Full Bibliography (All Tasks)

Bibliography:

Task 2

  • Yan, B. (2013) Travis. [image] Available at: https://hcgart.com/collections/wocp2-ol/products/travisĀ [Accessed 18/10/17]
  • McMennamy, S. (2016) flowers & hand + tree. [image] Available at: https://instagram.com/p/BEezgaRnGxg/ [Accessed 18/10/17]

Task 3

  • Breathed, B. (2007) Exclusive: Berkeley Breathed Speaks!. Interviewed by Jamie Reno for Newsweek, 3rd June. Available at: http://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-berkeley-breathed-speaks-100929 [Accessed 25/10/17]
  • Breathed, B. (2015) Bloom County 2015. Bloom County 2015, July 20, 2015. [image] Available at: http://www.gocomics.com/bloom-county/2015/07/20 [Accessed 4/12/17]

Task 4

  • Josselsohn, G. (n.d) Landscape 1. [image]. Available at: http://glenjosselsohn.com/portfolio/ [Accessed 01/11/17]

Task 5

  • Wilson, W. (1967) BG-56. [image]. Available at:Ā http://www.wes-wilson.com/bill-graham-presents.html [Accessed 08/11/17]
  • Glaser, M. (1967) Bob Dylanā€™s Greatest Hits. [image]. Available at: https://www.miltonglaser.com/the-work/444/columbia-records-poster-for-bob-dylans-greatest-hits-1967/ [Accessed 08/11/17]
  • OZ Magazine (1967). Theological Striptease. OZ Magazine issue 01, February 1967, Front Cover. [image]. Available at: http://www.wussu.com/zines/ozimages/oz01cov.jpg [Accessed 08/11/17]
  • Ramaswamy, C. (2016) Return to Oz: the most controversial magazine of the 60s goes online. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/shortcuts/2016/mar/06/return-oz-most-controversial-magazine-60s-goes-online [Accessed 08/11/17]

Task 6

  • Fairey, S. (2009) Aung San Suu. [image] Available at: https://obeygiant.com/prints/aung-san-suu-offset/ [Accessed 15/11/17]
  • Haring, K. (1989) Ignorance = Fear. [image] Available at: http://www.haring.com/!/art-work/253#.Wh7mUsacZ-U [Accessed 15/11/17]
  • Adamson, G. and Pavitt, J. (2011) Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990. London: V&A Publishing, page 9.
  • Skoglund, S. (1981) Revenge of the Goldfish. [image] Available at : https://akronartmuseum.org/collection/Obj1713?sid=1&x=65153&port=289 [Accessed 15/11/17]

Task 7

  • Rutherford, C. (2015) Amber Rose as Marlene Dietrich. [image] Available at: http://www.papermag.com/amber-rose-feminist-heroes-1-1488371818.html?slide=PDJAIV [Accessed 29/11/17]
  • Ward, C. (2012) Popular Lies about Graphic Design. Barcelona: Actar Publishers, page 58. [image]
  • Niemann, C. (2017).Ā Christopher Niemannā€™s ā€œEnchanted Forestā€. Interviewed by Francoise Mouly for The New Yorker, 29 May. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/christoph-niemanns-enchanted-forest [Accessed 29/11/17]
  • Niemann, C. (2017) Enchanted Forest. The New Yorker, June 2017, Front Cover. [image]

Task 8

  • Fairey, S. (2015) Mark Art Not War. [image] Available at:Ā https://obeygiant.com/prints/make-art-not-war-offset/ [Accessed 3/12/17]
  • Experimental Jetset Studios. (2005) DTC / Te Huur. [image] Available at:Ā https://www.experimentaljetset.nl/archive/dtc-te-huur [Accessed 3/12/17]

Reflect

The Research and Communication Skills module was not something I was looking forward to, but now that it’s done I think that it has helped me to improve some of my skills and investigate interesting topics that I would otherwise be less informed about.

I was surprised that each week I was able to sit through a two hour lecture in the morning and be engaged with it the whole time. This is down to the great choice of varied topics that were well presented in depth by the lecturers.

I can definitely see progress in my work from week oneĀ  in that I researched the topics more thoroughly and didn’t just use information that I already knew. My favourite week was on the topic of Artificial Intelligence because I probably new the least about it initially so I learnt a lot and feel that was my strongest blog post. It was also the first week that I properly referenced my work since I was unaware on how to do this until that point; it would have been better if we were shown that this was something we should be doing from the beginning. That leads on to the only real issue I had with this module: I think it would have been useful to get some guidance on what is to be expected from our writing, especially since I am not very well informed when it comes to writing essays. If I knew some tips for researching, referencing and writing from the beginning it would have been a lot smoother.

Going forward into studio work, I think the knowledge and skills that I’ve learnt through this module will certainly allow me to create work that is more informed and relevant. I now have a much better understanding on ways to develop and improve anything that I make and different ways that I can do this.

