Lore 6: Celebration

Outside of the force field, The Poor celebrated nothing but their limited freedom. Every month, Reynolds would gather everyone together to celebrate their freedom from Gregg’s rule and also remind them of the limited and hard fought freedom everyone was entitled to (although technically they are not, since it’s under the jurisdiction of Gregg and his carnivorous subjects; but at least they have more liberty than others). It was celebrated with rice wine and each household a bag of drumsticks. Where they gathered, was a bonfire, where all of The Poor surround. Usually at the end of each celebration, Reynolds will end off with a mini fire display that he will perform for everyone. he learnt this together with Greggs back when they were serving in the united forces.

Well, for The Rich, they have monthly celebrations, capturing beings from The Poor and hosting a huge feast together. It is wonder why the cooks themselves can still remain carnivorous even after slicing off countless body parts of their own kind. Other than feasts, there isn’t anything worth celebrating. Any celebration done would be deemed as a sign of disrespect to Greggs and his empire.

That’s celebration for you.

Typographic Portraits

Typographic Portraits:

 

What is typography?

“Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed.” – Bringhurst, Robert.

To me, Typography is an arm to the messages you intend to convey, through any medium but at the same time be legible enough for the viewers to comprehend and understand. Whether it involves aesthetic consideration or not, the main idea is always the message. This is what I set out to achieve in this project, of course with some aesthetic design involved.

Typographic Portraits

 

When I was presented with this project brief, I was excited because I think it is really fun to be doing something that discover/rediscover ourselves. This process allows us to get to know who we are more, playing with expressionism. Which is cool, especially when we don’t really have time to slow down and be who we once were. Having this opportunity to do so really opened my eyes and broadened my horizon in terms of creativity.

Since I played with a lot of photoshop for the projects in first semester, I thought, why not experiment with more textures and a more natural approach for the Typographic Portraits.

This is what I came up with during my initial stage of this creative process.

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Eventually I narrowed my ideas to the best 4 that I feel would best represent who I am.

  1. I am Unique

I AM UNIQUE

The initial stages for this was to just make prints of my thumbprint with a negative space for each alphabet of my name with a background of my palm. It was later after consultation with Ms Shirley that the idea of using a birth certificate as the background sprung up. I thought, why not just photocopy the certificate and remove the actual print of my name at the same time and fill them in with my initial idea of using my thumbprint. I played with watercolur this time, which was new to me because I have not used it before. using the knowledge of colours that we did back in semester 1, I applied it to the colour I used for this portrait. I used primary and secondary and complementary colours to synergise the whole portrait. I want to let every my viewers know that I am a very positive person and yet able to assimilate well into society, hence the choice of the colour combination as seen in my final image.

The process:

After choosing the colours I intend to use, I covered my fingers and thumb with a colour each and used a dried marker to remove the paint according to the stroke of the alphabet but in mirror format. The result of it is what I intended to achieve!

I think this first image gave me great motivation for the rest of the remaining portraits. I had the opportunity to have a good look at my birth certificate and also be able to infuse my own fingerprints onto my own copy of the certificate. There was an unexplainable sense of belonging inside of me as I looked it.

 

2. I am Adventurous

I AM ADVENTUROUS

I am an adventurous person and if you throw me any adventure opportunities, I will jump at it immediately! I really love nature and outdoor activities and keeping a fit and healthy lifestyle. Especially since, I am now leading an extremely stressful lifestyle, all the more I should go out there and exercise! One of my favourite sports to do is to go for extremely long hikes/treks. This probably explains my huge legs and calf muscles! In any case, I chose to portray my adventurous side with the use of pebbles to represent mountains and hills, with the varying sizes of the pebbles. I chose the pebbles with colours that are more aligned with nature so it would look more realistic.

The process:

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I started out by creating the roads that form the alphabets for my name, using a zebra marker and correction fluid. I painted certain parts of the canvass with green watercolour to add to the effect of a naturalistic environment. Using super glue, I first line the outer part of the alphabets with smaller pebbles. I wanted to create a more natural environment, this was why there are some pebbles that block/obstruct the overall flow of the shape of my name, “ISAAC”. Through this, not only do I aim to tell everyone that I am an adventurer, I also want to encourage them to pursue a healthy lifestyle in my lifetime 🙂

3. I am a calm person

I AM A CALM PERSON

When I thought about how to express this, I immediately thought of the beach and sand! This is usually where I go to to find solace. Being at the beach has a very calming effect and  I want to be able to communicate this to the audience and at the same time evoke the calming effect in them.

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The Process:

I went to the beach for this one and got me some materials and to work with. It was a great opportunity because I was having many late night dance practises for the Hall Olympiad Closing Ceremony and I needed a well deserved breather at the beach. I used spray mount to get all the sand to stick and while it was wet and write out the words “ISAAC WAS HERE” symbolising after going to the beach, I have brought the calm with me. I then added in the other elements that you can find on a beach.

4. I am a Visionary

I AM VISIONARY

It is difficult to believe this but I am able to envision my own future and also the actions of others in the very near future. I guess it was because of the leadership experience that I had learnt almost 9 years ago. I was able to read the moves and minds of others though I wouldn’t do so to everyone. It was mainly for myself and the men that I have under my charge back when I was a leader and morale sensing was very important to maintain a group. The use of watercolour for this was because water had a very nice flow to it and I wanted to emulate this effect on this canvass, very much like the chinese paintings where painters were able to have vision for the painting they are working on.

