 |
| 2.0.2
The Bloody Chamber (13
week project completed May 2002) |
Unlike
Angel Interceptor
 , The Bloody
Chamber was conceived as a narrative re-interpretation. It was produced
alongside the development of the contextual practice and literature reviews.
Given this chronology, The Bloody Chamber tested many of the early
concepts and interests as revealed by establishing the
field of study  .
In specific: |
| 1. |
Can
I both visually and structurally create voyeuristic and changeable multi
- perspectives for the participant? [Transformation Murray 1997]
|
| 2. |
How
can I develop an aesthetic that both fosters a sense of intimacy and follows
on from the detailed visual style as located in Angel
Interceptor?
|
| 3. |
Can
a dual ending (as transformation of the original narrative) be made meaningful? |
| See:
The
Bloody Chamber
sketches |
| See:
The Bloody
Chamber
version 1 |
| See:
The Bloody Chamber
full version |
| |
| What
follows below is a description of my thinking and approaches to creating
The Bloody Chamber. Interwoven are supporting comments from Jonathan
Olshefski who critiqued the work in December 2003, Link
to full paper . |
| |
| Artist's
statement The Bloody Chamber |
| The
story of Bluebeard (La Barbe bleüe) was originally told by Charles
Perrault in 1697. It is a fairytale about the horror that lies beneath a
beautiful surface -- a materialistically idyllic marriage to the powerful
Bluebeard. The bride's antecedents are Eve and Pandora, emblems of female
curiosity that unleashed evil consequences onto the world. Traditionally
in this story, the evil consequences fall to the wife who is put to death
by her husband as a punishment for her disobedience (for knowledge of what
lies within his private chamber). The tale has had many modern retellings
primarily because it supports feminist contentions about gender oppression,
the most notable of which is Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber.
In Carter's version, the Bluebeard's traditional ending is subverted by
the wife's mother who decapitates the Bluebeard (thus the mother is the
hero and not the wife's brothers nor suitors). |
| The
Bluebeard narrative was challenging to work with. Firstly it portrays and
deals with hierarchy in the very traditional sense. This comes in the form
of the commanding male protagonist -- the Bluebeard. He is mysterious, hugely
wealthy, an older man, almost kingly in stature. The Bluebeard is said to
be ugly and frightening, not a classical romantic lead. Indeed it is his
fabulous wealth and power that makes him attractive to both his wives and
society. Traditionally he lives in the ultimate symbol of his status --
a majestic and enclosed castle located on the outskirts of a village. |
| Feminist
readings of this narrative have repositioned the female protagonist (the
bride), not as a victim but as a survivor, as an empowered victor who escapes
(or kills) her brute of a husband. In my retelling, I am interested in developing
another repositioning, that being that both the husband and wife characters
are imperfect, are equals because both are dysfunctional and have flawed
attributes. The Bluebeard has to overcome his history of failed marriages
and his legacy of being the dominator. The bride has to overcome her possessiveness
and possibly destructive fantasies. These psychologies are revealed to the
participant through the various windows and entrances within the project.
These apertures of sight mirror the limited understanding that the protagonists
have of one another. Within this project the role of the participant is
that of a voyeur who is in control of his or her own larger vantage point,
as they can see both of the protagonist's limited perspectives. This control
means that they can see the fuller metamorphosis of the original text. |
| |
"The
perspective is at times omniscient, but at other times aligns itself with
the point of view of either the protagonist or the husband. This variety
of narrative perspectives gives much greater depth to the piece …We
are able to identify with both characters and, at times, we identify with
one through the other." [Olshefski
2003 ] |
| |
| Design
Dsecisions |
| Although
visually re-imagined, the key narrative symbols can still be seen within
this retelling of The Bloody Chamber -- the key, the blood, and the
private chamber. What follows below is a short description of the various
design decisions as pertinent to understanding the transformation of the
original text. |
| Lack
of Colour |
| The
decision to render the project in shades of black and white was taken to
highlight the idea of "limitation" and the usage of the colour
red (see further below), would be seen as more conspicuous when placed in
a monochromatic colour range. The palate also suggests the mundanity or
melancholy of the narrative world. |
| |
"Leishman
portrays a man (Bluebeard) who is utterly isolated and suffering from acute
loneliness."
[Olshefski 2003 ]
|
| This
limitation of colour is only broken once and is found within the final chamber.
In there, I use pale blue to narrate the presence of the outside world (the
priorly unseen back view). |
| No
Horizons |
| I
chose to portray this environment as an enclosed thus limited world. There
are no horizons, nowhere in the distance to dream about, no avenue for salvation.
This helps to condense the relationships between the characters triangularly
between themselves and the location; this limitation helps to give a feeling
of claustrophobia. |
| The
participant controlled "Zoom" |
| To
complement this simulated re-imagined world, I designed a navigation system
that allows the voyeuristic participant to view either in minute detail
or at a distance. Clicking the small magnifying glass icons or pressing
the designated keys on the keyboard achieves this. These magnification icons
are explicit in their usage as they sit within the same space and retain
their function through the entire project. |
| Bluebeard's
command "make her my wife" is both violent and authoritative,
recognisable as a sequential anchor relating to the traditional version.
