Blog Post Week Two:

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Select One Example to Outline the Key Concepts of the Interactive Narrative Genre

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

The interactive narrative genre, is striving still today with the TellTale Games releases, Naughty Dog’s award winners or Quantic Dream’s immersive storytelling gameplay. To cover both of these questions I will be looking at “The Last of Us” by Naughty Dog, winner eleven different awards, including a BAFTA for Story and Best Game, to cover the genre’s role in video games today and the key concepts. However in terms of what makes the Interactive Narrative Genre, “If you were to ask a room full of writers, game designers, and English professors for the definition of “interactive storytelling,” you’d get quite a lot of different answers” (Lebowitz, 2011). So in reality there is no consensus as to what is or isn’t an interactive story, virtually everything is an interactive as long as there is interaction.

Storytelling

Unsurprisingly, an interactive narrative, should be designed to tell a story. This means, not to allow the key focal immersion to be shooting, looting or puzzle solving. Though the game could contain these, they shouldn’t be the focal point. The game’s existence must be to immerse the player inside a story driven universe. As mentioned prior, The Last of Us, not only did this but won awards and continues to be a favourite amongst many gamers, even a starting point for others: four years on. Using a heartfelt Father-Daughter connection between two mismatched characters, attempting to get through a world gone to hell, not only due to the infection that ravages the world, but also overbearing governments.

Thus the key aspect to this element, is that the story needs to be palpable. It must contain characters and settings identifiable to cause a connection between player and universe. As mentioned, the Father-Daughter connection between Joel and Ellie, within the game, portrays a story of two strangers landing in a situation that causes them to grow into a family, which is struck by haunting pasts and scarring current events that tug at the heart-strings with the growing dynamic between the two characters.

(Playstation, n.d.)

Interactions Need to make Narrative Sense

For true immersion in a narrative, a player’s actions must be connected to the important events within the game for example, any quick time events within the game which could be portrayed as any time a clicker or infected grabs you within The Last of Us.

(CBSNews, 2013)

Players must feel as though they have an active part to the story and not just being an observer. If none of the important story moments connect the player, they become ‘passive participants’ (McMullin, 2014). If the gameplay only consists of looting, then it doesn’t matter if the player spends 90% of their time interacting; they are not part of any of the key happenings, and their actions are then pointless. “Gameplay must be foundational to the narrative, not just a side activity while waiting for the next cutscene.” (FrictionalGames, 2017)

Also, players must be able to understand their role from their actions. If the player is supposed to be a detective, then this must be evident in the gameplay. Meaning you could still be swinging a sword and fighting demons, but as long as the story elements are there for you to know this is your role.

No Progression Blocks

Keeping players immersed within a narrative, they must be focused constantly on the story development. This doesn’t rule out making the game challenging, but it needs to be made sure that an obstacle doesn’t consume so much focus that the fluidity of gameplay ceases to continue. It must be remembered that the players are playing to embrace a story. If they get stuck at some point, focus can fade away from story and divert to progressing.

Overview

To look at it properly, even The Last of Us fails to do this sometimes, as do most Action based games. The closest to come to covering all of these major elements is Heavy Rain by Quantic Dreams or TellTale’s The Walking Dead. However, these games tend to fall flat on their Immersion into Narrative Sense. The only game I personally found to cover all aspects was Steve Gaynor’s ‘Gone Home’ even though your actions do tend to have little relevance to the core narrative.

References

CBSNews. (2013, February 9). Preview: The Last of US. Retrieved from CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/preview-the-last-of-us/

FrictionalGames. (2017). In the Games of Madness. Retrieved from http://frictionalgames.blogspot.co.uk/

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

McMullin, K. (2014, April 24). Passive vs. Active Participants. Retrieved from Collegewise: http://wiselikeus.com/collegewise/2014/04/passive-vs-active-participants.html

Playstation. (n.d.). The Last of Us Remastered. Retrieved from Playstation: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/games/the-last-of-us-remastered-ps4/

 

 

 

Blog Post Week One:

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Question One: What are the Key Components of Postmodernism?

To begin with we must first define ‘Postmodernism’, which on its own isn’t easily defined, and to quote one of my sources “its roots aren’t easily traced.” (Anon., n.d.) Most commonly it is used to describe architecture, art, technology and literature among many other aspects.  From what I have discovered, there are ten key concepts to postmodernism that is widely acknowledged by those who strive by philosophy. I decided to use the same titles as in my first source, they to me stood out as a good roundup of each point. I thought also to only discuss those of the most importance.

