiple different parts of the narrative at once.
Initially, I had planned to just to show my story about the knight without displaying the tapestries. However, after talking about my idea within class I realised including the reference would provide more clarity for the viewer. When thinking of how to do this, I thought of how ‘Last Year at Marienbad’ communicated multiple parts of the timeline at once, and decided to incorporate a similar approach.
FOLIO 2 PLAN
Rationale:
I intend to continue surrounding my project around ‘Anne’s Wombat’s and Weaving’. This story is about a middle aged woman exploring the practice of weaving, in a spinners and weavers club with other women and wombats. I want to develop this concept into a more cohesive story, potentially following scenes and creating a character arc for the titular character. I think it's important to express a story which celebrates the warmth in an old craft and in older people, and I have found myself developing more interest in the composition of scenes and stories visually.
Context:
In terms of technical context, a focus on character animation would place this work amongst practitioners like Barry Puvres and Hiroyuki Oikura. Although, in terms of concept it also sits amongst live-action films like 9 to 5 (1980) and First Wives Club (1996) due to the nature of the cast. Although it may be out of the scope of this project, it would be interesting to explore this as a screwball comedy, and I feel like there’s an intersection here with some of the elements of Pom Poko (1994).
Method:
I’d like to start by working on generating scenes ideas and storyboards, then experimenting with different iterations of the scenes composition and colour trials. I enjoyed working with 3D models and experimenting with the stylisation of these models, so I’d like to attempt that further in my work. I’d also like to formulate some level of story and potentially a character arc, so there may be a level of writing involved in the process.
Production:
I will be continuing to use Blender and OpenToonz in my production. I’d also like to potentially branch out into using programs like AfterEffects.
Outcome:
This project will take an animated form, potentially a series of vignettes that may hint to a larger story.