Mason Mayfly

Unit 4: Creative Media Project

This is my final drafted FMP proposal, which I submitted at the start of the project. In this, I outlined how I have progressed over the course and what skills I have learnt. I talked about these in relation to my final project and how these skills might assist me.

I also detailed my initial ideas for the themes of the project, and possible research points leading off of said themes.

Planning and Understanding the Pecha Kucha

I annotated and highlighted the document explaining what to include for my Pecha Kucha to break down the information. Once I had a better idea of the focuses for the presentation, I started outlining the specific pieces that I plan to do for the project.

This helped me a lot as it gave me a clearly outlined point of reference when I was making the Pecha Kucha presentation.

Outlined Slide Plan

I have continued to use discord as a system to organise my projects, like I implemented in the developmental stage. In my CMP discord channel, I made a more outlined plan of my focuses for each slide of the Pecha Kucha presentation.

This was useful when making my Pecha Kucha as I felt I had given myself clearer goals to focus on.

The Pecha Kucha

I decided to make my Pecha Kucha focused on being visually engaging. I felt having a focus on images, with clear captions, would make the presentation more interesting for the audience. Due to this decision, a lot of the detail of the project was given through my delivery (see transcript below).

I think this method of presenting made the presentation feel more professional, as I wasn't simply reading the same text that was on the presentation. I think it's also effective in portraying the visual aesthetic of the project overall.

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Presenting Transcript:

• Slide 1- My project is currently called 'The Wood Wide Web', although that may be subject to change as I progress through the project. My main focus for the project is exploring oral storytelling and its history in relation to mycorrhizal networks, which are subterranean networks of fungi and plant roots that work in a symbiotic relationship.
  
• Slide 2- In my project proposal, I went over how the previous units have influenced my practise and my initial ideas for this project. Namely, that my progression through this course has led me to find that my interests lie mostly within concept work and multimedia pieces. I prefer to experiment with various mediums, rather than limiting myself, and I find that it helps me to explore ideas and concepts from new perspectives. I said in my proposal that I may consider making a multimedia film piece, however I am very open to wherever my research and testing will take me in the final form of the project. Something that I am currently contemplating is the possibility of a character or environment concept for the final format of the piece.
  
• Slide 3- My initial focuses for this project are the themes of language and culture, specifically in relation to my Pakistani heritage. I want to explore the interconnectedness of them and how they can influence one another. A lot of my projects have previously explored culture, as this is a main focus of my work, however language is a topic that I have not touched upon very much. I plan to look into the mycorrhizal network as a representative metaphor for spoken language and communication. For the cultural facet of the project, I want to look into South Asian fables and lore. I have previously done a project where I looked into vampire mythos across South and East Asia, however I want to open up the topic further with this project. I don’t often see these types of tales in Western media, in fact I found them quite hard to source in my last project. I want to share these stories with more people, particularly for the accessibility of South Asian diaspora.
  
• Slide 4- I am trying to be very strict and clear with my planning so that I do not fall behind on work. Firstly, I made an FMP action plan as part of my project proposal, which gives an overview of my initial plans for the project. Last week, I made a Gantt chart that goes into more depth, specifying a timeline for tasks and processes that I intend to complete for each criteria section. I made a copy of this Gantt chart that will act as a tracker as I complete tasks for my own visual reference, and so that I can reflect on my planning in the evaluation I will do at the end of the project. On a weekly basis, I will be making a plan for myself on Google Keep that breaks down the tasks I have for that day to assist me in staying focused and on task. You can see the one I made for last week pictured in the slide.
  
• Slide 5- Last week I spent my time planning for the project and doing some contextual research. I asked myself what information I might need as a base for my project to then build further upon with my research. Having context for what oral history is then invoked me to think of doing an interview for one aspect of my primary research. Learning about the forms that oral storytelling can come in, allowed me to diversify my secondary research sources, for example looking into poems and music. While I broadly knew what the mycorrhizal network was, having a more specific contextual knowledge of them showed me this idea of a 'mutual exchange', which in turn made me think about what the mutual exchange is between an oral storyteller and their listeners.
  
• Slide 6- I will begin primary research this week, however I made a plan last week of what I am going to do. To look into oral history and some possible stories from my heritage, I am going to do an interview with my nan, similar to what I did for my Error Project in Unit 1. I find photography to be a great way to explore ideas and I often treat it as a warm-up exercise for my creative brain. I am also going to do a survey on google forms, as I have done them for previous projects and found audience input to be very helpful to refer back to. I have booked tickets to see an interesting musical on mycorrhizal fungi that explores queer theory within fungi, I believe this will help to further diversify my project. To explore nature in the context of projection mapping, I am going to see an exhibition of David Hockney's work called 'Bigger & Closer'.
  
• Slide 7- I have begun some secondary research last week, however I plan to go into more depth with it over the next two weeks. So far, I have began reading the book 'Entangled Life' by biologist Merlin Sheldrake and I have watched the documentary 'Fantastic Life'. These are great scientific sources that allow me to access and comprehend the science and behaviours of mushrooms, which I feel is important for me to know to accurately display them within a metaphor. I have written up notes on the documentary while watching. I plan to write a book review and maybe annotate a few pages that I intend to focus on after finishing 'Entangled life'. I have come across a poem by Sylvia Plath called 'Mushrooms' that I intend to read and annotate. I have also been listening to Cosmo Sheldrake, a musician who makes music from the sounds of nature.
  
• Slide 8- I have started to compile an inspirational playlist of music from Cosmo Sheldrake, amongst other musicians, that I can listen to while doing work and to assist my exploration of ideas and concepts. Music holds a lot of importance to me and is a big part of how I go about creating concepts. The last mushroom related piece of secondary research I plan to be doing is looking into a past exhibition that explored the use of fungi within art and design. I have found an encyclopaedia on South Asian folklore, and I plan to use this to expand on and support any stories that my nan might have to share with me during primary research. Most of my secondary research is comprised of research into mushrooms, but that is done purposefully as I believe that the best way that I can research traditionally orally shared stories is to get them directly from the people who have heard them. However I will also be researching the importance and history of oral storytelling traditions, I just haven't planned out my sources yet.
  