  1. Disillusionment with Modernist Thinking

Postmodernists seem to be unsatisfied with the world’s inability to achieve social advancement, acknowledgement and peace, so they challenge the conventional way of operating. Therefor the notion of truthful thinking is a “contrived illusion, misused by people and special interest groups to gain power over others”. (Anon., n.d.)

They challenge the unfulfilled promises of science, technology, government and religion.

 

  1. Opposition to Traditional Authority

Overall, to the postmodernist, authority is a danger and isn’t to be trusted. Authority figures are to be an opposition, due to their loyalty and trust to the establishment and rigid beliefs in moral truths. In terms of the origin of Postmodernism, you could look at the New Testament in the west (1650-1800AD).                         (Wells, 2006)

  1. Truth is relative

There are no objective truths. They are defined by groups of people who use them to attain power. One’s perception of reality doesn’t always match another person’s. For example, although you may view a person of the opposing sex as in a relationship based on their conventional indications of being taken, they may not see that themselves.

  1. Morality is Relative

There isn’t a moral system that is accurate for everybody. Traditional beliefs that have been accepted for centuries, fall secondary when people believe that truth is relative.

 

Question Two: What Games do you think Exemplify this in Their Design Decisions?

The first of the mentioned key points that stood out as apparent within a game, is the relativity in Truth. Within any game produced by ‘TellTale Games’, you have the option to choose your own path, to which the story will travel down. To paraphrase what they say at the start of all their games, the decisions you make, determine the story you take. (Dutertre, 2014)

Then when looking at the relativity of Morality, if you think of the game series “Infamous” by Sucker Punch Productions, you had ‘Karma’ which was affected by the decisions made by main the player, which then would later impact that characters positively or negatively, depending on how drastic the decision is. This can affect the end result either in a large or small way. It ultimately changes the way in which their powers develop, their appearance changes and the successive chain of events that happen within the story. For example, within the third instalment, “Second Son” you can either sacrifice your entire tribe or turn yourself in to the government, after you for your powers. This is shown in the below image, your back patch would change colour dependant on the type of choice you make.

(Pressure, n.d.)

References

Anon., n.d. All About Philosophy. [Online]
Available at: https://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/characteristics-of-postmodernism-faq.htm

Anon., n.d. Web Designs School Guide. [Online]
Available at: http://www.webdesignschoolsguide.com/library/10-core-components-of-postmodernism.html

Dutertre, S., 2014. Morality and Ethic System in Video Game. [Online]
Available at: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DUTERTRESimon/20140222/210687/Morality_and_ethic_system_in_videogame.php

Pressure, G., n.d. inFamous: Second Son Game Guide and Walkthrough. [Online]
Available at: https://guides.gamepressure.com/infamous3/guide.asp?ID=24793

Wells, D. F., 2006. Above All Earthly Pow’rs, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co..

 

 

 

task 9 & 10

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Ethical issues in fashion advertising has always been a huge concern. American apparel is one of the famous brands which is known for its extreme advertisement.

From the picture above, we can see that in this advertisement there is a young lady opened her legs towards to the audience in the setting of her own bedroom. Although there is a white block in the middle to cover the model’s private part, audience could still imagine that the young lady is showing her private part toward us. Clearly, the brand has an ethical issue of sexualizing women through this image. And I don’t really understand why are they trying to create the brand’s image above. It is disgusting to set up the advert in public where children and young generations can see it.

In my point of view, this picture isn’t an advertisement to me. Although she is wearing the tights, it is still not representing any advertisement to me. This image does not lead me to buy those tights which the model is wearing. As the whole image is more like a pornographic. And it doesn’t seem like they are targeting the right audience to advertise. As a young woman which is in their target customer, I would not like to buy clothes from this shop, as from the advertisement I feel like this shop is for sex lover or sex worker.

Also, from the image we can see that the model’s facial expression is serious. It might make people feel she is not happy about opening her lags and might be forced to do it. And this is another ethical issues needs to be concern from this advert. We would not know if the model has been forced to take the picture whether she is willing to do it. She might not be happy to do the job but only because she wants the money or other reasons. And this link to a sense of showing a message of women are not being protected.