Those participants familiar with the original text will realise that next,
the wife will be presented with keys to his castle, and then she will disobey
his order and use them to enter a private room, whereby finally, her husband
murders her for her this betrayal. In the original version, the use of red
is especially important as when the wife finally enters the forbidden chamber
she drops the keys in fright into a pool of blood from her mutilated predecessors
-- his previous wives. This created a strong sense of history repeating
itself, the sins of her sisters (sister in the feminist sense) is repeated
once more by her inability to refuse this curiosity. The blood on the keys
is the vehicle of her downfall, as, magically, it cannot be washed off.
It is also the only significant magical event in the tale (otherwise the
story could be a straight depiction of a serial killer). |
| The
narrative conclusion |
| Within
my conclusion sequences I do not place the wife in the vulnerable position
of being a victim of such magic. Rather, I allow the participant to take
her role on as an explorer of the castle and the opener of the chamber.
Once within this forbidden space, I do not allow the wife/participant to
drop their keys in a state of "fright". Unlike the original character,
she is stronger. |
| |
"…She
is the hero. The protagonist determines her own destiny, through the interaction
of the participant. Leishman, in effect, empowers both the female protagonist
and the participant, by allowing them to act as the determining force behind
their own destinies." [Olshefski
2003 ] |
| I
make another significant narrative intervention at this point. By the time
the participant enters the chamber, s/he may have identified the story and
therefore have an expectation of the outcome. Whether this is so or not,
there are two courses of action open. Perhaps fearing imminent death for
the wife, the participant can click the decreasing blue window, which is
the link to the outside world. This allows her to depart as Bluebeard's
previous wives have done. Alternatively, remaining, either out of curiosity
or sympathy for the Bluebeard, removes you from the wife's role back to
being the voyeur. You then witness their union -- they take each other's
hands and depart into the unknown -- narratively un-chartered future. These
endings are more positive and empowered than the original -- in that you,
as the wife, are given a choice, you are not a passive "lamb to the
slaughter". |
| |
"…Ambiguity
is where the piece finds its power. The endings can either be read as two
separate realities or as two parts of same reality…In either case she
is a survivor. The husband and his former wives are locked in this bloody
chamber, inanimate and it is the protagonist who has the power to save them
from this state of being."
[Olshefski 2003 ]
|
| As
well as offering a new interpretation of this story, I have utilised the
possibilities that are on offer to the interactive participant. With The
Bloody Chamber the participant is the enactor of the multi perspectives,
at times becoming the Bluebeard, the wife, a vehicle and interpreter of
the combined perspectives, and the narrator of the project. This last point
is because they chose their sequential path and the final outcome. The variety
of narrative perspectives gives a depth to the work; depth is also mirrored
formally as the participant can choose to "Zoom" into or out of
the story environment. |
| The
practice of creating interactive experiences is sited in harnessing the
participant's curiosity -- their interest in what lies beneath the initial
static layer of a project. Curiosity can be turned into a desire to learn
more and to reach a conclusion. An empowered curiosity mirrors the actions
of the original protagonist and for which she met her death or near-death,
hopefully this will make the interactive re-interpretation of this particular
narrative even more poignant for the participant. |
| |
| The
Bloody Chamber has been shown at the Glasgow Art Fair -- represented
by the Centre For Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (2002), the Re-Animate Web
Festival, Rotterdam (2003). Online at the Barcelona Online Flash Film
Festival: Interactive Section (2003). It also appeared as a linear edit
at the Boston Cybertarts Festival: M.I.T Media wall (2003), and as
a selected contribution at the PlayEngines, DAC exhibition, Melbourne,
Australia (2003), where it won the streaming media section prize and was
acquired by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image into the public programs
permanent collection. |
|
| 2.0.3
The preparatory practice -- synthesis |
As
detailed above, both the projects The
Bloody Chamber
and to a lesser extent Angel
Interceptor
were created as preparatory studies for Deviant
 , which in turn was
specifically developed to answer the research question: "How does the
artist develop an interactive style and visual vocabulary, which evokes
rich responses from the participant whilst challenging them to counter conventional
interaction tropes?" What follows is a synthesis of Angel Interceptor's
and The Bloody Chamber's findings: |
| |
| 1. |
By
using visual metaphors (e.g. windows and doors) that refer to spatial concerns
such as inside / outside. Inside represents core, deep, personal and secret
spaces, while outside equates with surface, appearances, shells and superficiality.
