Sheans who were always contented with their lives, did not have many entertainment as they see no need for it. Hence, since the beginning of time, the only source of entertainment they had is a traditional mass dance session held every first day of the month when they are celebrating the existence of Riahs. Some of the Sheans will make music out of their hands and mouths while others will create music using sounds drums made out of large pieces of land they gathered while cleaning up. All these while everyone else sings along to the traditional song and dance to the rhythm of it. It is a day of hard work and celebration and the Sheans spares no effort into making it a memorable day every single month. It is one of the few times when everyone will gather around and mingle together anyway.
Other than that, they spend their free time either resting or helping the community by collecting more resources within their capabilities. However, as time passes by and with the younger generations growing up to be more intellectual, their expectations and wants in life started to manifest. Never in the past where the need to find a higher meaning in life came about so strongly. The younger Sheans began trying out new stuff and inventing. The first ever invention that came about from their desires in life was a device that allows the Sheans to glide from Riahs to Riahs. It is made up of dried land stretched and held in place on hardened cut up Riahs. By putting on this device on their backs, named glider, a Shean has the ability to glide from Riahs to Riahs effortlessly.
With this new invention, and with more and more Sheans experiencing and witnessing the Glider, they started to get really intrigued with the stuff that were actually possible despite their limited resources and that inspired more Sheans to start experimenting during their free time. This new found source of entertainment brought about by the sheer desire for more in their lives is actually starting to slowly change the world…
“Adrenaline: “The Energy Molecule” Adrenaline, technically known as epinephrine, plays a large role in the fight or flight mechanism. The release of epinephrine is exhilarating and creates a surge in energy. Adrenaline causes an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and works by causing less important blood vessels to constrict and increasing blood flow to larger muscles. An “Epi-Pen” is a shot of epinephrine used in the treatment of acute allergic reactions.
An ‘adrenaline rush’ comes in times of distress or facing fearful situations. It can be triggered on demand by doing things that terrify you or being thrust into a situation that feels dangerous. You can also create an adrenaline rush by taking short rapid breathes and contracting muscles. This jolt can be healthy in small doses, especially when you need a pick me up.
A surge of adrenaline makes you feel very alive. It can be an antidote for boredom, malaise and stagnation. Taking risks, and doing scary things that force you out of your comfort zone is key to maximimzing your human potential. However, people often act recklessly to get an adrenaline rush. If you’re an ‘Adrenaline Junkie’ try to balance potentially harmful novelty-seeking by focusing on behaviors that will make you feel good by releasing other neurochemicals on this list. ”
So yes, that is essentially what adrenaline is, when it gets released and what it can cause or help with. Sounds like lots of fun if you ask me. I decided to approach this project with photographic work as I feel that the ability to capture the hundredth of a second when adrenaline rush happens is really amazing. It freezes a moment you can never fully recreate and it allows others to experience what you did to a certain extent when they look at the photo.
Here are some of the photos I found when researching online which are similar in ideation to what I may be doing.
These two are taken by a 21 year old Ukraine daredevil turned photographer who climbs architectural building around the world and takes a shot from the top of it. A unique angle and act that no one has actually accomplished before.
Also from here, I found this picture of a mountain biker and a motorcyclist in action. This made me realise that the slight use of motion blurness while capturing the image can also aid in bringing the viewers into mood and helping them with getting the point of view of an ongoing action.
Apart from the cliche moments of adrenaline rush, I also found out that adrenaline is used to treat life threatening emergencies like a cardiac arrest or a severe allergic reaction. More information on those can be found here. This opened my eyes to the medical purposes of adrenaline which I never knew and I thought these might be an area I can approach to raise some awareness.
Last but not least, I chanced upon a website about the symptoms of adrenaline and I found the point about heightened senses really intriguing. We always experience adrenaline rushes but we do not actually realise that our senses are heightened when we are at that moment. But thinking about it, they do actually get heightened and we feel more for the moments, which probably makes us like adrenaline rushes more. Hence, I think I can approach this matter in a way to digitally enhance the photos to achieve better effects like how adrenaline does to our senses.