 

Task 3 ā€“ Ways of Seeing Pt.1

RenƩe Cox is a Jamaican born artist, activist, lecturer, and curator. Her recurring theme includes race, gender through the use of her own body in many of her works.

Cox liberating herself and other black women through self-representation and criticizes the way black women are portrayed in media through her work.

In hot-en-tot venus, Cox is portraying herself as Saartje Bartman a Khoikhoi women who was exhibited at freak shows across Europe in the 19th century known as the Hottentot Venus. She uses plastic breasts and buttocks from a costume shop to make her body similar to Saartje’s.
Cox criticizes the stereotypical portrayal and exploitation of Black woman and the lack of awareness with the use of the plastic body-parts in her work and also celebrating her own body through her own nudity ultimately liberating herself with shaping her own identity.

REFERENCES

Aperture Foundation NY. (2017). RenƩe Cox: A Taste of Power. [online] Available at:
https://aperture.org/blog/renee-cox- taste-power/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Black Atlantic Resource Debate. (2017). Video of the Week: After Hot-En- Tot: Two
conversations with Artist RenƩe Cox. [online] Available at:
https://blackatlanticresource.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/video-of- the-week- after-hot- en-tot-
two-conversations- with-artist- renee-cox/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Black feminist art. (2017). RenĆ©e Cox ā€“ Hot en Tot. [online] Available at:
https://artintheblackdiaspora.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/renee-cox- hot-en- tot/ [Accessed 7
Dec. 2017].

ALL OF MY BLOGS COMBINED

Session 2 Games 101

  • What does the term avant garde mean?

Any artistic piece of work that is new is usually considered ā€œAvant Gardeā€. So to sum this up ā€œAvant Gardeā€ means to experiment and try new ideas within the artistic community, this isnā€™t just art itself, but things like dance, theatre and so on. An example of ā€œavant gardeā€ would be a dance piece that involves paint, resulting in two artistic pieces.

  • Is it still possible to be truly ā€˜avant gardeā€™? and if so provide game examples

I personally say no usually because all the great ideas youā€™ve seen and still see have been done, this goes for the entirety of the artistic community. Weā€™ve come a long way with art and what people do these days is inspire from other people rather than the environment itself. For example Leonardo Da Vinci was inspired by the construction of the human anatomy, but even then painting was still a thing back in Da Vinciā€™s era so his artwork wasnā€™t technically original. The thing that he did that was original was his drawings on the human anatomy. Overall itā€™s impossible to be truly ā€œAvant Gardeā€ since the majority inspires from other people.

Now to contradict myself a lot of artwork can be ā€œAvant Gardeā€. Yes people inspire from other people’s work but you can take an idea and change it to you own. Any painting maybe a paint but they all have their own unique quality to them that makes them ā€œAvant Gardeā€. Back to the example of Da Vinci and let’s compare his work to that of Picasso’s. Da Vinciā€™s style of art was very close to reality where Picasso was had a unique style of art which in result made him famous.

In in terms of the gaming industry. Itā€™s difficult to be ā€œAvant Gardeā€ mainly because of what the audience wants which results in money. For instance the current fad in the gaming industry is RPGā€™s so the majority of games for this year are RPGā€™s, these instances make gaming less and less ā€œAvant Gardeā€.

Games obviously have to stand out and be unique. In the end the RPG aspect becomes more of a rule rather than a unique feature to a game. Although these days games use various gaming techniques to create something ā€œuniqueā€.

Example the Witcher 3 stood out not for its RPG mechanics but how ā€œmassiveā€ it is so other games took upon this and did a similar thing such as Final fantasy 15 and Assassinā€™s Creed origins.

Reference links

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/avant-garde

 

 

Session 3 Skill Stamina and luck

  • Select one example to outline the key concepts of the interactive narrative genre?

The example Iā€™m going to use is ā€œThe Witcher 3 Wild Huntā€. This games has a very indepth story due to the fact that this game is based of a book but this is very well translated into game.
To sum up this game ā€œThe witcher 3ā€ is an Open World, RPG, action adventure, fantasy game.

How CD projekt Red approach this game in a graphical point of view is that they used an realistic art style but despite this being a fantasy games the concept of fantasy elements use in a real world like setting the realism adds a new element to the game. In this world it isnā€™t a simple adventure to reach a goal but youā€™re in a world where youā€™re involved with politics, racism and so on. In fact this book technically takes a fantasy element and puts it in a real life situation and the game translates this very well.
In terms of story and despite this game being based of the book you can interact with the story in anyway you want, or what options you have. Either way you take control of the story and it has consequences to your actions which in fact affect not only the story but the game. So you interact with this narrative and follow your own views on the world or mess around because you feel like it.
Overall this games does well on interactive despite it not being a telltell game and being based on someone elseā€™s content. CD projekt Red captures the world of the book with the visuals and character interactions and you can truly see how dark this world but they took the extra step to include you in the story by allowing to choose how you approach the game which doesnā€™t only affect the story but the game.