This places participants in multifaceted locations that allow them to see
the inner psychologies in relation to the externally perceptible characteristics
of the dual protagonists (The Bloody Chamber) and the worldscape;
this it seems can promote a sense of immersion. |
| 2. |
By
depicting a certain level of media self-awareness e.g. using CCTV screens
and computer monitors as part of the fabric of Bluebeard's world. This emphasises
that there may be unseen content, that is, the view and vantage points are
chosen from several options. However, within The Bloody Chamber,
the navigation system of the extreme zooming in and out method allows the
participant to explore the scale of the isolation of the presented world
in that there are no other geographies, there is nothing out of shot. This
reinforces the melancholy tension of the piece. |
| 3. |
Within
the above projects, a new aspect of a visual vocabulary presented itself
in the intentionally leaden nature of the animation and movement of the
artwork. What was also forthcoming was the problematic nature of a clearly
subjective gestural rendering style (more so The Bloody Chamber than
Angel Interceptor). I felt that the drawing style in its idiosyncrasy
blocked a reading of the landscape where the world could be seen as being
in part universal or familiar. Instead, The Bloody Chamber gives
almost complete emphasis to the foreign and alien. If the drawing style
was more iconic, this would create a mix of the familiar and the foreign
(as found in RedRidingHood
 ), I propose this ideas-in-conflict
quality helps generate an atmosphere of friction or disturbance, which is
turn, promotes participant-led enquiries. |
| 4. |
A
manifest source narrative allows for narrative anchors to be devised. This
can allow the participant to explore around these anchors and direct the
sequence to reflect which aspects of the project they find more interesting,
e.g. the inhabitants or the architecture of the buildings, whilst still
retaining a feeling of being within an enfolding narrative. This method
of self-direction is sustained throughout The Bloody Chamber. However,
the drag-able aspect to the navigation did not fully achieve the effect
that I wanted (i.e. participants interacting in a more reflective and subtle
manner), as I felt it interrupted the perception of the visuals (as often
the project could get literally lost off screen). This caused significant
irritation. |
| 5. |
The
above projects also revealed to me that the participant experience is at
least as important as the structural complexity or level of non-linearity. |
| |
| Unlike
The Bloody Chamber, Deviant (see below) will use a little
known or unknown source text. This adds another layer of disorientation
for the participant and as such Deviant will use another approach
in igniting the participant' s interest. Deviant will further emphasize
the participant's interpretation and relationship with the narrative protagonists,
the usage of secret spaces; the development of detailed non-photographic
(Chapter
1 Hegemonies )
narrative environments; to give eminence to an emotional atmosphere and
to use enmeshed narrative anchors. |
|
2.1.
Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw
(32
week project completed Jan 2004) |
| A
clean slate |
| You,
the participant, are advised to participate with the artwork Deviant:
The Possession of Christian Shaw first, that is, before reading the
following comments, notes on productions, artist own critique and interpretations
from the invited expert participants. This, it is felt, will allow you to
experience your self-led interpretations and emotional responses before
reading how the others traversed and interpretated the project. Participating
with the project from a position of unawareness is in keeping with the project'
s inherent structural multiplicity and specific conceptual underpinning.
|
| |
| Deviant:
The Possession of Christian Shaw |
| Please
note: those using Mac, screen resolution 1024 x768 please make sure the
new external browser window is fullscreen before you proceed with the project. |
| |
|
|
|
2.1.1
Introduction
Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw |
| As
mentioned above
the project Deviant was created to answer the research question "How
does the artist develop an interactive style and visual vocabulary, which
evokes rich responses from the participant whilst challenging them to counter
conventional interaction tropes?" which was in turn devised from my
investigation into the specific
research context .
As mentioned earlier (Literature
Review )
in the thesis the area of interactivity within narrative forms is the subject
of many different domains, far more than I cover. Cybertext, hypermedia
(hypertext fiction), new media art and Human Computer Interaction (HCI [1])
are the relevant theoretical fields which my practice is positioned between.
|
| |
| The
most useful field from the practice led perspective is HCI. The others,
in the main, discuss the theory, social (participant centric) potential
of the artefacts, and the formal aspects such as structure and programmatics,
whereas HCI sits in the opposite territory where the theoretical issues
are required but HCI is mostly applied in the practice e.g. designing commercial
graphical user interfaces for websites or computer applications. |
| |
| Interestingly,
and I propose this as an indication of the innovation of the presented practice,
the practice led HCI field is something this research refutes and reacts
against. This is not because I think the HCI is flawed. Far from it, HCI
is essential in delivering coherent computer to human experiences, but art
does not always follow the path of least resistance. Rather in this research,
I am exploring and presenting emotional experiences that are intrinsically
and importantly anti intuitive, that are "difficult". My methods
of researching i.e.
through practice, observation and reading, sits uncomfortably within each
of the above domains, though this is the very reason I believe my practice
is relevant to all of them. This maker-led perspective adds a different
practice led voice to the arguments. |
| |
| This
project follows on from The
Bloody Chamber
(May 2002) and to a lesser extent Angel
Interceptor (March
2001) in terms of aesthetic language and structure. It is presented as the
substantive portion of practice within this study. Unlike The Bloody
Chamber and my Masters project RedRidingHood
(December 2000),
it relies on a little known and historically rooted narrative
. This is a departure
from my practice in the sense that the participant is presented with a wholly
unknown narrative environment. The title may suggest the thematic landscapes,
but it is also a misnomer i.e. the name Christian implies a male character,
while in fact the protagonist is a young girl. For those participants familiar
with my work, this duality is a consistent quality of my practice. |
| |
| The
method
of creating the artwork
and the way I obtained critical reactions was new. Firstly, I chose not
to track my process via a daily or weekly logbook but rather opted to collate
the technical and artistic notes combined with the equivalent sketchbook
digital files
as they were created. These would be reviewed at the end of the project.
