#semester2futures

[notrealmia-blog]

Future Stream - Final

Although Peter advised us against using our bedrooms to present our artefact in, I thought it was appropriate for my artefact and the story I wanted to deliver (and sometimes you just have to take risks). The softly lit candles creates a space of reflection, where you can quietly reminisce positive memories of your past. The open journal with the polaroids tucked into the pages suggests that the owner has travelled to places and has decided to look back on some sketches or notes they’ve made during that time. The blues hint that there may be sadness or nostalgia, as the person may yearn to go back to certain passages in time.

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Reflection:

I found this brief to be a really enjoyable challenge. There was a great emphasis on empathy, getting to understand someone else’s narrative and story, and translating it into an artefact. This involved a lot of conversation and questions in order to fully grasp narrative. This task taught me the extent you have to go to really understand the client or the product. The interview process was really extensive and there was the process of listening to the song continuously until I was confident enough to create an artefact in response. Although my artefact is nothing spectacular, I think the context and the artefact work really well together to create something really symbolically rich, and evokes themes of nostalgia and coming-of-age.

If I had more resources (better camera, lightening) I would’ve loved to create something more developed, with a subject for example, to further develop the story. 

I definitely enjoyed this stream the most and I’m really looking forward to what else the Futures stream has to offer next year!

[notrealmia-blog]

Future Stream

Beside hearing a few details on what the future stream was about, I was really excited about the idea of being able to talk about our favourite song to other people, and then having them produce an artefact in response, which I thought may be difficult (and it definitely wasn’t easy)

Because both my partner (Indra) and I missed out on the first class, we had our conversation online via Facebook. While I would’ve liked to have a face-to-face discussion (as I would’ve been able to record some of the body language/ facial expression that Indra used to express her emotions towards the song and use that for my return brief), we were short for time so this method was really useful. 

A snippet of the conversation Indra and I had. You can tell there was a lot of excitement and energy during our discussion/interview, which I didn’t expect to happen online!

The song Indra chose was Delete by DMA’s, which I had never heard of before, so it was interesting to listen to it and imagine listening to the song in Indra’s perspective. Indra first heard the song Delete when she was 16 on a trekking trip in the mountain ranges of Nepal with friends from school. The scenery she described to me was really beautiful, as you could “see the stars so clear [sic] and the house lights looked like stars”. 

Indra’s story really stuck to me and I can even imagine the beautiful night scenery in my head when I listen to Delete. In response to this, I did a drawing of what I imagine in my head while listening to the use (using a screenshot from the music video, to use as the background)

We had to submit a return brief, in which we had to present the conversation we had with our partner. When creating the return brief, I stayed true to the aesthetic of the music video/song, as Indra had spoken about how the music video/song really appealed to her aesthetic. I used a screenshot from the music video and used it as the background, and I wrote all the white annotations and the heading by hand, to give it a lo-fi/grunge feel to it. 

I took key parts of the lyrics which I felt strongly captured the emotions and essence of Indra when she was 16 years old in Nepal. 

After listening to the song and hearing Indra speak about it, I made a few conclusions that helped figure out a few ideas regarding the artefact. I thought the song reminded me a coming-of-age movie, as that moment Indra first heard song signalled a turning point in her life, where she was becoming independent. Because of the backstory, I thought the song would evoke a lot of nostalgia. With all these themes in mind, I thought of an object that could represent all these things: a candle. In a church context, candles may be lit during a time of reflection and the soft light it gives provides comfort. The small flame also reminded me of the stars that Indra saw in the Annapurna mountain ranges at night. 

I used an empty glass bottle and many, many wax candles to create this overall candle. I used the white, melted wax over the bottle to create an impression of a mountain (referencing the Annapurna mountain ranges Indra trekked through). The lit candle wick is another reference to the beautiful stars Indra saw at night in the mountain ranges (and the song Delete mentions stars, which I thought was a great connection between Indra’s experience and the song).