• Slide 9- I will be doing testing in week 4 of the project, where I will be looking at forms of print making, with a focus on using natural materials, as well as being mindful and sustainable with my use of them. For example, in the past I have collected shaggy ink cap mushrooms, which are mushrooms that turn into a black ink like substance through a process called deliquescing. I now have the black gloopy substance of them, but I still need to refine it into ink. I want to experiment with spore prints, which is where you leave mushroom caps (typically of gilled mushrooms) on a piece of paper and over some time the spores will make a print on the paper. Spore prints do need to be sealed in some way if you intend on keeping them as the spores will fade off of the paper. I also want to try lino cutting and printing, as well as using natural materials like fallen leaves, dead flowers or samples of mycelium as "ink stamps".
  
• Slide 10- I think breaking down shape and form will be very useful to my creative development within this project. Therefore, I am going to implement the practise that I have done previously in the Energy project of microscope photography, which will force me to focus on individual aspects of mushroom and mycelium specimens allowing me to view them in their relative parts as opposed to a whole shape. A piece of experimentation I did last week, and will expand on further in my testing week, is exploring art through abstract shape. In this example, I made a random mess of squiggles and then after taking a step back to see the shapes and overall form of it, I saw it as a flower. I then coloured it in to show my perception of it. This exercise was directly inspired by a passage in 'Entangled Life' that was about breaking down our preconceptions of reality, and this exercise definitely helped me to do that within the context of art. Another form of testing that I plan on doing is a "mycelial soundscape" because the sound designs that I have made in previous projects have helped me with my exploration of concepts. I also want to try and do projection mapping depicting the electrical signals that travel along mycelium in a similar way to our own neurons, however sourcing a projector for this may be difficult.
  
• Slide 11- I plan on reflecting on my work throughout this project as I believe a continuously reflective and analytical mindset is what will best benefit my creative development, and in turn my final outcome. Every week, I want to document my overall experience with the project's progression and the work that I've been doing, which I will complete in a diary-like format on a google site I have created for this project. This site is for my personal use to keep track of process that I've done and how they went. I made this as I feel it will benefit me greatly as a distinct point of reference for my work, and will help to prevent me from getting overwhelmed during the project. At the end of the project, I am going to create another google form with the intent of market research and feedback for the final piece that I will have created. As an overall evaluation, I plan to evaluate my development within each criteria and how well I have met them. I will also respond to the audience feedback and make references to it in this evaluation, as well as evaluating my planning and time management through the Gantt chart and tracker I have made.
  
• Slide 12- Overall, I believe my project is ambitious, as well as ethically, morally and sustainably aware. Thank you for listening to my plans for this project. If you have any feedback or questions, please give them now.
  

Reflection | Group Presentations Feedback

I presented my Pecha Kucha to my table, and collected some feedback about how I did after it. They all felt my presentation was very well thought out, and they remarked that the way I spoke about the project in depth showed them how passionate I was about it. They felt that I managed to make the presentation accessible through my explanations of the more complex topics that my project focuses on, like mycorrhizal fungi.

I did go slightly over time with my presentation, which I feel is due to my difficulties with reading, processing and relaying texts. I did practise presenting by myself a few times prior to having to do the presentation with the group. In future, I think I might try to write out bullet points as opposed to full lengths of text as I feel I may find it easier to process and relay quicker.

Overall, I think I did very well with presenting and engaging my audience, but I just need to find ways to help myself take less time when speaking.

Creative Development | Other Presentations

We all went around the table presenting and giving each other feedback. I took note of anything from other people's presentations that I thought could be useful inspiration for my own project's development.

I may not use these ideas in the end, but it was a good exercise for my attentiveness and my ability to take iterations of an idea, which will be useful skills to for my project to have creative forms of development and consistent progression.

Reflection | Further Tutor Feedback

After we had done our presentations, I felt that I wanted some further feedback on my Pecha Kucha than what I had received from my table. I particularly wanted to check that the plans I had outlined for my research were strong, and that there were enough varied research sources. This is because, in my developmental assessment, research was one of the criteria I did not do as well in. My primary research was not as diverse as it should have been and could get very personally focused in some projects, instead of considering outer perspectives. Therefore, I wanted to ensure the basis that I had built for my research, from the start of the project, was the best that I could give myself to progress through it. Accordingly, I went to my tutor for further feedback on my Pecha Kucha.

The feedback I received regarding my initial plans for research were very reassuring and left me feeling a bit more secure within my next steps for the project. When my tutor was going through my presentation, she noticed that a lot of my plans for testing were very analogue based so she mentioned that we were going to do a cyanotype workshop that week, which I made note of so I could plan ahead to bring nature samples in for it. She also put me in contact with another student, who has done a project similar to mine in the past, to see if we could trade research sources with each other.

Developmental | Discussion with peer

Leading on from my meeting with Grace, I met with a peer to discuss each other's projects. Amy has previously done a project on mushrooms using analogue materials and printmaking for her A-levels.

The talk with her was very useful and I did get some extra points of possible research for the project, particularly some specific artists to research. Secondary artist research was something that I felt was lacking in my currently planned research sources, so these suggestions were very welcome and helpful.

Our conversation also branched off into different forms of testing I could do for the project. This was valuable to me as it opened me up to even more varied formats that I could experiment with. It was especially beneficial that I had the opportunity with someone who has directly worked with mushrooms in their art before as I was able to get a lot of useful tips of how to best work with them.

Context & Research | Mycorrhizal Networks

What is the Wood Wide Web?

It is a moniker or ecologist slang for the way mycorrhizal networks connect tree root structures to one another and allows the trees to communicate. The term came about from the comparison between the internet and an interconnected forest.

What is a mycorrhizal network?

They are underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi that can branch out for miles. They are often found in places such as forests with dense vegetation. These networks are built from strands of mycelium that connect together to make a root-like system. The networking aspect comes from the hyphae of the fungi branching out to conjoin with plant and tree roots, forming a mutualistic bond that involves the exchanging on nutrients.

Why is it important for the ecosystem?

These networks are vital to forest ecosystems as they can transfer water, nutrients and information between trees and plants. These trades help the forest to thrive, with plants supporting each other beneath the surface to survive.

How do these fungal networks support plants and trees?

