I won't say how bad the video is or how it made me feel etc as many have and I'm sure we all get the point on how disturbing and sick the video is. What is even more alarming is how normal everyday people who would never "dream" of committing such crimes have openly said that they would "love" the opportunity to "do to them, what they did to others". WTF? see how EVIL spreads? no I am not religious, quite the opposite actually, but I do believe in Evil and after reading up on crimes like this and the sheer scale of this evil in the world sinking in, I wish I did have a faith... but I have nothing.
It's not the content of the video in terms of gore that got to me, to be fair the beheading videos and the face split viral, (guy jumps off a cliff and splits his face in half and is still breathing- the one where you can see his tongue flapping around through his open throat??) but the little details, that make this so sad and make it cut right through people's hearts the way it does.
Like the times journalist, Caitlan Moran pointed out:
"it is the man's trousers - grey, slightly worn but ironed; the kind that a poor, proud man would wear if he were going to the bank, say, or visiting more well-to-do friends - that were the most upsetting. He had dressed in great calm, and great order. He was now dying in unimaginable disorder and distress." This upset me more than the gore, and the fact that these boys were laughing, taking it in turns like it were some sort of game, it reminded me of the torture scene in the movie: "Eden Lake" and sickened me all the more because we watch these films and munch popcorn whilst clearly thrilled with the violence on screen, yet it is happening every day, whilst we are taking the kids to school or shopping on the high street, just think, this sort of sick shit is actually taking place somewhere, for real. It seems to me that we are becoming more and more desensitized to gore and death everyday, CHILDREN ARE KILLING PEOPLE! it's horrendous! like one person on here said, it's enough to make her want to just lock herself in her house and block out the outside word, and she was glad to see all the people here who are disgusted... I agree.... except many of them say they want to do the same things to the 2 boys themselves, some even came up with fantasy scenarios in which they would like to see them go through, see what I mean about Evil spreading? already these boys have made normal innocent everyday people desire and fantasize about yet more violence and murder.
I'm sorry for the long speech, but I have to get this out of my mind and go back to living in my bubble, I rarely watch TV or the news etc, only just found out about this now a couple hours ago in fact! I am often criticized for being the way I am, but I am glad of it now, I can forget this awful awful hellish crap and go back into it, although every now and again horrid rancid shite like this comes along to tear a great big hole in it and I fall out of the bubble into this black, cold reality....shudder..... I am going to try and climb back into my own world now that I have written this, hopefully it will help... sorry if I sound crazy, I am an aspiring creative writer so can get carried away! my heart goes out to all the families of the victims of these monsters, a result of living rich spoilt lives, probably only ever shown money instead of love, I doubt the parents care for their children's names to be cleared out of love, it is most probably to do with money and respect, family name etc. they probably don't give a shit about the kids, never have, what loved child could turn out this way?
BubblePopProductions
- BubblePopPrincess
- Leeds
- I am currently in my final year of foundation Degree Digital Media at Leeds college of art, and I specialize in story-telling using a range of mediums including interactive based content. I would say I am inspired by cartoons and comics, but also the little things that most people don't notice or maybe are not bothered about, like this strange women on the train the other day, I imagined her whole life in 2 minutes! or the way a silverfish freezes up when it feels vibrations in the hope it won't be noticed! OK so I admit I have an overactive imagination, always have, but that is what I like about me and I feel this only helps me in my line of work. My strength as a digital designer definitely lies in my passion for creating a narrative and a mood, I am interested in the visual construction between image and sound and I like to animate using 2D software and my own hand drawings. I want to bring "my world" to life using digital media.....
Thursday 2 September 2010
Thursday 5 August 2010
PPD2 show-reel notes
Notes to accompany my showreel.
by Kelly Cantrell.
Digital Media year 2.
This is a show-reel of my work over the past 2 years on the Digital Media course at Leeds college of art. Previous work from the access course is not present in the show-reel as I was advised not to put it in, however I would have liked to have put some of it in there as it was a part of my learning process and I feel some very creative work was produced during that period, however I cannot access the original video files in any case but some of this work can be seen on you tube under my account which is Graphixqueen.
The main theme that seems to run through each of my projects has been narrative, I find that my enjoyment of writing and thinking up stories has provided a strong underlying element in all of my work and it is this core ingredient that I aim to push further and work on in my third and final year on the course.
With regard to media, I find myself drawn to animation, although my drawing skills leave a lot to be desired I still find I prefer to work in this medium, closely followed by film, but as I prefer to work alone, animation is a perfect platform for me to project my stories and ideas without the need of a team or heavy equipment and transport etc. Whilst I welcome the assistance of another animator, it is not 100% needed which is what I like about it.
If I am to use flash as my platform I would like to brush up on my drawing skills and become proficient in flash language and scripting in order to promote myself further.
I feel the use of a website that demonstrates my work would be most useful, but of course other promotional methods would be needed in order to direct potential clients toward my site. I would utilize things such as business cards with my website address and contact details which I would hand out at events and festivals, galleries, open evenings etc.
I am also aware of other avenues such as the writers guild and the BBC writers room, these are other organisations that I can join in order to promote myself as a writer for Digital media as well as using my animations so that my stories have a visual component that can always be improved upon with the assistance of more skilled drawers and character designers.
So although I will be alone in my writing, when it comes to taking these ideas and stories further and into other industries such as gaming, animation, interactive and TV it will be important to be able to liaise with and work with a variety of individuals from different backgrounds and with different areas of expertise.
I feel it is important for me to remain as unique and individual as possible in such a competitive and ever changing industry, but it is also important to recognize change and where it is and isn’t needed at different times according to industry trends and technological advances.
One element that I think is important is my brand name and identity which should always be kept the same regardless of the content I produce and I am very happy with the current name and image I have come up with, I feel it epitomises myself and my core values and likes and that is important to me as a designer, to be able to connect with what I am doing and have some kind of a personal link to my work in some way.
by Kelly Cantrell.
Digital Media year 2.
This is a show-reel of my work over the past 2 years on the Digital Media course at Leeds college of art. Previous work from the access course is not present in the show-reel as I was advised not to put it in, however I would have liked to have put some of it in there as it was a part of my learning process and I feel some very creative work was produced during that period, however I cannot access the original video files in any case but some of this work can be seen on you tube under my account which is Graphixqueen.
The main theme that seems to run through each of my projects has been narrative, I find that my enjoyment of writing and thinking up stories has provided a strong underlying element in all of my work and it is this core ingredient that I aim to push further and work on in my third and final year on the course.
With regard to media, I find myself drawn to animation, although my drawing skills leave a lot to be desired I still find I prefer to work in this medium, closely followed by film, but as I prefer to work alone, animation is a perfect platform for me to project my stories and ideas without the need of a team or heavy equipment and transport etc. Whilst I welcome the assistance of another animator, it is not 100% needed which is what I like about it.
If I am to use flash as my platform I would like to brush up on my drawing skills and become proficient in flash language and scripting in order to promote myself further.
I feel the use of a website that demonstrates my work would be most useful, but of course other promotional methods would be needed in order to direct potential clients toward my site. I would utilize things such as business cards with my website address and contact details which I would hand out at events and festivals, galleries, open evenings etc.
I am also aware of other avenues such as the writers guild and the BBC writers room, these are other organisations that I can join in order to promote myself as a writer for Digital media as well as using my animations so that my stories have a visual component that can always be improved upon with the assistance of more skilled drawers and character designers.
So although I will be alone in my writing, when it comes to taking these ideas and stories further and into other industries such as gaming, animation, interactive and TV it will be important to be able to liaise with and work with a variety of individuals from different backgrounds and with different areas of expertise.
I feel it is important for me to remain as unique and individual as possible in such a competitive and ever changing industry, but it is also important to recognize change and where it is and isn’t needed at different times according to industry trends and technological advances.
One element that I think is important is my brand name and identity which should always be kept the same regardless of the content I produce and I am very happy with the current name and image I have come up with, I feel it epitomises myself and my core values and likes and that is important to me as a designer, to be able to connect with what I am doing and have some kind of a personal link to my work in some way.