However, Marsha Brady, one of American Apparel’s creative directors says: “[when]…there’s a group of people attempting to shame female creativity, female beauty, female pride under the auspices of protecting women, it’s really, really scary.” What Marsha meant is that people are viewing their advert in a wrong way.

Truly, this advert can be view in a different way, such as showing support to feminist.

As we can see from the picture that the model is pulling down her tights by herself. Which refers to women have a choice of showing off themselves, showing off their beauty. And the serious looking of the model may stand for the unbreakable faith of supporting feminist.

But I still do not agree American apparel to use such an extrema advertisement. The reason is they can’t assume that the audience are viewing the advert in the way that how they view. I believe there must be another better way to spread out the message as well as the brand.

 

 

Brugnoli-Ensin, Mia. “American Apparel: Sexist Or Liberating?.” Her Campus. N.p., 2017. Web. 29 Nov. 2017.

task 7 & 8

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Fashion as communication

Chapter 1 Taste, Fashion and The French Fashion Magazine

Sanda Miller

 

This chapter is about the philosophical aesthetics, art and the history of how fashion magazine have started in France and the way of how fashion magazine have developed and how it function.

 

First of all, aesthetics is a very personal thing to me, as different people have different aesthetics and I believe there won’t be other person would have the exactly same aesthetics as you but maybe only similar. From the chapter “philosophical aesthetics as a new branch of philosophy emerged during the enlightenment and to its enquiry was the concept of taste.”, I do agree that aesthetics is basically taste, however I don’t agree that it is a new branch of philosophy emerged as I think that aesthetics is something that is already there in your body when people were born, so I don’t really understand why is it a new thing to philosophy.

 

Then the writer has stated so much history of when and how the French fashion magazine have started, and how its target audience have transferred from upper class to a wider market where working women are also included. but I think the main thing that relates to fashion as communication is where the writer talks about fashion magazine editors’ aesthetics. They have to have a popular taste as they are the ones who directly affect the group of audience of the magazine. If they don’t have the same taste they may lose their audience but maybe will gain new readers as well. People’s aesthetics can easily affect by other, so fashion magazine’s editor is a very important role who can change people’s view on a garment or art piece. Their job is to lead people to like fashion and so they can help to lead a trend. Basically is something like “KOL” in Hong Kong, which stand for Key Opinion Leader, and they have a similar job as fashion magazine editors. The difference between them are KOL is independent, is like fashion blogger, they don’t publish magazine but facebook or instergram posts, and they earn money base on the number of Likes they get on the post. Fashion blogger do not have to have a common taste, they can have a unique aesthetics, however fashion magazine editor and KOL have to have a popular taste to keep their audience.

 

In summary, I don’t think that the writer had talk so much on the topic of fashion as communication. He stated too much history background but didn’t really discuss how taste and fashion communicate. As I think fashion can really communicate to other. The clothes or the style of you wear shows your personality. In everyday life, I can say that nearly everyone will judge you base on the clothes you wearing. People wear differently for different occasions. That’s why people will wear formally for interviews. He could have talk about fashion magazine shows different clothes and style, which means, reader can always get ideas and inspiration for their own style, and this is what communicant to others in real life, and not just between editor and reader.

 

task 5 & 6

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Alexander McQueen AW17 by Sarah burton

medieval needlework from 16th 17th century

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/AlexanderMcQueen/alexander-mcqueen-aw17-medieval-embroidery/

“V&A.” Victoria and Albert Museum. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

COULEURS. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

“Attributed To Richard Peake The Elder, Catherine….” Marie Antoinette’s Playhouse. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

 

old alchemy illustrations, druid symbols and Cornish wildlife rendered in black and silver beads and glass stones.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/AlexanderMcQueen/alexander-mcqueen-aw17-mystical-cornwall/

“The Heart In Art.” The Public Domain Review. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

“PAST EVENTS.” The Light & Shadow Salon. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

“Wild Unknown Tarot.” SheWalksSoftly. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

Nodding to the ancient traditions of Cornwall, the new season draws inspiration from pagan landscapes, creative communities and the spirituality of the Cloutie Tree. These trees are places of pilgrimage, where travellers tie colourful ribbons to represent their wishes and dreams

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/AlexanderMcQueen/alexander-mcqueen-the-box-bag/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/AlexanderMcQueen/alexander-mcqueen-aw17-the-cloutie-tree/

Jones, Tom, and View profile. “Rather English – Visit Madron Holy Well.” Tiredoflondontiredoflife.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

“Boscawen Un.” The Megalithic Portal. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

“England | Trotterz.” Trotterz.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

Sarah Burton (designer of Alexander McQueen) has always had an affinity of nature and for tuning into history. This time she took she team to Cornwall. They were inspired by the Cornish wildlife, old alchemy illustration, druid symbols, landscape and Cloutie tree.