The fungi work in a symbiotic relationship with the plants, being fed via the plant's sugar stores and the fungi exchanging nutrients from the soil to the plant. Moreover, these networks create a collaborative framework between plants and trees, creating a way for them to exchange carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, water, and sugars via the fungal networks to other plants. Trees are very conscious in the way they share nutrients; a young tree may receive more nutrients from stronger surrounding trees, and an old dying tree might share its nutrients outwards in order to benefit the community.

They fungi also:

• allow for communication between plants and trees
  
• can send warnings of an attacker to one another
  
• e.g. a pest attack on one tree might be warned and other trees will increase their defences against such pests
  
• much more precise than airborne hormones (a above ground form of plant comms)
  
• increase surface area of plant roots open to soil for water and nutrient absorption
  
• improve nutrient efficiency
• can increase a plant's resistance to droughts
• are a main agent for decomposing dead organic matter
• re-fertilises the soil
  

How do these subterranean networks benefit animals and humans?

They help our old and new forests to flourish, which in turn provides us with fresh and healthy air to breathe. They can also help a lot when used within things such as farming and gardening as they help plants to flourish, increase crop yields and help to protect from drought. The networks are beneficial to animals as they help to upkeep the forests. This is both in supporting the production of healthy forest vegetation, for animal consumption, and the decomposition of dead matter within the forests, which can help to avoid disease and re-fertilises the soil.

Are there any disadvantages of mycorrhizal fungi?

Overall, not particularly. There may be some minor possible disadvantages, such as the fungi decomposing wood, so wooden structures that are not properly treated would like get fungi growing on them and eventually rot. There's also the possibility that, at high colonisation densities, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi could become parasitic and have negative effects such as competing for nutrients and interfering with plant interactions.

Context & Research | Oral Storytelling

What is oral storytelling?

It is an intimate form of storytelling where the storyteller and listeners are in the same vicinity, often quite close together. It's a way of telling stories with your voice, with the dynamic of the speaker and their listeners. It's often a very immersive and even personal form of storytelling.

What formats does it come in?

They make take many forms: poems, legends, histories, short stories, myths, chants, family stories, fables, and songs.

What is happening to it?

Similarly to how visual storytelling had to adapt to the shift from visual to oral, oral storytelling is having to shift to adapt to the modern day written and printed forms of storytelling. This shift is especially prominent within cultures where it was a very engrained tradition, such as South Asian cultures. Suddenly, people now have phones, the internet and so many digital and physical forms of books. One 'adaptation' that could be considered is the recent trend in audiobooks, the crave to hear someone read one a story appears prominent... but is it the same? I really don't think it is.

Why is it considered a 'dying art'?

As talked about above, there is a shift happening in the way we consume stories due to printed and newly digital forms of storytelling. Younger generations appear to be constantly on the move; working, going out, constantly consuming digital media and travelling. Digital formats, and even printed ones, are a matter of convenience for them, but older generations didn't grow up with these devices and thus experience them differently. This generational gap between younger and older generations means younger generations may struggle to connect with or access these traditions of oral storytelling. While elders and older generations (30-40+) may still join as a community every so often to keep up the orally told traditions, younger generations may not sit around to take part because of the disconnect between these generations or because they simply feel like they do not have the time.

However, it also runs deeper than that. So many language's and dialects are dying out in this day and age, and with the death of the last speaker is taken all of the stories of their culture.

The cultures that once had such a rich community built on the tradition of oral storytelling, are either literally dying out or being snuffed out by quicker, 'on-the-go' formats.

Why is oral storytelling important to our society?

Storytelling in itself is the basis of a culture, it can build, shape and nurture cultures. Things such as cultural mythology provide so much insight into a culture's beliefs and values. For example, the Pontianak of Malay and Indonesian origins tells us that the cultures value 'obedience' within women as the creature has a way to be turned from a treacherous man-killing creature to a 'good wide'.

Oral storytelling in particular, is an incredibly intimate and personal experience that can be very shaping for people, particularly in young children. Telling fables at these younger ages can be very formative over a child's development and teach them a lot about their own culture.

Moreover, oral storytelling is a distinctly unique form of storytelling. All other forms of storytelling feel quite permanent and set it stone with pages printed on a page or a voice recorded on a phone. You see and hear them the same each time, however and oral story is fluid and changes over time. The story will adapt to whoever is retelling it, their mannerisms and speech style, and will continue to evolve the more it is retold. Orally told stories are a beautiful part of our world that are equally constant as they are changing.

What are disadvantages of this method?

The environments that these types of stories are often shared within tend to be ones that are very relaxed and open. The listener is a part of the story rather than a bystander to it, so while a story is being told the audience will engage with it in the moment. There will be laughs and the occasional question, but possibly even some chatter between the listeners. This type of environment might be off-putting or distracting to fair amount of people, whether sharing a story or listening to one. Personally, I think this environment is one the main things that makes this storytelling technique so lovely; that type of environment feels a lot like home to me.

How can we support this tradition and allow it to flourish in out modern age?

• Participate in it
• Listen, tell orally told stories, create spaces for them to be told
  
• Acknowledge possible modernised forms of them
  
• Music, theatre, musicals
  

Creative Development | Pinterest Board

> Link to View Full Pinterest Board <

I created a Pinterest board with some very broad initial ideas based more upon the feel of what I was exploring for the final piece. This board is going to be my board for the whole project, which I will add on to and organise into sections as I progress through.

I think it will be really good for me to have a basis full of visual ideas for me to pick and choose from. I definitely want to have a look into different atmospheres that I could experiment with for this project.

Creative Development | Pinterest Board

> Link to View Full Playlist <

I created a Spotify playlist for the project that I can add to as I progress throughout the project. This playlist primarily aims to focus on songs I felt had a 'storytelling' aspect to them and songs relating back to fungi. However, I may also just include filler songs that link back to the overall vibe of my aims with the work.

Music is a big sort of 'gateway' for me and a lot of my creativity comes based from and thrives off of music. I read a lot into music, and I even use music to build upon a character's backstory and personality -both through the lyrics and the music itself. Therefore, having something like this will be great for me as I can listen to it throughout the project when I am in need of inspiration or simply need to focus and remind myself of the overall feeling of the piece.

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As part of my FMP Proposal, I created an overall timeline of my project's progression. I sectioned each week based on criteria, to ensure that the main bulk of each criteria would be completed to a high standard. This is not a rigid timeline, and I imagine it will be very much subject to change once I have further developed my ideas for the project, as well as over the course of me progressing through the project.