  • Does the interactive narrative still have a role to play in video games today. Give exemplary examples?

Well Telltell games are games that are designed to be interactive stories. Interactive narrative is very important in game, it gives you a perspective on how the creator wants you to see their world. This doesnā€™t simply mean story but graphics and so on. In the end this is an art form and every artistic creation has a story behind and luckily for gaming content is made specifically for interaction.

Interactive narrative will always have a role in video games regardless of what kind of game it is. The game may not have a choice system but youā€™re still interacting with the story.

 

 

Session 4 The history of Indie

  • Why would you say that the ā€œIndieā€ game scene is not a new thing and explain, give examples ?

I wouldnā€™t say the indie is anything new, nearly all big companies start of as indie companies. Bungie start off as an indie company before they became big, in fact they were a bunch of students eating pizza wanting to make games. Activision started due to a couple of workers getting tired of the company Atari so they started their own company. These examples shows that indie isnā€™t new, itā€™s existed for ages in the gaming industry, in fact itā€™s how industries start, itā€™s starting from the ground up, like most companies.

Now for companies like Insomniac, they are still indie technically. Despite the fact that their hired by the bigger companies to make games they are still independent, so they have the creative freedom to create whatever they want even if they are the size of a company. CD projekt red is a perfect example of this, theyā€™re an indie company the size of a small company.

Now to sum this up people like Ā Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes who made super meat boy are indie because theyā€™re completely independent within their budget and making process but this doesnā€™t mean indie is a new thing because as Iā€™ve said before these small group of friends could or can become a company.

  • Has the term indie become meaningless ?

No the term hasnā€™t become meaningless. The word indie means independent and thatā€™ll never change despite how many people do it. Being independent is a stepping stone to becoming successful, this goes for games, mechanics, technology, science and so on. You always start off with an idea you develop yourself or in a small group and when this idea is recognized then you become can become successful leading to other companies and more people wanting to work with you therefor making you a company. People do decide that they want to work alone and stay being indie but despite your choices being the term indie will never become meaningless weather you decide to stay indie or let it lead to something large.

References

Ash Toner (seriously I found all the information through him over years of chatting)

 

 

Session 5 Human computer interaction

  • select one game of your interest and explain why does it have a good/bad game UI

As an example Iā€™ll be using a game that Iā€™ve played for a recently. After playing Assassinā€™s creed origins Iā€™ll say the user interface is good. The reason being is that the game helps you indicate various things you need to do or actions youā€™ve performed. One example is that your stance changes to indicate whether you have your shield up or not, thereā€™s also a stance to indicate stealth. So the various stances easily show what approach you take but this is more gameplay.

Now in this new instalment of Assassinā€™s Creed the creators wanted you to be immersed in the world more so they changed the various mechanics such as the mini map. They removed the minimap and made a compass system similar to that of skyrim, I say this works well for what it was made for, this does immerse yourself in the environment as well as gives you a sense of discovery.

As weird as this system is, depending on what weapon you select that weapon will appear on the character. Now for starters this looks weird because it looks like a magic trick of a suddenly appearing weapon but it works well because it indicates what weapon you currently have selected but they donā€™t have this for the bow system which is odd.

Thereā€™s a health, adrenaline and breath bar system that appears when certain actions takes place. I like how this system works are it doesnā€™t over crowd the screen with bars systems and only appears when needed, for instance the adrenaline bar and health bar appear when you engage in combat.

Overall these systems work well and show great indication to the player and I felt it shows whatā€™s going on within the game.

  • discuss how technology augments human abilities. Reflect upon the implications of the future of HCI.

Technology has expanded us as human beings, I see them more a extensions. For instance I see a gun as human augment as of the gun shoots unlike a telephone which expand our communication therefore enhancing a skill we already have. The point Iā€™m making is that the technology created for human is usually created to expand skill we possess.

Lets simplify this. A man known as Hugh Herr lost his legs due to front bite so he designed some bionic legs so that he can walk as well as run and even dance. These legs are designed to be like human legs. Previously before he made theses legs he use to make basic legs so he can continue his passion for rock climbing but what he found out is that he can alter his body to make it better. For example heā€™d adjust the height of his legs depending on how confident he felt so he can feel taller or become smaller to ā€œgive the other an advantageā€. This describes human augmentation at itā€™s finest. As Hugh puts it, him being disabled didnā€™t mean that he was broken but that technology was inadequate at the time. Hugh Herr also talks about how weā€™d all be wearing exoskeletons to enhance our physiology, to improve that we already have. This shows that human augmentation not only replaces that what weā€™ve lost but enhances what we already have.

References

Hugh Herr – Look on youtube. On TED he talks in depth.

 

 

Session 6 Artificial intelligence

  • Some definitions state that AI is when a system thinks/acts like a human and other definitions state that it is when a system thinks/acts rationally. Why do you suppose AI developers wish to hold up human intelligence as a standard rather than pure logic?

