Retrieved from https://www.last.fm/music/Toby+Fox/+images/04d2d6cee198269c0a379ed6c33af038
Toby Fox
Toby Fox is an indie video game developer, and created works such as Undertale and Deltarune. He is also a music composer, where his songs are featured in Homestuck, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and Pokemon Sword/Shield, as well as his own games.
He first started fiddling around with Earthbound mods in middle school, before helping to compose music for Homestuck in his senior year of high school. His first big break was in 2015, when he released Undertale. followed by Deltarune’s first chapter in 2018. Currently, he is working on the 2nd chapter of Deltarune.
His most popular piece of work, Undertale, that was released in 2015 and celebrated its 5th anniversary just a couple of weeks ago. It is a roleplaying indie game made entirely by Toby Fox, including music and script, with the help of Temmie Chang for art and design. The game sold over a million copies and has been ported to many other popular consoles such as the Nintendo Switch and PS4. It has also been nominated for multiple awards and has won several as well, and Undertale still remains a popular game-changing work even after 5 years.
Retrieved from https://store.steampowered.com/app/391540/Undertale/
To explain briefly, Undertale is an “RPG where you do not have to destroy anyone”, as mentioned in its description on Steam. Testing its player’s morality, you get to choose between being everyone’s friend, or a serial murderer. The story is greatly affected by the player’s decisions, and has a high playability rate with layers of story that only unfold with certain actions that can only be achieved on rare occasions.
Undertale is very simple visually, sporting an 8-bit style but its vivid storytelling, effective use of music and leitmotifs adds a whimsically musical vibe to the whole experience. For my FYP, and on a whole, I have always liked the concept of alternate universes and other worlds. Undertale fits this role perfectly, and adds a fairytale touch to it that has touched many people, including myself. While it does have a pretty linear narrative of a game, anyone can enhance their experience by digging around forums and files to fit their own narrative and perception of the game. Its simplicity is a charm on its own, and makes me aware as a creator that I had to show and not tell what I wish to portray in my art. As a solo creator, I admire Toby Fox for what he has done to inspire the world of role-playing games after his creation of Undertale.
Theme/concept: One of my visual communication projects had been about “what if our mental defense mechanisms became physical”. This time I wanted to see what the brain was in comparison to animals. The human brain is one of the most powerful “beings” on Earth, but even then, wildlife can always beat us with their physical prowess. What if the brain can manifest itself into a stronger form, one not limited by our flesh and bones? What if we were like the octopus, who can move around rather skillfully and effortlessly? Or the jellyfish, brainless, but yet so beautiful? I think this concept gives a very ethereal feeling, and I probably want to do a transition. Think of animorphs but like, visually sexier.
Theme/concept: I first heard of the term transhumanism through the MARVEL show, Agents of Shield. Transhumanism is basically the theory that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, especially by means of science and technology, even to the point of becoming immortal. I felt like that could potentially be the “super nature” of the future. Where humans just decide to evolve and enhance themselves past what nature could have offered, a selfish desire to be more than what was given, and maybe the narcissism to be immortal and super through technology that only humans could be able to achieved as a species.
Theme/concept: Dungeons and dragons is a role-playing board game that are mostly given medieval fantasy settings, and there are usually interesting races that obviously do not exist in real life (e.g. Dragonborns, Elves, etc.) or monsters that have adapted from nature (e.g. Owlbear, plant-related monsters, etc.) I think it made me really like nature and adventure a lot, because it was such a bizarre alternate reality, like what if nature took over and was bigger than life, what if the floral and fauna evolved faster than humans and could trick and outplay them. Many jobs have arisen from this infinite pool of new diversity, and many would go into research or gold-mining in dungeons, which results in a lot of new discoveries.
I think I have a lot of explaining to do, considering how different my project has become since the mid-term analogue version of it.
After many consults with the two professors, I changed my idea completely. I was told to look back at my concept: the idea of having a personal space intruded by someone else, some other thing. The being becoming uncomfortable because of this intrusion. Then I was told to go back and think about it.
