Reflection:
Class this week was exciting, thanks to getting to have a hands-on demonstration with the Music: Not Impossible vests. Being able to feel the way that the vibrations transformed my visual experience with the film Interstellar was engaging due to how, depending on the scene, the vibrations would respond to the scenarios occurring on screen. One example I vividly remember was when the vibrations were mapped to the environment, mimicking the sounds of the alarms to create a multisensory experience. In my opinion, the effectiveness of the vibration was exceptional, as it made me feel like I was trapped inside the spaceships crash, though something I was considering was how it could impact individuals who are prone to being irritated. It also got me thinking about the overexposure of the vest in prolonged sessions, due to the frequency of the vibrations on the skin, it could lead to fatigue from overstimulation on the skin, especially factoring in the intensity levels provided. However, the thought of working with this tool in the future got me excited, since I feel the vibrations could significantly contribute towards VR immersion, while also serving as an alternative for the hearing impaired. While I was incredibly excited at the possibility of working with the vest, I received some valuable feedback on Thursday, that my Pharos addition to my video would need some adjustments to the intensity of the colours and the frequency. While also being able to preview my project in The Capitol, it also made me realise that the lights itself may need to have some manual input to create a more precise response to the video, and that it could potentially make an overstimulating experience when combined with audiovisual stimuli. I will be keeping an eye out how my video evolves alongside Pharos as the semester progresses, so that I can consider developing in Pharos as an additional project to the video, rather than one project with multiple moving parts.
Research:
Part of what is assisting me in the development of my imagery for my project is deepening my understanding of surrealism, and the sorts of connotations that it has within artworks. My most recent assignment, the Tumblr blog, has assisted tremendously through analysing surrealism works and understanding the various techniques that manipulate the audience into those feelings associated with it. Such techniques include developing an alternative reality in my video in “accord with the “abnormality” of unconscious desires” (Cramer and Grant, 2020), and exploring themes associated with surrealism such as “Sexuality, erotic desire, and violence” (Cramer and Grant, 2020). I believe that the ways that using an AI generative tool, that the outcomes can represent a contemporary perception of the way we live through utilising base images that are associated in the real world and expanding upon them with key prompts. A key part of developing my understanding of surrealism, involved experimenting with prompts that I feel can embrace “the depths of the unconscious mind” and associating that with concepts that are “free from any rational, moral idea” (Hibbitt, 2020). Currently I have been exploring video games that are developed from Yoko Taro, where he has developed an infamous reputation for challenging perceptions of violence in his works through a focus around characters suffering in cycles of horrific violence, and the struggle to deal with their emotions. There was one scene in Nier Automata that came to mind, where one of the main protagonists is murdering a replica someone he cared about, which I found incredibly successful in depicting a sense of discomfort, and violence through it’s visual storytelling of ‘blocking’ the characters perception, before contrasting that with the tragic reality.
Timestamp: 1:54 – 2:39
Having rewatched this scene, I wanted to further understand Yoko Taro’s creative thought process so that I could further explore techniques that I find successful. In my readings, I discovered a quote during an interview with website The Guardian, where he states “The reason why there are so many characters who suffer in my games is that I want to show reality. That is why people can empathise with the suffering of characters … The reason my games are chaotic is that the world is chaotic, not me. I don’t aim for bad endings – they just naturally come out.” (Lum, 2018). This has made me think about the role that empathy plays in creating a level of discomfort, and how understanding pain through empathy, could create a heightened sense of surrealism through utilising familiar imagery or colours in relation violence in my project.
Dr. Charles Cramer and Dr. Kim Grant, “Surrealism and Psychoanalysis,” in Smarthistory, March 24, 2020, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/surrealism-and-psychoanalysis/.
Patrick Lum, ‘The world is chaotic, not me’ – Nier: Automata’s Yoko Taro’, August 23, 2018, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/aug/23/nier-automata-yoko-taro-interview
Progress:
My project has been making some significant progress as I’ve found some appropriate prompts to experiment with throughout the project. Utilising reoccurring keywords such as ‘surreal’, and ‘immersive’ while developing specific transitions across poses will allow the video to appear even more seamless as the scenery changes. I am in the process of exploring ideas of communicating a more violent approach to some of the imagery that will be depicted, additionally experimented with some eldritch elements to incorporate into the background. As I further my project, I aim to create a sense of a decent into madness, and in to assist me, I discovered an accompanying soundtrack piece that I could develop my imagery around. I believe this music piece helps push the feeling of surreal further through its use of mysterious tones and frequency changes that make its pitch feel unpredictable. I have also been finding great success with my experimentation of transitions in Adobe Premier to make the transition between real life and the AI generative works feel more seamless. With Project Pitches occurring next week, I will be keeping my eye out for opportunities to collaborate with my peers by evaluating their proposals and interests for development. There are some students that have caught my eye in our class’s student wiki, however, this will depend on the scope of their current projects, and whether they would be interested in expanding on our projects collaboratively. Something I would be interested in pursuing is whether someone would be interested in working with the Music: Not Impossible vests, so we could make a project that utilises both the Pharos system, and the vest, or better yet, 360 Video VR. However, I will be keeping this on the backburner till Thursday next week, as I currently want to focus on my presentation, and appropriately scoping out my own projects before taking on more work.
Lighting Up Your week 