Lesson 1 - Thinking Creatively - 10/10/16

"To live a creative life, we must lost our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Pearce

What is a design?

A design is a drawing or plan produced to show the look and functions, or workings of a building, garment or other object. 

Every object has a specific purpose and designs outline what the object's function is, how it works and what it looks like.

In this lesson we focused on which areas of the brain are used for different activities. The left half is more logical and is used in problem solving, decision making, reasoning, organisation and is responsible for spacial awareness. The right side tends to be more based in fantasy and used more for movement, emotions and design based tasks.

The brain has two different processes, linear and divergent. 

Linear processes are used in the step by step solving of a problem or task that usually results in obtaining the correct answer.

Divergent process flit between different ideas and often result in multiple solutions.

Gator Brains

Gator brains focus on basic instinctive responses responses; fight, flight or freeze.

Monkey Minds 

Monkey minds tend to rush from topic to topic. They're working and thinking most of the time and are suited to multitasking and mental hopscotch.

Elephant Teaching

This is the process of learning from past experiences. This can lead to some difficulty when faced with new ideas. 

Activities

Continuous line drawing
We performed this task twice, once with music and one with silent. I found the former easier because the fast pace music made me move more quickly and gave the drawing more detail. I enjoyed the task but originally had difficulty grasping the reason behind it. I tried to approach it logically and have my picture be as accurate as possible (the quote by Joseph Pearce comes to mind) but after discussing the activity with someone else I think it would be more worthwhile to go at it much more loosely and open up my imagination more. One thing I liked about my pictures were that my lack lack of perception created an almost shadowy hand a centimeter lower.

Immediate reactions to poems

I  thoroughly enjoyed this task because it got me thinking in a different way. I usually try to analyse everything and it was liberating to write down all of my thoughts about a poem without trying to fully discover the meaning. It gave me a fresh outlook on many of the poems and I came up with some ideas I wouldn't have had otherwise.

Every box a picture

This was probably my favourite task due to the huge amount of variety that came from only 20 minutes of work. It was incredibly interesting to see what other people came up with, with some having chosen a specific theme in colour or concept while others created a grand picture or story by combining all of the squares. 

Personally, I decided to make each square as unique as possible using a mixture of 3D and 2D images/ I think that this worked well as it made me think more creatively and eventually more abstractly. 

Unmasking Theatre Design: A designer's guide to finding inspiration

Design Process (From sound)

1) Commitment
Commit to the idea.
2) Research
Background information on play and writer, while also looking into the theatrical genre and style. The designer may also want to look into the social and historical context of the play. both internally and externally. It's also worth looking at previous productions of the play.
3) Incubation
Develop ideas using a portfolios of both audio and visual references, and mood boards. This stage is when the designer wants to think about what emotions they want to inspire, what kind of image they want to create and the style they want to use.
The portfolio may include audio clips, clips, images, shapes and colours, and images that inspire the designer.
4) Selection
The designer meets with the director to discuss their intentions. They will also begin to gather/source materials and props.
A list of priorities may also be made.
5) Implementation
Paperwork

• Ground plan
• Equipment list
• Cue list

And the equipment check.
6) Evaluation

Look back over the play/task and discuss what you liked, what you didn't, what worked well and what didn't.

Study Tasks

Which side of the brain is dominant?

My right side tested to be more dominant with an average score of 60, meaning that I -should- be better at creative tasks, more emotional and tend to focus on the present and the future. I may not be so good with problem solving, organisation, theory, language and facts.

Watching water boil
I did this task twice, once with clear and once with stock powder added.

Clear water
I found the clear water very clinical, with images of hospital wards and sterilisation coming to mind. The water could be used as a metaphor for cleanliness. The constant flow up bubbles gave me feelings of change and insignificance as each bubble vanishes after a second and no two moments are the same. Futility, it just keeps going on. Science and stars. Perfection.
The connotations of rage that the idea of "boiling over" contain also gave the sight furious edge.
Stock water
The added stock powder changed the colour of the water and removed all connections to cleanliness. made it the water prehistoric and swampy. Images of both the birth of the earth and Jurassic Period.

To combine the two, the two different pots could be contrasted against each other to show a stark difference between opposing ideas, as well as a change in character.