I thought a lot about it. I came up with several observations, over the one week I was told to do so. Here were some of my observations, and ideations.
times when my/someone’s personal, private space has been invaded/compromised
mother complained about having a gym-mate that could not stop asking about invasive questions
“What’s your weight? What’s your husband doing?”
having negative thought processes most times of the day
voices/thoughts that prevent productivity/sleep
sleep paralysis
dark shadows, being unable to move but they get closer
sitting on the bus and having someone jab their shoulder/butt into your space
your friend who wants to look at your phone/laptop and asks what you’re doing
potential ideas:
some voice that keeps asking very personal questions. maybe starts to question existence??
was inspired by the one project with the two heads that talk to each other
alternatively, a voice that talks about potential harm coming to participant’s way → still relatively intrusive and something I experience to a milder degree (e.g. people are out to hurt you, kill you, computers have minds of their own etc.)
Initial idea of how it can be implemented:
Have to cover ears so the voice “speaks to you clearly”
OR have them always heard, kind of like angel and devil in most stereotypes
Or have a “being” that asks about your day in the most intrusive ways
Kind of like a pet but not really
creating a dark space similar to a tent maybe, and projecting human-like shadows (to mimic sleep paralysis)
participant “sleeps” in tent, and there are projections of things moving towards you during every flash of light??
if they move it moves faster?? idk
the annoying kid that keeps getting into your space:
As you can see, I was very lost. I had a lot to think about, and there was so many things I could have done. But I was very lost. I did not know what to do at all. But one thing that I felt most deeply for was having intrusive thoughts. I mean, I think about it all the time, because they are my thoughts. I cannot get rid of them. Intrusive thoughts ruin people and they’re the most uncomfortable thing to have on your very being, unless there’s some third-party forces/the supernatural we’re dealing with here. I thought it was a pretty good start.
So I decided to work on that. And at first I was like, oh darn, do I have to try to squeeze in months of learning processing and arduino into like three weeks? But I realise I could do things as long as they are digital. And Prof Kristy reminded me about Janet Cardiff’s audio walks.
So I wanted to do a project where I would create a video tour within ADM, with a voiceover that asked questions that were more and more uncomfortable.
Process
My to-do list:
Schedule each week’s progress
Route
Actors
Narration
Storyboards
Things I considered:
Route: Create a route around ADM that the person will have to walk to. Do they walk into rooms? Do they walk up and down stairs?
consider that a lot of places might not be accessible to people (if they have to tap card), wait for things to happen etc. → so lifts and rooms are a bit harder
start → sunken plaza (near staircase to canteen 2) → basement → walk down the corridor → vending machines → walk up the stairs to the lounge → lounge → walk to the lobby and have a moment there → walk upstairs via stairs → stay at the bridge to the other classrooms → go down the corridor to the handicap toilet → have a seat → leave → back past the bridge to the 3rd level, and then to the fourth
[after 29/10 check] too long, it took 11minutes just to reach 3rd floor, and even then I was already rushing. Might be too long an experience/too rushed
Decided to stay within basement and level 1!!
START → sunken plaza (Maybe stay longer) → indoor basement, corridor → vending machines → walk up Stairs→ lounge → down stairs→ left past the doors to sunken plaza → END
Actors: Think about how actors will interact with the video? Are they going to be present during the actual day of interaction when participants move around?
Decided to not use actors because everyone is busy. ):
Narration: what kind of poetic narrative and thoughts should go into this? How much intrusion is there? theme: your inner voice who speaks to you, narrates a situation
Decided to use own voice.
NARRATIVE
thing to take note: make sure there are questions that get increasingly more uncomfortable in nature
Questions I can ask:
Are you from this school? How old are you?
Why are you here?
Why did you decide to come here? (Before name question cuz its weird right)
What’s your name? Where’s your name from?
Let’s be closer friends. Do you have many friends?
Did you choose to have friends?
How are you feeling today?
Are you an indoors or outdoors person?
What are you? Are you single?
What do you like about yourself/what do you not like about yourself?
Isn’t there something better you could be doing?
What’s the worst thing you have ever thought of doing to someone?
Ever thought of how babies are so fragile, and that if you wanted to, you could break them?
Have you ever wanted to leave your loved ones?
If the world ended what would your last words be?
Would you rather live your life as if there was no god and find out that there is, or live as if there is a god and it turns out there isn’t?