Some of the pointers I took away from the presentation in class were thinking about whether the situations that brings about adrenaline rushes are:
Controllable or not
Arose because of danger or joy
Different circumstances and places where the adrenaline rushes occurs
Different situations that causes it to arise like time limitations or limited objects
Different point of view in the same situation from different people
I was thinking about a tangible object that is black and white in color and I thought of a die and how it is adrenaline in the point of view of a board gamer. And being a person who loves taking risk, driving cars at 150km/hr, and doing crazy stuff made me think of and choose adrenaline instead. So here goes.
Adrenaline from my point of view is driving a car at 150km/hr.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a board gamer is seeing the die roll.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a gambler is opening his last card that he just drew.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a mountain biker is losing traction on a rock while going downhill.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a 2 year old is being lifted up in the air.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a 80 year old grandfather is seeing his grandchild for the first time.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a mother is feeling her baby kick for the first time.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a girlfriend is stealing a slap on the butt of her boyfriend in public.
Adrenaline from the point of view of war soldier is narrowly escaping from an airstrike.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a skydiver is jumping off the plane.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a ghost is successfully scaring a grown up man.
Adrenaline from the point of view of James Bond is hanging by a 80 storey building.
Adrenaline from the point of view of Harry Potter is riding on a flying broom stick.
Adrenaline from the point of view of thunder is seeing little children hide under the bed from its roar.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a groom is lifting the veil of his bride.
Adrenaline from the point of view of newly wed couple is having their doors knocked in the middle of the night.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a marathon runner is seeing the finishing line.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a boy is receiving a text from his crush.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a person experiencing cardiac arrest is a saviour.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a person having allergic reaction is relief.
Adrenaline from the point of view of an ECG is an increase in erratic reading on the graph.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a light sleeper is insomnia.
Adrenaline from the point of view of a thief is stealing something.
Although in abundance, Sheans never took the Riahs for granted. Riahs served many purposes and Sheans can never survive without them. Hence, every first day of the month is dedicated to celebrate the existence of the Riah and for Sheans to be thankful for it. They believe that it is a gift bestowed upon them by the Gods.
Prior to the days of celebration, Sheans will gather lots of fresh and salty water. When the first day of every month arrives, all of the Sheans will be excused from their duties and will be living on the resources accumulated beforehand. They will dedicate the entire day roaming around and cleaning whatever dusts that has accumulated on or around the Riahs. Sometimes, there will be huge pieces of dried land that forms around the Riahs and threaten the growth of the Riahs by suffocating them. The Sheans will then gather and work together to get rid of it in order for the Riah to continue growing healthily.
Through experience, they also found out that by jumping on the soft ground around the Riahs, Riahs tend to grow thicker and taller. Therefore, heavier Sheans are tasked to jump around the Riahs to facilitate their growths while the rest clean the Riahs up. And by the end of the day, the weary Sheans will feast on whatever is accumulated while hanging on the highest point on a Riah they can ascend. This is their sign of respect and thanks to God for the Riahs that are given to them.
The committee initially hoped that the situation where Sheans stopped fulfilling their duties will get better with time when people learn how to deal with their grief, but with the rippling effect of the negativity, more and more Sheans started to skive on their duties. Even some of the Sheans were not affected by the tragedy started to skive on their duties because they were bitter that they had to be doing more work. The group of intellects foresee that if this situation continues, Shea will fall apart within a month when all reserves run out or when everyone just gives up on life.
They decided that they needed a course action that will bring about the most immediate impact that will revert everything back to normal. Persuasion was first attempted but it was not really effective as the Sheans tend to just ignore it. One of the intellects suggested providing counselling to those who are affected but that will take too long and they did not have the luxury of time. As their final resort, they had to implement law and order to bring back the stability they used to enjoy. Although this will be at the expense of the Sheans and it will require violence which was never encouraged in the peaceful Shea, the intellects felt that this was a situation that requires such drastic measure.