Extras

Black Dog
The Black Dog short films depicted a black dog sometimes only visible by the narrator who followed them around and reduced their quality of life. The black dog is a symbol of depression. In one video I watched the black dog manifested itself in different ways (similar to depression), appearing as sunglasses, hair and a literal black dog. I liked this technique as it showed that the little black dog is always present even when it can not be seen externally. It also suggests that the black dog has an element of control over the narrator as it affects every part of their life. This is reversed in the final scene when the narrator has a picture of the dog in a presentation, which suggests to me that although the black dog is still present, it is now much more under control and is used to learn from.
Little Girl Inside of Me

Little Girl Inside of Me is show I worked on that also uses metaphors to show an individual's state of mental health. In this show a massive cage acted as a symbol for the little girl that was trapped within the narrator due to the severe PTSD she experienced after seeing her home town in Japan devastated by an earthquake. I liked the design of the cage because it shows the Japanese influence while still being relatively simple in design.
Because the set was so bare the director relied greatly on body language and sound in order to take the audience from location to location.
Designing with Nature
It is a good idea to take a closer look at your surroundings. Think about selecting smaller details to incorporate into design as they present a more unique view that often go unseen as people walk by.
Variety is key! It's a good thing to pick a category and then pick several examples, for example if you were looking at flowers, it would be a good idea to gather ten different samples. This will give you a wider range of textures and colours to experiment with.
Perspective
Not just plants
Motion
Contrast images
Experiment with colour to alter mood
Activities
focus only on texture

focus only on shape
Dreamstime.com
https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/08/17-techniques-for-creating-designs-inspired-by-nature/

Lesson 2 - Story Telling - 17/10/16

Types of Story Telling

Cultural Stories

Cultural stories are the transference of morals, values and beliefs from one generation to the next. They are often told to children to teach them certain things, pass on traditions and to share religion.

Family Stories

Family stories tell the audience about the history of a family. What their heritage is and where they come from. They may include traditions and events that have happened in a family's past. They allow a family identity to emerge. They often include the finest traits of a family's history and serve as a motivational tool as a reminder to live up to something,

Friendship Stories

Friendship stories help unite groups of friends and prevents them from growing apart once they begin to lead different lives. They are a recollection of a shared experience. They may be told at reunions or just to bring about a few laughs. To the right is a picture of a number of mementos that I have collected over the years. I think that each one is a good example of how friendship stories can be represented physically. In a production props such as these could be used to show aspects of character or backstory.  

Apocryphal

Often called Urban Myths, apocryphal stories are regularly presented to the audience as unlikely or doubtful. They revolve around the fear of things that can not be fully understood.

Personal

Personal stories are continuously picked up as an individual goes through their life. They concern individuals and often act as a way to understand, change and find meaning to life. They may also serve as tool to motivate, inspire or instill fear in others. Biographies are a form of personal story telling,

Myths

Myths are stories that are presents as being true but with little to no evidence to support their sometimes outlandish claims. They serve as reminders of what different cultures should fear in life.

Fun fact without a source! I once read that myths could have also served to explain mental illness like schizophrenia or autism. For example, the changeling myth may have come about to explain autism in children as it does not become apparent until they're a few years old when they suddenly start acting differently. However, as it stands I do not have a credible source.

Unexplained

Unexplained stories are stories about paranormal or extraterrestrial activity. For example, stories about ghosts, ghouls and UFO's all fall under the Unexplained blanket. They help conquer fear and help us believe in things we do not understand, like faith in a religion or higher power. They help fill people with hope that there is something more than what they currently know to be true.

Tapestries

Tapestries are a visual style of story telling that historically depicted scenes of major battles, like the Bayeux Tapestry, which detailed the lead of to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Poetry

Poetry uses a combination of the aesthetic, notional and semantic qualities of language in order to convey ideas and themes.

Sculpture

Paintings

Tattoos

Carvings

Music

Film

Books

The left is a picture of a mistake tattoo that I got a few weeks ago. It's included because I think it works as an example of a friendship and personal story that is presented in using the tattoo medium.

Study Task - Look at condensed imagery in music. Select specific lyrics.

Condensed Imagery

Golden Skies - Little Robyn

Throughout the song there is a running parallel between life and death, fantasy and reality. Shooting at things with a gun - stark contrast to the idea of 'golden skies'. Shows harsh realities. 

