Contexts

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The separation of emotion into a negative and positive spectrum is the overall classification that I’ve applied into my broad topic of emotions. This classification allows me to view it in a more simplistic and understandable manner, in order to create a tangible idea to execute for both my Independent project and External brief. While the term negative and positive spectrum itself is still vague in itself, the idea of this spectrum is pinpointed through using the first few notions that one might think of when the word positive and negative is shown. Positively, it can be love or happiness. Negatively, it can be anger or sadness. Through using a generic idea of what these emotions might encapsulate, I can create an outcome that could be easily understood, despite my own creative application. Which is the stated goal that I’ve previously mentioned in my Part 1 of Critical Contexts Writing.

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Projects

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The projects that I intend on developing for both my Independent project and External brief is tied back into the idea of negative and positive spectrum. For my Independent project, Anatomy of, is the project that works with the idea of positive emotions. In this case, it revolves around love and the stages of infatuation. The reason for the usage of positive emotions, is partly because I wanted to create something that isn’t inherently negative, and a change of pace in a sense. Creating a sense of normalcy that will make a person feel at ease while slowly incorporating things that will disrupt the flowline and making the atmosphere feel demented is my overall intention for this project.

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Luring people into a false sense of normalcy and turning it around has always been an outlook/creative choice that I’ve been interested in, specifically in art and media. Which is why I decided to utilise love and infatuation as the main theme for this project. As this “bait and switch” concept seems to work best when it comes to dealing with topic that centres around romance and one’s daily life (Ross, 2016).

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Whereas for my External brief, titled disappear, the project would be the visualisation of one’s negative feeling-specifically regret- and the way one dwells on it and accepting it to break free of their state of mind. The reason for my usage of regret as the main theme of this project is due to my personal interest of living in constant regret. I wanted to create a project that in essence, has a very pathetic and sombre feel to it.

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And while they escape that pit of hopelessness, in the end, that feeling of joy is only momentarily as they know that they’ll fall back into the pit they came out of. Restarting the never-ending cycle of regret. Whilst constant relapsing isn’t the best message out there, I find this outcome necessary for this project as my overall intent with this project is to showcase the feeling of helplessness that envelops the pieces of momentary joy in one’s life.

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With the distinction of the different emotion spectrum that both projects would be focused on, there still lies some similarities. In this case, the feeling of desolation that is looming over both projects, directly and indirectly. Which is to say that, despite the separated classification of emotions that I’ve applied to both, negative and positive feelings are something that will always complement each other, as their mixed presence creates a sense of equilibrium within each other. Which is the outcome for both projects, where the emotions presented at the beginning and at the end would not remain the same. And their positions are seemingly switched.

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Research

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In the beginning of both projects, I gathered the information required purely through reading material and media pieces. This is because I needed a general outline on what one might feel when experiencing stated emotions. For the outcome of Anatomy of, I wanted to create a visualisation of the state of mind and being of an individual who is experiencing this emotion of infatuation. And to me, a general article enlisting the “common” feelings or symptoms one might feel when they start to fall in love with someone worked as a great tool for the outline drafting of my Independent project outcome. Especially when the character intended for the outcome is meant to purely be a “doll” that us-the viewer- could relate with in some sense.

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Throughout this research, the question that persists was “how to visualise these vague symptoms?” into my outcome. This is because while the abstract symptoms may correlate back to my critical context idea of using vague notions, it’s not the most viable option for the execution of this project. And by listing down the stated “symptoms”, I could narrow down the few features that one feel when being infatuated that isn’t the most literal, but simultaneously is still vague enough to be visualised in my outcome with the most comprehension.

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For my external brief, disappear, there isn’t a particular set “guidelines” on how regret is visually expressed or felt. It ranges in a wide variety of expression and action, which could be something along the lines of crying, convulsion, heartaches, or anger. Which extremities is felt differently by one person to another. And since it is something that lingers in you mentally, visualising one’s mental state is a pretty vague concept (Sarner, 2019). Which as I stated in the project proposal for my external brief, I initially aimed to conduct some surveys to gain insight on how others experience regret.

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However, I did not go through with said plan as I simply wanted to learn their regrets in a different manner, which I would elaborate on in the design section of this writing. Due to the lack of research, I instead focused on the topics of regret that I felt within the past year or so, to find a common theme within each other. And most of it being feeling lethargic and lack of motivation. Which are the things that I find to work together with the idea of the feeling of desolation looming over in both of my project outcome as stated earlier on. By using a different idea and research method, it did somewhat influence the outcome on this project. Changing it from something that could be generally understood, to something that most readers might find to be vague or boring as I changed the core idea that created the feeling of regret in the character’s mind.

