Foundation 4D Final Project: The Library — Outcome

The Curious Mystery of Mr. Red Drum and the Best Intern

Artists: Calista Lee and Lydia Lui

Artists’ Statement
To draw people to not only the appearance of the interesting looking books of the ADM library but also the content of what is within these books, this interactive game will constitute the content of the various books to form a riddle, which will be the basis of the game.

Research and Proposal
Please refer to my first post and previous post.

Materials Prepared

Planning of Hints:

For the layout of our hints, we included:

  • Logo: The Curious Mystery of Mr. Red Drum and Bestern
  • Story Hint (provides context on murderer)
  • Name Hint (provides a letter or two letters to the murderer’s name)
  • Reference number for the next book


Books used (Reference no.)

1. Mapping it Out  (GA 108.7B13)

Pg 25: (clues to Bestern’s name, passport hint > Via the countries, leave those unvisited: First letter point to his name? Leave it vague? The dates of travel = the other pages to note)
E.g. Belgium : March 6th (Referring to: Page 36)

Pg 36: Call 92967488 (perhaps we do the paper imprint thing?)

Pg 37: first murderous intent (vaguely)

Pg 41: “Amnesia”, “Elusive character” → when bestern switches personalities, one side of him doesn’t remember the other

 

2. Less and More (TS 140. R36 L638)

Pg 293: Norm. filter low . radio; white and black dots: good and evil

 

3. Cult Fiction: Art and Comics (PN 6710 C968)

Pg 36: gist of the situation (Norm. (refer to second book) > Its a whole rant.

If you count the number of letters, it will lead to the page number. (36 letters: Page 36)
To read in between the meaning of the rant, and the underline NO. stands for number. Hint for page number.
‘Dear diary’ and ‘I am tired’ also mean to take what is in the pictorial rant as Bestern’s feelings.

 

4. OBEY (N6537. F316 B12B)

 

Pg 32: blatant jeer at the police (Think)
Pg 35: murderous intent and rebellion (Want)
Pg 50: Cult image
Pg 51: inspector
Pg 52: more police (right picture: bestern’s best intern image and personality)


(Creating a Calendar) 
E.g. 1. Apr 23 (Referring to Page 32) :
Write + In 1 Week & 2 Days more days (+ 9 more to 23 = Page 32) What do I think?

E.g. 2. Apr 30 (Referring to Page 35)
Write: + 5 more days (30+5= Page 35) What do I want?


pg 32: (Think: Thoughts) > What do I think > Bestern’s thoughts about the academy
pg 35: (Want: Aspire) > What do I want? > His goals
50: (Look: Appearance) > How do I look? > Deceiving appearnce
pg 51: (Remember: Past) > What do I remember? > Thinking of dead father
pg 52: (Strive? Questioning) > Who am I? > One represents his personality, other presents his image

 

5. AB OVO (N6494. M78 A115)

Pg 10-11: Clues to Bestern’s Name

SWONK NRETSEB (Mirrored) = BESTERN KNOWS

Missing sequential letters and numbers for decoding the message.
Once pieced, they would be able to attach and fit the numbers and letters to crack the code.
Either that, or they can just blindly locate the files.

 

6. Mommy? (PZ 7.S47 N733)

Pg with lots of trashy skeletons:

  • Bestern’s hidden motives
  • Bestern just wanted to please his mother
  • Bipolar: inner demons

 

A Chalk Outline of the body was also prepared for the murder scene (forgot to take a picture).

Case Briefing Slides found here.

Interview videos (eye witnesses, relations)

Special thanks to our actors:
Student 1: Zerline Jade
Student 2: Jaime Goh
Librarian 1: Jessabel Teng
Librarian 2: Abdul Qayyum
Classmate 1: Yulin Chin
Classmate 2: Justinne Casuga

 

Final Outcome

Story Synopsis
(This is a story of fiction.)

Bestern is the best police intern in the NTU Police Academy (NTUPA), despite being only a first year student of the Detective Sector in the NTUPA. Despite his outer appearance as the best intern, he has a dark side to him — his other self. In other words, he has a multi-personality disorder.

Bestern’s other self is full of secrets: He hates the NTUPA and how his mother forced him to enter the NTUPA just to avenge his father who was killed on campus.

Why did Bestern kill Susan Lim Wan Die?

Susan is known to be the most popular student on NTUPA campus, and makes friends even with the most eccentric students. Bestern thought he was good friends with Susan… until the day his other self came on and scared the heck out of Susan.

Susan, being an avid gossiper, told his group of popular people about Bestern’s dark side. Overwhelmed by the amount of gossip and rumors about him, Bestern’s other side gets heavily affected. His hate for the NTUPA and the people surrounding him intensifies, which led him to he killing Susan on 17/4/2017 while he was at the ADM Library bookshelves at 8:30PM.

Bestern’s twisted, dark self meticulously prepared for Susan’s murder– out of pure hatred, he crafted clues to play with the police’s minds and tests their ability to snuff out culprits. Basing his facts that the police is useless and will be unable to catch him just like how they were unable to catch the culprit who killed his father, he happily switches his personality to the good side of Bestern. (Bestern is unable to remember the thoughts and actions of what happened to both sides of him).

6 NTUPA Detective sector students were shortlisted to be detectives of this curious mystery led by Chief Police Investigator Mr. Red Drum and Assistant Police Investigator Bestern (whose good self was tasked with helping Red Drum to lead the case).

At the end of the investigation and when the detectives have gathered sufficient evidence to accuse Bestern of his crime, Bestern switches to his dark side. He pulls out the knife he used to stab Susan 6 times and ultimately killing him, he charges at the detectives, ready to swing his knife at anyone he sees.