Secondly, to help with the critique, I chose to set up a group of expert
participants
for the project. These participants were asked to explore, reflect
and review the completed practice; this high calibre feedback is used in
collaboration with my own previously elucidated insights. This method will
allow for three tracks of writing around the project: my own as the author
"insider", those of the diverse external participants "outsiders",
and the integrated interwoven comments, thus balancing the subjective and
objective viewpoints. |
|
| 2.1.2
Practice as preparatory sketches |
| The
following pieces of practice were created both in the months leading up
to the start of this project's production and as conscious line tests or
visual maquettes for the final project. |
| Tekka
Preview |
| Various
Visual and Responsive Roughs |
|
| 2.1.3
Onscreen aesthetics |
| In
Chapter 1 (My
Aesthetic )
I defined the nature of my aesthetic in terms of being familiar, foreign
or abstract. Such features are primary in setting up an responsive exchange
with the participant. These visuals unlike found in print and filmic media,
have behavioural characteristics. They have ways of responding to an interaction
at what I like to describe as a micro, mid and macro levels. At the micro
level, the minutiae of the interaction are important, the participant is
focused on understanding the sole unit in question, e.g. understanding how
a particular flower moves at a pixel level (the smallest unit of onscreen
representation) in response to your onscreen touch. At the mid level, the
assessing of the characteristic is in relation to the prior responses found
within the specific project (this is especially important on any re-readings
of a project). At the macro level, what is important is reviewing how the
combined micro and mid responses sit within what has been experienced before
in the previous artworks from both the practitioner and indeed other artists.
This marco level is based within the larger media context. |
What
follows below is a list of specific notions or criteria that relate to the
visual aspect of the project.
These ideas were developed at Deviant' s inception. |
| |
| 1. |
Deviant
was to be an animated drawing, as opposed to animation; this would give
a sense of difference [2]. |
| 2. |
Deviant
would follow on from my other practice by attempting to foster a sense of
intimacy. The feeling is highlighted by the proposed viewing platform of
the personal computer within the Internet. This works by an unusual oxymoronic
sense of remoteness and connectivity, in that the participant has a sense
of physical closeness to the artwork. For example, they can spend as little
or as much time with it as they wish, they explore it in a welcoming environment
-- at home or at work -- rather than say in an art gallery or museum. But
in contrast, my authorial control is remote, because I do not conventionally
re-interpret or clearly present the narrative -- the structural access to
the project is not stable like that of a book or a film. In the latter aspect
the participant may feel acutely individualized as they alone must explore,
experience and attempt to create meaning from an artwork that is unconventional.
I propose that this individualised autonomy creates an even further closeness
to the work.
.
This lone exploration from the participant has parallels with my characterisation
of the protagonist: she is portrayed as being lonely and as a vacant shell,
hollow as she is fictive, thus referring to the loneliness of the participant
who explores the project. |
| 3. |
Deviant
would be rendered by detailed hand drawing and patterns. This would give
a sense of both sensuousness and preciousness as experienced by the quality
of the line combined with the movement, colour and sound. The resulting
onscreen image is touchable, conveying an illusion of tangibility
. This technique
is employed rather than using the quicker intrinsic software line tools.
|
| 4. |
In
the totality of the project, Deviant was devised as one picture,
one prescribed landscape in which things appear, grow, retract, and evolve.
Another way to describe it is as a series of tableaux -- frozen moments
in which narrative events can be drawn out by coaxing interactions. Another
notion is Deviant as a wind-up visual musical box, in which special
precious things lie. |
| 5. |
Deviant
was to be an experiment in creating both narratively visual transformations
(as a type of multiple state) and interpretative transformations, e.g. questioning
of the "truth" of what is seen and understood after the epilogue
text .
|
| 6. |
Deviant
would follow on from my other practice by continuing to show hybrid representations
both familiar and unreal, setting an upfront malapropos relationship with
the participant. |
| |
| Onscreen
participant position |
| In
tandem with designing the visual character of the project, consideration
must be given to the anticipated participant position -- what is asked of
the participant when confronted by the visual media. What follows below
is a list of specific design decisions that relate to the participant positions.
These were devised at Deviant' s inception. |
| |
| 1. |
Deviant
was designed to push both the interpretation of the visual space, and the
role of the participant. Thus the physical fullscreen nature of the project
was devised (rather than reducing -- suffusing memory load, see HCI golden
rule 8 [1]).
