Round Robin

There seemed to be a little confusion with my story (it got lost early on in the project and no one contributed to it) so I added all of the drawings that I contributed to the project.


1.  A policeman attacks a man in a wheelchair, only to discover too late that the wheelchair is full of weapons.

2.  Unbeknownst to Amanda, the neighborhood kids weren't going on a camping trip, but to a government base to be brainwashed. 

3.  Alan decided to travel to the land of the lollipops, which was under attack from the gumdrop people.

4.  After Peter put on a tuxedo, he helped Harry use hammers to destroy the army of Nailers headed their way.

5.  Luckily, Sam's neighbor, Paul, knew how to teleport, and he helped Sam move the body to the roof.

Color Code

Emma-Red

Steven-Blue

Sariah- Orange!  

Max-I’ll do green

Hailey- purple

Hey guys! I'm still trying to get everyone's stories sorted out, so if you haven't emailed me all of the pictures you've drawn/received, please do so and I’ll try and get everyone’s stories back to them in the right order. Also, please include captions. Thanks! (My email is emma@tinypineapple.com)

Artist Statement

****(Hey, I don’t know if I’m doing this right, but feel free to edit or omit or change whatever you feel necessary)**** *that looks great!

When mixing a creative process with collaboration, it’s hard to keep everyone on the same page.  People exercise their own idea of creativity and that often creates an infinite amount of directions for a story to expound.   However, maybe the best ideas and creations come from such chaos.  Some of the most inspired and meaningful work can spring out of a tangent or a divergence from the original thought.  When a perfectly planned out story breaks away from its path, one must act and think in a different way.  It forces the creator to be flexible; to come at it from a new perspective.  There is a certain freedom taken away, but at the same time, it opens up a new door.  Then one must take into consideration the effect a sudden change has on the overall tone and meaning of the story.  Some of the round robin stories took a drastic turn of events; even to the point where the plot and characters are unrecognizable.  This forces the reader and the creator to evolve along with the story and to seek out the new ideas and to find the connection to the previous chapter.  For example, in my round robin story, the second and third parts are completely different.  The former, about a bunch of kids headed off to a brainwash facility, and the latter, about a corpse staring deep into the eyes of a new character.  This new twist in the story was a surprise, and changes the outcome of the entire plot.  It went down a completely different road.  But who is to say which is better?  Neither are above the other.  What another person offers to the table must be and is a valid part of my, no, our story.  And going even further than that, the communication between people as collaboration continues is the way our society has run since the beginning of time.  People take a story, they change it, they make it their own, and then it happens over and over again.  It is a continuous, never-ceasing process that makes our world what it is, and even defines our history and our culture.  As DJ Spooky puts it, “Evolving different behavioral models to respond to changing environments becomes a site where complexity meets empathy, a locus where we learnt that giving information and receiving it is just part of what it means to live on this or probably any planet in the universe.”  This round robin activity mimics the way we interact with one another.  It is a way we pass along folktales and family history and even just childhood fantasies.  It is a way of living on and leaving behind a legacy on Earth, but allowing it to change and evolve as things always do.  

DJ Spooky’s essay about the Exquisite Corpse can easily be incorporated in our experience in the Round Robin activity. DJ Spooky compares the Exquisite Corpse to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Collaboration, which includes using old ideas, mixing them, changing them, and adding to them, can make something as inanimate as a twenty word story come to life. Seeing the way five different minds can bring a story to life is really interesting to see. The short story Twitter account also reflected, and even inspired the Red Robin exercise. At first, we all had a hard time conveying meaning through limited words. However, by browsing the the Twitter account, we all had the realization that a lot can be said in limited words. Words are powerful, and sometimes limiting them causes us to use creative ways to use them in a more meaningful, powerful way. Limitations on creativity demand creativity in order to overcome those limitations. By limiting what we could say in the Red Robin exercise, we learned the importance of being careful with our word choices.

To me, this whole process reminded me of the novel Little Women, where the main characters play a very similar game.  They start telling a story, and after a while, someone interrupts the story and takes it in a new direction.  This story starts out with a man swimming into a castle, meeting a tall, white apparition, being offered a snuff box, and dancing a jig, while also including mermaids and geese girls.  The story gets progressively more ridiculous and hilarious.  In fact, coming up with ridiculous story elements is what makes the game entertaining.  This project was very similar in that regard.  Each person contributed their own beginning and the next person followed up with whatever inspiration they happened to draw upon.  Not only is it fun, as it was for the characters in Little Women, but it forces you to be creative and expand upon the work of those who came before.  In this case, limitation allowed for more creativity.  When you are limited by word count, you have to tell your story in a concise manner.  Also, the moment that a story is sent out, the writer no longer had control over it, and all they could do was watch and see what others did with their work.  It was interesting to see what people drew and where the story would end up.  It showed the power of collaboration in a silly, yet strong way.  Creativity is much more useful when ideas are able to bounce of the minds of others because it shows the potential a story.