The Process:

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For this design, I first chose a very cool colour combination and just let my vision guide me in this. With each stroke of the brush, I created the above design, bearing in mind the negative space that I had to leave, in order to have my surname visible.

I hope you enjoyed what I have designed for my first project and I hope to be able to bring you more fun designs in Project 2! Cheers!

Lore 5 : Law

The very first thing that came to all of The Poor’s mind was, “What is law?”

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Law and order was once just before Gregg’s rule. After the separation between The Poor and Rich, law and order outside of the force field was nothing but just words.

Because of that, all of The Poor had no choice but to be like barbarians, scavenging for food and be extremely territorial and selfish. Everyone only cared about themselves and how they can survive. 

Everyday when you wake up and walk outside, you’ll see dead bodies lying every where on the street. It soon became a common sight and the stench became the daily morning dew. That was until Reynolds rallied The Poor and started a system of community and support amongst a small group of individuals. He gave out food and provided shelter, though limited to as many people as he could. Food was obviously scavenged and shelter make-shift. Nonetheless, it was better than nothing. This magnanimous act of his eventually brought all of The Poor together and all everyone stood strong since then. There is a saying that when you are less, you are more. In this case, all The Poor stand together as one, with humility so strong that whatever may come, they are united and undeterred. 

Basic law and order was established and it was drafted with everyone’s presence. In other words, it was a lawful and just society that every person agrees with. Reynolds started to expand on sustainability and using seeds he smuggled through the force field, an underground greenhouse was constructed and slowly, staples were becoming more available for the mass population. Everyone practised the “3 Goods”: Know the Good, Love the Good and Do the Good. Reynolds was a leader with great vision and charisma.

Unlike him, was Gregg, who was power hungry. Well, he was once a humble man. Almost like Reynolds. It was rumored that they were once great friends until something happened. But nobody knows why.

Now, the once flourished city is walled up with a force field, with an authoritarian leader and militarised regime. Only the richest of The Rich were the ones in control of the law. Even so, money couldn’t buy them true happiness but only momentary freedom. So how free are The Rich truly? Nobody knows, except for those who live with the capsule of inhumane living conditions. Well, not really, since some managed to escape into from it into The Poor and lived to tell the story. This included Reynolds.

So, law versus the law. What is to come? Which society triumphs? That is up to you to decide.

Lore 4: Architecture

Before Gregg’s rule, all the buildings stood up tall, the city vibrant and the streets all in order. But…

After the Poor Divide, things became worse on The Poor side.

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The stench was so bad that the soldier from The Rich had to wear double layered masks in order to walk in the Poor Divide. On the other hand, the people in the Poor Divide got used to the smell and never smelt anything fresher since. After Reynolds leadership, things got a bit better. There was somewhat law and order, the streets got a little safer and more houses were constructed using existing housing infrastructure for potential attacks. c_47_slums_by_n8package-d41ocgv

These houses act as decoy to how badly run the state of The Poor is. However, it is fully equipped with state of the art technology and acts as an escape pod. Underground is also a network shelter and is linked to the many exits for escaping if residents cannot escape via the pods fast enough. Only The Poor can access the shelters with a scan of their eyes. As mentioned in Lore 2, the slums harness power from the force field’s radiation.

 

Over to The Rich side.

 

Needless to say, everything is way way better than the Poor Divide. sci_fi_city_downtown_by_jadrienc-d5olkce dontnod___adrift_conceptart_08_by_paooo-d471bob

Ever glorious is all within the force field. But… Is the architecture of Gregg’s reign strong?

And, who is Reynold’s exactly?

Find out soon!

Chapter 2: Turn around!

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As you and Timothy approach the force field, the atmosphere in the ship became extremely tense. The on-board hologram pops up and scans the ships as part of the procedure when entering The Rich city. So far, everything was going according to plan.

As Jason and Timothy cross the force field, they immediately untied themselves and set up the procedure to update the city’s blueprint. It was good that they kept the 3 POW because to update the blueprint, their thumbprint was needed.

 

[PROCEED WITH UPDATE – Y/N _]

 

Jason immediately pressed “Y”. The initiation process ensued. [Update in progress…]  Every second, the whole crew was on their toes and looking out for potential danger as other ships passed them. Jason was already prepared to kill the 3 POW if their pressed the distress button. As they inch further deeper into The Rich’s city, it meant that escaping was harder.

[Over the radio] – Timothy! Welcome back! Hahaha! I never thought you would pay us a visit like this. How heartwarming of you. But its okay, I’ll invite you over to my mansion. Coordinates are on the ship’s dashboard.

“Who was that?!”, Jason asked Timothy frantically. How did he know you were here?

“Gregg…”, replied Timothy, still in a state of shock. “I think he must have inserted tracking devices on all of The Rich during our mandatory health checkup”, Timothy continued in despair.

[MISSION] You are left with 10% of the update and it’s either you guys head to meet Gregg, finish up the 10% of scanning and then get to the Force Field ASAP!

The choice is yours to make! You get to decide what happens too!