I created a Gantt chart for my project to help my visualise my workflow, manage my time and assign realistic time frames for each stage. It allows me to see what tasks are coming up, and any tasks that might overlap. I hope that this will help me to work more efficiently and reduce the risk of me getting overwhelmed. This gantt chart, while a very useful guide for me, is not a strict timeline of what I am going to do each day, as circumstances may change. Furthermore, as I progress through the project, I develop or change my idea in a way that the above gantt chart does no accommodate for. Thus, as well as a gantt chart, I have also made a project tracker.

Above is my project timeline tracker. This helps me to visualise the project's progression while I am completing it, but it is also useful for me to reflect on my planning and organisation after I have completed the project. At the end of the project, I will compare my Gantt chart and tracker to evaluate how well I planned and organised the project, and how well I kept on track with completing it.

Each week of the project, I made lists for myself on Google Keep to break down what I needed to do and the day. While I have my gantt Chart, this was something I could allow myself to have more flexibility with moving tasks around and take around with me wherever I am as have Google Keep on my phone. Furthermore, the gannt chart helps me to visualise the overall view of the project, but lists like this help me to focus on what needs to get done in the here and now.

Problem Solving | Resources List

I wrote a list of resources that I thought I would need for the project, and I found that it helped me to plan more effectively. I listed the resources I needed to purchase or source for creative testing, including some I may've had already, but was not entirely sure about.

Despite the list, I still came into a few problems with resources. To begin with, one item, the plant music maker, was way too expensive for my budget. I attempted to look for any affordable alternatives, but with no luck. So, unfortunately, I had to move away from that specific idea.

Overall, writing the list was helpful, but I also learned that I need to be mindful that things may not go entirely to plan.

I had made arrangements with my uncle to collect a projector from him during a family gathering for projection mapping testing. Regrettably, I completely forgot to collect the projector. There was the possibility of me going back again via train to collect it. However, we live in different cities and I felt that losing a day of work to collect the projector was not worth it. So, I decided that I would simply move away from the idea of using projection mapping as a form of testing, as I did not have the capability to do it.

I have learnt to set myself reminders for instances like this, especially when there might be a lot of distractions. Ultimately, I think planning work related things during family gatherings, like birthdays, does not really work and I will try to avoid doing so in future.

David Hockney: Bigger & Closer [Lightroom]

I found the David Hockney exhibition through a TikTok advert of the exhibition. I was really intrigued by it and I could see themes relating back to nature in the advert. I was also really encapsulated by the projections shown. I decided to look into it more and I had a look on the website about what the exhibition was like, when it was running and how much it was.

I booked it for Thursday the 16th as that was our course’s designated exhibition day and I felt like it was worth getting through all the exhibits I was going to look at in one day.

I took notes on paper during the course of the exhibition experience, which lasted an hour. I decided to use paper and pen because I wanted to feel as immersed in the exhibition as I could, and it just felt right as opposed to using my phone to make notes. I really enjoyed the exhibition experience, it was very pleasantly stimulating in terms of my visual and auditory senses. I was anxious in the lead up to it that I would get overwhelmed during it as, on the day I had booked, I was having a very bad morning and was very overstimulated. However, the exhibition was actually very calming and provided me with a lot of happiness and inspiration. While I was there, I was thinking about what it’d be like to create an atmosphere like this, somewhere that other people felt the same that I did that day. I think I’d really enjoy doing something like that. It was overall a really great experience and I’m very glad that I found it.

Abstract Trees and Landscapes

Collage Photography

Showed Hockney's Speed Paints and Sketchbook Flip Throughs

Showed Hockney's Speed Paints and Sketchbook Flip Throughs

Stained Glass

Exploring Textures -Water

2d Rig Animated Creature-like Characters

Soundscape -Sound Design

This exhibition was full of interesting artistic techniques that I have never tried or even heard of before. The collage photography in particular was very impressive, especially with the more complicated and detailed ones. I think this exhibition was more useful to me in terms of expanding my scope of experimentation with the mediums I use and how I can utilise them. It was less so helpful in terms of helping me to develop specifically on the topics and themes of my project.

I really liked the art style that Hockney uses is his illustrative pieces. I have a rocky relationship with traditional art as the perfectionist in me tends to go in overload and then I simply give up on the piece. However, I really want to rebuild that relationship positively and the textured, abstract art style shown in Hockney's work seems like something that I could really let go and have fun with.

Being Human [Welcome Collection]

I did not make notes while going through this exhibition, but I recapped after I had been through it. This was because I suddenly became overwhelmed while at the Welcome Collection. I didn't want to miss out, however, so I went through and quickly looked through and took photos of the things that struck me as interesting. I left, took a moment to decompress and then went over the photos I took.

Overall, it was an okay day and I got a lot out of going to the exhibitions. In future, however, I would definitely reconsider doing two exhibitions in one day. Or perhaps I need to be more conscious of the type of exhibitions that I go to. Immersive experience based ones such as David Hockney seem to work really well for me, however typical gallery like spaces overwhelm me very quickly. It's not even there being a lot of people, as I chose times that I hoped would be less busy, it's more so the atmosphere within gallery spaces that sets me off. While I do understand the importance of gallery-like spaces and how much they can assist and inspire one's work, they do not seem to work for me. A current solution I could think of for the time being is to use online archives of the galleries as secondary research. However, I would also like to find galleries that I am okay with going to. I remember in the diagnostic period that I really liked being at the 'Bankside Gallery', so perhaps finding smaller galleries would work well for me.

I did not do any formal interviews in the end as my Nan became ill, however I still learnt a lot from the unstructured interviewing method that I used.

> Link to View Form Results <

The Consumer Research Form

I decided to make a form because it is an effective form of primary research, which allows me to get a wider variety of viewpoints than I might be able to through an interview as I can share the form across multiple platforms.

My form is split into sections that look at target audience, how people utilise fungi, people's experiences with oral storytelling, the final format and how I might distribute my final piece.

I shared the form with friends and family via WhatsApp, on the Media Production aula page, on my Instagram pages and on various discord servers. I plan to let the form collect responses for a week or so, and I may re-publicise them a few times within that time.