Golden skies acts as a metaphor for heroin use, while the fruit metaphor, "fruits around you begin to spoil." is symbolic of the broken friendships that addiction will eventually lead to.

Strong images of nature. death connotations. 

Metaphors

"stories of the dice decisions and tales of tinfoil."

It is a journey. Blurs the lines between reality and fantasy.
Colours - Halsey

"only happy"  contrasts "sorry head"
"You’re dripping like a saturated sunrise"
"You’re spilling like an overflowing sink" - Such vibrant colour. Too much emotion. Almost gluttonous?
"Pulled apart at the seams"
"you're a masterpiece" 
Loads of references to art and colour. This could be to show that this isn't real love and that it is an impossible idealism. On the other hand, a less cynical interpretation is that the love is emphasized by the intensity of the colour. 

This excess of colour is then contrasted by the use of grey in later verses. Halsey uses grey to show the absence of colour, even stating that this man is "now so devoid of colour."

"You were a vision in the morning when the light came through." This once again suggests something ethereal and not real. 

Extras

Woman in Black

The woman in black used projection (an example of condensed imagery?) in order to change location, namely when they projected the image of a church onto wire mesh during the funeral of Alice Drablow. They also used set pieces, such as a crate, and the audience's imagination in order to depict several events they could not realistically get on stage. I loved this device as it got round possible budget constraints, remained true to the story they were presenting, and engaged the audience more. No -> Imaginary Set -> Actual Set

This is similar to a production of Peter Pan I saw where they used every day furniture to show the children traversing the wild forests of Neverland. Though the techniques were the same, I thought the effect achieved was different; while The Woman in Black used it to progress the story, I felt that it added to Peter Pan's childish sense of imagination and made it seem more like a game.

Aladdin

Another good example of condensed imagery can be seen in a college production of Aladdin; due to the low budget that the college had at the time, it was not feasible to create new sets for each of the pantomime's locations. This was overcome by the changing of lights depending on where the characters were. For example, they used a green glow when in the villain's lair, a gold light during the Cave of Wonders sequence.

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Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive dissonance theory is the idea that humans like to seek consistency in their cognition, any dissonance (inconsistency) found must be eliminated.

In art, cognitive dissonance can be used to motivate people to change something in order to obtain consonance. It can be used to challenge an individual's beliefs and/or their perception of a image or piece of text. Cognitive Dissonance often makes use of challenges that inspires the reader to accomplish or change something. For example, writers/journalists may begin an article with a fact and then challenge it. This encourages the reader to continue with the article in order to discover the truth and achieve cognitive consonance once again.

Banksy often uses his art to present conflicting images that can make the viewer uncomfortable or stop to question what it is they're seeing.
"you think you know everything about -insert-" - fact
"but you don't." - challenge to fact
This encourages people to read the article so that the fact once again becomes true and they regain their cognitive consonance.
The picture to the right is a great example of cognitive dissonance as it offers information that we know to be untrue and so creates a conflicting viewpoint that contradicts our own knowledge.

Oxfam

Although not directly related to theatre, I found Oxfam's use of the Taurus constellation in their shop window a brilliant and clever design plan as it keeps in line with the Christmas-sy atmosphere and was connected to the Ox.

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Understanding Comic Books

"Icon" used to describe anything that presents an idea, person, place or thing.

Concepts - Ideas, concepts and philosophies

Practical realm of icons - language, science and communication: +, -, x, 1, 2, 3, a, b, c...

Pictures - resemble actual things

Photography and realistic paintings - most resemble real life counterparts but are smaller, flatter and less detailed. Films sometimes called cartoons to acknowledge this fact.

By stripping down an icon to it's essential components, they are able to amplify those components.

Faces can be seen everywhere. Anything can be turned into a face.

You see yourself in cartoons. Cartoons are a vacuum that pulls in our identity and awareness. They are concepts that can be filled with your own thoughts and ideas. You don't think about their beliefs or views. The less detailed a character is the more we can identify with that character and put ourselves in their position.

Life can be separated into two realms, the realm of concepts and the realm of senses.

Fry, T. (2011) Design with dissonance – smashing magazine. Available at: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/design-with-dissonance/ (Accessed: 4 December 2016).