This large fullscreen format demands more memory and attention as the participant
attempts to comprehend the picture plane and its meaning
[3]. |
| 2. |
The
project enables the receivers to become naïve participants in that
it is set up to be different to what they have experienced before, thus
eliciting a unique personal experience. This comes from the multiple differences,
such as unique visual appearance; the nature of the structure designed into
the artwork; movement style; and the absence of back button or a help menu
etc… The project's intention is to be dramatically surprising and provide
initial and problematic differences in relation to what the participant
will expect, this feeling of unexpectedness or mystery [4]
is sustained throughout. |
| 3. |
The
feeling of "danger" is presented to the participant when exploring
the project. This comes in main from the fact that there is no going back
to previous tableaux (defying the HCI golden rule number 6: provide easy
reversal of actions
[1]). This
back tracking or usage of a back button is often standard with hypertext
fiction and games [*]. Deviant experimentally
defies this convention to encourage a focused attention on the presented
material. It is anticipated that this attention leads the participant to
being sensitised to the slow moving non-cosseted pace of the unconventional
animation
[2],
the project aims to promote contemplation, dreaming, wondering, and thinking
non-hierarchically about the presented MSE
. |
| 4. |
The
project is intentionally frustrating, reflecting the notion that the events
are "trapped in history", trapped in historical texts. The character
of Christian cannot be physically helped and I do not present other more
positive outcomes. Instead I have designed the project to utilise the participant's
frustration as a springboard in which they realise the horrors and travesty
of the story. |
| 5. |
The
above features could be seen to be destructive for any authored intentions,
suggesting that only participants who enjoy confusion or ambiguity should
be the participants. These hardships are offset by the weight given to the
participants' interactions. Once the participant has overcome the conditioned
instincts that their actions should reveal narratively key reactions, and
that they do not have the safety net of going back, they are free to touch,
tickle, and play with the layered images. Within the project there are hundreds
of tiny moveable parts that await such investigations. |
| 6. |
Similarly,
the participant has autonomy over much of the project's
timing
(see further below). In this sense the participant is more an explorer of
detail where touching and gentle prodding is the method to progress instead
of aggressive point and clicks. Without the participant, the project would
lie dormant and frozen on the first tableau. |
| |
| Narrative
base |
| This
historical but fictive depiction
of the world is inspired by the idea that very little is known about Scottish
society in 1696. Historians of the Early Modern Period are split over ideas
of how rural communities would have worked because there is a lack of primary
source materials. Some believe that the communities lived in enclosed socio-political
bubbles, where they would not have heard much news of the larger social
changes at hand, others believe that the communities were in fact aware
and furthermore influenced by the changing political and theological concerns,
thus they would be a mixed belief community, combining pagan, beltane, catholic,
protestant, and atheist communities [Cowan 2003]. Both of these ideas inspired
the portrayal of the narrative world. Deviant is like the latter,
a mixed visual code of different historical times and refers to mixed belief
systems [5],
but then contrastingly is enclosed and limited -- the participant never
gets to explore anywhere past the set horizons. What follows below is a
list of specific aspects of the design in relation to the founding and base
narrative text. |
| |
| 1. |
I
designed the title to read as: Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw.
This was devised both as a thematic indictor and also to highlight the subject
matter e.g. "Christian" as a man/boy, "Christian" as
woman/girl, or possibly "Christian" as an adjective relating to
Christianity. Another reading may link the church to the term "deviance".
The term "possession" has connotations of mental illness and/or
supernatural acts of foreign control. |
| 2. |
History
as fiction. The historical account was written by an anonymous author, thus
arguably turning the narrative
into a work of
un-interpretable fiction as the historical author may or may not have been
a first hand witness. The narrative turned fiction is in itself now deviant,
allowing for creative closure and personal interpretations. This notion
links to the larger argument of society's belief in history as irrefutable
truth. Within this situation a historical distortion is also found within
the contemporary "living memory" of Christian Shaw, who is mainly
seen as a tainted and manipulative child and not as a heroine of the Church
(the view presented at the time of the said events). |
| 3. |
The
project refers to applicable grand narratives such as the New England Salem
witch trails; Arthur Miller's play Crucible [6],
and the political association with the term "witch-hunt". It also
has links to historical horror and pulp archetypes of malevolent or evil
children e.g. Damien in the book /film The Omen (also a demoniac)
[7]. Other associated narratives can also
be found, such as the folklore surrounding the Scottish witch trials (especially
the feminist discussions [8]),
and my back catalogue of practice that speaks to female archetypes and hybrid
meanings
[9]. |
| 4. |
As
the title suggests, the project alludes to larger social notions of deviance
e.g. gender, behavioural stereotypes. It also attempts to elicit sympathy
from the participant towards the character of Christian, by imaginatively
but literally showing the events. The extra narratively
digressive content
is a symbiosis of how I as the author feel about the characters, together
with my imagining of what kind of perspective of the world she would have
taken. |
| 5. |
From
the base narrative I found the notion of naïvety interesting, Christian
only being a ten-year-old would be naïve to the larger world. We are
naïve to the "truth" of the story. The participant is naïve
in the exploratory sense. With naïvety I link the notion of innocence,
and with innocence comes a dark undercurrent, the risk of a lost innocence.
Within the project there is sense of something wrong, a melancholy. She,
like many children, is insecure, fragile and curious, deserving of protection
from the surrounding adults. This "wrong" trickles down from the
deceptive anonymity of the tale. |
| |
| Onscreen
time |
| Time
is treated in six different ways within Deviant
[10]. |
| 1. |
Historical
time is present where older folklore imagery is mixed with the modern, or
even with futuristic elements. For example, there are skyscrapers or tenement
flats with the representation of the invisible devils (inspired from European
16th century woodcut illustrations [11]).
Similarly the use of historical dates and events in the Reverend Brisbane's
journal refer to a larger bank of media representations of the period e.g.