In the collection, a lot of medieval needlework techniques and patterns from the 16th 17th century were used. The garments are very textile based. And I thing this Phoenix portrait of Queen Elizabeth by Nicholas Hilliard could be one of the reference they may have looked at.

As we can see both of the garment have pattern base in diamond shapes and nature element in it. They were both made with similar stitches and techniques. Both with luxury beads and jewels. However, Sarah designed the garment with different nature elements in the diamond shapes, where the Queen’s had a repeated pattern on she dress. Looking both image in detail, you can also find out another common thing of them, which is the model had her hair tighten in the front and I believe that they have this idea from the 16th 17th century fashion. Since I can see from the image, that the queen has heavy jewel on her chest. But a heavy jewel maybe too much for the McQueen’s look so I think that is why they have decided to tight models hair at the front.

From all the things suggested above, I am strongly believing that this image of Queen Elizabeth portrait by Nicolas Hilliard could be one of the reference Sarah Burton and her team have looked at for the Alexander McQueen AW17 ready to wear collection.

Doing this task allows me to have a chance to understand the concept and where the idea comes from for a collection. This make me clearer about the research process of designing, which would help me in the future.

 

“Portraits Of Queen Elizabeth The First, Part 2: Portraits 1573-1587.” Luminarium.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

Mower, Sarah. “Alexander Mcqueen Fall 2017 Ready-To-Wear Fashion Show.” Vogue. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Dec. 2017.

 

 

task 3 & 4

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Bullis, Douglas. Fashion Asia. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000. Print.

“Traditional Chinese Clothing: History, Types, Features.” Travelchinaguide.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 2 Nov. 2017.

Jiang, Yaling. “Shanghai Fashion Week 2017: Minimalism, Food, Ancient China, And Other Themes And Trends – Supchina.” SupChina. N.p., 2017. Web. 2 Nov. 2017.

This book is about introducing fashion designers in different area of Asia, and as I look through it I found that quite a lot of the designer love to bring in elements of traditional fashion into their designs. As a Chinese myself, I decided to research more about the traditional clothing of China as we have a very rich history of fashion in different dynasty, and although we wear modern clothes in our daily lives, we still wear traditional clothes during certain festival and special event, such as wedding day and Chinese new year.

The most well know fashion are the Chinese suit(Tang Zhuang) and the cheongsam(Qi Pao). I think that the Chinese suit in the first design which has combined the western and the Chinese fashion, as it is based on a western style suit with straight collar and buttons down the front design. It is a really simple design but very elegant as well. For the cheongsam it is originated from the Manchu female clothes, and it is then developed in straight collar, strain on the waist, coiled buttons and slits on both sides of the dress. It is usually made from silk, cotton and linen.

To find out more about fashion designer combining traditional and modern fashion, I found a news article of Shanghai Fashion Week 2017: minimalism, food, ancient china, and other themes and trends. This article introduced Chinese fashion designers who taking over the Shanghai fashion week are those who have been study overseas, but they are not only returning in physical sense, they are returning to the home culture and history. My favorite designer from this article is Kate Han which is the founder of MUKZIN. In the ss2018 collection, it is based on Mukzin imagines world called “Chaos of mountains and seas” where the Chinese classic story Shan Hai Jing meets Jurassic World. The garments have small element of traditional clothes and big parts of 3D prints and textures. I really like this collection as I think Kate have successfully given traditional Chinese costumes a modern twist.

task 1&2

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women in garment designed based on traditional style, book chapter “Indonesia”, designer Ghea Panggabean, photographer unknown

Bullis, Douglas (2000) Fashion Asian, Thames& Hudson, London

 

 

Alexander McQueen ss2005 collection, Paris, October 8, 2004, source by Vogue, Sarah Mower, photographer unknown.

https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2005-ready-to-wear/alexander-McQueen

primary source found on this VOGUE website of Spring 2005 ready to wear

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-alexander-mcqueen-savage-beauty/about-the-exhibition/

information of the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition on the V&A webside

 

Information of McQueen inspirations of the collection

more detail information of the collection on the met museum website

http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/ensemble-its-only-a-game-2/

I have found an image of women in garment designed by Ghea Panggabean, which are in pink tone and a sense of tradition feel. This made me think of the McQueen ss2005 “it’s only a game” collection where he has combine Japanese kimonos and American football uniform. They both adapted traditional design into a modern design, however McQueen also mixing two culture together. They have a pink tone in common of the designs. But Panggabean’s designs are more wearable where McQueen’s are more alike a costume or art piece.