When you think of yourself, do you imagine that you are your body, or that you’re in your body?
In the light of eternity, how significant is this present moment?
If life is so hard, what are you comparing it to?
Are you happy?
Would your life have been different if ___
FINAL SCRIPT
Hello.
-turn on screen-
You’re new to me.
We seem to exist in the same universe, but unlike you, I am a mere whisper.
Do you see what I see? Think of me as your thoughts. I am you and we share the same view. Look up like how I do.
A beautiful place, isn’t it. I sometimes forget that it is a school.
Are you from this school? How old are you?
I’m interested to know more about you. Why don’t we take this time to be closer? While I am connected to you, and you, to me.
Let’s take a walk, shall we? Follow where I go.
How are you feeling today?
Stop.
Look down.
The water is still. There are usually dead insects and birds in here. I have heard of it happening, seen of it happening right in front of my eyes. Have you? Seen the birds crash into the windows, and drop down to their deaths?
Lucky creatures. Captured by the beauty in glass and to experience death so easily after.
To fly in circles, momentarily lost in spiralling doom before they either live or die. Have you ever felt that?
Turn to your right. Let us go indoors.
[sunken plaza → basement indoors]
Are you an indoors or outdoors person?
Turn to your left and walk ahead to the lockers.
Now it looks like a school, doesn’t it? I think the lockers help.
A place of learning. A place to make friends.
Don’t mind the people. I am here.
I hope you are not in a rush to end this conversation. You have me.
Do you have many friends?
Fate has much to show us. I don’t think fate has ever been unkind. It has been giving, and giving, and sometimes we decide we have had enough of fate. We decide to take matters into our own hands.
Like a vending machine we have the choice to pick.
You see the elevators. Turn right and face the machines like I do.
Stop.
[corridor → vending machine]
…..
You get so many choices. Every action you take is a new chance at fate.
Drinks. Snacks. Sandwiches. A big variety.
Do you get to pick favourites? I like to stick to the same snack when I have to choose.
You pick a button, and it gives you what you asked for. The choice is yours.
It’s so easy, isn’t it?
But what if fate doesn’t give?
What if you don’t have the chance to encounter fate?
How pathetic.
Doesn’t that make your life meaningless?
That’s funny to think about, don’t you think?
Do you have a reason to be here?
What are you?
….
Let us walk past the elevator.
To your right. Walk forward.
Turn left.
Big benches. Bigger tables. They’re filled with people. None of them are your friends.
Weird looks. Life is awful. You want to die.
…
Turn left. There are stairs. Go up.
….
Effort to keep up with the times. Just like climbing the stairs.
Each step feels heavier than the other. Effort to maintain some semblance of a social life. Missing a step means risk of losing it all, tumbling down.
…
Ever thought about disappearing for a day?
Ever thought about having a kiss with death?
Or maybe…
Something more intimate?
….
“Kill me”
Such a common phrase here. You hear this phrase way too often, say this phrase way too often. It comes out like vomit, vile and useless, but it makes you feel at least 3 percent better.
Why not try saying it?
Kill me.
Does it take away the weight of climbing?
Well, whatever the result was, we’re at a new place.
A place for lounging. Where people sit and relax with their friends.
A place you would not have seen if you died.
Shuffle over to the left. Stop.
…
[lounge]
What do you not like about yourself? Tell me.
Do you ever feel like you have to change those parts of yourself? Get rid of the raw, unpolished parts so you could shine better?
Have you ever heard this phrase? Maybe like my voice.
You’re not good enough.
You’re not good enough.
You’re not good at all.
Humans are all social creatures. We can’t avoid that. Being human means wanting others to like you.
Do your friends like you?
How did you meet your closest friends?
Why are you here?
Are you my friend now?
Let us move. Go back down the stairs.
[go down the stairs]
Let’s go outside. To your left.
Are you an outdoors or indoors person?
Turn to your left.
It sounds like rain.
It feels like rain.
Is it raining now? (Jarring rain bg)
No matter. We still have to continue our journey, rain or shine.
We’re back outside. How do you feel now?
Are you happy?
…
I hope you’re not.
You must be wondering, is there an end to this cycle. There is, you can take off these headphones. But what if I’m stuck with you?