The New England Salem Witch Trials or English Renaissance literature. |
| 2. |
Literal
and present time occurs within the project. This type of time is entirely
controlled by the participant. It is represented by the time taken to explore,
the time taken to play. In the project there are no timeouts (i.e. when
the artist programs events to occur even if the participant doesn't find
and instigate them). |
| 3. |
There
are elements of frozen time, as found represented in the alarm clocks. These
clocks are used within the first tableau [12]
as safety catches or visual prompts, as most people, if lost, will press
the customary clock. Another form of frozen or suspended time occurs on
any re-readings of the project, as re-readings will reveal perhaps different
interpretations, but the artwork and events are the same. The result is
a re-enforcing the notion that the events are "trapped in history." |
| 4. |
Narrative
time is used within the project, for example the changing seasons are shown
by the sensitively changing colour hues of the landscape. This ties both
to the narrative source, and the feeling of other worldliness as the changing
colours indicate that the months fly by. |
| 5. |
Embedded
or nested time can be found in the form of looping animations
[13]. These interaction-enabled events vary
between looping a set number of times and stopping, or looping endlessly
until the participant moves forward in the project. This type of time is
an experiment in giving the participant a sense of the world coming anthropomorphically
alive and active after their onscreen touch. |
| 6. |
Least
frequent of all the depictions of time is random time. There are programmed
random objects within the pop-in
framed narratives
of Christian's possessions (in tableau two
[14]). These are presented in a randomised
manner, giving another sense of timing, a sense of being "other"
in contrast to the set linear content of the buildings and Christian. The
objects add to the supernatural quality of the sequences, as they refer
to no natural sense of time or place within the rest of the project. |
| To
summarise, the uniqueness of experiencing "time" in this artwork
in terms of other mediums (films, novels, performances) supports the preposition
that artwork exists in a hybrid position. |
| |
| Onscreen
structures |
| Another
fundamental aspect of the visual telling of the project is the structuring
of the content. Structure within responsive media in a sense acts as the
method of delivery for sequence, even if it is set up as anti-sequential.
What follows below is a list of specific notions that relate to the structuring
of the images. These were devised at Deviant's inception. |
| |
| 1. |
The
world is structured in layers or levels, which overlap on top of the first
scene. This stacking is in opposition to the conventional animation or film
that uses a time-based method where the narrative is played in frames, which
are shown in succession (for further discussion see
[15]). Instead, the world is presented as
something different. This difference is again an attempt at placing the
participant in another unconventional position. It also enforces again the
picture opposed to animation analogy. The addition of layers adds and evolves
the main composition. These layers are combined with bursts of traditional
animated sections, to sustain the mixed up unpredictable nature of the project. |
| 2. |
The
project has an enmeshed but narratively linear path plotted to a narrative
skeleton (see below). Outside of this skeleton the project contains many
interactive digressions or interruptions to the story. Digressions are the
spaces in which the extra emotion and sensual explorations exist. These
areas are loosely narrative when associated with the base story. The skeleton
or frame acts as a suture co-joining the various multi linear perspectives,
conditional links and the participant's awareness that they are in a narrative
environment. The skeleton protects against total disjuncture in the project. |
| |
| The
narrative skeleton |
| The
digressive spaces and non-narrative experiences have been taken out the
diagram below. What then is seen is the stripped down spine of the narrative
which correlates to the source text's seasonal timeline and dramatic events.
For narrative purposes, tableau 5 and 5B function the same. |
 |
| |
| 3. |
The
participant's experience of the project does not initially reveal the plot
[16].
First is an accumulative experience of atmosphere. Dissonance strikes, but
after awhile, although coming from a position of ignorance, the participant
absorbs the available narrative content and also actively explores the world.
They continuously search for the hidden [17].
|
| |
Secondly,
and towards the end of their first reading, participants cognitively construct
the information they have experienced in a process similar to Murray's understanding
of "immersion"
[18]; at this stage they may or may not
begin to form an interpretation. |
| |
Thirdly,
once they have reached the epilogue text, and if they re-enter the project,
a further round of atmospheric accumulation occurs. |
| |
This
is unlike experiencing other narrative forms. For example, structurally,
the participant's experience of the project does not work like games, which
often use the model of increasing the difficulty of the participants' tasks
as they move through its structure. Nor does it use a cinematic three-act
structure i.e. beginning, middle and end
[16]. Instead in Deviant
the participant is required to re-enter the project (preferably multiple
times) to gain their own sense of conclusion. |
| |
| To
reiterate, Deviant, instead of offering a concluding elucidation
at the end of a first reading, places the participant into an additional
atmospheric and emotional accumulative experience. Thus Deviant works
on: |
| 1. |
Initial
atmospheric accumulation (emotive). |
| 2. |
Cognitive
stitching of the available information gained along a personal path. By
this I mean becoming less confused. |
| 3. |
Re-reading,
creating another more informed emotional accumulation (emotive). |
| |
| 1-
2- 3 is then repeated until the participant has perceived all the narrative
information and is atmospherically replete. At this participant specific
point they may achieve an awareness of the larger conceptual meaning of
the project or not (they may formalize a different and as valid interpretation).
Either way it is the participant who ends their involvement with the project. |
| To
briefly summarise, the visual language of the presented world and the structuring
of the participant's experience function as a re-interpretation and not
the structuring of the narrative events. These are true to the historical
narrative, as much as one can be true to a corrupt source. All my body of
practice (RedRidingHood
, The
Bloody Chamber )
shows a method of reinterpretation through the visual styling of narrative,
leading the participant to become involved through comment or critique on
the experience. This is especially intrinsic to Deviant. |
|
| 2.1.4
Chronology of the production: |
| Tools
used: drawing /reading /sketching /brainstorming/ notes / observation /
digital maquettes/animation and sound editing. |
| Initial
Research |
| I
started by investigating possible subject areas that would compliment my
notions of large pictorial interactive spaces. The subject area should conceptually
mesh with the idea of MSEs
, e.g. show dual
or polycentric arguments or perspectives. From this point I chose to focus
on the Scottish reformation period, and in specific, the witch-burning era.