LAW
The one and only law Sheans have to abide to is that they fulfil all the required tasks assigned to them by Alda. These tasks will be equally and fairly distributed to each of them and this will ensure the survivability of their species and the sustainability of their world. If they fail to comply to what is asked of them, they will be brought to Alda by his henchmen for Alda to be trialled and to decide what course of action or punishment is to be meted out. They will be asked to do extra work under the supervision of the law enforcers throughout a period of time.
If they resist or fail to comply with what is asked of them, they will be subjected to caning, torture and for worst case scenario, a death penalty. Nobody is to be threatening the existence of the entire world with their stupidity and if they do, they should cease to exist and not take up the resources painstakingly gathered by those who contributes.
I firmly believe that we cannot change what someone sees us as and we can only learn what they think of us and improve or become it
and no matter who or what we think we are and even though our own opinions matters most, we are still what others think we are.
Take for example, if we see ourselves as trustworthy people but if our friends never ever approach us when they need help, we know that we are not actually seen as someone who can be trusted or depended on.
Hence, for this project, I decided to collaborate with three of my closest friends to find out what they actually think of me and what attributes will they tag me with. I chose to use a 4D medium as I am going to major in film and used recorded interviews played in the background for all my panels. After I interview them, I had them design the type for me to carve out of the paper to allow the videos to penetrate through and play while I am presenting the respective panels while I discuss with them and design the backgrounds in accordance to what I think they meant.
To set expectations right, all the background are intentionally minimalistic and only in black and white so it does not take away the attention of the interview that is concurrently playing in the background during my presentation. Also, to explain why only part of their faces can be seen through the cut outs of the typeface, it is deliberately done as whatever others may say of us, we will unconsciously filter what they say of us and take in only what we want to. Hence, having the panels in the same way like how the view of the interview is “filtered” through the cut outs.
First Panel
Without further ado, let me present the very first panel by my first semester’s classmate, Toby. We worked on several projects together and we always stayed back together and even travelled together as a clique and hence I thought it was quite appropriate for him to be a candidate of mine. So here is the panel that both of us designed.
The attribute he gave me was that I am a very intense person. The typeface is designed so as to portray that I am intense in the sense that when I decide on the direction, I will go all the way dead set. Hence, the strokes of the letters are extended to the end of the panel. As for the background design, I decided to play with a slight optical illusion whereby I have arrows all converging into the middle of the picture. As if to imply that the focus is on me and as it gets closer and closer to me, it gets more packed and more intense to the point where all the points join each other.
I will let the interview that I played behind the typography do the rest of the explaining of the attribute.
Second Panel
The second candidate that I chose to interview is my Secondary school friend, Wen Qi. She has been my friend for close to ten years now and I would say she knows me better than most of my friends. Here is the panel we collaborated and designed.
The attribute she gave me was that I follow my heart in the things I do. She designed the typeface following how a heart beat will look like on an ECG monitor. As for the background, I dotted the grids of an ECG to make it more apparent. Hence, for this panel, it is my name following the pattern of a heart beat and it shows that I follow my heart.
As with Toby, I will leave the rest of the explaining of my attribute to her interview
Third Panel
Last but not least, the final person I chose to interview is my girlfriend, Nathalie. I do not think I need to explain why she was one of my chosen candidate so let us move on to the panel that we designed together.
The attribute for this panel is that I am observant. The type is designed in a way where the letters are in perspective and they are all looking at different directions. With G seemingly looking to the left, A down, R up, and Y to the right. For the background, I drew a landscape with mountains and seas to allow the type to seem like they are observing the nature all around them.
Here is the interview with Nathalie that I have conducted which will explain what she meant
And for the very last panel, it is designed solely by me and is meant to end off my entire presentation where by I will hold it up and end it with saying “I am Gary. And I am who you think I am”
The typeface is designed in a way where they all merge to form an outline of a camera. The details were added in with permanent marker to make it more evident. Camera as I am a photographer and most people know me as one. The medium used for this panel is reflective paper as it serves the purpose I needed; which is to reflect the face of whoever is looking at the type and allowing them to see themselves.
For presentation, I held this panel in front of my face and showed it to everyone in the class. Hence, while everyone is looking through the cut outs of the type, they are able to look at themselves in the reflective paper as well. It is to signify that no one can actually see all of me and there is always some part of me that will never be shown but whatever they see me as, through the cut outs, will be what I am to them.