Sunday 20 June 2010
Alice in Wonderland review
Having missed this film at the cinemas I was thrilled to be able to buy it on DVD/Blu-ray combo, (the great thing about Blu-ray being that most people I know don't have it yet so they can't come over and ask to borrow my DVDs! hahahahaha!) I even went out of my way to get the blah blah exclusive, (sorry Amazon, your still my number one choice as blah blah customer service sucks!) which included a pack or Alice in Wonderland Cards! Anyway I sat down to watch my blu-ray version on the PS3, expecting to be blown away with Tim Burtoness and Johnny Depp-Boham Carterness as in Sweeney Todd, (which is frickin awesome by the way) but it just fell flat and didn't happen. :(
The only thing reminiscent of Tim Burton in this movie is of course his wife, (Carter) and best bud Depp and of course the overall visual style is very Tim Burton, but the story-line? well that was a different matter, I had the feeling that some Disney executives wrote it and then just got Burton to add his flair and name to it to make sure it sold, I mean as soon as this "Jabberwocky" came into it, I was thinking, "what the hell?" the Caterpillar wasn't as flamboyant as the cartoon version and therefore not as memorable or engaging, although I loved the voicing and felt he was a good choice, (I don't know his name but I knew his voice straight away as being the gothic looking teacher guy from Happy Potter), The Red Queen, (Carter) was brilliant, I felt she stood out the most and the humor she injected into the role was perfect, I loved her character and felt she even out-did Mr Depp, which is a definite first. Depp who I love don't get me wrong, was good, but I felt he should have been a bit more nutty and whacky like the Cartoon character was, instead he came off as being more of a mentally disturbed patient on the run or something, indeed I felt sorry for him and wanted to reach out and touch him at times where he seemed to be a lost little boy, I didn't quite understand why his accent kept changing from his usual to a scottish accent? maybe he was trying to depict a schizophrenic? I don't really know, but it didn't quite "fit" for me, I would have liked a bit more development or background knowledge as to why he was the way he was, or maybe I am just searching a bit too deep for a light hearted family flick?
I didn't feel this need for explanation with the red queen however, maybe it is because his character hinted at things but never fully explained them whereas her character was less complex.
The two "fatboys" played by little britains Lucas something or other were great and he was "perfect" for the role, I would have liked to see more of his little britain zaniness brought to the role though.
The white queen drove me mad! In fact I don't even want to watch the film again just for her part, the way she moved around with her hands in the iar drove me mad, and I didn't see the point of her? I would rather have just seen a remake of the cartoon actually and not this sequel attempt although other reviewers have said the opposite, I think a remake would have been alot better, with all the known characters and plot-lines, it would have been exciting to watch and think: "Oh this is the bit where she...." or: "gosh I remember this bit where the hedgehog does this" etc etc.
And the crochet game would have been fun to watch had it been implemented into the film a bit more...
I liked alot about the film, I liked the visual style, the effects were excellent and not one bit jarring as they are in alot of CGI heavy films, I wish it had flowed more and fit together that little bit better, it's a shame cause you can't shake the feeling that executives were thinking about how much money they could make on alice in wonderland merchandise, (the original cartoon which was £6.99 has now gone up to £25.99!) I'd watch it if you are a Burton/Depp and Boham-Carter fan, but if not then I doubt you will get much from it- unless you are just in awe of the special effects and forget about story-line, character development etc as alot of people tend to do these days, then watch if for the effects if you must! but for story, plot, narrative and character development? I'm afraid it simply fails miserably and doesn't make much sense.
I would get the cartoon or some of Burtons other stuff instead whilst waiting for the price of this to drop to £4.99 or less, cause all your doing is putting money into the Disney fat cats wallets, they don't care about entertaining you or bringing a much loved disney cartoon to life! they just want money to buy fancier cars whilst we sit and waste 2 hours with this, don't get me wrong I love Tim Burton films, Johnny Depp and even Burtons wife, and I never thought I'd give a Burton film a negative review, I just don't feel this is a "true" Burton feature. Try nightmare before christmas, corpse bride, sweeney tood and edward scissorhands instead. but do watch this if like me you have seen every other Burton film and need something new, but I wouldn't pay out the current price tag if I could turn back time, I'd wait, it's not worth the £17.99 I paid for it at all. (And I never say that! I am one who often pays out alot for films, they cost millions to make so owning them for £20 isn't a big deal for me if it's a good film and worth it!)
The only thing reminiscent of Tim Burton in this movie is of course his wife, (Carter) and best bud Depp and of course the overall visual style is very Tim Burton, but the story-line? well that was a different matter, I had the feeling that some Disney executives wrote it and then just got Burton to add his flair and name to it to make sure it sold, I mean as soon as this "Jabberwocky" came into it, I was thinking, "what the hell?" the Caterpillar wasn't as flamboyant as the cartoon version and therefore not as memorable or engaging, although I loved the voicing and felt he was a good choice, (I don't know his name but I knew his voice straight away as being the gothic looking teacher guy from Happy Potter), The Red Queen, (Carter) was brilliant, I felt she stood out the most and the humor she injected into the role was perfect, I loved her character and felt she even out-did Mr Depp, which is a definite first. Depp who I love don't get me wrong, was good, but I felt he should have been a bit more nutty and whacky like the Cartoon character was, instead he came off as being more of a mentally disturbed patient on the run or something, indeed I felt sorry for him and wanted to reach out and touch him at times where he seemed to be a lost little boy, I didn't quite understand why his accent kept changing from his usual to a scottish accent? maybe he was trying to depict a schizophrenic? I don't really know, but it didn't quite "fit" for me, I would have liked a bit more development or background knowledge as to why he was the way he was, or maybe I am just searching a bit too deep for a light hearted family flick?
I didn't feel this need for explanation with the red queen however, maybe it is because his character hinted at things but never fully explained them whereas her character was less complex.
The two "fatboys" played by little britains Lucas something or other were great and he was "perfect" for the role, I would have liked to see more of his little britain zaniness brought to the role though.
The white queen drove me mad! In fact I don't even want to watch the film again just for her part, the way she moved around with her hands in the iar drove me mad, and I didn't see the point of her? I would rather have just seen a remake of the cartoon actually and not this sequel attempt although other reviewers have said the opposite, I think a remake would have been alot better, with all the known characters and plot-lines, it would have been exciting to watch and think: "Oh this is the bit where she...." or: "gosh I remember this bit where the hedgehog does this" etc etc.
And the crochet game would have been fun to watch had it been implemented into the film a bit more...
I liked alot about the film, I liked the visual style, the effects were excellent and not one bit jarring as they are in alot of CGI heavy films, I wish it had flowed more and fit together that little bit better, it's a shame cause you can't shake the feeling that executives were thinking about how much money they could make on alice in wonderland merchandise, (the original cartoon which was £6.99 has now gone up to £25.99!) I'd watch it if you are a Burton/Depp and Boham-Carter fan, but if not then I doubt you will get much from it- unless you are just in awe of the special effects and forget about story-line, character development etc as alot of people tend to do these days, then watch if for the effects if you must! but for story, plot, narrative and character development? I'm afraid it simply fails miserably and doesn't make much sense.
I would get the cartoon or some of Burtons other stuff instead whilst waiting for the price of this to drop to £4.99 or less, cause all your doing is putting money into the Disney fat cats wallets, they don't care about entertaining you or bringing a much loved disney cartoon to life! they just want money to buy fancier cars whilst we sit and waste 2 hours with this, don't get me wrong I love Tim Burton films, Johnny Depp and even Burtons wife, and I never thought I'd give a Burton film a negative review, I just don't feel this is a "true" Burton feature. Try nightmare before christmas, corpse bride, sweeney tood and edward scissorhands instead. but do watch this if like me you have seen every other Burton film and need something new, but I wouldn't pay out the current price tag if I could turn back time, I'd wait, it's not worth the £17.99 I paid for it at all. (And I never say that! I am one who often pays out alot for films, they cost millions to make so owning them for £20 isn't a big deal for me if it's a good film and worth it!)
Monday 7 June 2010
Screenshots
Here are some screenshots from my little big planet video, these shots are from the practice stage that I made the first time around.
PPD2 contact list
Red star 3D,
electric works,
Sheffield,
S1 2BJ
contact: 0114 2866232
Jobs@redstar3D.com
Red star are based in sheffield in the UK and they produce animation for TV commercials, CGI effects and graphics. They have done a few adverts on the TV such as the mazuma mobile adverts and some adverts for macdonalds.
There is also a mixed media company called Trunk in London who seem interesting, they work with a large group of artists to create visual imagery and animations.
contact: info@trunk.me.uk or 02071936131
Plasticmilk
26 church street
hampton
middlesex,
TW12 2EG
contact David Raitt 02089416652
www.plasticmilk.co.uk
design and animation studios creating entertainment and informative television from medical videos to broadcast entertainment.