Bang.

Mr. Red Drum shoots Bestern with his gun. As Bestern falls to the ground, Mr. Red Drum tells him the truth — he was as useless as his father.

The culprit who killed Bestern’s father 10 years ago is Red Drum.

(NOTE: if you spell Red Drum’s name backwards, it becomes MURD-DER ; Calista’s creation!!)

 

4D Final Project: The Library (Updated Ideas)

The Curious Mystery of Mr. Red Drum and The Best Intern

Team Members: Lydia, Calista

Project Focus:
Peculiar books of the ADM Library

Game Synopsis:
A body was found in the black space of the ADM Library on 17 April 2017, 9:03PM. The Police Academy NTU has been lacking manpower due to unforeseen circumstances, and hence seeks curious detectives to investigate the crime scene.

A crucial piece of evidence has been extracted from the esophagus of the victim’s body, which leads to a various of hints found throughout the bookshelves.

Actors/ Roles:
1. Chief Police Officer – Mr. Red Drum
2. Assistant Investigator (Currently a Police Academy Intern) – Bestern
3. Victim (student of Academy Police Academy) – Susan Lim
4. 6 Eyewitnesses/Relations (Interviews)
5. 6 Commissioned Detectives – 1 Boss, 1 Scribe, 4 Lackeys

How the Game Works:

Approx. Time Taken:
– Mission Briefing: 10-15 minutes
– Investigation: 20 minutes
.:. Total Time: 35 minutes max.
I. Mission Briefing
– takes place within the FDN 4D II Classroom
– commission task and briefing to be carried out
– autopsy report handed to Detectives
– Eyewitness/Relations Interviews to be revealed to Detectives

II. Investigation Beginning
– Chalk Outline at the ADM Library’s black space
– first piece of evidence (extracted from victim’s esophagus) to be handed to the Boss Detective
– (tentative ?) hint provided to proceed on to the first piece of evidence left behind by the culprit

III. Investigation Progress
– Detectives to search for the evidences deliberately left behind by the culprit
– Scribe is to take down clues and Detectives are to uncover the mystery
– (this story section will be a linear one, so that the game will be easily maintained and upheld; players will not stray too far off from the story)

IV. Investigation Conclusion
– Detectives, if possible, are to present evidences as proofs if they are to pinpoint the culprit
– if they are unable to find out, Police Academy will prompt them to take a guess, and the answers will be found on OSS

Game Notes and Materials:
1. Commission Briefing Slides
2. Eyewitness/Relations Accounts video footage
3. Autopsy report
4. Tape (for pseudo chalk outline)
5. 7 Evidences (1 esophagus, 6 bookmarks found within books)
6. Foolscap/Notebook + Pen: to be given to Scribe

4D Project Proposal — The Library

Group members: Calista, Lydia

Ideas:

  1. Interactive game 
    Focus: Peculiar looking books found in the ADM library

    Idea: To draw people to not only the appearance of the interesting looking books of the ADM library but also the content of what is within these books, this interactive game will constitute the content of the various books to form a riddle, which will be the basis of the game.

    The game will be centered around a murder mystery, tasking the audience with the roles of detectives. The black, empty space sandwiched in between the printing area and the study area will be the starting point of the game. (Where the victim’s body is found). There will be clues left behind, guiding the audience through a linear story. Bright colored ribbons will help to bookmark the pages of the peculiar books, and notes will be placed inside these books (hints) to guide the audience to the next book.

    The interactive installation will come to a close when all the hints have been collected, and when the audience has solved the riddle/mystery.

  2. Filtering light
    Focus: What makes the beanbag area such a cosy place to sleep in?

    Idea: After interviewing a few friends regarding the library, we found out that the beanbag area is a nice place to take a nap, mainly because of the dim lighting of the area and not to mention, the comfortable beanbags. This idea will serve to make the beanbag area even more inviting by pasting colored translucent plastics on the windows to have it filter light. The light that is filtered through will then form a shadow on the floor, like light filtering through the canopy of trees.

  3. Optical Illusion
    Focus: The black, empty space between the printing area and the study area

    Idea: The empty space goes unnoticed because of how the walls and the carpeting is black. To draw people into the area and discover the fact that the area is in fact isolated, we will place an optical illusion installation in the space to draw people into the area.

 

Artist Inspirations:

  1. Teresita Fernandez, Fata Morgana

    “In nature, a Fata Morgana is a horizontal mirage that forms across the horizon line. Alluding to this phenomenon, Fernández’s project introduces a shimmering horizontal element to the Park that will engage visitors in a dynamic experience. The installation is a mirror-polished, golden metal sculpture that will hover above the Park’s winding walkways to define a luminous experiential passage for Park visitors. The metal forms, perforated with intricate patterns reminiscent of foliage, will create abstract flickering effects as sunlight filters through the canopy, casting a golden glow across the expanse of the work, paths, and passersby.  The project is Mad. Sq. Art’s first to fully utilize the upper register of a visitor’s space.”

    link: https://www.madisonsquarepark.org/view-do/calendar/mad-sq-art-teresita-fernandez

  2. Damien Gilley, Fortress

    “Portland-based multi-disciplinary artist Damien Gilley creates immense depth on flat surfaces and walls using only colored strips of tape and contact paper. His designs are meticulously measured and calculated considering the unique proportions and dimensions of each space where he constructs his art. The geometry of his work makes flat surfaces appear to have immense depth and space.

    link: http://www.damiengilley.com/Fortress