So after receiving the designs of the type from my friends, I digitalised and compiled them altogether. I decided have the medium of my panels be thick black papers. Thick so that the video of the interview from the screen behind it will not shine through and distract the viewers from looking at the typography itself.
In order to do the cutting of the type, i decided to print out all 4 of the types and placing them on top of the black papers before cutting them out. Here are some of the pictures of the painful process.
It took me approximately 10 hours to cut all 4 panels as the paper was really thick and some of my friends were obviously out to kill me. The type had so many curves and it was so tough for me to control the penknife to avoid slipping and cutting excess.
I was relatively pleased with the end products as they only had one or two minor mistakes here and there and they were not obvious. So here goes, the panels before the back ground designs.
This is from Toby. The easiest one as it was all block letters and all straight lines. So all I had to do was to use a ruler and the penknife to follow the lines.
This second one is by Nathalie. Still relatively as it consists mostly of straight lines with only a few curves here and there.
This is from my secondary school friend, Wen Qi, and she was obviously out to kill me with the number of curves and the narrowness of the type.
Last by not least, the type created by myself. It is fairly simple as I do not have a death wish for myself.
With the interview videos and the cutting of the type done, I am only left with the design of the backgrounds of my panels.
I made use of an old file which was transparent to draw on it and illustrate how the design could be.
Stay tuned for the final post for all the completed designs and what each of them represents!
Firstly, I apologise for the delay in posting. Just got to check my email and NTUlearn and just got to know about the required posting so here goes.
After the past few weeks of interviewing and discussing with my friends and also, with the decrease from 6 to 4 panels, I decided to remove my first panel which was meant for the introduction. My introduction will hence be all spoken and not illustrated via a panel. The first three panels will each be an attribute given by my friends and the last will be something that will summarise and explains my underlying concept.
For them all, my friends will be designing the type and I will be completing it with designing the background.
So here goes. For my first friend, she created the type and here it is.
This one is done with playing of the perspectives of the letters for them to be looking at all four directions.
The second one is this
It is one which shows my name in a font which is similar to an heartbeat on an ECG monitor.
And last but not least,
This is to show when I decide on the direction I go all the way deadset like how the letters of my name elongate and reach to the corners of the frame.
Last but not least, my own one.
As cliche as it might be, it is just my name written to be in the form of a camera as I really appreciate and love what the camera does for us.
The only form of architecture around Shea are the Riahs. It is the most basic and the only form of structure that is present in Shea. No one actually knows what they are made up of and why they emerge from the craters on the ground but they serve several important purposes for the Sheans. It allows Sheans to collect nitrogen from the air at higher altitudes, provides them with space and shelter which allows them to rest and reside in and functions as support for the Sheans to hold on to when the daily flood comes.
Physical outlook of the Riahs
There are no two Riahs that are of the same length and they are always thickest at the bottom and tapers as it reaches towards the top. Riahs are constantly growing upwards and there are always new ones that are emerging from the ground. They are all clustered relatively close together and sometimes, when the wind blows, the Riahs will sway and its tips will brush against each other.
Riahs that just start to grow out from the ground are usually much thinner and greyish-white in colour, while those which are more mature, are thicker and jet black. Sheans always wait for the Riahs to be of a certain thickness before converting them into shelters for their purposes. Firstly, because it gives them more internal space but more importantly cause when they reach a certain thickness, their growth will be impeded and they stop growing upwards as quickly as before. Saving them the effort to have to scale high up to get to their homes.
There was one exception to the colour of the Riahs though. The one which got uprooted and flew off along with the Shean actually turned into a fully white opaque one. It was the first time any Shean witnessed such an occurrence but no one actually thought it was a matter to be concerned with as the Sheans’ knowledge about the Riahs is relatively limited and they thought that it was a natural occurrence for it to eventually become white. Never did they expect it to uproot soon after it turned white.
The group of intellects whom gathered are now starting to do in-depth study on the nature of Riahs and if there is a direct co-relation between the colour of the Riah and the possibility of it detaching. Hoping to find a solution to their situation.