RJDM Animations
based in Northhamptonshire, york studios.
Specialize in Idents, 2D, 3D animation and design, TV and cinema commercials, film titles and credits.
www.RJDM.com
Contact Ricky O'Donnell on: 01604 743222
Blue Zoo productions are based in London, Euston road and produce award winning 2D and 3D animation, graphics and design for webistes to TV commercials.
www.blue-zoo.co.uk
Contact: Tom Box on 02074344111
the animation works are an animation studio based in norfolk and they offer content for TV, film, web, interactive and print services. They also use motion capture and stereoscopic 3D.
Contact Chris Holt, chris.holt@theanimationworks.com
Capricorn digital and Carnival figures are both London based animation firms who specialize in animation, picture imaging, flash animation, commercials, title sequences, web and broadcast.
Contact details:
Carnival figures, Alex Dawson 07930547629
Capricorn Digital, Ryan Lazarus 02082029594
Daylight moving image are based in Manchester and they specialize in video production, motion graphics and animation.
Contact Matt Smith
72 Tib street
Northern quarter
Manchester
M4 1LG
tel: 0161 8399088
Elm road studios in Bristol, specialize in stop frame motion which is interesting.
The man in charge is called Mike Waubdy, contact tel: 01179232324
electric works,
Sheffield,
S1 2BJ
contact: 0114 2866232
Jobs@redstar3D.com
Red star are based in sheffield in the UK and they produce animation for TV commercials, CGI effects and graphics. They have done a few adverts on the TV such as the mazuma mobile adverts and some adverts for macdonalds.
There is also a mixed media company called Trunk in London who seem interesting, they work with a large group of artists to create visual imagery and animations.
contact: info@trunk.me.uk or 02071936131
Plasticmilk
26 church street
hampton
middlesex,
TW12 2EG
contact David Raitt 02089416652
www.plasticmilk.co.uk
design and animation studios creating entertainment and informative television from medical videos to broadcast entertainment.
RJDM Animations
based in Northhamptonshire, york studios.
Specialize in Idents, 2D, 3D animation and design, TV and cinema commercials, film titles and credits.
www.RJDM.com
Contact Ricky O'Donnell on: 01604 743222
Blue Zoo productions are based in London, Euston road and produce award winning 2D and 3D animation, graphics and design for webistes to TV commercials.
www.blue-zoo.co.uk
Contact: Tom Box on 02074344111
the animation works are an animation studio based in norfolk and they offer content for TV, film, web, interactive and print services. They also use motion capture and stereoscopic 3D.
Contact Chris Holt, chris.holt@theanimationworks.com
Capricorn digital and Carnival figures are both London based animation firms who specialize in animation, picture imaging, flash animation, commercials, title sequences, web and broadcast.
Contact details:
Carnival figures, Alex Dawson 07930547629
Capricorn Digital, Ryan Lazarus 02082029594
Daylight moving image are based in Manchester and they specialize in video production, motion graphics and animation.
Contact Matt Smith
72 Tib street
Northern quarter
Manchester
M4 1LG
tel: 0161 8399088
Elm road studios in Bristol, specialize in stop frame motion which is interesting.
The man in charge is called Mike Waubdy, contact tel: 01179232324
Final major project evaluation
Having decided to create something for children to warn them of safety in the real and virtual worlds I started by having a few chats with the head-teacher of my local school, who liked my ideas and felt that something "interactive" would be more beneficial than simply making a movie for kids to watch.
I did intend on making a flash based animation, either with or without some interactive options, and my daughter was set to do a voice over for me reading out either a story or a poem devised by myself, however due to unforeseen circumstances this could not be arranged and so I had to think of another way to get the narrative into my story.
I did not want my idea to be hampered by my inadequate drawing skills and lack of interactive knowledge inn flash, so set out to look at other ways of producing the story that I wanted to create.
I thought about working with some of my peers and perhaps asking them to create characters for me, I even tamed up with another peer for a day who was working on characters and planned on creating a narrative around their ideas but this would have been changing my original brief too much so decided to go back to what I had and stick with that.
So it took me a while to get my head around this, despite it being my own brief, I was having doubts about whether this was what I really wanted to do or not, a relative had died recently and al I could think about was death, something I have been preoccupied with in past projects, and I really wanted to use this energy to create a new brief, however time was running out and my brief had already been submitted.
I don't quite know where the idea to use little big planet came from, I was playing it one day, and decided to look at some of the online levels members of the community have created and uploaded, and was amazed at the potential in it for me to be able to realize my ideas without having to worry too much about visual presentation and drawing skills, or lack of!
Don't get me wrong I am not putting myself down, I know I can doodle pretty good and anyone can draw if they put their mind to it, it's just one of those things I have found very difficult at times, especially when it comes to drawing anything other than characters which is all I ever draw.
Anyway I never thought I would be able to do anything on little big planet, thinking it would be far too hard, and shuddering at the memories I have of second life and maya I turned my console off and returned to fretting about how I was going to do this with all that I have going on in my life at this moment in time.
Luckily for me a friend who had never even used little big planet before saw how down I was about it, and decided to have a go at creating something just to see how easy or hard it was, and within a few seconds they had made a small building with some windows in it and showed it to me, I was gobsmacked at how easy it was, it was nothing like second life or maya! I did not need mathematical or 3D skills, all I needed was my imagination and an idea, which I had, so from there on I felt very positive about getting this done and couldn't believe I hadn't tried it out sooner.
I have now created an entire level based around my ideas and characters for this project and am very pleased with it and think it is a vast improvement over some of my more recent projects.
To begin with I just went in with a few ideas not thinking much about how each scene would fall into the next, I also didn't realize that there was a gauge meter to the left that decided how much more you could put into a level or that the levels has a pre-set size! I just assumed they went on and on till you stopped creating!
I realized this halfway through and decided to just use this as an experimental attempt and so I continued putting in a few things that didn't really work but just to practice and see what I could do with it.
I then decided to start over, building the characters and buildings again from scratch, but this time making them look better and adding or taking away details where needed. For example, some of the events seemed to last a bit too long on my practice level, thus taking up too much room and loosing their meaning in favor of lengthy walkthroughs and unnecessary obstacles.
So in the final level I decided to keep things short and sweet and added a disappearing character at regular intervals to warn children about the dangers they were about to face in the game.
I was going to throw in some statistics about knife crime and fires etc but after searching for hours on the net for up to date information I gave up and decided that primary school children did not need to know that, that statistics might only scare them too much, plus things like that will only go in and out one ear with children, they are much more visual and throwing numbers at them would have been meaningless.
If I had thought of this earlier it might have been a useful tool to have as a caption at the bottom of the screen, but as it stands I am happy with the game as it is.
I am not sure however if I should leave this as a game or record it onto a disc as a short animation, I think leaving it as a game would be better although am a bit concerned that there may not be enough gameplay activities to make for an interesting game.
I really enjoyed creating on little big planet and am definitely going to use this again to create games and stories with a view to learning more techniques and creating some more advanced and professional gameplay tactics.
I did intend on making a flash based animation, either with or without some interactive options, and my daughter was set to do a voice over for me reading out either a story or a poem devised by myself, however due to unforeseen circumstances this could not be arranged and so I had to think of another way to get the narrative into my story.
I did not want my idea to be hampered by my inadequate drawing skills and lack of interactive knowledge inn flash, so set out to look at other ways of producing the story that I wanted to create.
I thought about working with some of my peers and perhaps asking them to create characters for me, I even tamed up with another peer for a day who was working on characters and planned on creating a narrative around their ideas but this would have been changing my original brief too much so decided to go back to what I had and stick with that.
So it took me a while to get my head around this, despite it being my own brief, I was having doubts about whether this was what I really wanted to do or not, a relative had died recently and al I could think about was death, something I have been preoccupied with in past projects, and I really wanted to use this energy to create a new brief, however time was running out and my brief had already been submitted.
I don't quite know where the idea to use little big planet came from, I was playing it one day, and decided to look at some of the online levels members of the community have created and uploaded, and was amazed at the potential in it for me to be able to realize my ideas without having to worry too much about visual presentation and drawing skills, or lack of!
Don't get me wrong I am not putting myself down, I know I can doodle pretty good and anyone can draw if they put their mind to it, it's just one of those things I have found very difficult at times, especially when it comes to drawing anything other than characters which is all I ever draw.