Once I feel I have collected enough responses, I will look over and consider their answers in context to my project and use the statistics to help guide me with my project's development.

Reflection | The Consumer Research Form Results

Target Audience:

(aimed at, but not restricted to)

• Primarily discord users
  
• 16-20 age demographic
• Reached a range of ethnic groups, mainly directed at South Asian diaspora
• LGBTQ+/Queer community
• Non-cis gender/under trans umbrella

Fungi:

• Surprising amount of people new overall uses of fungi
  
• Mainly knew were cooking and for medicinal use
  
• Lesser known where use as plasters and break down nuclear waste
• Many picked all of the above
• I wonder if that's because they knew it was all of the above or because they guessed it was
  
• Next time I make a form like this, I won't include and 'all of the above' to avoid the possibility of skewed results
• Daily usages of fungi was pretty much as expected
  
• Primarily used for cooking, a decent amount use for medicinal drugs
  
• Surprisingly a fair few use mushrooms for ink

Oral Storytelling:

• Majority has said they have experienced oral storytelling
  
• Appears that most experience this as a child, often in a a family environment, as a narrative short story
• Mixed bag in terms of feelings towards such stories, but most describe a happiness, connection or enjoyment in some form.
• Again, mixed environments, but most seem to be cozy, calm or exciting
• Got a really nice range of stories, they were very inspiring and felt very personal to each person/culture
• The retelling accuracy was varied as to be expected, people remember in different ways and relay information tin different ways to each other.

Final Format:

• This was very close between them, but I decided to go with the 'life of a cryptid' concept
  
• I added this section more as a guidance for me in terms of seeing outside perspective on the ideas as I couldn't choose between the exhibition or game
  
• In the end, I chose despite what was on the form and went based off of what I felt most passionate about
• I received a lot of really useful feedback for these that I'll try to carry through or focus upon with in my work.
  
• Even though I chose the 'life of a cryptid' concept in the end, I could still take and apply the feedback I got from the other two and twist it to apply to the one I chose, more so the other game concept than the exhibition.
  

Distribution:

• Short form statistically appears like a good way to go
  
• Disregard Vimeo, push YouTube and continue with Instagram and TikTok
• Got quite a few suggestions here
• Twitter -not sure, I don't really support it as a platform and I think it's just rife with unnecessary drama
  
• Talked to peers on this, they agreed to not use this, one also has a twitter art account that has received no growth. Not a great platform for artists.
  
• Quite a few discords, which makes sense considering the demographic
  
• other than sharing my work on servers I'm in, not too sure what else I would do with it
  
• I feel as though the project would need a bit more traction to justify a whole discord server dedicated to it
• Facebook, snapchat -pretty much same as twitter: not great for artists, I don't like or support them as platforms
  
• Tubmlr, deviantart -don't know how great they are for art, I feel like they might be good for networking with other artists but not great for general audience engagement
• Pinterest -I dislike how much work gets reposted without permission on there, I may consider it but I'd be wary
• Twitch, steam -likely longer down the line platforms when it's an actual playable game
• Kickstarter -I think this one could be a really good idea, I need to look into it more as I don't know much about it though
  

The Workshop and Why I was Interested

I went to the workshop specifically with sculptures in mind, related to the exhibition idea I have with the mycelium branching through and connecting each part of the exhibit. I don’t have much experience with things like sculpting or just generally crafting with materials such as cardboard. I felt the workshop would give me one, more information on the creation process and, two, provide me with a bit more confidence in working with such materials.

During the workshop, I made sure to take note of any useful points that were made.

How It Supported My Creative Development

Going to the workshop was worthwhile because I was able to look at architecture pieces from other students and this allowed me to get some inspiration in the types of materials I might use to imitate certain textures and objects. I was focusing mostly on the way that students incorporated nature elements into their architecture pieces.

As a result of this workshop, I have generated some more ideas. If I go ahead with either game concept, I could make a 3d model of one of their environments. Furthermore, one of the pieces worked with a clay-like material and that made me think of the clay soil I have readily available in the forest. Perhaps I could make models of mushrooms for the exhibition, or even characters for a game concept, from the unprocessed clay. It would be an entirely new medium to me and would likely be very fun to sculpt in the middle of woods.

Planning & Ethics | The Initial Idea

I wanted to do a focus group in order to have more primary research under my belt for the project. The idea for the premise of this focus group was something I dreamt, and upon waking I felt it could be a very interesting form of research. Immediately after waking up, I noted down what had happened in the dream and I reflected on the idea and how it could benefit my project.

After doing this, I took some time to think on the idea and how it might play out. I came back with one concern of the fact this includes the production of other people's art, which I will then specifically use as inspiration or even as a reference. The ethics of this may be a bit questionable and I'd feel entirely uncomfortable with doing so without explicit permission from each creator. While thinking of how I might work out this problem, I planned out the 'next steps' I needed to do for this focus group.

> View Signed Release Forms <

Problem Solving & Planning | Preparing the Group

I solved my ethical concern by deciding to make consent slips for every participant to sign. I initially planned to make physical slips but realised that an online form would both be better for the environment and be easier in general. I wrote out a professional 'interview release consent form' with outlined terms. I also formatted the form in a way where all terms had to be marked as agreed for the form to go through, as well as formatting the name box so that it would show an error if not filled in all caps.

For this focus group, I am writing a passage that focuses on introducing the main character and a bit about their typical environment. I wanted to go over both the physical characteristics of the character and their personality. My writing style means that the content I write tends to flow as I write it rather than having a fully rounded view of what I’m going to be writing beforehand. Thus, this doesn’t gel all that well when I need to write something more specific and pointed, such as this passage. To assist myself with focusing on the main points I wanted to get across, I made a list of all the character descriptions I wanted to make sure that I worked into the story. I found this fairly difficult to do at the start as referring back to the list felt unnatural to me and I had to consciously stop myself from going off on tangents every so often. However, I think this method actually elevated my writing quite a bit as I didn’t have to make as many revisions of the piece since I had less rambling to cut out. I still think I flow better with my own writing method and so will continue to utilise it when appropriate, however, I will be also implementing the use of this listed method for times when I need to focus on specific character, place or item descriptions.