I felt that basing the project on historical facts or actual events combined
with the gendered issues around witch trials would provide me with a new
narrative format that still links to my larger interests in folklore, female
archetypes and social hierarchies. It would also allow me to experiment
with the emotional resonance of the participant's experience, who on finding
out that the characters and events of the project are in some extent real
and not entirely fiction, may possibly react with intensified emotion. |
| |
| At
this point I attended the Scottish History Conference: The Survey of
Scottish Witchcraft, 1563-1736
[19], where I first heard the
narrative
of Christian Shaw, the little girl from Renfrewshire, who was supposedly
possessed by the devil. I proceeded to read material around the historical
events of Christian Shaw's possession, discovering both weighty academic
papers (which had uncovered that the source materials were authored anonymously)
and spurious modern day Internet postings. This thin but rich vein of discourse
convinced me that not only would the historical material provide me with
a fertile narrative base which I could ethically semi-fictionalise, but
also had a real-world pulse. |
| |
| The
Rough |
| Week
1-6 |
| I
decided to create a working "rough" of the project for Tekka
. Publishing a
preview of the project would indicate to my peers the direction of my work,
and also enable validation via early and informal feedback [20].
A working rough meant creating some layers of interaction and branching
paths, but in the main the rough was designed to present the narrative environment.
In keeping with my previous works, this environment should be largely pictorial,
describing a place that is both familiar and unreal, setting an upfront
dissonant relationship with the participant. The pictorial description should
loosely allude to Scotland's landscapes, both contemporary and ancient,
rural and city dwelling. This initial rough can be compared to a videogame's
full motion video clip (FMV), as the rough is in some sense a concentrated
depiction of the leading character Christian Shaw, her nonverbal attitude
(alluring, lonely, troubled) and the supporting worldscape. |
| The
outcome of this initial attempt was a feeling that I portrayed Christian
as being too old, too sexualised -- she was said to be ten years old at
the start of the narrative. I was relatively happy with the consolidation
of the buildings with the fauna and the appropriateness to the narrative
of developing secret spaces within the forests
[17], but not the colour palette, which I felt
needed to be subtler, more sensitive, in keeping with the depiction of Christian.
I also felt that the fragility of the drawn line was important, and needed
to be developed further. This digital but hand drawn quality would hopefully
add to notion of craft and preciousness in the space. |
| Week
7 |
| As
stated before, I proceeded to draw up a new graphic composition (working
to the fullscreen format). This formed the basis of the opening scene. The
composition offsets the safe feeling of green healthy pastures with the
unfeasibly tall and thick lined skyscraper buildings. Similarly, the feminine
feeling hill in the foreground is contrasted with the opposing blank screen
like shape sitting in the right of the composition. |
| Week
8 |
| The
main goal was to design and plan the structure of the project. I decided
on using a stacking layer system, which had already been used with some
spatial success in Vectorkpark
and Requiemforadream
[21].
Using layers would work in an entirely different way to the time based sequences
of film and animation. Depth as visual metaphor in combination with bursts
of traditional animated sections place the project in a much less charted
artistic territory. This difference is again an attempt at placing the participant
in another position, which is removed from conventional. |
| Week
9 |
| Having
decided on the visual style and structural rationale, I plotted out a skeleton
of narrative anchors .
These key events are the essential backbone within which the narrative experience
is contained. Without these the project would move into being narratively
incomprehensive or much more difficult responsive visual artwork. Balancing
these anchors with the more obscure content is the key to addressing the
participant -- too many anchors and the project is prosaic and dull, too
few either makes the work fully elitist or at best attractive looking nonsense. |
| Within
this week I also decided to use the embedded "pop-in" window technique
in the project (like a browser pop-up contained within the main project
window)
[22], thus giving the illusion of windows
within a window. These extruding windows are designed to help frame and
isolate the individual events of Christian's possession. I believe separating
them out from each other will allow the participant to focus and realise
the unique bizarreness of them. |
| At
this point I started the work being semi blind, or perhaps better described
as conscious of blind spots and blank spaces -- I am not able to fully comprehend
the outcomes (aesthetic, structure nor emotional architectures) as they
may change before the end. I worked towards becoming fully aware. |
| Week
10 - 18 |
| Is
spent designing and creating the blank spaces -- the content in-between
the narrative anchors. I decided on six key tableaux that relate to the
anchors. These tableaux are subtle variations of the opening scene. I spread
my time at this stage between working up the anchors and filling in the
blanks. This is done using a revisionary method, updating and refreshing
the look, animation, and sounds all in tandem. Working in tandem allows
me to gain a better sense of the total project. |
| Occasionally
(once a week on average) I stepped back (physically as well as mentally),
and took screen grabs as required, printing them out to amend and rework
onscreen compositions. I used extensive lists and notes whilst this tightening
up occurs. At this point I had a heavy cognitive load, a high level of concentration
is required as the project takes its fuller form. I am editing simultaneously: |
| · |
The
expanded character details and imagined psychology e.g. pre-histories in
journals. |
| · |
Coherency
of the landscape details (degradation of the world, seasonal changes etc.). |
| · |
Consistency
in the transitions of tableaux. |
| · |
Evolving
the pop-up narrative animations, so that they are not too literal or passive. |
| · |
Audio
management, decided on using loops for atmosphere and incidental effects
as a tactile experience. |
| During
this period, Dr. Hugh McLachlan
, an expert on the
historical narrative arranges an interview. I made an appointment and presented
the "work-in-progress". We discussed informally amongst other
things the notion of historical correctness as applied to this narrative
and the idea of a "living memory" as it relates to ethics. |
| Week
19 |
| At
this three-quarter stage, I concentrated on the structural successes and
failings. I devise the faded tableaux that occur when the extruding pop-in
narrative windows are instigated. This was a solution to a looming technical
problem, that the overlapping highly detailed visuals combined with movement
and audio would not, I discover, stream smoothly over the Internet. |
| Week
20-23 |
| During
these weeks I worked on the invisible compositions e.g. the grotesque imaginations
of the evil demons, the devil and the unreal plants. These were inspired
from a bank of 16 -17th century woodcut illustrations
[11]. The monstrous characters
and the bespoke foliage (found in the pop-in narratives) are presented in
a randomised manner, giving another sense of time, a sense of being alive,
supernatural or "eternal" in contrast to the set linear actions
of the buildings and Christian. |
| Week
23-26 |
Nearing
the end of my project, I began to edit in a more technical sense. Most of
the time was spent testing streaming over the Internet and the performance
of the work over different browsers and platforms.
