Year Two

Time Arts Final Project: Trapped

Finally! The last project of the semester! Like most final projects in art classes, this one was extremely broad in criteria. We could do anything we wanted from earlier in the semester, or even do our own thing. I’d had a lot of fun with the sound project, and I’d had an interesting conversation with our prof about the nature of sound, so I decided I’d go that route again. Only this time, with visuals!

My roommates had been playing a lot of Amnesia: The Dark Descent in the weeks leading up to this assignment. In case I haven’t mentioned it, I absolutely love video games, especially from an art/mechanics standpoint. I could write a whole post expanding on that, but suffice to say, Amnesia is a damn good blend of art and mechanics. The gameplay, more than anything, is designed to exploit our fear of the unknown. Much of the game world is shrouded in darkness, and while you can bring light into it, you can’t do so indefinitely, and are at many points forced to press onward in pitch blackness. You have to rely on your sense of hearing, and that’s when the terror really starts. You hear a snarl in the distance, and you know what it is - a disgusting half-human monster that wants to kill you - but you have no idea how far away it is, or if it can hear you. For all you know, it could be right around the corner, and if that’s the case, all you can do is run and hope the door at the end of the hall isn’t locked. Your “sanity” begins to fade, and colors invert, sounds distort, and movement becomes difficult. Your fear grows with the fear of your avatar, whether you want it to or not. It’s an incredibly visceral experience, completely unlike other shock and gore horror games I’ve seen. So I decided to make it my model.

I shot the footage first, hunting around campus for claustrophobic, dusty, forgotten places. The basements and attics of the oldest buildings provided excellent settings, as well as some of the concrete access tunnels between buildings. I played with the focus as I shot, trying to create a sense of unreliable first-person vision. I then strung together the best of these shots and began to craft a soundscape underneath it. I reused a lot of found audio from my previous assignment to create environmental noise, while layering vocal tracks from an online database over it for flavor. I also included a track of myself breathing at varying rates, to match the virtual “heartbeat” that plays throughout. All of these things were done to place the viewer within the video, to make the experience of the apparent protagonist of the film as internalized as possible. I wanted viewers to feel like they were in this confusing, dreamlike world of darkness and sound, pursued by an unseen entity who meditative drone is enough to strike paralyzing terror into its pray. That way, the viewer feels their grip on reality slipping as each vignette becomes more and more abstract and unsettling, until jarring disruptions in their sight and hearing make them unsure of their safety. When finally given a chance to escape, there is hope that the nightmare will end. But the drone proves to be an undefeatable force, and eventually the viewer succumbs to its roar as their vision fades and their bodies are no longer within their own control.

Your own experience may vary, but this was the experience I set out to create, and I believe that it works fairly well. I mean, I made the damn thing, and I still jump at parts. The depth of the audio didn’t translate very well to Youtube compression, but if you wear headphones, you ought to get the idea. Enjoy!

Time Arts Project 5: 5-Shot Study

For this project, we were given a list of 5 basic camera techniques - pan, slow zoom, depth of field, focal shift, and dolly shot - and told to create a film implementing these tools. I was inspired by the semi-musical documentary films we watched as examples (seeing examples ahead of time ALWAYS makes things easier, don’t think otherwise, professors) as well as by the incredible film Days of Heaven, which, if nothing else, has to be the single most beautifully lit movie in the history of cinema. I’m serious. Go watch it.

The Illini Marching Band Festival Championship (changed as of 2011) is an annual high school band competition at the University, one which I attended as a high schooler. It just so happened to be the week after this was assigned, so I quickly set about making preparations. I spent the morning roving about with my camera and tripod, trying to capture the scenes of tension and camaraderie that I remembered from those nervous minutes before taking the field. Then, in the afternoon, I was assigned to work at field level, so I brought my camera with me - without the tripod this time. Not wanting to alert security, who would almost certainly disapprove of me filming, I discretely filmed performances from near turf level, looking for complex visuals, intense expressions, and the general display of passion that every band, regardless of size, puts forth. I was impressed with the results of this “guerrilla camerawork” as my instructor put it. The final product not only showcased my understanding of filming techniques, but also was a loving tribute to one of my favorite hobbies - band!

Yay band!

Typography Assignment 4: Modular Type

FINAL PRODUCT

I give you… Whitechapel Narrow!

To give the typeface more character, I altered some of the geometry at play. I changed the “A” from a hard slant to a gentle curve. I then applied this shape to as many letters as possible, in order to give a steep, crested arch that rose and fell along the tops of the letters.

The cathedral-like nature of this font inspired its name, as did its vibe as something a death metal band might use (Whitechapel is a death metal band, apparently). Overall I’m pleased with the way it came out. I’m glad to have made one of the more unique typefaces in my class.

Typography Assignment 4: Modular Type

PROCESS II

The first iteration of the complete typeface was pretty solid, in my opinion. Putting it together was difficult - not because of its complexity (all I did was copy-paste in place-move with arrow keys), but because the number of objects each letter came to contain began to tax my computer terribly. Illustrator began to behave strangely, distorting objects and even turning off preview mode. Nonetheless, I pushed through.

This version reviewed fairly well. With some minor exceptions, it was formally sound and visually interesting. I still felt that it lacked character, so that was my goal moving into final revisions.

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion!

Typography Assignment 4: Modular Type

PROCESS I

Finally, some real type design! I was pretty excited to sink my teeth into this one. We were given an Illustrator file with a collection of geometric shapes in it and told to create a consistent system of type by repeating no more than two of the shapes. I was immediately drawn to the most unique shape on the page - three concentric arcs, forming a fourth of a circle. I began to play around with this shape, creating an interesting array of mandala-like patterns. What struck me about the shapes I was creating was how they could create positive space or diffuse it, based on their density. So, contrary to what I think was actually the intention of the assignment, I began to build a sort of chainmail-bitmap font. The first attempts, as you can see, were clunky at best. It obviously didn’t make sense to have such blocky, sterile letterforms made of such a graceful texture, so it was back to the drawing board to try and create type that not only used the shape, but reflected it.

More process to come!