The Woodland Dweller

Written by Mayfly

Creative Development & Reflection | Character Introduction Passage

The process of writing this short story actually provided me with a huge amount of development in terms of the progression of the project. The act of describing the character, it’s characteristics and it’s preferred environments allowed me to have a much clearer view on what the character is like. I, of course, had an initial overview of the character in my mind but having something written like the above felt much more fleshed out and rounded than the ideas floating around in my head.

My main goal with this piece was to go over all the key points, which I had listed previously, in a way that didn’t feel mashed together or sporadic. I believe I did really well with the way I let the story flow. I managed to include all of the points I wanted to make in a way that, I feel, seems natural. The narrative voice I used for this really helped with the way I included points because I was able to metaphorically ‘feed’ the reader bits and pieces of information without it feeling forced and without it being something that takes them out of the immersion of the story.

I wanted to make sure the piece had a distinct writing style flowing throughout, one that fits the overall mood of the game concept. My style was definitely very distinct for this piece. I shared the final draft with a few people and the thing they picked up on almost immediately was how unique the writing style was, and also how well it fit what I was trying to convey. I tried to also write in a way that would come across really well when spoken orally, which I think one can definitely see in the finished product.

I wanted to provide information on the character that alluded to things about them, but was still vague enough to allow you to build your own interpretations off of them. This point of vagueness was primarily important because of the premise of this focus group being about their own interpretations of the character. If I am too specific with my view of the character, I would be providing less scope for other viewpoints and, therefore, my results will likely not be varied. I believe I did well with this. At first, I worried I had made it too vague, however, upon sharing with a few others for feedback I was happy with the amount they felt they knew about the character by the end of it, and I was receiving some interesting takes and theories on the character.

Reflection | Conducting the Group

I think the focus group went really well! I had a total of four participants for this focus group, and I chose and environment that was secluded and quieter to conduct it.

I allowed them a fair bit of freedom within the 'experiment'. They could sit however and wherever they liked in the room, and could use whatever preferred medium they wished for their illustration response.

I actually reduced the time I planned to set for them to make their responses from 10 minutes to 5 minutes as I realised that 10 minutes was quite long and I didn't need things that were hugely detailed or fleshed out. I wanted the bare bones of a concept so I could take that and work upon it myself.

The group really liked my story and gave me feedback saying that the research process for this was very fun and unexpected for them.

Focus Group Results

Work by CONNOR BALEV

Work by ROSIE BELL

Work by ALEKS GIOVINAZZO

Reflection | Focus Group Results

I am very happy with these results and I feel that they are very varied. There's a lot that I can take from them as they not only show different interpretations of the character, but they also all have very distinct art styles.

Work by SAM BULGIN

As an overall reflection, I think this was a great experimental form of primary research that I executed well. If I were to do something like this again, I think I'd try explore a comparative view within this focus group by having a larger group overall that I split into two groups. Group A would experience the research process the same as done here, and Group B would have a written version of the story that they read to themselves and could refer back to as much as they like while sketching.

This would in fact become a bit more of a social experiment, and thus I'd need to pay more attention to my control, dependant and independent variables when conducting it.

Shen Mue [Dreamcast]

- Sat with Azad and went through the game

- We started a fresh game, played for an hour

- He was telling me about the history of the game and dreamcast as we played

- It was interesting to see the sort of "ordinary life" open world concept of the game

- Extra little mechanics that provided nothing to the main plot, but gave so much more added atmosphere (drinks machines, record player, arcade shop)

- The idea of having a "bedtime" struck me as really very interesting, not something I've really seen in other open world games with similar concepts

- I've of course seen it the idea of having a bed to save the game in Zelda and animal crossing, however the bedtime in Shenmue was quite literally a bedtime, you could save the game without going to bed. It was again an added mechanic that gave atmosphere and a sense of reality to the game.

- I felt that the worldbuilding was very strong and detailed (ceilings weren't just flat, they had pipes and wires running along them)

- I found the gacha elements really interesting because they were quite literally gacha machines from real life implemented directly into the game like you would use them irl

- A little similar to the phone mini game 'Tsuki' that I've played (I plan to look at this game as well as it's more along the lines in terms of genre that I might be going for)

- I LOVE the idea of a little notebook, it's lacking in so many games and I always find myself desperate for one

- It feels so much more immersing to take notes about the game in the game, it completely takes me out of it when I have to have a separate google doc or something to make notes on 'builds' or items that I need, such a simple feature that adds a lot more engagement

- The presentation of the plot where you have to go around the towns and talk to people to learn more about the story and to progress could be something I could adapt quite well to my oral storytelling concept

- Having to go around to collect bits and pieces of one whole story

- Feels like a very active and involving form of gameplay

Tsuki

I found this documentary on Netflix a little while before this project had started and I had been meaning to watch it. The documentary is focused on fungi, which is perfect for my research for this project. The documentary talks about the lives of fungi within a lot of aspects of our world from insect mind-control to anxiety treating psychedelics.

One thing to note is that the documentary is actually a way of promoting a fungal-based small business of the same titular name, 'Fantastic Fungi'. I was not aware of this when first watching, I discovered at the end of the documentary as they then promote the business at that point. While I think there is nothing wrong with this form of promotion, and it's definitely a clever promotion tactic, I was sorely disappointed at the fact it wasn't made clear from the start. Had I known this information, I likely would have approached the documentary with a different mindset and outlook. From my impression being unknowledgeable about the promotion aspect of the documentary, I though it was a documentary made much more unbiasedly by a range of scientifical and amaterurist viewpoints. However, the promotion aspect makes the piece more bias and pointed towards marketing the business and the items it sells. I would have preferred more transparency from the start.