I don’t think I know you.
You’re new to me.
-black screen-
Hello.
[Loop]
Final Video
Here’s a video of Prof Kristy experiencing the whole thing.
Personal comments:
It was very cringe-worthy recording myself. I also had problems figuring out what kind of tone I wanted to put into my words. I wasn’t an actor by nature so that was already hard on its own, and to put thought to actual words was even harder, but I think it was a good journey to experience as the creator of this piece of work. There was also a lot more that I could put into it, quality-wise. The pacing was probably a little off, and Biju said my draft recordings were actually better in terms of emotional quality. And I felt that my video quality was probably not the best, even though I did take the video several times in an attempt to better time it, and also better audio but hey, we all start somewhere I guess.
It was nice watching the professors walk around with the phone it was a very different experience watching someone try to embody you. I think it was a very experimental piece for me. While I feel like there’s a lot that I could improve on, and that it was generally, very attached to me as a project, compared to what I did for mid-terms, I feel refreshed knowing that I, probably rather literally, stepped out of my comfort zone.
Now all that is left is for it to survive the end of semester showcase. To be honest, it makes me not want to show my face around school anymore, given how much I put myself into my work, but I hope some people won’t find it cringey.
During week 8’s mid-term, I presented my idea of different emotions being evoked while being in the toilet. Before getting approval for the space (a handicap toilet on the 2nd level of ADM), I had wanted to do something that made somebody uncomfortable while they were in the toilet. However, given the limitations that I was only allowed to use the toilet for a few hours within the day itself, I was rather restricted with what I could set up, and I was also concerned about the level of hygiene if I had to make people interact with things within the toilet. I decided to make use of the walls instead, since they were probably more acceptable than using the toilet bowl itself, or the floor.
While thinking up of ideas, I thought about using images to create small windows to an “outside world” which might counter how a toilet is used, since most of the time they are meant to be a private space. I also wanted to look into how different imagery could make a person think differently, and evoke different emotions, resulting in various windows on every wall that depicted different scenes, something I’ve learnt from Yi Fu Tuan’s Space and Place, when he talks about direction.
I made a variety of different settings, planned beforehand, and then pasted them across the walls. The next few images will be what the final product looked like.
Comments I have received during the presentation that I took into consideration to improve the next part of the project:
There were too many different things going on – so rather than create an experience where each wall evoked an emotion, it just made people confused and overwhelmed instead.
To concentrate on one variable of wanting to make someone “uncomfortable” rather than a variety of other emotions.
To use fake cameras to instill the sense of vulnerability.
To use spotlights and sensors (when someone sits down they activate the lights, think of lights, cameras, action).
To have a webcam show feed of part of the toilet, showcased on the outside.
For project 1: analogue, I decided to go with my toilet sorter idea. To quickly recap, I wanted to look into the psychology of how someone would pick a toilet cubicle, and the project made people pick dirty toilets as a show of “movement without the body being there”.
I felt that there was more to it than just movement, and that toilet-picking was really something that I find rather amusing, and tried to think about other ways that toilets were good representations of human behaviour.
I found this piece of work done by a Hong Kong artist, showing a similar versus system between Chinese and Hong Kong culture.
Retrieved from https://coconuts.co/hongkong/news/graphics-showing-why-hong-kong-not-china-shared-widely/
As seen above, these are all comparisons between two countries, be it the way they write, behave on public transport, and well, use the toilet. It showed a lot of behavioural aspects between two countries just from simple illustrations, and I wanted to think about how by showing toilets instead, what kind of behaviour would people show and perceive these toilets?
My analogue project will basically look like this:
Two stacks of paper will be printed with different toilets. This will still work similarly to the project I have mentioned previously, where there will be an eventual “winner”. But along with this I have added an additional element.
Participants must do the following:
Tear off the toilet cubicle they prefer.
Flip to the other side where there is a quick survey.
Give the reason for picking that toilet, and to also rate the toilet based on how satisfied they would be with using the toilet.
Drop it into the box provided, so that I can collate the result winner of the day.