The reason I can see why people would want AI to act more like a human than rational is because of sensitivity. Logical think is the best foward to a situation but this means you act heartless. For instance imagine a burning building and thereā€™s a higher probability to save an ex convict than a child. Your goal is to save everyone but youā€™re limited on time so the logical answer is to save the convict, now let’s add emotions to the mix, despite the logic youā€™d rather save the child rather than a ex convict.

Now by all means the logical answer is the best as itā€™s rational but then you wouldnā€™t consider other factor and just go the easiest answer which isnā€™t always a bad thing. I feel that when building an AI youā€™d want it to have some form of sensitivity so that the AI may put logic aside so that it can approach a situation that humans consider morally right.

  • A lot of people are scared by the prospective of AI. What do you think would bethe ramifications of us achieving true “strong” AI?

There will be consequences like all decisions made. The thing is that what youā€™re doing is making is another human or in fact another race and depending on how the AI is built whether itā€™s built to be logical or emotional. Either way itā€™s how the people respond to this, itā€™s all about the interaction with the AI and if itā€™s aware then itā€™ll response to these human emotions.

 

 

Session 9 own

  • What do you see as the positives and negatives around copyright?

The main and the only good thing I can say about is that it protects your product and gives credit where credit is due, plus you can manipulate this so others can use your product and you set the limitations.
The downfall is that corporations such as Nintendo can be greedy with such products. Now by all means punish those who remake your product, or simply claim your product as your own but in certain situations it can be ridiculous. Now YouTube is seen as free advertisement due to reviews on content and such, so most corporations leave it be since these content creators arenā€™t remaking or stealing content but showing the public how good this content is which is amazing in my eyes, someone making content to promote others content shouldnā€™t be punished for it as it helps your business with FREE SERVICE. Nintendo donā€™t take advantage of this in fact theyā€™re greedy when it comes to YouTube content. Ā Their policy on copyright on YouTube is that if you earn money from anything that has Nintendo content then that money HAS to go to them which is extremely ridiculous as the content promotes Nintendo’s content for free may I add and in the end Nintendo still get the money.
Overall I like how copyright gives credit where credit is due but I hate how some people take this and make it so other canā€™t enjoy their content, itā€™s not productive and it fact ruins their own product for the lack of notice or how hard it is to obtain.

  • Is itĀ possible to make anything new?

Technically no because but we do expand our new found discovers and make them better. Ā As ā€œTony Kushnerā€ says ā€œthe imagination canā€™t create anything new, can it? It only recycles bits and pieces from the world and reassembles them into visionsā€ I fully agree with this statement as anything you see in creative work has some resemblance of the real world or others work.
Now hereā€™s where I contradict myself. Consider the fact that these creations are technically new but the reality is that itā€™s different puzzle pieces to create a new image. For instance the game ā€œDarksiders 2ā€ is extremely similar to ā€œThe Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Timeā€ but one is very bright and happy and the other dark and gloomy, since ā€œDarksiders 2ā€ is newer thatā€™ll be considered as the unoriginal product. The thing Ā ā€œThe Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Timeā€ uses aspects that arenā€™t so original therefor making the game unoriginal. Overall the developers that made the game did make an original product as they use one another as an inspiration to create a good game and as I said before they used certain puzzle pieces to make one new image.

Overall you canā€™t create new content, in fact itā€™s impossible as thereā€™ll always be some resemblance to the inspiration.

 

 

Reflective Summary

Iā€™ve learnt a lot during this module and a lot of these topics have helped expand and opened new perspectives on how I can creatively think. These topics gave some insight on the game industry but felt like more philosophical opinions on gaming itself. For instance the topic ā€œAvant gardeā€ and how gaming is considered art. I found questions like this to be very opinion based and didnā€™t really help to understanding the gaming industry and how it works but it did allow me to understand the term ā€œAvant Gardeā€ and how the gaming relates to it.

The two topics I did find very interesting was ā€œOwnā€ and ā€œHuman and computer interactionā€. I felt that it related more to the gaming industry. The topics discussed about various things that not only the gaming industry but other industries have to work with but thatā€™s mainly copyright, with human and computer interaction it discussed how technology integrates with humans today which felt like it gave more insight on the gaming industry. The other topics felt like a philosophical discussion on how robots can take over the world or why gaming is art but this doesnā€™t mean that these topics were bad, as Iā€™ve said the other topics felt more opinion based so this allowed me to open up my perspective on gaming as a medium.

I found this module challenging as I was a little disorganized with the essays and wish to learn Ā from this experience. I also need to Harvard reference more to support my arguments. I could criticize myself on the amount I wrote but for one I donā€™t feel like I need to write load about some of the these topics and two If I Harvard referenced more or simply did more research then that way I could write more. Overall I think my main problem is my productivity and how much work I put into these weekly blog. Maybe I could make a schedule of sort to allow myself more time so I donā€™t procrastinate too much.

In conclusion this module has helped me realise skills that I need to implicate into my overall productivity when making not just my essays but my work in general. With the module itself I now have new knowledge and perfective thatā€™ll help me progress forward as a games design.