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Both projects have a varying degree of research applied to it. One with a more comprehensive approach, and one with a more incomprehensive approach, to put it simply. However, I do think that this difference in research methods reflects the outcome of these projects and their topic. As regret is a vague and abstract notion, and the visualisation is now purely up to how I perceive regret to be, which I think works with the vagueness of it all to other readers. Whereas for my independent project, laying down the outline in such manner works with the topic as I simply want to choose the most commonly felt symptoms one might feel when infatuated or in love.

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Design

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The design outcome for both project uses the common element of illustration and “storytelling,” despite the different outcomes. For my internal project, I initially wanted to create a game of the sorts, but after varying in different factors, I went with an “interactive animation.” Which is something similar to visual novels, except it incorporates more of the element of animation to visualise the story and some text-based choices for the player to choose from. Which is why I titled it as so. And for the sake of comprehension, I’m going to simply reference it as game for the entirety of this writing.

 

I went with such outcome because I wanted the players/readers to create an “atmosphere” or room where they can feel the stages of infatuation. Which is divided into 5 sections. The sections are divided into heat, heartbeat, lingering eyes, insistent touches, and finally equilibrium. Where with each level progression, each symptom is slowly amplified to disrupt the sense of normalcy presented in the beginning of the game. For the design and visual aspect, I colour coded each stage that best represent the symptoms. For an example, red for the heat stage, blue for lingering eyes, and red and blue for heartbeat. I chose to do so because I wanted to create a clearer distinction between each stage and I find the colours appropriate enough to reflect the nature of each symptoms.

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As for the external brief design, to illustrate the idea of regret and acceptance in both the poster and zine, I kept the colour scheme to white, grey, and black to create a simplistic feel to it. The reason for the specified look is because I want to create a clear distinction between what each colour is supposed to represent in absence of the multitude of colours I will be using in my independent project. For the story, I went with zine because it is traditionally used as a medium that has quite the small number of pages, and I didn’t want to make my story long as a standard book. Another reason being the independent production of it suits with the nature of the project, which is an independent creation that revolves around invasive thoughts, which correlates to the nature of zines being the product of invasive scenes (White, 2019).

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However, the printing of the zine did not go through as I think it wouldn’t work with the supporting collaterals that’s meant to be paired with the zines. Which are the postcards. Going back to my earlier statement of “wanting to learn their regrets in a different manner” in the research section of this writing, I initially wanted to create a series of postcard. In these postcards, one can anonymously write down any regret that they might have- lingering or released- and I can create a wall of stories made up of these stories. However, due to current conditions, I still wanted to make this wall of stories work, which made me change the nature of print publication of this zine to digital publication. And in this way, one can still read the story, and if they are willing, submit a story for the aforementioned wall.

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As for the poster, which is the main outcome of this project, I wanted to create a poster that creates the feeling of constant motion, in correlation to the competition’s theme, which is move. To achieve this, the illustration style would resemble the motion of smoke or liquid, depending on how one view it. For the illustration colours, I used black for regret, and light grey for acceptance. This way, I could create distinguishing for both elements when they are eventually intertwined with each other to reflect the idea of both emotions requiring each other to create a balanced state.

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With the different medium choices, I believe that it is able to reflect the idea of what I wish to showcase within both projects. For my independent project, I find an interactive game could create a sense of immersion within the players, and when the stage gradually changes, they would at least be emotionally invested to a degree that is needed to enjoy the game. Whereas for the zine and postcards, I think it suits with the nature of lingering regrets. Being a “station” or location where one can leave a mark with their stories works with the theme of the story. Which is accepting the fact that your regret happened, and writing those stories down is a form of acceptance in itself. And the story itself is best read as a story rather than any other medium as I think it could communicate the idea best when presented as a story.

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References

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Ross, R. (2016). Romantic Love: A Sophisticated Bait-And-Switch Tactic. HuffPost. Retrieved 24 July 2021, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/romantic-love-is-just-ano_b_11290934.

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Sarner, M. (2019). Regret can seriously damage your mental health – here's how to leave it behind. the Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jun/27/regret-can-seriously-damage-your-mentalhealth-heres-how-to-leave-it-behind.

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White, A. (2019). Design Trends: An Introduction to the Return of Zine Culture. The Shutterstock Blog. Retrieved 24 July 2021, from https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/design-trends-introduction-zineculture