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CHS week 4:Interaction Design
This week we went to the V&A for the exhibition play and disrupt, ive already been once but it was nice to go again
The exhibit does a sort of introductions to more in depth thinking into video game design, they selected a variety of video games to show the ways in which interaction can be done. Almost all of them i have played so it was very fun to see them shown in this big gallery space
The first game shown was journey , and indie game with a focus on atmosphere, one thing i didn't know that surprised me was the footage shown of the developers recording themselves walking and running the way the mute characters in the game walk, it seems obvious in hindsight but it really shows how thoughtful most design choices in video games are. The idea of working in video games has crossed my mind before , thats how i initially got into drawing and seeing the process has definitely reignited that spark.
(and image of some of the production art of splatoon)
In a conversation with my peers someone mentioned how in splatoon , the ads show across the Tokyo metro were for the fashion line in the game itself, this was was very interesting because not only is it a fictional brand its adverting the brand that is the game itself and its focus on fashion.
Another interesting thing was a video we watched that showed the community aspect of video games, specifically eve online, were big companies and political warfare are born from the players themselves by being a sandbox game. In sandbox games theirs no end or goal, their are just systems in place that players can utilize and explore, therefore being why its called a sandbox game. This is incredibly intriguing because of how much simply players can push a game to its limit with no narrative or end goal at all, taping into that general want from amassing power (talking specifically in a capitalist society, im not sure whether their is other types of communities in eve online but it could see it as a possibility were there is players that just seek to live peacefully within the game , but the ones with the highest amounts of power have a lot of say in how the game is run therefore why the event show in the video is so talked about)
Something that i will note was the focus on portrayal of minorities and women in video games, specifically on mafia 3 .
A genius mechanic in mafia 3 is that, the main character is black, if you spend to much time in a white neighborhood , eventually the cops will be called. This is genius because the game FULLY puts you in the shoes of a black american, making any player experience a real and present social problem
A final thing i will talk about is language specifically coding language, its interesting because this has been and area of interest of mine , more specifically in spoken word more than coding but its still similar. A part of the exhibition focused on how most popular coding language is only accessible to english speakers, greatly disadvantageous to a lot of countries, especially third world countries. I point this out because I have thought about this on a daily basis as well , how to even get a chance of success you NEED to learn another language if its not your first your already in a very steep learning curve , coming from a country were English is not our first language , i was privileged in that i could learn it early on, but most of my peers back home don’t know how to speak or even read it. This simple fact cuts them off from getting jobs that have higher wages , were for me i learned it form tv as a kid, and native english speakers just know it, we immediately have more chances of success . Im interested in general to explore narrative with language and how i can imply certain things by purposefully breaking rules of language
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CHS week 3: Information Design
I found the topic of information design incredibly interesting, since we can take pictures now, the idea of the only form of visual recording being drawing might seem foreign to us.
I found this image show in the presentation especially interesting.
The story behind it is that, when explores went finding new species of animals, they couldnt take pictures, so they sent a detailed description back so an artist could make and impression of it, the result being this.
This is interesting because its something you would see in a magical realist story, especially the thought process behind it
this one if even more far of since its and interpretation of a plant but, supposedly, people still assumed they were actually creatures in disguise and would draw the roots as human like
This all ties back to my original interest in magical realism and the showing of how different people and cultures perceive the world, I definitely want to investigate further and see what other things i can gather.
I like the idea of superstitions and pre conceived notions of how the world works seeping into how information is relayed, although its also a pretty morbid concept since we can see , even in present day, how thee pre conceived notions held by powerful people can be used to make harm.
So of i ever wanted to include any of these concepts in my work, i would try ti find things that are a celebration of it ? maybe? i cant always ignore the bad in these things, but i also want destigmatize superstitions as inherently bad things , even tho obv theirs a LOT of instances were it is used for harm, im rather talking about it when its inherently tied to a culture and their nationality , language etc, since one could say superstition is everywhere , i would say even especially as artist
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