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Weekly Planning:
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Monday:
I decided to make a new and improved mood board for my topic, shadow and light, now that I’ve combined it with geysers. I also dove deeper into some topics, mainly black and white thinking, and yin and yang.
In the afternoon we were tasked with creating a collage of a news paper article, imagining our topic had just come into existence. Without light in the universe, there would be no shadow, only darkness. There would also be no life, but that’s irrelevant. So I imagined a world where people lived in darkness, and someone had finally created a light source, though I’m not sure how people would be able to do anything in pitch black. I think I got pretty lucky with some of my newspaper clippings:
After making the collages, we had to imagine how a scientist, politician and philosopher would react to the new invention. We decided that the scientist would likely be very interested in the invention, and want to learn more about it, how it was created and what impacts it could have. The politician might think about how the light could be used to assist the population, but also how we could prevent other nations from learning how to replicate it. They may also dislike the invention as it prevents them from keeping their people in the dark about things they may have previously been able to conceal, or they might try to control the populations use of it, only allowing certain people to use the light at certain times. A philosopher might consider if the light is real and good or if it could have harmful implications for society, or whether it is symbolic for a reckoning or mass extinction. They might also consider it a sign of mass hysteria from living in the dark so long, a hallucination of fake light.
I continued my research into my topic this week, and prepared for my presentation on Monday.
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Presentation Planning:
My presentation for phase 2 was heavily research focussed compared to my first presentation, and there were a lot of topics to cover. So I decided to start with an overview of all the topics I would explore shadow and light in. Some of the topics overlapped, like entertainment and cinema, but both had enough distinct information to warrant its own slide.
I decided to begin with the topics that I was least interested in or had less to talk about – Science and entertainment. I also put them first because they help us understand how shadow works, and demonstrate its practical uses.
I focussed on Cinema and art next, as they related to entertainment. These sections would influence the visual style of the game, so I explored different ways shadow and light can be used to its full potential in the different mediums.
“Many filmmakers over the ages have taken advantage of shadows in their work, to create strong aesthetics, and work around the potential limitations of the time. For example, during the black and white film era, shadows and particularly Chiaroscuro, the strong contrast between light and dark, were used to enhance a film’s visuals, aesthetics and messaging. As coloured film wasn’t available and there were limits in what colours would actually translate to black and white, filmmakers had to get inventive.” – Part of my script on shadow and light in cinema.
The next few slides explore very similar ideas, the good vs evil slide serving as more of a continuation of the philosophy slide due to the amount I had to say about it. The idea of dualism – the belief that two fundamental concepts exist that often oppose one another, is what fuels the idea of the eternal battle of good vs evil. The two forces constantly oppose one another, yet one cannot exist without each other. This idea also explores the duality within ourselves, and how we cannot be ‘good’ without overcoming the ‘evils’ within us. As I am exploring shadow and light, I thought it was important to explore the nature of conflict, and how it isn’t ever black and white.
My final topic, shadow and light in psychology, was an exploration of what I was planning to explore in my geyser topic – overwhelming emotion. Black and white thinking can lead to intense emotional responses, and can affect many areas of our personal lives. I decided to research this topic as I was recently diagnosed as autistic and have finally been able to understand myself better. I wanted to share my experience and explore how I could portray emotions and mindsets through gameplay.
Files for my presentation and script:
Presentation:
Script:
My peer feedback for this presentation can be found in the post below (week 5).
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Next week:
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