Notes During:

- Paul Stamet

- time lapses of mushrooms growing

- in between animals and plants

- fungi are its own kingdom

- bio luminescent mushrooms

- plants are made to catch your eye, mushrooms dont care, a lot hide

- can be mainly decomposers ('rotters')

- they can break down anything hydrogen carbon based, meaning they can break down crude oil spills

- mushrooms are the fruit of mycelium

- connects trees and plant roots together to communicate and share nutrients

- 'mother trees' can recognise their tree children and support their growth

- we are descendants of mycelium, we are closer related to fungi ghan any other kingdom

- trees trade carbon with mycelium for nutrients

- Andrew Weil, mushroom book

- a factor of our brains tripled size over only 2 mil years could be to do with our ancestors' consumption of magic mushrooms

- geometric shapes and symmetry linked to use of magic mushrooms

- mushroom that helps to stop colony collapse disorder in bees

- mushrooms that infect insects; entomopathgenic fungi; he patented a fungi based repellent for insects, no chemicals used its all just fungi

- moldy bread used in second world war to prevent infection in wounds

- east asian traditions of using medicinal mushrooms

- fungi have to protect themselves from viruses and fungus so they produce enzymes and antibiotics; we can use these for own health, like penicillin

- lion's mane mushroom (edible); can stimulate nerves to regrow, could be used to treat things like Alzheimer's

- mice over came fear conditioned response when given psilocybin (magic mushroom)

- fungi are naturally symbiotic creatures

- Mayan culture; used mushroom stones as part of their spiritual practises, divination

- Why do mushrooms make molecules that fit the receptors in the human brain?

- psilocybin can actually help to overcome addiction

- psilocybin are so much more important than just getting high

- irrational and anti-scientific climate against research in psychedelics

- 1999 psychedelic research restarted after a successful small conference of clinicians

- psilocybin has been used in clinical trials with cancer patients; recalibrates their experience with death and dying, reduces their anxiety - through only one dose of it that can last for months

- Turkey tails; empowers the immune system, supported in curing his mothers breast cancer

- Agarikon mushroom

- Peter McCoy, radical mycologist; trained a fungi to break down and use cigarette filters

- So much we don't know about mushrooms

- fungal extracts can help viruses in bees

- you can filter water through mushrooms, create packaging, can be used in batteries

- fantasticfungi.com

Notes After:

- It was a very interesting documentary and worth the watch

- Some of the information I knew from reading the first few pages of 'Entangled Life' and my own general research/knowledge

- So much interesting and new information to me, particularily all the information on psilocybin

- Noted down a few things I could look further into; people, specific mushrooms, uses, cultural practices

- Mayan tradition of mushroom stones are particularly interesting to me, maybe look further into seeing if there are any spiritual uses/ practices involving mushrooms or revering them in SA traditions; Islamic mysticism, Hinduism

- Appears to be a very rich history of mushrooms that I could tap into

Entangled Life

I read this book over the course of the project. It provided very useful insight into the lives of fungi, a lot of which I did not know previously.

The book helped me to stay focused on the fungi aspects of the project so that I didn't get carried away with other elements.

Merlin Sheldrake's descriptions of his life as an ecologist inspired me to do my own 'mini-ecologist adventures', such as recording bird noises over night and watching squirrels. They were of course very minor things in the grand scheme of it but they made the project very fun and also kept me in the right mindset for it.

Hilda (2018)

Brave (2012)

The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún

The Hobbit (1977)

Overall, what I took from this, was mainly the textured art style and the creature designs.

Snufkins [Moomin Valley]

San [Princess Mononoke]

• Brave. (2012).
  
• Dyckarboretum.org. (2023). Available at: https://dyckarboretum.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Fantastic-Fungi-Film-Image-768x432.jpg [Accessed 9 May 2023].
  
• Hilda. (2018).
  
• Hobbit. (1977). NBC.
  
• Moominvalley. (2019). PGS Entertainment.
  
• Nagabe (2017). The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún Vol. 1. Seven Seas Entertainment.
  
• Plath, S. and Overdrive Inc (2016). The Collected Poems. S.I.: Harpercollins.
  
• Princess Mononoke. (1997). Toho Co., Ltd., Miramax.
  
• Sheldrake, M. (2020). Entangled life : how fungi make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures. S.L.: The Bodley Head Ltd.
  

17/03/23 Idea Generation Workshop

20/03/23 Problem Solving Workshop

23/03/23 Pre-Production Workshop

31/03/23 Animation Workshop

17/03/23 Help with Idea Generation

I was struggling to come up with an idea for the final outcome but this point and I was starting to worry as it wasn't coming to me. I had one possible outcome, which I presented to Grace. However, I am not very passionate about it and and neither of use seemed to feel like it was a particularly strong premise.

• Grace liked the composite organism, and the ivy/fungi blend, keep that in
  
• Look at game mechanics to get more of a feel for it
• Don't have a final outcome set in stone yet, that's good. She'll come back to me on that in the mid-point review.

I made a mind map in response to this discussion, which you can see below. The sketchbook pages below are Grace's notes as she was listening to me.

27/03/23 Mid-Point Review

I cam back to Grace at the mid-point review with 3 different ideas to her for the project. I presented them to her an in the end she said that I looked most passionate when speaking about the third concept 'The Life of A Cryptid'. Although, she asked me to try and move away from the word cyrtid and to see if I can push myself a bit more out my boundaries when it comes to the plot and characters.

17/04/23 Making the Final Pieces Cohesive

The White Eyed One

The Teller

Out there, past the forest walls,

Lives a creature neither man nor wolf,

Dare to go alone,

If you think you are brave enough.

It will tower over you,

Whether demon or spirit,

I do not know,

But I'd dare not to approach this foe.

Many faces you will see,

If you find yourself as unlucky,

As to come across this being,

Of light and sound and smell and touch.

A creature not made of flesh or bone,

But filled with moss and sticks,

Who knows if it has a home,

Or if it sleeps in a dank pit.

Keep watch of the forest floor,

For you may stumble upon a river of black,

If you so much as catch a glimpse,

I beg of you, do turn back.

If you are a disturber of peace,

The black river will rise,

And reveal starkly painted eyes,

And from an unmoving mouth,

Will come a chorus of hisses and a screech.

If I were you, I would get out,

Never to return past the forest border,

For they say the white-eyed one remembers all,

So if you are lucky enough to escape,

I'd not dare to double-cross with fate.

To Be Born of Nature

The Wanderer

I am the thing that looms,

Many find me mischievous or deadly,

But I assure you, you have no need to fear me.

I have come from down below,

Deep within the veins of the world,

I am here to sow and restore,

The wounds left by human will.

This forest is where I dwell,

My home within a hill,

A gift to me from Nature,

A homely refuge.

This forest is the land of no one,

No one but the earth's,

We are all on loaned time,

Before we return to the dirt.

So be caring of this soil,

Your final resting place.

Ill-will leaves you in an uncertain place,

If your blood is sour,

Your heart rotten,

The land will spit you back up,

Like an unsavoury meal.