Literally half a minute before the flood came in, a female Shean who thought she was too late to bring herself to safety, screeched at the top of her voice when the water touched her foot. Luckily for Klaus, her piercing scream jolted him up from his slumber. It took a while for reality to settle into his groggy, sleep deprived brain which was blissfully unaware of impending doom. With the water gushing towards him just metres away and the panicky Sheans climbing up all around him, the only thing that came into his mind was to save the precious books of knowledge. With his relatively petite build and lack of agility, Klaus manages to salvage most but not all of the books by gathering them and swiftly placing them in one of the Riahs. He has enough faith in the Riah to keep the books safe but not enough for him to seek shelter in it, worrying that the Riah will be washed away, along with him in it.
Whilst all those were happening, Kappa, who was nearby collecting nitrogen, started his descent from his 35th trip of the day. He was considering a break before heading for a well deserved meal when the signs of impending flood came. Even though he probably had sufficient time to descend fully and find a proper shelter if he picked up his pace, he was too lazy and tired and decided to just hold on to where he was. It was a height high enough on the Riah for him to stay dry from the flood anyway. From where he was, he could clearly see what Klaus was doing. From the time when he jolted up from his sleep to this very moment when he entered the Riah to keep the books safe, he witnessed it all. This whole time Kappa was worried and he thinking to himself how ludicrous Klaus was, putting the safety of the books in front of his own life. He eventually heaved a sigh of relieve when he saw Klaus entering the Riah with the books.
But to Kappa’s disbelieve, Klaus comes dashing out of the Riah and attempts to scale it to safety. He musters all his strength and tries to get a grip but fails terribly and fell back to the ground as he had used up all his strength previously in getting the books to safety at the quickest time possible. Bewildered by Klaus’s choice of actions, but having a bird eye’s view of the impending flood, Kappa’s instinct kicks in and brings him leaping towards the Riah Klaus is at. He releases his grip, slides down the Riah to get down low enough to reach out to Klaus and shouts out “Grab my hands, I’ll pull you up!”
Klaus instantaneously seizes Kappa’s hand and gives his all to try to climb the Riah again. He knows that if he fails to do so on this attempt, he will not have sufficient time to seek shelter in the Riah even if he wanted to, and he will definitely end up like the Shean who got washed off. As for Kappa, he cannot even start to imagine how is it like to have another one of his own getting washed off right in front of him. And so, even with his burnt hands from sliding down the Riah, sore muscles from the climbs and the doubt that he can actually save the both of them with whatever leftover strength he can muster, he did not hesitate a single second to try save Klaus.
With Klaus’ fear and Kappa’s resolve, they garner just enough strength to ascend high enough to be safe from being washed away. Luckily for them, the flood water was raising slower than usual and the water only rose up to their knee level, not quite enough for the gushing water to wash them away. While waiting for the water to fully reside, both of their muscles started to tremble with fatigue and they both burst out in laughter at each other, seemingly forgetting how they just narrowly escaped death. Just as they are laughing, the water fully resided and they made their way down to the ground.
Klaus was immensely thankful for Kappa’s help and bravery. If not for Kappa, he would have been washed off from face of the world for eternity. As they were introducing themselves, a thought came up to Klaus’ mind. “Why don’t I bring Kappa to meet the Chieftain and get him to try and run as a candidate for the second role as a Henchman? He has what it takes to be the second Henchman. Physically inclined, courageous and has very good situation awareness.”
Despite the fact that they just met moments ago, they had that affinity which kept them chattering on and on throughout the journey to the Chieftain’s place. Klaus was overjoyed at the thought that Kappa will possibly be his partner as the second Henchman and he could not wait to tell Alda about him.
For Kappa, roll two dice and add the value to your intelligence. If it adds up to a value greater than 6, Alda will accept you as his second Henchman. Thereafter, describe how the two of you manage to convince the Chieftain to accept Kappa as his second Henchman and being the second in command for the whole of Shea or what did the two of you decides to do if Alda finds you unsuitable.