(Note: after the feedback from participants' it was apparent that the streaming
capabilities of the Macromedia Flash Player combined with the interaction
style is not wholly satisfactory. Their viewing problems varied but they
averaged at least 2 "crashes" within their whole reading and re-reading
experiences.) |
| Week
26-30 |
| At
these, the end weeks, the last refinements occurred; now that 98% of the
project is complete I could get a sense of the whole composition. I tightened
up some elements, retouched colour, and checked against the initial narrative
for chronology. Most importantly at this stage I removed superfluous content.
Consideration was given to the amount of verbal text located in the two
journals (is it too much?). I deliberated redoing them with an entirely
visual diary, no words only images. I decide to err on the side of caution,
as I, as the creator, was entirely familiar with the work at this stage,
whereas the participant will be in most cases entirely new to not only the
narrative base but the structure, style and logic of the artwork. |
| The
expert participants
were invited to begin exploring the project. I began a review of the notes
and sketches in preparation for my write-up of the process and a critique. |
|
| 2.1.5
Deviant conclusion |
| At
the conclusion of the project I proposed that Deviant defies conventions
and at times is unique for many reasons. What follows is a description of
the outcomes that have emerged through my observation of the finished project
and the assessment of the associated documentation that surrounded the production
of the practice. |
| |
| Layering
Technique |
| Firstly,
instead of being complexly non-linear (in the cybertextual sense), the project
is a layered structure, which uses branching offshoots [23].
This structural layering works in "building up" compositions that
can be regarded as a MSE
. The different
layers show the interrelationships between the narrative objects. This linking
works in an unconventional manner -- layering as a storytelling technique
is little used within digital media; it requires participants to make associations
between objects using a spatial rather than time based metaphor, such as
typically practiced by Owenns or Thomson & Craighead [15].
This sense of difference is compounded further when the depiction of the
world and its inhabitants is a mix of the believable, impossible, familiar
and bizarre (My
aesthetic ).
The total effect is that the work communicates to the participant in an
unfamiliar, disturbing but imaginative manner. |
| |
| Embedded
Experiences |
| Within
the various visual layers the participant can discover multiple embedded
-- what I call -- animatics (animated effects). These animatics differ from
one to another, but can be broadly described as being non-sequitur [24]
visual objects, which contribute to the atmosphere by depicting the flora
and fauna of the story world and sit beside the recognisable narrative events
which work in a more traditional filmic manner. |
| The
latter group form the narrative template for the project; they are structured
in a linear sequence albeit spaced out within the project. The former and
more abstract content distracts from this linearity, as these at best narrative-like
types of objects are digressions that cannot be easily linked to the main
narrative. They require imaginings by the participant. |
| Interaction
with these embedded animatics is the primary type of experience within the
project (as they are the most ubiquitous). Otherwise the presented world
appears static, dormant and picture like. The opening and subsequent scenes
await the participant to uncover and "touch" their inner awaiting
life. This clear dependence on the participants' interaction makes the space
more discursive and feels more non-linear that in the formal structural
sense it is. |
| This
ambiguity of structural form requires the participant to begin either self-motivated
interpretations in search of some meaning (as Deviant has no clear
precedents), or to submit to the unfamiliarity of the project. This could
turn the previous feelings of non-linearity into a kind of anti-linearity.
Whatever path the participant takes, the project sets up an upfront malapropos
relationship. |
| |
| Empathetic
visual style. Evolving Tableau |
| As
developed within my entire practice [25],
these challenging participant roles are offset by a visual style that is
assessable in that it utilises a pictorial language (this shift to the pictorial
is supported by Ryan's recent thinking
[26]). These assessable images are understood
in a more universal way than a fully idiosyncratic visual language would
allow. Within Deviant, the composition, as well as the visual style,
was set up to cushion and soften these uncomfortable participant positions
(for Deviant is my most closure-challenging project to date). The
rendering of the world-scape is intentionally quiet, subtle, detailed and
beguiling, all of which aims to encourage the participant to start exploring
and thinking. |
| From
the start of the project, Deviant communicates to the participant
in a new way. It does not start "playing" like a traditional animation,
nor does it behave like my previous projects. Rather, the participant must
investigate the composition. The initial scene lays out some of the project
logic, or should I say mixed-logic, as the scene does not use clearly animated
prompts, nor allows for a back |