Anyway I never thought I would be able to do anything on little big planet, thinking it would be far too hard, and shuddering at the memories I have of second life and maya I turned my console off and returned to fretting about how I was going to do this with all that I have going on in my life at this moment in time.
Luckily for me a friend who had never even used little big planet before saw how down I was about it, and decided to have a go at creating something just to see how easy or hard it was, and within a few seconds they had made a small building with some windows in it and showed it to me, I was gobsmacked at how easy it was, it was nothing like second life or maya! I did not need mathematical or 3D skills, all I needed was my imagination and an idea, which I had, so from there on I felt very positive about getting this done and couldn't believe I hadn't tried it out sooner.
I have now created an entire level based around my ideas and characters for this project and am very pleased with it and think it is a vast improvement over some of my more recent projects.
To begin with I just went in with a few ideas not thinking much about how each scene would fall into the next, I also didn't realize that there was a gauge meter to the left that decided how much more you could put into a level or that the levels has a pre-set size! I just assumed they went on and on till you stopped creating!
I realized this halfway through and decided to just use this as an experimental attempt and so I continued putting in a few things that didn't really work but just to practice and see what I could do with it.
I then decided to start over, building the characters and buildings again from scratch, but this time making them look better and adding or taking away details where needed. For example, some of the events seemed to last a bit too long on my practice level, thus taking up too much room and loosing their meaning in favor of lengthy walkthroughs and unnecessary obstacles.
So in the final level I decided to keep things short and sweet and added a disappearing character at regular intervals to warn children about the dangers they were about to face in the game.
I was going to throw in some statistics about knife crime and fires etc but after searching for hours on the net for up to date information I gave up and decided that primary school children did not need to know that, that statistics might only scare them too much, plus things like that will only go in and out one ear with children, they are much more visual and throwing numbers at them would have been meaningless.
If I had thought of this earlier it might have been a useful tool to have as a caption at the bottom of the screen, but as it stands I am happy with the game as it is.
I am not sure however if I should leave this as a game or record it onto a disc as a short animation, I think leaving it as a game would be better although am a bit concerned that there may not be enough gameplay activities to make for an interesting game.
I really enjoyed creating on little big planet and am definitely going to use this again to create games and stories with a view to learning more techniques and creating some more advanced and professional gameplay tactics.
Essay to accompany final major project
How the advancement of technology has altered narrative structure in popular videogames. By Kelly Cantrell.
In this essay I am going to talk about the rise of digital media and its effect on popular videogames, with particular reference to their narrative structures. As there are so many genres and sub genres of games, I will be attempting to focus on the first person action adventure game.
After all amongst the many gaming genres, such as online social gaming, simulation and shooter games, I would say that the first person action adventure game, (and indeed 3rd person also) has the largest and most obvious connection to narrative structures as an underlying core element within the game play.
Naturally however there will be mention of games that fall into 2 or more different genres, for example the tomb-raider franchise is most likely to be classed as a platform/strategy game, however there are also elements of it that fall into the RPG, (role playing game) and action adventure genres as well.
Before jumping to some obvious titles such as this year’s “Heavy rain” for the playstation 3, I would like to go back a bit and start with some earlier titles worthy of mention for their story-driven play, whether good or bad.
Delving into the “horror survival” sub-genre is an absolute must if we are talking about narrative driven gaming phenomena, and the immediate title to come to mind would be “Silent hill”,.
Konami’s first instalment of Silent hill began in 1999 on the playstation one and then went on to spawn another 5 sequels, a prequel, box office movie, and a remake of the first game has now appeared, 11 years after the original release.
Thus demonstrating the games narrative appeal and replay value as a franchise.
As technology advances, games are becoming more playable featuring easier controls, advanced graphical capability and better camera dynamics, thus games are reaching a wider audience and are quickly becoming the worlds number one form of entertainment, now rivalling the Hollywood movie industry with sales reaching over 300, million US dollars.
Initially game-movie tie ins were brought out as secondary sources of profit and went hand in hand with t-shirts, lunch boxes and other forms of movie paraphernalia, now however games are being produced in conjunction with movies in order to gain maximum profit, the same actors, character designers and modellers are now working on both the film and the game to produce a double package that can be released at the same time to achieve maximum sales and coverage.
Also fading away are the cheap cash in attempts of mediocre games being produced after a film with broken narratives and shoddy game play.
But what is it about a game narrative in particular that prevents it from being a smash hit movie? Look at the Tomb raider and mortal combat movies for example, each failing on different levels, then there are the silent hill and resident evil movie spin off’s, both are relatively good but are lacking considerably in the storytelling department, only silent hill can be saved because it so well retains the original feel and atmosphere from the games.
As for this years prince of Persia staring Jake Gyllenhaal I am not going to hold my breath but we’ll see, just using a white American for the starring role has made me weary enough of it, I think it will suffer from the usual “Hollywood movie” conventions of action over plot and too much lacing of patriotic heroism.
One reason for this failure to translate gaming narratives to the big screen could be that gaming narratives also rely on the player’s involvement and interaction with the game itself, gamers typically play a game for several weeks before finish, whereas movie watchers digest the whole thing in a matter of 2 hours, sometimes less.
Gamers actually “become” the character of the story, controlling their actions and movements and also the narrative itself to a degree, or at least that’s what game developers want you to think, but as long as the gamer has this feeling of control within the game, the goal has been met, whatever the non playing onlooker perceives is irrelevant.
Technology has allowed gaming narratives to be played with, altered and toyed with in a way that although achievable on other story telling platforms, does not quite reach the height’s it does on the gaming console.
For example I have read books in the past as a high school student in which the story changes based on your decisions at the end of a given chapter, the book would advice you which page to turn to depending on your choice, you would then turn to the said page and continue the story from the point of view that you had chosen.
I’m not sure if I’ve seen this in a movie, but I’m sure with the capabilities of DVD that there must have been an attempt to skip scenes in a movie, and move around the chapter layers of a disc as you would the book depending on the viewer’s choice? I have seen interactive games on DVD discs, and some very interesting DVD menu’s also that allow the viewer to take complete control of the character or situation on screen.
Or should I say control to the degree specified by the creator, so that regardless of which outcome you get it is still a result of the story tellers own desire to tell a story, no matter which angle you get it from it is still their story and you are not actually changing anything, you are just altering which ending or viewpoint you will ultimately end up with.
I find this to be a very fresh and innovative way of telling stories and find the gaming system to be one of the most dynamic and engaging systems in place today to tell a story with.
Take Heavy rain for a good example, for me, heavy rain was more of a story than a game, an interactive movie that allowed you to control characters thoughts, movements and choices to a degree set out by the developers and writers involved.
You are given a multitude of choices at any given time, some minor and some with larger consequences, the characters are very well fleshed out and you can even go as far as deciding if your character will get a shave or brush their teeth before going about their daily chores.
Of course the player feels they have control but everything that happens has already been carefully thought out and scripted so that no matter what you decide to do the conclusions are already in place. However to the gamer this does not necessarily matter, because they are getting a fresh gaming experience and a new way of inhaling narrative through game play.
I am not one to complete games on a regular basis, because I am a story-driven person I often loose interest in a game because of lack of a gripping narrative, for me it is not about how many head shots I can get or how many puzzles I can solve, but getting to the next instalment of the story and uncovering another piece to the puzzle and this is the reason I enjoyed heavy rain so much and would play it again and again, despite already knowing the outcome and the main “twist”.
Although heavy rain has come under a lot of fire from hardcore gamers who either get bored before the game kicks off due to lack of action in initial scenes, and some who have criticized the story claiming the creator is nothing more than “a wanabee film director with no talent” and “let’s hope he stays where he is”, the narrative has even been compared to the works of M.Knight Shamalan with similar negative responses.
Why the outrage? Well some gamers and movie buffs alike are claiming that the story is weak because you are allowed inside the characters heads, therefore you can see their thoughts at the press of a button, so when it turns out that the killer is a playable character gamers were outraged as throughout the game the “killer” thinks as though he is trying to fool the player into believing he is not the killer and is simply a concerned bystander.
Ok, I think with any movie and game a certain level of suspension of disbelief is required and also narratives should not have to explain every single little detail to you, some level of imagination is also required in many cases to make a good story, (hence the reason Japanese/Korean films are better than most American blockbusters) I mean, did it ever occur to “any” of these gamers that the main character was actually convincing himself that he did not do it? That it was the father’s faults for not saving their children? He is after all, only a deranged killer?