This not only gives participants a chance to pick, but also to reason why they picked their option. They also get to rate the toilet that they have picked, based on satisfaction, cleanliness, whatever they wish to rate it on. This is based off how we have little tablets in fancy toilets to rate how the cleanliness is like.
So why rate toilets that are already obviously dirty? While it is probably redundant to ask for a rating from toilets that are probably all inherently dirty, it would be to question the psychology of choice, and also, the paradox of choice.
The paradox of choice talks about having anxiety over too many choices. In fact, if you do research on the psychology of less choices, you get a lot of articles talking about how less is probably more. The reason why choice is always such an important thing, in marketing for example, is that it gives consumers the perceived control that they feel is necessary when making decisions. I thought it was a pretty interesting read into things, given that I was just mostly talking about toilets and their cubicles, but it reads into that as a question to participants: Which toilet would you pick? You only have two choices. But are either of these choices really worth it? Am I, as the person giving you the choice, really giving you a choice between the two? Is there a state of control? Are you really happy picking the toilet you have picked, when evidently, both are dirty? These questions can only really be answered by the individual, and probably based on their level of immersion and comfort.
Happenings | Disappearance at the Bar Gallery, felt like a trip to another world. And I do not mean in a good or bad sense, but rather, just an odd one. I had brought a friend from outside of school along to witness the performance, and upon arrival, spent the majority of it trying to point out things that were happening, with zero context to anything beforehand. I had been hoping that the piece would be self-explanatory when I arrived, but it was the opposite, and an hour was spent trying to guess its complicated message. Were we trying to call upon aliens with the soundwaves? Were we questioning technology based on how static works?
Dude walking around with his tons of static-causing items. On the right is the installation “Disappearance”.
To be honest, I did not even realise that the tables were supposed to be an artwork. I thought it was just a fancy decision to put them there as a place to rest, and perhaps have a bit of a snack. It was only until class the following week that I realise it was based off an exhibition by Lee Kang Soo called “Disappearance” in 1973.
“Unlike other performance art pieces at that time, Disappearance was completed with the participation of the audience. It was an artwork that overturned the boundary and position of the artist and the audience.
While exchanging glasses between the two of us at a lukewarm bar without any customers except for us, my gaze stayed on the wooden table and chairs. It seemed as if I was listening and seeing the sound of many people and an illusion full of smoke from cigarettes. The traces of rubbing off countless cigarettes on the table and chairs, burnt marks made by hot pots, and incessant mopping by the worker at the bar – all these seemed to make noises together. But all of this disappeared at once. I was there, and my senior was sitting in front of me, but we were there and not there at the same time. I could not prove it precisely. I could not be my senior sitting in front of me, and he could not be me. The bar I was experiencing could not be the same as the place he was encountering. Where were we?”
By buying the chairs and tables of said bar, he had wished to recreate the bar experience, the intimate experience of drinking with his senior, to the gallery in 1973. He basically wanted anyone to sit there for the art to work, an opportunity for the audience to share a memory that was private, from a specific, intimate place.
So in what way was this related to INTER-MISSION and Happenings? How did they co-exist in the same space? I look into INTER-MISSION’s about page to better understand their motive in creating art. They call themselves “an art collective dedicated to discourses of technology in art”, inhabiting the gap between technologically engaged artworks, artists and audiences. They also build “transnational networks to promote sustained dialogue and engagement with media practices, encouraging collaboration, reflection and participation in our ever-changing technological environment through interactive performances, etc.”.
I started to think a little deeper into this, maybe they were finding the ghosts of Lee Kang Soo’s imagination? One of them had been holding tons of recording or sound-making things; the one with the mask. He had also started walking around, putting his arm up to the audience at the Bar, which in response would cause more static noises to come out of his headphones. It felt odd, but being a fan of dumb supernatural shows, static was often used in this context to look for ghosts, in order to communicate with them. Was INTER-MISSION searching for this intimate memory? Was INTER-MISSION maybe instead questioning this intimate memory? Who knows?
One of the dudes with a camera to his face, which is projected out onto any surface in front of him.