Reflective Summary

Overall looking back on the what I have learnt throughout this module I feel as though the lecture on artificial intelligence had the largest impact on my own opinion. Using what I learnt I believe this could help me move forward into learning about AI programming NPCs for games. AI is becoming a larger part of life as time goes on and is becoming more advanced but I initially I thought the consequences of this would be bad in the future. At first, I was not delving into the topic enough and only looking at the surface which was what I was being told by social media. A dystopian idea about AI had engraved itself into my head. However, looking back, I learnt that AI can be very helpful to humans. Looking at modelling for games, AI becomes an important part of making games seem more realistic and immersive. The best video games make the player feel as though they are truly part of the experience. Emotive modelling is a technique I learnt about during the lecture and research processes and how it is being used to help further video game capabilities. Emotive modelling is a technique that enables developers to capture the essence of emotion within an NPC. This is important because it gives players a connection to certain NPCs thorough feelings. This emotive modelling could be programmed for different situations thereby interlinking a relationship with a player on a virtual level. This has all impacted me on a serious level as I never thought that artificial intelligence could help to improve the video game industry at such a phenomenal level, advancing in modelling came as a big surprise because I didnā€™t know that AI technology was capable.

In addition, the lecture on history of indie and considering different developers and indie companies changed my mind. I never really thought of indie developers being one person and the scene becoming so large like it is in the market today, looking back I learnt a lot about the history in terms of how far indie goes back. Indie games can be traced back to the 1970s which is unbelievable when you think about how the term has only become mainstream now. These small teamā€™s indie teams are competing with large scale companies and beating them. Many smaller scale teams are becoming household names which helps to inspire me as a developer. The work of Jonathan Blow interested me the most because his success has come from such a small team of developers and his outlook on the game industry was like mine. Blow has a strong distrust in the cooperate greed of companies like EA and sees that many companies are going down a cooperate route i.e. microtransactions. Furthermore, Blow also believes that video games are an art form, this passion for design is something I look for as inspiration when Iā€™m developing. I think I resonate with statements and beliefs of Blow and hope to take these forward into my own work.

Sources

http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/ai-video-games-toward-intelligent-game/

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/the-most-dangerous-gamer/308928/

References

Norman, D. (1988).Ā The Design of Everyday Things.

Lebowitz, J. (2011).Ā Interactive Storytelling for Video Games.

Hudlicka, E. (2009).Ā Foundations for Modelling Emotions in Game Characters: MOdelling EMotion Effects on Cognition.

Terminal Bar

Terminal Bar is an award-winning American documentary short film directed byĀ Stefan Nadelman. It is about a bar located in the Times Square in United States of America.

The entire documentary revolves around the owner of the bar and various customers of that bar. One of the thing that makes the documentary interesting is how the bartender, shot over 1,500 black and white portraits during his ten-year stint there from 1972-1982, and how those portraits are used in creating a film. The entire content of the movie is basically made of stills, black and white portraits, short scenes/interviews, audio, newspaper information and write ups, this is the reason that it is very interesting to see how a short film can be created using just these things. All the information presented in the movie is clearly understandable because of the way all the elements are presented and the way the information is zoomed in/out which makes it easier for the viewers to understand the visuals. One of the other interesting thing about the creation of this documentary is how the entire audio used in the film is connected to the content from starting till the ending, also the audio totally represents the hustle bustle life of New York City.

This documentary is a perfect example of how a short film can be created by using a proper combination of audio and visuals. For my projects, I could use a similar process of creating a layout that is particularly based on stills and text.

Reflective Summary – Alex Low

Reflective Summary

 

Over this first part of my semester I have been set certain tasks to investigate different aspects of design. The first part of my project was to gather ideas from the barbican due its shape, form and architecture. When I first went to the barbican I didn’t find the place very appealing for inspiration, but it was a good start for my drawing skills for combining shapes. This has had an impact on my drawing skills for observation, patterns and shapes as well proportioning the design which is something I need to improve on. The second part of my project has had a good impact on my 3D design skills. The final outcome of my idea was to create a 3D model asset and by using primary research to develop my idea is an aspect of good design; ā€˜ā€™10 principles of good designā€™ā€™ -Quote by Dieter Rams who talks about each key principle about a good design…

 

  • Innovation
  • What makes a product useful
  • Aestheticā€™s
  • Making a product understandable, etc..

 

Innovation can be a key method in design, it incorporates a transformation in design which can have an impact on 3D design. By following a different area of 3D design could change how I do things differently in the future. One thing I could focus on on the future is how to use new methods with more original style, which would be helpful from my 3D modelling skills.

 

Saul bass – Ā a famous artist for typography and motion graphics. Typography is something that can be crucial in 3D design, as it is arranging the style and appearance of a certain shape/form of art. Motion graphics can teach me how to manipulate something in 3D into an illusion for animation. Although my skills are very limited in animation, it is also something I can improve on for 3D design purposes.