Some gamers felt it unreasonable to show this character, as being compassionate in some scenes, only to later find out he was the killer. Why is this so unreasonable? He is clearly not of sound mind, and clearly felt in his mind he was only searching for a good father, unlike the one he had, it was not his intention to kill the boys, he felt it was a necessary sacrifice in order to find something he felt strongly about. Of course I’m not saying he was right, only that people want these interactive games, they want this added control, and enjoy the experience on a whole new level, (even these “critics” have said they still enjoyed the dynamics of the game) so why then, can’t people be a little bit more open minded and willing to use their own imagination in the equation as well? If you want interactive, how about being a little more interactive with your mind for a start!
Another title set to be a big hit this year and also focussing on narrative but with a bit more freedom in game play and more of an action shooter experience is “Alan Wake” for the xbox 360 console.
Here you get to play a writer on vacation who discovers that one of his fictional characters has come alive in this small town and is seeking to wreck havoc on Alan wakes existence, this reminds me of Jonny Depps character in “secret window”, a movie about a writer who also is being terrorised by one of his fictional book characters. So although nothing new in terms of story, games like this are raising the bar for video game narrative standards and thanks to this we can only hope to see more and more tighter, deeper, interwoven stories coming out of next generation games that will rival if not take over movie standards and become the leading output for some of the most innovative writing yet to be seen.
In this essay I am going to talk about the rise of digital media and its effect on popular videogames, with particular reference to their narrative structures. As there are so many genres and sub genres of games, I will be attempting to focus on the first person action adventure game.
After all amongst the many gaming genres, such as online social gaming, simulation and shooter games, I would say that the first person action adventure game, (and indeed 3rd person also) has the largest and most obvious connection to narrative structures as an underlying core element within the game play.
Naturally however there will be mention of games that fall into 2 or more different genres, for example the tomb-raider franchise is most likely to be classed as a platform/strategy game, however there are also elements of it that fall into the RPG, (role playing game) and action adventure genres as well.
Before jumping to some obvious titles such as this year’s “Heavy rain” for the playstation 3, I would like to go back a bit and start with some earlier titles worthy of mention for their story-driven play, whether good or bad.
Delving into the “horror survival” sub-genre is an absolute must if we are talking about narrative driven gaming phenomena, and the immediate title to come to mind would be “Silent hill”,.
Konami’s first instalment of Silent hill began in 1999 on the playstation one and then went on to spawn another 5 sequels, a prequel, box office movie, and a remake of the first game has now appeared, 11 years after the original release.
Thus demonstrating the games narrative appeal and replay value as a franchise.
As technology advances, games are becoming more playable featuring easier controls, advanced graphical capability and better camera dynamics, thus games are reaching a wider audience and are quickly becoming the worlds number one form of entertainment, now rivalling the Hollywood movie industry with sales reaching over 300, million US dollars.
Initially game-movie tie ins were brought out as secondary sources of profit and went hand in hand with t-shirts, lunch boxes and other forms of movie paraphernalia, now however games are being produced in conjunction with movies in order to gain maximum profit, the same actors, character designers and modellers are now working on both the film and the game to produce a double package that can be released at the same time to achieve maximum sales and coverage.
Also fading away are the cheap cash in attempts of mediocre games being produced after a film with broken narratives and shoddy game play.
But what is it about a game narrative in particular that prevents it from being a smash hit movie? Look at the Tomb raider and mortal combat movies for example, each failing on different levels, then there are the silent hill and resident evil movie spin off’s, both are relatively good but are lacking considerably in the storytelling department, only silent hill can be saved because it so well retains the original feel and atmosphere from the games.
As for this years prince of Persia staring Jake Gyllenhaal I am not going to hold my breath but we’ll see, just using a white American for the starring role has made me weary enough of it, I think it will suffer from the usual “Hollywood movie” conventions of action over plot and too much lacing of patriotic heroism.
One reason for this failure to translate gaming narratives to the big screen could be that gaming narratives also rely on the player’s involvement and interaction with the game itself, gamers typically play a game for several weeks before finish, whereas movie watchers digest the whole thing in a matter of 2 hours, sometimes less.
Gamers actually “become” the character of the story, controlling their actions and movements and also the narrative itself to a degree, or at least that’s what game developers want you to think, but as long as the gamer has this feeling of control within the game, the goal has been met, whatever the non playing onlooker perceives is irrelevant.
Technology has allowed gaming narratives to be played with, altered and toyed with in a way that although achievable on other story telling platforms, does not quite reach the height’s it does on the gaming console.
For example I have read books in the past as a high school student in which the story changes based on your decisions at the end of a given chapter, the book would advice you which page to turn to depending on your choice, you would then turn to the said page and continue the story from the point of view that you had chosen.
I’m not sure if I’ve seen this in a movie, but I’m sure with the capabilities of DVD that there must have been an attempt to skip scenes in a movie, and move around the chapter layers of a disc as you would the book depending on the viewer’s choice? I have seen interactive games on DVD discs, and some very interesting DVD menu’s also that allow the viewer to take complete control of the character or situation on screen.
Or should I say control to the degree specified by the creator, so that regardless of which outcome you get it is still a result of the story tellers own desire to tell a story, no matter which angle you get it from it is still their story and you are not actually changing anything, you are just altering which ending or viewpoint you will ultimately end up with.
I find this to be a very fresh and innovative way of telling stories and find the gaming system to be one of the most dynamic and engaging systems in place today to tell a story with.
Take Heavy rain for a good example, for me, heavy rain was more of a story than a game, an interactive movie that allowed you to control characters thoughts, movements and choices to a degree set out by the developers and writers involved.
You are given a multitude of choices at any given time, some minor and some with larger consequences, the characters are very well fleshed out and you can even go as far as deciding if your character will get a shave or brush their teeth before going about their daily chores.
Of course the player feels they have control but everything that happens has already been carefully thought out and scripted so that no matter what you decide to do the conclusions are already in place. However to the gamer this does not necessarily matter, because they are getting a fresh gaming experience and a new way of inhaling narrative through game play.
I am not one to complete games on a regular basis, because I am a story-driven person I often loose interest in a game because of lack of a gripping narrative, for me it is not about how many head shots I can get or how many puzzles I can solve, but getting to the next instalment of the story and uncovering another piece to the puzzle and this is the reason I enjoyed heavy rain so much and would play it again and again, despite already knowing the outcome and the main “twist”.
Although heavy rain has come under a lot of fire from hardcore gamers who either get bored before the game kicks off due to lack of action in initial scenes, and some who have criticized the story claiming the creator is nothing more than “a wanabee film director with no talent” and “let’s hope he stays where he is”, the narrative has even been compared to the works of M.Knight Shamalan with similar negative responses.
Why the outrage? Well some gamers and movie buffs alike are claiming that the story is weak because you are allowed inside the characters heads, therefore you can see their thoughts at the press of a button, so when it turns out that the killer is a playable character gamers were outraged as throughout the game the “killer” thinks as though he is trying to fool the player into believing he is not the killer and is simply a concerned bystander.
Ok, I think with any movie and game a certain level of suspension of disbelief is required and also narratives should not have to explain every single little detail to you, some level of imagination is also required in many cases to make a good story, (hence the reason Japanese/Korean films are better than most American blockbusters) I mean, did it ever occur to “any” of these gamers that the main character was actually convincing himself that he did not do it? That it was the father’s faults for not saving their children? He is after all, only a deranged killer?
Some gamers felt it unreasonable to show this character, as being compassionate in some scenes, only to later find out he was the killer. Why is this so unreasonable? He is clearly not of sound mind, and clearly felt in his mind he was only searching for a good father, unlike the one he had, it was not his intention to kill the boys, he felt it was a necessary sacrifice in order to find something he felt strongly about. Of course I’m not saying he was right, only that people want these interactive games, they want this added control, and enjoy the experience on a whole new level, (even these “critics” have said they still enjoyed the dynamics of the game) so why then, can’t people be a little bit more open minded and willing to use their own imagination in the equation as well? If you want interactive, how about being a little more interactive with your mind for a start!
Another title set to be a big hit this year and also focussing on narrative but with a bit more freedom in game play and more of an action shooter experience is “Alan Wake” for the xbox 360 console.
