Beautiful Minds Think Alike

The various narratives created in our project do well at preserving the initial topics addressed but vary widely in the thematic approach applied to the story. These themes or emotional perspectives morph from playful, to sorrowful, to serious, and right back to playful again. Each writer and illustrator took his own reading of the tale and redirected the narrative according to his personality, preference, and initial impressions. No single writer approached every work the same way. There wasn’t one of us who always made a story funny or always made it moody and dark, each and everyone us took a fresh approach to each piece and added or emphasized the emotional ideas we found most compelling or appropriate.

            Writer Paul D. Miller commented upon these characteristics of collaborations by stating that such practices make “the creative act a symbolic exchange between players.” A game of will and control only to be exercised in specific parameters according to the provided material. The Exquisite Corpse, or practice of finishing one another’s work to create a greater whole, is the artistic example of human interaction. The piecemeal amalgam of ideas and inspirations show both artist and viewer the lens by which they perceive and create. The fruit of our project is not always the actual pieces, but the personal realization every artist comes to concerning their own habits of synthesis and adaptation.

It was interesting to see that even though it was created by several minds. Some of the stories actually flowed into a complete narrative. Some of the other round robins we saw turned into something completely different than what they started with, so what is the difference? We think topic is very heavily related, the more interesting the topic the more interesting it was to contribute to the initial narrative. What was most surprising to us, was how the overall visual style changed throughout. We think this comes back to the fact that when a topic for a narrative becomes broad, it is more open to interpretation, and is altered by the different minds that contribute.

Ali Jabbar is a graphic designer and artist. He loves to do a simplistic illustrator style for online graphics. The lack of faces or other details is typical of Jabbar’s work. This distinct style created an internet phenomenon and reminded us of the round robin. Others would use his style to create something with a different theme or expression, similar to how the round robin assignment worked. This created a new development for both the narrative and the drawings in the assignment. The story and drawing would evolve as it progressed.

People in Group:

Graham Walker

Benjamin Thevenin 

Jesse Baird 

Jase Van Meeteren

"The Stars needed Gabby to help them. 

 They were under attack by the evil Kromblorexus, and only 

the Sarvoulian Commander Gabby could save them.”

A Mosaic From Music

I feel like my past experiences heavily influenced the images I thought of when I listened to this song. I was also influenced by Brandon Stanton, the photographer for Humans of New York. He uses images to tell the story of people living in a very urban environment. When I first heard this song I immediately thought of something urban and dark with lots of lights passing by. Towards the middle of the song I was starting to get a strong metallic feel. It also gave me a huge throwback feeling. All of these thoughts went into the photos I took. The song itself had an interesting rhythmic beat, but with a lot of different sounds and mixes thrown in. This gave me a grunge feel.

Going along with the throwback theme, I decided to take all the photos on a polaroid camera. The image itself gives a vintage look. It has faded colors and imperfect image quality. This reflects the feel of the song in many different ways. The song feels complete, but at the same time it is mixed and different. It was interesting to see how some of the photos were damaged with water and it made the photo look even more grunge. This matched the images the song gave me even better.

The content of the photos also reflects the feel of the song. Because it seemed like I couldn’t make out everything in the song, I took all the photos in relative darkness. There are subtle shapes or lights that appear in a dark area. It reminds me of the mixes or audio samples that came in during the rhythm. There are also several items that disappear into darkness, just like these samples fade into the overall song. The composition is also always off kilter and tend to have bright random colors. This was to show how the song throws in random pieces of music and it throws off the listener just slightly. It also shows how these pieces are loud and intrusive, but still add to what is happening in the music.

At the end of the song, there were a lot of mouth popping noises that reminded me of the television show Seinfeld. My mom absolutely loves this show, so I started to think of her. Since I kept thinking of the show and in turn, my mother, I decided to take a photo of her. She wouldn’t let me take the photo of her by herself, so I took one of both of us. These noises came at a random part of the song, so I decided to make this photo look a lot different than the rest of them.

I compiled them in an imperfect way and took another image with my phone. I really felt like this showed an overall visual style that reflected how I felt about the song.

Kingdom Hearts Exposes the World's Growing Darkness

 I strongly believe that Kingdom Hearts’ purpose is to inspire the public to change the dark and dreary course the world is heading down. It is a video game that tells the player it is up to him or her to actively fight against the mysterious darkness. It gives the player the tools of light necessary to overcome the problems looming over an increasingly depressing world. If an individual studies the symbols Kingdom Hearts gives the player, they will come to see ways they can create a better world. A lot of these symbols can be applied not just in the game. Real world application causes an interesting call to action to all those interested enough to understand the real meaning behind this video game.

Kingdom Hearts itself was created in 2002. The new millennium was supposed to be an opportunity to redefine the world. Many individuals had great dreams for new technology, new discoveries, and maybe, just maybe, a new world relationship. Before this time the Gulf War ravaged the middle east and the world seemed to sink into a deeper and deeper pit. Unfortunately for the world, the 2000’s didn’t bring the change it wanted. Shortly after the turn of the millennium, the twin towers were destroyed and a new dangerous war ensued. Instead of bringing light and hope, this time was just filled with more darkness. The world seemed to be getting worse and worse.

In the game, a destructive group called the heartless begin to invade worlds throughout the universe and eventually turn them to darkness. It is up to Sora and some of his friends to stop them. These creatures are created in a very interesting way. The game explains that there is both light and dark inside each person’s heart. It is up to that person to choose which side they will give in to. When a person decides to give into the darkness, they turn into a heartless. These heartless in turn seek to turn other individuals into heartless as well. It shows how the darkness in one person breads darkness in others. To me, this has a striking similarity to how the world views terrorism, Muslims, and overall those who practice different faiths and values. When the world sees hate, it tends to fight fire with fire instead of trying to douse the flames. Hate breads hate, just as heartless and darkness breads more darkness. This is a beautiful commentary on how the darkness and hate of an individual, not just a nation, affects the world.

The game also shows the effects of using both good and evil to fight evil. Sora, the character controlled by the player, chooses good. He goes about trying to help the silly characters in the quirky Disney universe. By doing this, he is able to lock the heartless out of each world. Thus using his light to defend against darkness. Sora’s friend Riku chooses a different path. He chooses to save the world by controlling darkness. He believes that by using the evil, he can vanquish it. Riku is inevitably swallowed by this darkness and turns against his friend. He breads more hate and causes great destruction. This again shows that using light and hope is a better defense against darkness. Loving your neighbor in this world is better than neglecting them or despising their way of life to the point of trying to eliminate it.

The use of Disney characters symbolizes the light that comes from friendship. It shows how much brighter the world could be. Disney has always been a symbol of a childlike innocence. Even darker tales are told by Disney in an adorable way. Because of these characters the video game contains this beautiful air of love. When we are willing to understand those around us, the world is fun, and we are happy. This sense of fun attacks the dark subject matter in such an interesting way. These characters (at least the good ones) are almost incapable of hate. The only weapon they have is one of unity and friendship.

“The heart may be weak and sometimes it might even give in. But I’ve learned that deep down there’s a light that never goes out.” This is a quote made by Sora in the final moments of the game, when he is forced to fight the creator of the heartless. It is the game’s way of telling the player there is always hope. This belief that people always have a little bit of good deep inside can be used to change the world. With friendship, understanding, compassion, and love, even the vilest of sinners can become saints. There is no path too far from good. We just need to be willing to allow the sinner to return from that path. If our hearts are not full of friendship, it only breads more hate.

Basically, this video game states, in a longer and more intricate narrative, what Dr. Martian Luther King Jr. said many years ago: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that. hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that.”