Creative Process

Half term task: 

 Book- Currently I'm interested in the book "Simulacra and Simulation" by Jean Baudrillard. Even though the content is hard to read and understand at times I enjoy the concept of his philosophy and I have many sticky notes to help me in understanding words and summarise overall pages. I also think its a very good book for artists to read due to what his ideas revolve around, such as: things becoming so real they're unreal. "Hell of simulation..." which i believe means that in any reality, people derive different meanings from the same thing, ny hell he means that you have to alosts navigate through a labrynth of other peoples realiees which whilst maintining ones own. "history report" histry is ddoomed to treapeat itself, just as much as the simulacra somthing which is doomed to exist is also doomed to not exist or cease existing which is especially prevolent with modern day celebrities forged by the media will eventually crack from the hyperfection they represent within their niche world and when it is found to be untrue they are brken down by the peeople who once looked up to them 

 Piece of music- "Self Defeating Prophecy" by Dystopia would be one of my top choices in relating back to the book. The isolated meaning of a self defeating prophecy is to predict and expect a certain outcome based on certain behaviours but then as a result those behaviours alter, therefore altering the overall outcome to be the opposite of what was predicted. The song's meaning is supposed to cover the idea of having one chance at life and how many people waste it, not knowingly as time passes us by so quickly none of us can really focus too much on anything but just to keep moving forward. I also think people waste their time in life alot due to technology and idols, defeating themselves by constantly trying to live up to false realities created by others. We ignore the original reality we live as we have strayed so far from what is truly "real" we don't know what is false or true anymore. TV show- "Black Mirror" is a perfect example for the theory its given from its viewers. Black Mirror is a TV show consisting of individual episodes exploring varying topics, mostly revolving on dramatising the world of technology. The part that gets to the theory however is how the creator, Charlie Brooker, describes the show as being a multiverse. Examples of this being reaccuring actors in different episode and referencing other episodes within episodes ( someone finding a book titled as another episode and written by the in real life company that created Black Mirror: House of Tomorrow). Knowing that the theory states that more or less the secret to Black Mirror is that the show takes place in servers created by House of Tomorrow and everything that occurs is simulated. The successes and mistakes of the characters are tracked and get turned into pieces of media for our world and other worlds either through netflix or as comics and games. Journal article- "Video games do affect social outcomes (do video games affect social behaviour)" was a first choice as there has been the long-standing argument that 'violent games induce violent outcomes'. I believe a game can have differing effects dependant on the individual, for example an aggressive game for one person could be a cathartic game in terms of getting their aggression out, whereas for another it could cause them to be overall more aggressive. However, it's all down to a person's ability to differentiate the game reality from their own when it comes to self control. The danger is when a person cannot recognise a difference and treats their own reality as if it was the game reality. Image- "Christina's World" by Andrew Wyeth is a piece that always comes to mind when I think about an image that intruiges and can be viewed under the same theory. This being that art and paintings especially are subjective. When I first saw the image of a girl seemingly sat in a field looking onto a greener field in the distance sort of spoke to me as a metaphor almost as if she was looking onto better things or like a 'grass is greener' kind of situation. However, when you hear the artist's context, it's actually a painting about his neighbour who had a bone disease which made her too weak to walk home and so she had to crawl instead. With this in mind the context greatly affects the perspective and then shifts your reality of the painting as you no longer see what you perceived to be true. A person I'd love to interview- Nietzsche because he was an existential nihilist.This works well with the theme of simulacra and simulation as many who believe in the simulacrum, believe in Nihilism as one of his biggest beliefs was that humans are constantly stuck in a state of valuing things, which could be took as valuing the simulation and the hypereal. Things such as the media monopolise on society by teaching them to value and take as truth the reality shown to them on a screen. Place- "Portmeirion" in North Wales is a perfect example place to link in. If you were to post photos of this place, it's safe to assume many would believe you are in Italy. Everything from the architecture to the art and plant life lead to the illusion that this place is anywhere but North Wales: an eery simulation of Italy. Object- A television. Simply put that it links in due to its sole purpose: projecting endless realities into your living room. This can be anywhere from a place abroad that you've never been to or a news broadcast on a crisis that's half the world away, yet it's right in your living room. Podcast- Simple but since I'm not big on podcasts and it links in: Theory and Philosophy's "Simulacra and Simulation" as it's basically just the podcast form of the book. ________________________________________________________ Speakers: Maya Zeco I wasn't in for Maya's talk but as far as I know they are a sculptor who creates performance art, sound, video and installations. The works are often site specific as they usually revolve around personal and group narratives in relation to history and identity. Masimba Whati:Masimba makes sculptures and installations that run around the themes of childhood memories and power. Neil Grunshaw Neil is a motion graphics designer who creates advertisements and installations for company's. Some examples being Liongate theme park for screens around rides and a large screen for Primark in Barcelona. As far as I remember Neil said he studied how to work with film and VHS and then transitioned slowly into motion graphics. He spoke about how connections and luck count to success and how its not about technicality it's about storytelling and communication through how it moves. (Unfinished but I will write more) _________________________________________________________ Game concept for class: Before creating by level in Unreal Engine we were tasked with sculpting simple objects to familiarise ourselves with the various tools. I like how vintage furniture and its also a bit more of a challenge from simply just a blocky table and chairs so that's what I modelled. These are roughly the kinds of tables and chairs I looked at in reference After modelling these chairs and working on my level a little bit I thought about what I could create with both elements in consideration, which lead me to the idea of a nursing home. As I went through I constantly looked back and fourth at various images of nursing homes combined with my own knowledge and experience of how they look of the top of my head. I made it look a little overgrown and dishevelled by including dust, low lighting, doors off hinges and plant life into the level. My reasoning behind this was that I wanted to create something creepy or at the least unsettling, leading me to my next idea of it being an abandoned nursing home.The gnomes were a random idea as originally I was going to place them in as enemies but I thought that was a little random and so instead, without wasting the model altogether I plan to hopefully model some simple sinister carers and use the gnomes as "artifacts". They will also contribute to the death screen as implying the evil nurse turned you to a gnome type figurine (There'd probably be lore to it but I don't have to think about it that deep so we won't question it). The nurse I made was modelled off of my sketch at the top and through a general off the top of my head knowledge of old nurse outfits. Also a little inspiration from (very randomly) a sylvanian family figurine i had as a child that was a housekeeper wearing a blue apron dress with a white shirt and a little frilly headband. I gave her the face she has because I didnt want to give her a human face but I also didn't want to complicate things for myself on the first try at everything, hence the idea for a strange swirly face. The home is planned to be a 3 story building, you either start at the top almost like you wake there and try to get to the bottom to escape, all whilst collecting artefacts and dodging nurses that are on your tail. Or alternatively if I can somehow get it to do so, you start at the bottom like you have come with a purpose, you do the same as with the other idea, but you end at the bottom also after exploration. I wanted there to be a purpose for why you are there in the first place so the ideas will be dependent on the starting location: * top- you went to visit your old relative with your family, everything went black and you wake up in that same home but everything looks different and your family is nowhere to be found. You discover whilst roaming that your family is infact the gnomes you come to collect. *bottom- your family disappeared a while ago, although the care home they went to visit said they had left that day you aren't so sure. You return after years of wondering to find the place alot different to the last time you saw it, with a mission to find out what happened. What you discover is basically the same as the top option.