There were also several projections displayed, each changing repetitively and quickly in succession, of different angles of the Bar, and of a live setting in Tokyo. I guess it could potentially be talking about being able to actually experience an intimate setting in today’s world with technology. The Bar at the Gallery would have been very different there. Was the Disappearance now a different meaning interpreted from what Lee Kang Soo had put together decades ago? Was the visual manipulation of these screens a rising question about how technology should be viewed, likewise with its loud static audio? Was the other dude with the camera projection of his face walking around to find some kind of entity, or maybe the purpose of this whole performance?
I looked up INTER-MISSION’s other works, to better understand their message as a group. They often used the same techniques to perform, in reference to their collaborative audiovisual event during IAFT 16/17 but with each performance came a different visual, while the sound… Well, it could be different, since it was not the same place after all. (I cannot tell for the life of me. My ears are bad as is.)
With each piece came a different context, depending on the environment they were in, despite them performing. But from Happenings, I gained a different perspective when given an idea what “Disappearance” had been about. There was a lot to question about the art, and with the performance came a new perspective opened for me. I had googled Happenings and found another performance at NGS, by several performing artists.
“My fellow artists and I found ourselves performing within a bar made almost 50 years ago, for an audience living in modern times. It presented an untrodden path that led to a joyous journey for everyone involved. After the performance, as we stepped out of the bar, we realised that a new door had opened for us.”
It was an interesting look from another artist’s perspective, how they had perceived the art piece and collaborated within that space. It was like entering a different world, time; an alternate universe if you might, in this space. I feel that maybe INTER-MISSION might have felt the same, being in different spaces with different chemistry, and it is something that their work looks into. So while I did not fully understand their piece when I was there at NGS, I guess it was in a way, an arbitrary piece, that I could still interpret bits and pieces of and had my own personal takeaway. It was an amusing experience to say the least, and had many questions, and I do wish to see them talk more about it in detail if they ever would.
Upon having to reflect on reading after reading, I have started to see the relation to some of keywords and topics. In this reading, there was talk about architecture being built for, and experienced by bodies, and how Lozano-Hemmer’s work challenges the supposition that buildings control bodies. It was similar to the reading Space and Place, which talked about space being relevant to the body, and how a space is kind of configured to work certain ways, and to have certain affordances. It was also similar to how Peter Zumthor’s Atmospheres were a lot about feelings and emotions, aside from the physical complexities that came with architecture.
Then there was the addition of technology, in addition to the way one could perceive architectures and spaces among bodies. “Bodies, buildings, cities and technologies are conceptually and functionally interconnected.” I felt like it was an important quote that talks about any sort of space to be honest, given the day and age we were in. I would have said “interactive, or not” but really, most spaces were already supposed to be interactive in being able to afford different things. To be in a space is to interact with it, but to create interactivity through artistic forms is something that Lozano-Hemmer talks about.
“Relational architecture”. Lozano-Hemmer talks about wanting to transform the dominant narratives of a specific building or urban setting, by “superimposing audiovisual elements to affect it, effect it and recontextualise it”. From my understanding, it’s to make a place believable. A space does not have to be physical walls and ceilings, but virtually made as well. Through the use of technology, a space can be virtually created, and in a sense, “simulated”. But as I read on, Lozano-Hemmer talks about not liking life to be reduced to a simulation, and in fact, creates anti-monuments for dissimulation. So to be honest, I don’t really get it. Can we not create a simulated space to create a new experience? Or was he talking about creating these experiences by perceiving them differently?
Moving on, the article goes on to talk about Lozano-Hemmer’s Body Movies: Relational Architecture 6 (2001), which makes use of shadows and public interaction. There were numerous discoveries made upon moving from location to location. Guesses were made based on location culture, but were often wrong. Where people were expected to be more rigid and strict, they started to play with their shadows. There was so much to play around with the interactivity of shadows, and how humans would think of their bodies as stable entities. This again brings back the concept of how bodies were interrelated with its surroundings and technologies.
“Interactive digital art requires the bodily participation of the viewer in order to manifest and behave.” Without the body, there is no interactivity, and no ability for response or change. It makes sense, of course, because how else were we supposed to perceive things of a physical space without being there? But of course, the participant must also be willing to play their part, which is a key point in Lozano-Hemmer’s designs of relational architecture. For something in a machine to change and be perceived different it has to be act upon by the human. This is how body, building, and technology has to work together.
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