 

Limitations in drawing can be problem for me, using more innovative ideas can help improve my motivation for drawing more and making my designs more broader. At the start of my project I came with the idea of making a creature using Mudbox for 3D sculpting. When it came to the thought process my drawings didn’t give me enough to work with to establish a theme for my character and his overall form which then I came out with something very cliche which hadn’t had enough input into it.

 

ā€˜ā€™Is it possible to make anything new?ā€™ā€™ By identifying new resources to create an idea can be helpful. When observing a structure, think about the culture around it, itā€™s overall form and typography. When this research is introduced to a 3D asset it will look more original.

Ashley Toner RCS essay/blog

Bauhaus

What were the Bauhaus main ideas?

The Bauhaus is one of the most important modern art schools of the early 20 century. Initially when it first opened in 1919 the art school was shaped by the Arts and Craft movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This is shown by the romantic medievalism shown during the school’s early years. However during the mid 1920s this idea of romantic medievalism disappeared in order for the school to stress on uniting art and industrial design. The Bauhaus was also new and modern in the sense of pushing the ideas of liberal and applied arts in which led to itā€™s great amounts of influence on modern day art schools.

 

Does the Bauhaus influence modern game design?

The simple answer is well yes, the long answer is that due to games design being considered more of an art form, art schools in which the Bauhaus has the most influence are now starting up Game design courses teaching younger generations of designers and artist in the more creative and artistic side of the video game industry. The video game industry when it first started out had been mostly done by programmers and electronic engineers. This was until the late 1970s and early 80s when designers such as Shigeru Miyamoto started to make games like Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers. For the most part the Bauhaus and itā€™s modern way of teaching the arts and crafts will be a great influence on modern games design due to games design now being accepted as a form of art in which now is being taught as a creative art rather than just a form of computing.

 

 

Interactive narrative

 

The example i have chosen is the Kingā€™s Quest series due to the first game at the time was one of the first text adventure like games to be even more immersive with animations and graphics. King’s Quest is a narrative adventure game released in 1984 by Sierra online. The game itself plays like a old text adventure game only with graphics and animations. The key concepts of interactive narrative is to tell a story though giving players choice on how the story plays out. In the case of King’s Quest the game uses interactive narrative to take the player on an adventure though key commands and in some of the games a point and click navigation system.

 

For modern day gaming Interactive narrative i believe still has a place in video games. As of now games are being more accepted as an art form and along with newer technology game designers will be able to create games with the story as the main aspect. Actually itā€™s already starting to happen today, companies like Telltale games are dedicated to creating games with Interactive narrative in mind. Also companies like Activision have recently revived Sierra for the sole purpose of making Interactive narrative/ adventure games such as the new Kingā€™s Quest game created by developer ā€œThe Odd Gentlemenā€ and released in 2015. So in conclusion Interactive narrative is a very important genre of gaming that still thrives in the gaming market just by looking at the sales of Telltale games alone.

 

The Indie game movement

 

Why could you say that the ā€œIndieā€ game scene is not a new thing and explain, give examples ?

 

The Indie game scene as a whole was around long before 2008 when games like Braid and Super Meat Boy were either released or in development. The Indie game movement started near enough to the beginning of the Video game industry when you had electrical engineers like Steve Russell who made Space war the 1960s. Even companies who are considered to be huge companies now started out as what we would call today ā€œIndieā€, Activision for an example started out when 4 employees at Atari named Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, Larry Kaplan and David Crane, got sick and tired of the lack of credit they got from Atari for their games so decided to form their own company and publish their games on the Atari 2600. The Indie scene was also quite big during the 80s during the rise of PC gaming when games would come in floppy disks in little plastic bags, and all of these games like Zork and Kingā€™s Quest would then, going back to my earlier point with Activision these games would transform companies like Infocom and Sierra Online into bigger companies rather than just Indies. In conclusion the Indie game scene is definitely not a brand new thing instead being Indie is just a part of the gaming right from the very beginning and even companies that we would all consider to be these big and ā€œevilā€ corporations had their start as a small indie company.

 

Has the term Indie become meaningless?

The term Indie technically mean well independent. So basically the term Indie is not meaningless in terms of the video game industry Ā because Ā indie games are still operated independently from bigger publishers. The only thing with the term Indie being meaningless is that Indie gaming has grown to the point that the term ā€œIndieā€ can be overused to the extent that people could begin to feel that the term Indie can be meaningless. Although there are some ā€œIndieā€ games that use the term poorly like Ubisofts Ode Ā which is marketed as ā€œIndieā€ but yet is linked with one of the biggest companies in the industry. This is a great example of the term of Indie being overused as bigger companies like Ubisoft had been marketing their games as Indie when that really isn’t the case.

 

Human Computer Interaction

select one example to outline the key concepts of human-computer interaction. Reflect upon the role of the ā€œhumanā€, the ā€œcomputerā€ and the ā€œinteractionā€.