Here you get to play a writer on vacation who discovers that one of his fictional characters has come alive in this small town and is seeking to wreck havoc on Alan wakes existence, this reminds me of Jonny Depps character in “secret window”, a movie about a writer who also is being terrorised by one of his fictional book characters. So although nothing new in terms of story, games like this are raising the bar for video game narrative standards and thanks to this we can only hope to see more and more tighter, deeper, interwoven stories coming out of next generation games that will rival if not take over movie standards and become the leading output for some of the most innovative writing yet to be seen.
Tuesday 25 May 2010
Workplace opportunities
I absolutely love playfish games, I just think for quick fun quirky little games they are brilliant, the games are simple, fun and most importantly for them- addictive! I must admit I spend alot of time on pet society because of it's simplicity, the online community aspect, so these games are also sociable, they are very innovative and adaptable, for example new material is constantly being added and new ideas are always being put into place, so it's not like they just leave it to go stale.
They have really cute graphics which is a main attraction for me, I hate the games with ugly graphics, (me personally) and find I am drawn to stuff that has that bubbly rounded illustrator/flash look to it.
Here are some pictures of my personal area in pet society:
To apply for work with them you must go to their job page on the play fish website, there is no other way of applying or contacting them , it must be done via an online form. They want games developers, art leaders and people to work in their creative team.
www.playfish.com/?page=jobs
They have really cute graphics which is a main attraction for me, I hate the games with ugly graphics, (me personally) and find I am drawn to stuff that has that bubbly rounded illustrator/flash look to it.
Here are some pictures of my personal area in pet society:
To apply for work with them you must go to their job page on the play fish website, there is no other way of applying or contacting them , it must be done via an online form. They want games developers, art leaders and people to work in their creative team.
www.playfish.com/?page=jobs
Sunday 16 May 2010
final major project/little big planet
Here is a little big planet video that someone has made in the style of mirrors edge, I wish I'd got into this sooner, then I would already know what I was doing and could just get on with it! but now I have to learn how to do it, buy extra content etc and get it all made in 3 weeks! But from what I've figured, it's no harder than second life and it looks much better! I just need to get myself some extra content, work out how to record it, and add my own voice-over!
final major project
Was looking at this video on facebook as some inspiration for my final major project, as I am working on a poem with my daughter that depicts the journey of a child going from A to B and all the dangers that might be present, whether in the childs head or a reality. And I need an animation to go with this, although I can't draw to save my life, it never looks how I want it or as professional and neat as it should be. I was thinking of perhaps building the scene on little big planet? I wonder if I can do this for my final major? I will have to find out.
Thursday 13 May 2010
Final Major Project
This video has been in my head for quite some time, I stumbled on this guy whilst researching for my last project, and found this video very interesting, for one it is a self portrait and it involves a journey. I like the use of internal monologue, and had been thinking of having my character in this new project do that, with my daughter providing the voice-over.
Except the backgrounds and characters therin will have a "Ghibli" feel to them, I have been thinking about the black blobby bad guys in "Howls moving castle" and "No face" from "spirited away" as a basis for the bad characters in my film.
Thursday 6 May 2010
Letter to a freelance writer
Hi there Ian, my name is Kelly Cantrell, and I am studying Digital media at Leeds college of art and design. Your probably wondering why I am contacting you then? well as part of my final year work I have to present a business plan on how I would get myself started as a freelance artist, where I would get funding from and who my market is and all that sort of stuff. My strength throughout all of my projects has been my ability to write a narrative or come up with plenty of ideas, and my tutors have always told me that "I am a writer", in fact I have known this all my life, even as a child I would write short stories and poems, and I would always go WAY over the specified amount of words! because I just love to write! I blog, write film reviews and short stories- in fact if I didn't write I think I would go insane! I can't imagine living a life in which I did not write! Anyway sorry to waffle on there, I am actually writing you to see if you have any advice you could give me on starting out in the industry? I want to write narratives for gaming, film, TV & Radio, childrens books, interactive content, reviews, magazine articles, in fact any thing that needs writing I want to do it! I got a distinction in creative writing last year and that was kind of my turning point, I am still interested in digital media and animation but I feel my core skill is the writing element involved so want to pursue this are although I do not have a writing degree or any english based qualifications- would this hinder me? and can you set up as a freelance writer if you are in debt? I mean who would give me a business loan or funding? do you still need a regular job alongside your writing career, or can you earn enough to live on just from writing? Any advice, tips and guidance you can give me would be very much appreciated when you have the time. Thanks very much for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear from you soon, Yours Kindly, Kelly Cantrell. http://kellybruce.blogspot.com/
Thursday 22 April 2010
Panopticism
Panopticism summery by Kelly bruce/Cantrell.
Panopticism is the theory that criminals and deviants will behave and refrain from bad behavior if they feel they are being watched at any given moment.
A panopticon was a prison system that enabled a guard or “watcher” to see into any one of the prison cells at any given time without having to run from room to room, this was done not by the use of modern technology but by the design of the building. Circular in shape, the prison would have a centre that oversaw all the other cells and that way the guard in the middle could simply turn and look into any room of his choice.
The prisoners were not aware “when” they were being watched, they were simply aware that there was a “possibility” that they were being watched at any time and so the panopticon had a reversed psychology effect on the prisoners that ensured their good behavior.
There are many aspects of modern day culture that reflect Panopticism, for example CCTV, everywhere we go we are subtly “reminded” that we are being watched by CCTV, or that we are on camera, thieves will be prosecuted, this is a neighborhood watch area, etc. We see these signs on buses, trains, in shopping outlets, or even in your local neighborhood area.
But does this technique work in today’s society as it may have done back in history? On some level yes it does, when accompanied by other factors such as bright lights, public places and patrolling police officers.
But in cases of solitude and high crime areas people are “not” scared by these messages, but instead “offended” by them, and some may even see them as a challenge to act out worse crimes or acts of vandalism.
Do security cameras make a person feel safe when walking down the dark street at night? In my experience I would have to say no, someone could still attack you or worse, yes their blurred image may possibly be on camera depending on location and availability, angles etc. But what good has that done? Did it stop you from being attacked? No. And the attacker knows this also, they also know that their chances of being caught from CCTV are very low, seeing as we all know how bad the picture quality on a CCTV camera actually is. (thanks to television broadcasts and home CCTV kits, CCTV surveillance in movies etc)
So to an extent CCTV can work but only if accompanied by other more secure methods of preventing crime. It is also down to the individual and their state of mind as to whether they are particularly bothered about the notion of being watched, or if they are so used to it as a way of life that the thought never even crosses their minds. I for one, never feel as though I am being “watched” as such when I walk around the city, although I am aware that CCTV is in place, I do not actually envision anyone actually “watching” it 24 hours a day, at worst someone may review the recordings every so often or maybe even only in the case of a crime being reported, so I don’t really feel as though I am being “watched” in this way.
Interestingly though, if one is to make eye contact with such a device, they may look away uncomfortably, as though “seeing” the camera itself, as a pose to a sign that just tells you there is a camera, makes one feel less at ease, or in some cases more at ease, in feeling you can be seen because you can see “them”. (“Them” in this case being the robotic eyes, or in other words CCTV cameras) This notion takes me back to John Bergers “ways of seeing” essay and the first few lines written about how “soon after we can see, we are aware that we can also be seen”.
Another aspect of panopticism is that of “reality TV shows” in which people “willingly” subject themselves to the public eye by entering an area, house or show in which they are being constantly monitored by a “fly in the wall” surveillance system in order to showcase their everyday qualities and so called “real-life” personalities to the general public.
Although one could argue that this is not “reality” TV because although the people may not be trained actors or professionals, they will still behave differently because they will know at all times they are being watched, on both a conscious and unconscious level.
The same applies to the stressed out parent in the grocery store who finds that his or her children are not behaving as they would at home and is torn about what to do about it in such a public setting away from the norm at home, Even a small child can pick up on this difference and therefore is already being subjected to the notion of Panoptics before they are even learning how to articulate a sentence.
ways of seeing
Ways of seeing, J. Berger
Summery by Kelly Bruce/Cantrell.
Bergers essay on “ways of seeing” discusses how the reproduction of an original work of art mystifies the viewer of the piece and changes the context and meaning behind the artwork.
Through reproduction the entire meaning behind a piece of artwork can be lost entirely or changed to something utterly different. For example one could crop an area of a master painting to change it into a portrait rather than a landscape painting, words can be added to an abstracted piece of work to subtlety lead the viewer toward a hinted conclusion or thesis.