Each story adaptation or progression was inspired by different elements of the previous work. Each time I was faced with a different story I looked for different aspects of the piece to draw from in order to create my new piece of the story. Sometimes I chose to continue the story by being inspired by the character or the situation and imagining what would come next in this fictional world. Othertimes I was inspired by the form and the style of the illustration and I based the next section of the story on that alone. For example, I was given a story and the illustration depicted cars on a road moving up and to the right of the page. I drew inspiration from those lines and transformed them into a tractor beam from an alien spaceship. The cars I changed into two brothers who were being sucked into the ship, then my story followed that illustration. I also thought about the choice of medium to do the illustrations. Sometimes I used ink on paper, other times I used digital media, or mixed media. These were helpful find different ways to continue the story and provide a different mood in the narrative. While continuing the story of individuals in a lollipop land I chose to use a computer to illustrate the story. The bright colors and the solid edges harmonized with the environment and the feeling that existed in the plot. In the end, the thread of story lines shows how each contributor was inspired by the previous chapter, and what effect that has on a collaborative story.

Music Mosaic: Clair de Lune

                 

    

Artist Statement

When I first read of this assignment, I immediately thought of Debussy's Clair de Lune.  No piece of music has struck me more profoundly than this composition.  Still, I struggled with figuring out how to portray this song through a series of images.  In class, we discussed multiple ways to approach the process, including using abstract images or constructing a narrative based on the music.  I chose this abstract, impressionistic approach to the project because I felt that it best illustrated the emotions and moods that are present in Debussy's impressionist piece.  Impressionist art places more emphasis on depictions of light and its changing qualities, the inclusion of movement as a critical element of perception, and unusual angles.  Impressionist music places more emphasis on conveying emotion, atmosphere and mood rather than structure and form.  I was also inspired by Abstract Expressionism, an art movement that places more emphasis on spontaneous, subconscious creation.  By combining these three art forms together, I felt that I was able to accurately portray how I felt and what I was thinking while listening to this piece.  Most of my feedback from my peers seemed to reflect similar thoughts.  One person described seeing a beautiful sunset, and a general atmosphere of pondering.  When I listened to this song, I imagined myself floating through the clouds or space.  I became ecstatic when one of my pictures ended up resembling a galaxy, since this seemed to portray exactly what I picture when I hear this song. 

            The entire process was a form of experimentation with trial and error.  I knew from the start that I wanted to used colored dye (especially purple and blue, since those are the colors that I associate with the moods expressed in this song) suspended in liquid because I thought that this would best represent the floating/flying feeling that is expressed in the song.  However, the first photos, taken inside a glass filled with water, did not turn out well.  I tried different angles and lighting positions, but they all turned out blurry and poorly defined.  Then I decided to try it again in a clear, plastic bowl.  The pictures improved tenfold with this decision.  My roommate noticed what I was doing and suggested that I try it with milk and dish soap.  This further improved the image by allowing the dye to become more visible and by creating more complicated movement with the dye.  Also, by combining the dye within a circular bowl, an interesting juxtaposition between order and chaos was created.  Inside the bowl, the dye is chaotic and moves in every direction, but it is still confined by the limits of the bowl.  This can represent how our minds can be both chaotic and extremely organized, being able to contain random thoughts and emotions all in one place. 

            In Dillard's essay "Seeing", while describing the difficulty of spotting beauty in nature, she states that "It's all a matter of keeping [your] eyes open."  Later, she states, "What planet or power yanks Halley's Comet out of orbit?  We haven't seen that force yet..."  To me, these quotes represent the underlying motive of every artist: to see and describe what cannot normally be seen or described.  We cannot see sound, yet we are able to conjure up images and emotions in our heads that can represent sound.  With this activity, I was able to experiment with expressing in abstract images feelings and emotions that cannot normally be seen or expressed.  By juxtaposing music, sound, and images together, we as artists and storytellers move towards fulfilling one of the key motives of art: to express the inexpressible.  