 

In terms of video gaming i will use the Nintendo Entertainment System from 1985 to help outline the key concepts of Human-computer interaction. The Nintendo Entertainment System when it first came out had given players a new design of a game controller for players, before the NES, games used joy sticks like on the Atari 2600 to control the characters in games. But the NES was one of the first home consoles to introduce the directional pad or ā€œD-padā€ for short. This gave players much more control for 2D games at the time and is still being used by modern consoles, which improved the Human-computer interaction for video games. The NES also had improved graphics and sound so then console games could add more complex storylines in games like the Legend of Zelda and Final fantasy just to name a few. Therefore adding more immersion for the human so they can feel like that they are part of the world that the designers had created.

 

discuss the relationship between games design and human-computer interaction

 

For the most part it would seem that the relationship between game design and human-computer interaction would seem to be the way that players uses the controls for the games that they play. Game genres will have different kinds of controls to fit the specific kind of game design. For an example adventure games like Monkey Island might use a point and click control system while games like a 2D platformer will use a D-pad and 1 or 2 buttons for the controls. Human-computer interaction is also used to help imerise the user in the game, say for an example a horror game like ā€œPTā€ uses sounds and the design to help the user be afraid during play like how the designers intended. If ā€œPTā€ was to say have more cartoony sound effects then if gives the user Ā unintended feelings that might make them laugh instead of screaming in terror. So in conclusion Human-computer interaction is a main and crucial part of games design as it is how the user interacts with the game is one of the first things that a game designer must think about during development.

 

A.I

 

Some definitions state that AI is when a system thinks/acts like a human and other definitions state that it is when a system thinks/acts rationally. Why do you suppose AI developers wish to hold up human intelligence as a standard rather than pure logic?

 

I think that AI developers desire to have AI with human intelligence due to the fact the pure logic is extremely flawed if we look into science fiction like Star Trek where a race known as the Vulcans who live with the mindset of pure logic had not been able to adapt to certain situations like a human character would. So if we look into this from that perspective AI needs to have some form of human intelligence so then A.Iā€™s can adapt to overcome any kind of situation an A.I could encounter.

 

A lot of people are scared by the prospective of AI. What do you think would be the ramifications of us achieving true “strong” AI?

 

The problem with a ā€œstrongā€ AI is that if we do create a intelligence that is similar to that of humanity then you had created something as flawed as humanity itself. Furthermore by creating something like a human then society itself will need to answer questions like what are the rights that a AI is entitled to? What kind of jobs do have an AI do ? And do we replace humans with these ā€œstrongā€ AI? Also I personally feel that there is not much of point of having a AI with human intelligence cause if we do create a ā€œstrongā€ AI then wouldn’t we make ourselves as humans redundant as an AI would have the intelligence of a human being but will also never age unlike a human, would also not need to eat, drink and sleep unlike a human being. By making something better than ourselves be just like a human we would then be replacing humanity itself and there would not be any much of Ā a reason for humans to exist. But most of all if we do create a ā€œstrongā€ AI these AIā€™s would be missing the ability to be unique in its own right. Every human is unique if we were to try and replace ourselves with a AI but the AI cannot replace us as people due to the uniqueness of every human being which is the one thing that a A.I would never be able to do. Instead we would create a clone army of AIā€™s that think exactly the same way.

 

Copyright in video games

 

What do you see as the positives and negatives around copyright?

Copyright in terms of using copyright for video games is a great way to protect your game to avoid competitors from effectively stealing your ideas. However as far as i know you canā€™t copyright a game design so if a game had a certain feature in the games design like a health bar you canā€™t just copyright a feature, you can copyright the content just not a certain part of the games design. However this could cause some problems in the sense of having a bigger company do what you are currently doing with a bigger budget and therefore giving the smaller creators a disadvantage. Copyright however can be abused by large organisations on small content creators on online sites like YouTube as these ā€œYouTubersā€ lose money that they make from these videos even though it all falls under the legal term ā€œfair useā€ in which has caused huge amounts of problems legally.

 

Is it possible to make anything new?

Making a brand new thing is difficult from the sense of when a designer or artist tries to develop ideas they take inspiration from either something in real life or from another artist, which makes things extremely challenging for something to come out these days and for people to say that itā€™s completely original rather than the piece of art or game being compared to some other product that is similar as creators might of had gone to the same place for inspiration.

 

Reflective summary

 

Throughout the module I felt that I had effectively made my opinion known and was able to argue my points with the research and knowledge that I had. However I do think that it was quite difficult to gather good enough research of my own. Overall i felt that the module questions were quite interesting and really had me thinking on how these topics could affect the video game industry as a whole. Although these questions i felt were mostly opinion based so it did make research difficult cause i didn’t want to just write about someone else’s opinion, so what i did was just had my research as simple explanations on the individual topics and my research was also just mostly on the examples i had used to answer some of these questions. Overall i felt that i had gained more knowledge and confidence on these topics and debating about them. However i did find trying to find research a bit more difficult.