Does reproduction lessen the value of an original piece of art? Or does it in fact increase the value of the artwork? On one hand reproduction enables artwork to be brought to the attention of the masses, rather than the privileged minority it once served. But this also devalues the original in that it can now be mass produced and sold on at a cheaper price, It is no longer a rarity, or a one off piece that you need to go visit in a gallery, but a flat and shiny reproduced image that can be found just about anywhere.
So does this devalue the “original”? Now referred to as “the original” thanks to the commodity that is reproduction, or does it in fact make the original piece of work more sought after, as it has now become a rarity in itself?
The artwork is no longer defined by what it is or what it conveys but by it’s value as an original piece of artwork, and is often only declared “art” when it’s originality and heritage can be proven and certified.
The reproduced artwork’s meaning is lost the moment it is copied and transferred to a different setting, for the meaning and the message behind a piece of work is also seen in it’s surroundings, and in the brush strokes and intensity of the original.
A reproduced image now hung above hundreds of different mantelpieces, in different rooms around the world with different lighting and color schemes surrounding them, a varying assortment of furniture and other items to compliment or shadow the work can completely change it’s context and meaning because it is now “seen” differently, taking into account all these other factors.
Ways of seeing discusses how we “see” things before we can verbalize them, and how what we see around us and who is seeing us in return affects our sense of placement and belonging in the world. The same criteria can then be applied to the artwork, and how the use of the camera affects our perception of the photograph. We see the angles, and arrangement that the photographer, (or artist) wants us to see, we see what they saw, this originality and expression is lost however in the stigma that is reproduction.
The art of the past holds no authority like it once did, it has now become political, and all about the ethics of money, trade and value. Berger states that the “only” reason why art of the past has become so political is because a people or class has been cut off from it’s own past, a past in which that same class of people were able to situate themselves in history in a way that they cannot today.
Essay
How the age of digital media and technology has influenced and toyed with our perceptions of human identities.
By Kelly Cantrell/Bruce.
The Internet has played a phenomenal role in the ways we interact and communicate with one and other as a society. This has also had a direct effect on our approach toward communication and the perceptions we have surrounding identity and belonging in a technologically changing world.
If we examine today’s world of online social networking and 3D virtual communities, (such as facebook, twitter, bebo, myspace and second life) it is immediately apparent how attitudes surrounding personal identity have changed over the last decade, thanks to the internet of course…
“The medium is the message”, is a quote that was famously coined by communication theorist ‘Marshall Mcluhan’ back in the 1960’s, suggesting that the content of a medium is often less important than the difference it makes in us by just having it around.
People are now willing to share close, sometimes deep personal information about themselves online, seeing it as merely “sharing information” after all the internet seems to be all about sharing information and giving and receiving feedback from your peers, giving out this type of information a decade or so ago would have been considered completely absurd and rather “uncivilised” almost, whereas today’s youth are growing up in this world of social networking so writing a status on facebook about what music you are currently listening to or what you had for dinner the night before is now considered completely normal, an everyday occurrence in day to day life.
So is it the safety of sitting at home behind a screen that makes people act so differently? That makes us loose our inhibitions and shed our media induced idealogical skins in favor of being able to live out our ‘true’ idenitites online?
Thinking about this does beg the question, “are we really living false lives in the real world and being our true selves online? Or are our online identities the fake ones?
James Harkin, London based freelance writer believes that: “The internet allows one to define themselves rather than being defined by others”, whilst some critics would argue that the Internet actually encourages anti-socialism and is a contributing factor toward an increasingly unfit population.
In fact studies have shown that over four out of five young adults under the age of thirty now prefer to spend time on the internet or their mobile phones than sat in front of the TV. (study published in Autumn, 2007, Cyburbia, p167, James Harkin) These statistics demonstrate how rapidly the internet is taking the lead in the publics main choice of media indulgence, it may be mostly popular amongst a younger age group, but of course they will become the future generation and the new generations will also grow up in a world of social networking and cyber culture.
The Chinese government have even gone as far as to ban the opening of cybercafés in China and to legally limit the amount of time teenagers are permitted to play games in such establishments, in an attempt to protect their young from becoming addicted to online games.
However it is not just young consumers that face the possibility of Internet addiction, take for example the BBC documentary: “Virtual adultery and cyberspace love”, which showcases the story of Carolyn, a thirty seven year old housewife in the United States who has a virtual affair with Elliot, a British male who is over five thousand miles away from her.
The documentary is initially very funny and one is not certain if it is to be taken seriously or not, is this really what future communications and identity has come to? Another BBC report has stated that there are now “cyber detectives” who actually work in second life for “real” money by setting up what’s known as “honey traps” to try and catch a particular spouse out in the act of infidelity, although virtual some would argue that this is still unfaithful rather than harmless fun, like in the “alleged” case of Amy Taylor who apparently filed for divorce after twice catching her husband having virtual sex with another women in second life, (this is done using avatars that the user controls) when confronted about this her husband told her he no longer loved her and that it was over.
Hearing this kind of news is very difficult to digest in any form of seriousness, but this crazy world of second life is actually real and home to over thirty thousand residents.
Johnathan Mostow’s 2009 feature film: “Surrogates” staring Bruce willis further explores this threshold of virtual identity, in the film over 98% of the population have what is known as a “surrogate”, a highly advanced robotic double with lifelike skin, eyes and mouth that a user controls from home by laying in a pod that is then wirelessly connected to their surrogate which they have full control over. The user can feel through their surrogate, have sexual relations with other surrogates, run faster, and look younger or slimmer and live out their fantasies through another model rather than risking their own bodies.
This seems to emulate what people are already doing now with their identities online and in virtual worlds, It’s just taking it another few steps further, and with the ever advancing state of digital media these seems highly possible.
“All media are extensions of some human faculty-psychic or physical. The wheel… is an extension of the foot. The book is an extension of the eye…clothing, an extension of the skin.” Marshall Mcluhan.
So is social networking an extension of the soul? Stelarc, the Greek performance artist states that: “Man is beginning to wear his brain outside his skull, and his nerves outside his skin, new technology breeds new man.” Stelarc believes that it is only the next natural stage of evolution for man to become one with machine, one of his performance art demonstrations involved hooking himself up to numerous muscle stimulators on all of his major muscles and then allowing his body to be controlled by internet users around the world- simply by clicking a button.
Another famed performance artist known as Orlac, has attempted to merge traditional art with a new form of contemporary performance art. Using digital compositions of faces from famous renaissance paintings, Orlac has undergone several plastic surgery procedures live on the internet, whilst fully awake in order to “Bring into question the standards of beauty imposed by our society”, Orlac is objectifying herself as a piece of artwork, changing her physical identity by using digital media process’s in order to meet her artistic desires.
However her work has caused speculation amongst critics as to her motives. Art critic James Gardner stipulates that Orlan is just a deleterious example of “the French obsession with refinement and feminine beauty”, another critic, Barbara Rose contends that Orlan is simply acting out “the madness of a demand for an unachievable physical perfection” and Mark Derry, (Escape velocity) hints that Orlac’s description of going under the knife as a cathartic experience “would not sound out of place on the lips of a plastic surgery addict”, Derry concludes that Orlac’s professed feminism and her manifest posthumanism cancel each other out, after the artist stated in a written interview that “we must accept ourselves as we are… but in an age of genetic manipulation, this is a primitive outlook”.
The age of digital media has not only affected national statistics for watching TV, but it has also altered our expectations of film and TV narrative structure.
Stanley Kubrick’s 1956 film “The killing” was panned by critics and audiences for being too non-linear and confusing. Today’s society on the other hand look favourably on these types of films, yearning for dynamic and non-linear narratives that will capture and engage their attention whilst challenging set conventions and perceptions of identity and self.
Films such as “Pulp fiction”, “crash”, “The butterfly effect” and “memento” to name a few also follow this route of non-linear story-telling, there is usually a play on identity and the viewers sense of time is muddled up and non-conformist resulting in lots of little overlapping connections that eventually convene into one giant conclusion… or sometimes leave the viewer clueless and requiring a second or third view of the film.
Because digital media has changed the ways in which we see others, and ourselves. Audiences are now demanding more engaging and less predictable film narratives that actually challenge rather than conform to a set of clichéd conventions.
Because of this, there has also been a major rise in the popularity of world cinema as movie-goers are now seeking out something new and different to a genre that they only know too well. Actors and actresses are now lending their voices and body movements to computer generated characters on screen, movement-tracking technology can now track their movements and thus incorporate these movements into their virtual characters or avatars on screen body language.