Thinking and Writing: Bioshock vs. Ayn Rand

           In the video game Bioshock, the silent protagonist Jack's plane crashes into the ocean next to a mysterious lighthouse.  After entering the lighthouse and boarding a bathysphere, he is taken to the underwater dystopia of Rapture, which has been destroyed due to civil war.  From this point, he must work with the freedom fighter Atlas against the tyrannical ruler of the city, Andrew Ryan, in order to escape.  The game has sold over 4 million copies, and Gore Verbinski, director of The Pirates of the Caribbean, was interested in adapting the game into a film.  However, the proposed 200 million dollar budget was too high for the studios.  Bioshock also has one of the highest ratings for a first person shooter on the reviewing site Metacritic, scoring an 96.  The principle reason that this game appeals to fans and critics is that it uses its story, setting, and characters to analyze and criticize Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy.

            Ayn Rand was a writer who proposed the idea of Objectivism, which states that the proper moral purpose of life is the pursuit of one's own happiness.  Objectivism also states that  laissez-faire capitalism is the only social system that maintains full respect for an individual's rights.  Simply put, it states that an individual should do what is best for himself and that the government should not interfere in any private or commercial matters.  There are many references to Ayn Rand and Objectivism throughout Bioshock.  The main villain's name, Andrew Ryan, is very similar to Ayn Rand.  Both of them are Russian immigrants who became disillusioned with Communism.  Also, another major character is named Atlas, a reference to Ayn Rand's objectivist novel Atlas Shrugged.  Andrew Ryan proclaims his objectivist views right at the beginning of the game as the player descends by bathysphere to the city of Rapture:  "Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?  No, says the man in Washington, it belongs to the poor.  No, says the man in the Vatican, it belongs to God.  No, says the man in Moscow, it belongs to everyone.  I rejected those answers.  Instead, I chose something different.  I chose the impossible.  I chose Rapture: a city where the artist would not fear  the censor.  Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality.  Where the great would not be constrained by the small."  

With this statement, Andrew Ryan firmly admits that the entire city of Rapture was built under Objectivist ideals. 

            The rest of the game's plot subverts these ideals and demonstrates the fundamental flaws evident in Objectivist philosophy.  As Ryan states, a city built on these ideals would seem perfect for an artist, entrepreneur, or scientist.  However, as the game shows, this level of philosophical thinking created a class struggle between the elitists and the working class in the city which eventually culminated in civil war.  The once beautiful city of Rapture decayed into a skeleton of its former glory, which represents the hidden ugliness that was present in the city's ideals all along.  Even more importantly, the laissez-faire ideals that Rapture greatly adored eventually led to its own destruction.  Scientists in the city discovered a substance called "Adam" that alters one's genetic code and grants superhuman powers.  Products made with this substance were sold to the general public with no interference from the government because Rapture was founded under the idea of free enterprise without governmental control.  "Adam" proved to be incredibly powerful and addictive, and soon the citizens of Rapture went mad in their desire to obtain more Adam, using their powers to further throw the city into civil war.  Ironically, the city's worship of Objectivist ideals, such as laissez-faire capitalism and self-interest, eventually led the city to its downfall.

            The game's endings ultimately demonstrate that Altruism, the polar opposite philosophy of Objectivism, is the superior philosophy.  There are two different endings depending on how a player chooses to act during key moments in the game.  Throughout the game, the player encounters "Little Sisters", young orphan girls who have been brainwashed to gather Adam from corpses in the street.  After defeating one of their protectors, nicknamed "Big Daddies", the player is given a choice of harvesting the Little Sister for her Adam or sparing her life.  Harvesting a Little Sister gives the player much more Adam and allows him to level up more quickly, but the Little Sister dies in the process. However, if the player spares the Little Sister, he gains much less Adam, but eventually gains the trust of Tenebaum, the German scientist who created the Little Sisters.  She rewards the player with large gifts of Adam, which allow the player to continue gaining new abilities.  If a player chooses to save all of the Little Sisters, he receives the "good" ending of the game: Jack rescues five of the Little Sisters, takes them up to the surface, and raises them as his own daughters.  If he chooses to harvest them, however, the game ends with Jack betraying the Little Sisters, stealing a submarine and a large supply of Adam, and setting out to conquer the world with nuclear weapons.  The "good" ending of the game is the only one where Jack demonstrates Altruism, acting in order to benefit another.  The "bad" ending demonstrates the ideals of Objectivism, with Jack thinking only of himself, stealing all of the power, and becoming just as evil as Andrew Ryan was.  Thus, the game demonstrates Altruism's superiority over Objectivism.

            There is a fundamental flaw with the game's statement on Altruism, however. In order to stay alive during the game, you need to loot every container, safe, and even corpses in order to find health, money, and ammo.  This mode of gameplay contradicts the game's central message about Altruism by forcing players to act selfishly in order to continue playing.  However, despite this flaw in gaming dynamics, the game still manages to tell a compelling story that not only entertains, but provides a brilliant critique of Objectivism.