PHASE 1
Friday, October 4 - Friday, October 17
In this phase, we have to brainstorm, research, read and discuss any 4 topics that we want and that we would like to carry forward the rest of the year.
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Due to the fact that I only returned back to uni on Friday, October 11th, I only have one week to pick four themes and research them so I have enough content for next week's Presentation.
Together with Daryl and Haonan, we managed to very quickly brainstorm What Makes Us Laugh, Cry, Angry and Technology. This helped because I was able to identify 4 topics that I'm interested in and that I believe are worth exploring: Irony, Immigration, Déjà Vu and Photographs. I will now start researching these themes and put together a presentation to see what people believe about them, which have or don't have potential to inspire a good project.
Goals for next week:
[DONE] For each theme, find out more about at least one artist
[DONE] For each theme, make a moodboard
[DONE] For each theme, research 2 case studies
IRONY
Irony is stating the contrary of what is meant.
I chose to start my research with Irony. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this technique is not only used verbally, but is also, and quite heavily, involved in literature, visual arts and architecture.
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One thing I particularly like is the way and the purpose Caragiale uses irony in his satires: to straighten the morals of the society. I believe it's a really interesting approach to do this, and that there might be something here that could successfully inspire a game.
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For research, see Sketchbook Phases I & II, pages 6-14.
DÉJÀ VU
Déjà Vu is the feeling that one has lived through the present situation before.
I find this sensation of Déjà Vu particularly interesting because it genuinely feels real, and I cannot wrap my head around it. I wanted to find out more about what causes it, and how it actually works.
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I was definitely not disappointed. Obviously, there are scientists who explain the process and everything, which was kind of boring, but then I found out some believe it's ghosts who are doing this to us, which is slightly more exciting than biology. The science part did help, in that I read reports that said you can actually induce this to people quite easily. There's definitely something here that could be explored in a game.
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For research, see Sketchbook Phases I & II, pages 15-24.
HUMAN MIGRATION
Human Migration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives.
Having been affected by this movement since a young age, I wanted to see what are the reasons, outcomes and the effects migration has on people and children.
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While my initial starting point was Immigration, I realised that immigration is not all I wanted to research, and that immigration is just one point of view. Turns out, the situation is much worse than I believed (and I believed it's bad). Children are the ones who keep suffering, regardless of the reasons their parents migrated and whether they took their kids with them or left them home. I see a real issue here and I believe not many people realise the proportion of this problem. I think a well done game could open their eyes towards this issue. This will definitely be difficult to research and develop further.
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For research, see Sketchbook Phases I & II, pages 25-34.
PHOTOGRAPHS
A photograph is a picture made using a camera, in which an image is focused on to a light-sensitive material and then made visible and permanent by a chemical treatment, or stored digitally.
This summer I purchased an instant camera, despite the fact that I always take hundreds of photos on my phone wherever I go. At the job I had during this summer, people paid $50 for 4 (four) badly edited photos. My question is why. What drives people to do this?
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From the research that I gathered, I've been able to partially answer to those questions. People take photos to stop the time. To confirm to themselves that that action happened, or that place exists, or their children were that small once. Like a return ticket to the past. I really like this concept, but I don't know how much I would be able to develop from it.
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For research, see Sketchbook Phases I & II, pages 35-44.