Robert Zemeckis 2007 fully CGI movie “Beowulf” replaces actors with realistic virtual doubles of their real selves, (of course using this technology means signs of age can be removed or added as required, actors will no longer need to hit the gym to play a specific role, and the use of make-up and more practical ways of creating special effects may eventually be eradicated or become a rarity.)
Does this mean that we are tiring of pre-virtual identity? Are we now embracing the idea that science fiction may not be science fiction anymore but is a very possible reality?
The Alcor Life Extension Foundation was founded in 1972 and is a world leader in the phenomenon of cryonics.
They believe that “Death is a neurological process that begins after the heart stops. A stopped heart only causes death if nothing is done when the heart stops. Cryonics proposes to do something.”
Alcor also state on their website, (www.alcor.org) that: “Cryonics is not a belief that the dead can be revived. Cryonics is a belief that no one is really dead until the information content of the brain is lost, and that low temperatures can prevent this loss.”
Does Stelarc’s famous quotation “I sing the body obsolete”, now have more truth behind it than ever with the rise of digital media and technology?
Shirow Masamune’s “Ghost in the shell” franchise which consists of manga comic books, feature length animated movies and 2 spin off series, revolves around the idea of cyber terrorism, brain hacking and the notion that people’s minds can be uploaded and downloaded into various computer databases and artificial bodies.
The lead female Character, Motoko, but referred to in the Anime as “major” is more machine than human in terms of her body, the only parts of her that remain organic are her brain and spinal cord, and in one episode she is shown to be having herself “uploaded” into the system and then “downloaded” into a replacement body within minutes.
A statement taken from the Alcor life extension website claims that: “we do not believe revival of neuropatients will involve anything as primitive as cloning or transplants. It seems much more likely that the patient's own cells will be prodded into regrowing the body that belongs around the brain in a reprise of the natural process that made the body in the first place. This could be done by combined natural and specialized growth programs, and also augmented by direct synthesis of scaffolding and cell placement by nanomedicine.”
Although this technology is not yet in place, and is mainly talked about in science fiction movies and books, it does not mean that in the future it will not be a possible and very viable option. In fact, looking at the ways in which medicine and technology are being combined and utilized in research facilities and hospitals presently only further endorses Alcor’s statements regarding nanotechnology and future medicine having every possibility of preserving human life.
As Alcor themselves have stated, they do not believe in the practice of reviving “dead” people, what they are doing is “preserving” the information and memory content of your brain so that future technology may be able to restore your identity in a newly grown and healthy vessel.
Alcor’s home page states the following: “Alcor seeks to prevent loss of information within the brain that encodes memory and personality identity, which is the true boundary between life and death.”
This brings about some serious questions about who we are as human beings, are we merely machines with data chips that can be transferred and copied onto another hard-drive when the first one breaks down?
Religion stipulates that god made man in “his” own image; so one could argue then that mankind has also made machine in our own image… so it is very possible to theorize that god may too have been merely some primitive form of biological or even spiritual machine that created humanity in it’s own image?
James Cameron’s 1984 hit feature: “Terminator” emulates this idea that men make machine, and then machines becomes “self-aware” and declares war on mankind, this theme can be seen perpetually in a myriad of science fiction movies to date.
Human physical identity as well as our psychological identities is already in a state of question as more and more people are experimenting with artificial bodily replacements such as pacemakers and artificial limbs, even reconstructive and plastic surgery has altered our perceptions of identity and let’s not forget the effects of the media, photo-shopped imagery and airbrushed supermodels that barely resemble anything close to what a real person looks like.
Cynthia Jackson who appeared on the Jenny Jones show in 1993 is a perfect example of how the media has taken the structure of “female” identity and severely misrepresented it by re-structuring it into a one dimensional and ideological re-imagining of how a female should look in the eyes white western society.
Cynthia has undergone 19 cosmetic operations in order to look like mattel’s famed “Barbie doll” in an effort to ‘expand her possibilities’ and live a better quality of life. Jackson herself stated “she cannot walk down the street in L.A because everyone is a Barbie over there”.
It seems that people will forever seek to change their bodies and thus their identities as humans as there will always be commodities to be consumed, it is doubtful that there will ever be a limit to body modification with the constant development of cosmetic surgeries, liposuction, collagen injections, laser treatment, breast, buttocks and calve implants, face-lifts, etc, it is highly possibly that gene splicing will be next and probably a whole new level of microbiological body redesign will follow.
Joanna Zylinksa, writer of “The cyborg experiments” claims that the body is “invested as a fetish, and is used as a fetish in a desperate attempt at identifying oneself”.
The body is no longer seen as “I” but as an “it” to be improved, and the rise of digital media has only further helped to encourage and redefine human identity as two separate entities, the body and the mind. And with the advancement of technology, digital media and the media’s obsession with pushing a generic standard of beauty on top of a population already hooked on superficial identity, It is highly likely that in the next hundred years or so human-kind will have completely and totally obliterated our natural form of identity and belonging within the human race in favor of custom made beauty and genetic alteration that is enforced by ideological standards of beauty, it is in fact very possible that if this were to happen, humanity will end up being the very opposite of what they set out to be.
Get a life and Cyberspace love critique
Second life love, critique.
Kelly Bruce/Cantrell.
I had the unfortunate experience of experimenting with second life myself during the first year of my course, and at the end of it was thankful that I would never need go on it again or even think about it for that matter. However I now find myself unfortunate enough to have to again revisit second life in order to write this critique for a critical studies assignment. Oh the joy.
“Virtual Adultery and Cyberspace love” is a 40 minute BBC documentary that was aired in 2008 and features a few couples and their experiences with second life, the 3D virtual environment brought to us by Linden labs.
Carolyn, a 37yr old mother in the U.S. began using second life because she was depressed and fed up with her mundane life as a typical stay at home domesticated mother/housewife so she stumbled upon second life one day and soon found herself creating a sexed up barberella type avatar and flying around in second life chatting, shopping and living the life she so dreamed of.
She soon met a male avatar and they began a year long emotional affair, resulting in Carolyn spending more time in second life than in her real life with her husband and children. She was then willing to fly over 5,000 miles to be with this virtual other, and leave her husband and kids behind, whilst they waited for her return.
Another couple met on there, got together and then went back on second life to get married! And of course there are the people that build properties and design clothing etc to be sold on second life for linden dollars that can then be exchanged into real dollars.
So why do we hear about these kind of stories in the news? I even read one about private detectives setting up virtual agencies on there in order to catch out virtual cheating spouses, it almost sounds like a joke right? There are also strip joints and sex parlors on there that have been pre-programmed so that if you put your avatar into a virtual bed or chair that has the required action scripting built into it then your avatar will carry out the actions programmed, for example inappropriate sexual gestures or dance moves.
My view is that there is a minority of people with addictive personalities, a minority of bored repressed housewives with a poor quality of life, men going through a mid-life crisis, horny teenage boys, sex-obsessed middle aged men who pretend they are going on there for “business” opportunities when really they are just bored, have probably had too many affairs and visited one too many strip joints and are now seeking out some new form of sexual stimulation.
I mean let’s face it, how much money can you “actually” make on second life? And who would want to? From my perspective I think that all of this is a front to cover up the seediness that is really “second life” and yes I am going to get a grilling for that from those that like to spend time on there, because I guess it has educational benefits too, and some of the surroundings and scenery I have seen are fantastic and require real skill, imagination and dedication to build.
However just as money makes the world go round, and sex is the number one marketing tool in any advertisement, it is also the driving force behind late night cable TV, the internet, and of course the sex industry is probably the richest sector in the world, sex will also be the main driving force behind second life whether intentional or not.
I can see how some who are not used to the world of gaming or even computer generated movies and animation may become hooked on the 3D world that is second life and may find themselves in complete and utter awe of the graphical capabilities, but as a gamer myself I found the graphics laughable, and not one bit gripping, second life was not a place I would like to stay in for long as visually I find it a bit of an eyesore.
Again it depends on your personality, some may not be bothered at all by the blocky graphics and slow loading times, or the glitchy interface, they may instead be enthralled by the 3D building capabilities and ability to create whatever your imagination allows, and then to own the intellectual rights to your creation…
Me, I would rather blast some zombies on my playstation for entertainment or read a book about the fundamentals of cat behaviour, I just sincerely hope that this will be the last time EVER that I have to waste any of my precious time thinking or writing about the travesty that is second life.
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