 

References

 

Bibliography

Bungie, 2011. O Brave New World. [online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtG6–4r_qk&t=608s>

ExtraCreditz, 2016. The Copyright Dilemma – On Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents – Extra Credits. [online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XQdPGV1AJU>

Anon, 2016. G4 Icons Season 4 Episode 10 – History of the NES (2005). [online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zueuOYTZ1I>

G4Icons, 2012. G4 Icons Episode #5: Activision. [online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5reuUXssn4&t=190s>

G4Icons, 2012. G4 Icons Episode #6: Shigeru Miyamoto. [online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6voK6C10RRU>

Lumb, D., 2017. Ubisoft’s next indie game ‘Ode’ is out in the UK. [online] Engadget. Available at: <https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/27/ubisoft-s-next-indie-game-ode-is-out-in-the-uk/>

TEDxTalks, 2015. Solving real world problems through Human-Computer Interaction | Mandar Kulkarni | TEDxVITPune. [online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP4AWwp-5qY>

Yzzyxz, 2013. King’s Quest I playthrough (EGA version). [online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0TLhR51uGY&t=269s>

coldfustion, 2017. A.I. is Progressing Faster Than You Think! [online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQO2PcEW9BY>

Leo Steinberg , in his essay The Flatbed Picture Plane,1972, describes that certain artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg, Dubuffet and Duchamp started working on pieces that ā€˜tilt the pictorial planeā€™. Steinberg claims that the ā€˜tilt in the picture plane from vertical to horizontalā€™ is ā€˜the most radical shift in the subject matter of artā€™. Steinberg explains that before the 1950s we were used to seeing pictures as if we were looking through a window; ā€˜the picture as representing the worldā€™. He compares a new way of making pictures to the ā€˜flat bed printing pressā€™ as a metaphor to represent the two dimensional aspect of this new picture plane. Richard Serra, in his essay The Yale Lecture, 1990, explores ideas about site specific work and its fundamental relationship to its immediate environment, in contrast to modernist sculpture which ā€˜function critically only in relation to the language of their own mediumā€™. He goes on to discuss how art can be used by organisations to counter ā€˜cynicism of commercial and political manipulationā€™, and argues that it is the artists responsibility to speak out against this use of art for unethical corporate gain.

Both authors say that there was a shift in their respective areas of focus during the period around the 1950s.

En.wikipedia.org. (2017).Ā History of printing. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing#Flat-bed_printing_press [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Theoria.art-zoo.com. (2017).Ā The Yale Lecture – Richard Serra | ART THEORY. [online] Available at: http://theoria.art-zoo.com/the-yale-lecture-richard-serra/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Web.mit.edu. (2017).Ā The Flatbed Picture Plane. [online] Available at: http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/othercriteria.pdf [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].

Final Summary

Throughout the research and communication I feel that Iā€™ve developed my talents for analyzing an artistā€™s work. I believe that I look at artwork in a different way that before, such as previously I would see a piece and think about the way it was done, how they would have created it and what kind how art movement the artist would have followed, But now I have a deeper understanding of what this art represents and who did/ does effect and possibly inspire. For example the counter culture essay made me realize that the art wasnā€™t just about style or a fashionable trend to follow, but a symbol that fought against the way the system was running, anti war and a better way for the public to express how the people of there era felt, free, experimental and passivism.

I also revisited the artist Ai Weiwei that Iā€™ve done work on before and seen a few exhibitions that he had done, one in the RA in London and another exhibition in Greece. I love seeing his work mainly on the basis that the final result isnā€™t whatā€™s spectacular, although sometimes it is, but its what each piece resembles and his thought processes behind them is what really inspires me. I wrote about his dropping of the Han dynasty pot that I actually based a project on in my art foundation where I made a replica pot from clay then, purposefully, dropped it in a crit in front of my assessors to try and relive the scene, but that attitude in his art is what really attracts my attention because he had a one million pound pot thatā€™s two thousand years old and he smashes it for a cause that he was passionate about and a cause that needed a shocking piece of art work to show the public that it was a big issue. Although after researching him this time I realized that there is a totally other side to his art that people really dislike, and its his arrogance. I noticed that people looked at that dropping of the pot as not helping the cause he wanted to expose, but endorsing it and having no shame in destroying a historical artifact, also having a very violent approach towards it.

I feel that in conclusion the Research and development tasks have helped me creatively write and take time in researching every aspect of a topic and seeing every side to an art piece. Itā€™s given me a better understanding on how to be a better designer in many ways but to look at thing from different perspectives. After watching ā€˜the happy filmā€™ by Stefan Sagmeister in one of our early lectures I understood that to be a better that great graphic designer you have to open your mind to different experiences to really understand something and put yourself in situations that affect your standard thought processes in a way that challenges it, and personally writing isnā€™t my strongest asset at all in comparison to doing physical work but doing the research and development tasks has defiantly improved my ability to assess and write about artist work.