 

To find out more about the “it’s only a game” collection, I put the name of the collection into google and I found the vogue website has all the image of the collection, but the writer, Sarah Mower comment mostly about the ready to wear collection, not those few garments that interest me the most. So I decided to go onto the V&A website and see if I can find any information about the collection since I have been to the Alexander McQueen: savage beauty exhibition at the V&A. However, there isn’t much detail about it. Then I went on to the met museum website to search for more information as the McQueen’s Savage Beauty exhibit is originally started from the MET Museum. Luckily, I found more information about it and also the concept of the “it’s only a game” collection.

McQueen’s inspirations of the collection are from Edwardian lace, Japanese kimonos, American football and Latin American. The runway show is around the idea of a chess game between America and Japan. Each ensemble corresponded to a particular chess piece. Which this idea of human chess was inspired by the first Harry Potter novel, the Philsopher’s Stone.

In the process of researching, I have started from Ghea Panggabean’s designs to Alexander McQueen’s “it’s only a game” collection. I have discovered how one image can convey to such a wide range of other things can be related or have a link to it. I love how I can think of an object that is related straight away when I saw the first picture, and I think this allows me to have a chance to research more information in depth of something that I’m interested but have not had any chance to know about it.

To find reliable information and useful online resources for fashion, I like to go on museum website, fashion magazine website such as VOGUE and trends website like WGSN. Official site like these will always provide archive and information which are reliable.

Task 7 // Histories of Art

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Steinberg discusses about a shift in the picture plane from the “old Masters practice of using of devises to draw attention to the art. On how the conception of the picture is representing a world with a human posture. He talks about the works of Rauschenberg, Duchamp and Dubuffet, how they still hang them on wall. Richard Sierra’s text is about removing the piece from the site specific and talks about working outside the studio surround by Urbanism and Industry. He discusses using the knowledge, skills and capabilities of a mill, plant or fabricator making his work.  How the concept of site specific sculpture has nothing to do with opinion or belief. Similarity is that both authors talk about that there was a shift in their individual areas of focus during that time around the 1950s.

Task 12 The Matter of Time 1994-2005

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Richard Serra’s 8 sculptures that make up The Matter Of Time 1994- 2005 carry so much impact because of their monumental scale. Unlike Rachel Whiteread’s casts, The Matter Of Time are not on a human scale and so to reduce them down to smaller than human height would remove the epic proportions that make the an experience not just a sight. At 2 feet tall they would be a set of sculptures interesting for their material and design like other small pieces, purely aesthetic interest. At a few feet tall or even a single foot tall, I would choose to increase the number of sculptures in the set (possibly by using multiple of each of the 8) so that the pieces covered a large area of floor. The more elaborate miniature landscape like texture this created would be seen from above. This would reinstate more of an experience to the collection as viewers would be in a sea like arrangement of sculptures and could appreciate the collective shapes form above rather than the construction from within.

Photogapher unnamed (date unspecified) Guggenheim. Available from: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/21794 [accessed 6/12/17]

Task 11 Blog Reflection

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The blog has allowed me to practice key analytical skills from analysing and reflecting upon my own work to comparing past and contemporary works and analysing features of art history and the impact of social change in the art world. Similarly I have learned more about views of art history and political effect on art of which I was unaware before. Although politics still does not inspire my own practice particularly, some ideas of Raschenberg  which I had not heard before are an interesting start point in to more research. I am excited to continue exploring the library resources. As the blog has reminded me how to analyse images and how to review exhibitions, I have gone over again how, and what, I think about my own practice and the art world at large. My own practice shifts slightly with everything I learn but I become more certain of the key parts with each task. For example, after using the blog I am still sure that hand written notes are more useful for me in terms of reflection because the physical process of writing becomes part of the reflection and allows me to more freely and accurately map out my thoughts.