Head my words, or don't,

But I have had my share of time here,

I have made you weep and fear,

Alas my job is not yet not been done,

You have more to learn, young one.

When I have taught all there is to teach,

I will leave with little speech,

But I will give you this parting word:

From the roots I have emerged,

And to the roots, I shall be dragged back down.

The Vines [Song]

???

They will tear out of the ground at night,

And they will tear down your home,

They will eat the trees,

And block out the light,

Take the things that let you breathe,

These things of green ivy and fungi.

> View Only Character Sheet Link <

Naming It

Initial Character Notes

Why I chose the name Saira Hyder

The Dweller Character Info

Character Sheets [2 characters]

> View Only Character Sheet Link <

I really wanted to try making mushroom spore prints, however I struggled to find fresh spore producing mushrooms.

On one day going to the forest, I found an interesting cluster of large flat mushrooms. They were porous mushrooms rather than gilled, which is often how I see spore prints being made. These appeared to be fresh so I took one home to try and make a print with, as you can see above. I also included some drier mushrooms I had in my possession to see if it did anything at all.

I left it for around 24 hours to make sure the spores had settled. However, before I even went to check the spores. The floor of the surrounding area of the mushrooms was covered in, maggots.

Everything went very swiftly into the bin.

I suppose the mushroom I collected was infested with maggots when I had collected it, and I suppose it was likely caused my how moist these mushrooms were.

I did not attempt to do anymore mushroom spore prints after this. I'd like to reattempt in the future but I just need a long break from this situation.

Acrylic and Poster Paint Leaf Prints

Problem --> Solution:

Before

After

Making a Holder and Testing

Problem Solving: I did not have a wildlife recorder so I made a makeshift one of my own utilising a cheap recorder I had, a food bag and a fair bit of electrical tape.

Placing The Recorder

This was really fun to do and got me into that sort of explorer mindset. I recorded a total of just about 24 hours and I managed to catch some very interesting sounds. Unfortunately, I can't share the files as they are very big .wav files.

The sounds from here may be used in a soundscape piece if I choose to make one, but overall the activity itself was enough for me as it helped me to get into a character who is adventurous and inquisitive, and see how they might think or behave. Furthermore, this task felt very much like a problem solving activity as I had to figure out how to securely attach a recorder to a tree and protect it from rain without any of the right equipment. There was also a lot of focus and problem solving put into finding a tree that was slanted enough for me to climb, but wasn't too low down or had branches that were too thin.

Main Colour Palettes

Sketching Process

Base Colours

Testing: Grass Texture

This is one of three final pieces that I have created for my final outcomes. This concept art depicts my main character in an environment they are most comfortable in. My main aims with this art piece were to:

• portray the character's personality.
  
• As my character wears a mask, I had to focus more on external factors to show what the character might be feeling. I put a lot of focus into the way they hold themselves. I used a low, rounded pose to show defensiveness and 'animal-like' disposition. However, I also made sure the looked sturdy by outstretching the arms to avoid the character looking vulnerable.
  
• set an overall mood that is very prominent and distinguishable
  
• Setting the vibe for the piece primarily came from the environment design. The forest environment is both warm and eerie at the same time, creating a sense of unnerve but not enough to be off putting.
  
• create a piece that links back to and makes subtle references to the plot and other characters.
• While this piece is focusing on the mc, the Dweller, I wanted the piece to still feel cohesive in the context of the story. I included ivy leaves as a reference to the ivy-fungi composite organism, and I included a dragonfly as an 'easter egg' and allusion to the character 'Saira Hyder', who's associated animal is a dragonfly.
  

I feel that I achieved these goals with the piece and have done well in them.

Some more minor goals I had for myself personally as an artist were:

• have a lot of textures
  
• experiment more with depth of field in my illustrations
• push yourself to incorporate interesting lighting
• be more conscious of colour theory and the palette you use

I believe I achieved my personal artist goals within this piece as I feel it is textured, both through the use of a paper texture overlay and through the 'colour as line art' and 'sketch line art' art styles that I used. I feel I showed light filtering through an overhead canopy through the gradient I used on the grass. Initially I wanted to also render the illustration more in depth with shadows and highlights on all the elements, however, I ultimately decided against this as I felt it would overcomplicate take away from the art style/s I was using. I had a lot of fun with the depth in this illustration, and it's the first time I've played around with depth of field in an art piece like this and I feel I did very well.

Overall, I'm very happy with this outcome and I think it is a very good portrayal of my artistic style and skills.

This is my second final outcome; a merch stall. This is a depiction of how I might go about setting up a stall at something like a Comicon or a game festival in order to both gain an interest in the game concept, and generate funding for it. On the stall, I have badges that I illustrated and hand-pressed; a decorative mask that I made, based on the the Dweller's mask; a book that I coptic-stitched and filled with flower pressings, and crayon drawings as Saira's 'artefact' item; and I have an animated gif of the title card concept art looping on my laptop.

My main aims when curating this stall were:

• to have a setup that would seem interesting and eye-catching from far off.
  
• I feel like my use of height, colour and textures makes the stand look very compelling, especially to people who enjoy woodland fantasy themes.
  
• to have a layout that would encourage people to discuss and ask questions.
• I included both purchasable products and concept work on the table and avoiding having tons of stock directly on the table. (They can be in boxes underneath the table.)
  
• Having this mixture allows people to flick through as they please, and is more likely to get them to ask me about what a piece is, why it's there or more about a character.
• By doing this, I'm building an active interest in the concept rather than a passive one that will wear off in a few minutes.
• to be able to set a clear mood and theme.
• I feel like I've set a very clear fantastical woodland theme with my set up, via my use of found objects, colour and experimentation of textures.
  

Some minor things that I wanted to avoid in the setup were:

• having too much height on the table, this would mean people wouldn't be able to see me clearly if they wanted to talk to me
  
• The mask does take up a fair bit of height, which is why I angled it at the end of the table so two thirds of the table would still be free for me to engage with customers.
  
• the layout looking too cluttered or overwhelming
• I wanted the layout too look a bit crowded and strewn on the table to replicate the feel of an explorer or adventurer's table, but still being something perceivable.
  
• I think I achieved this well, it has a mish-mashed look to it while also still being approachable.

Some minor aims I had for the stall were:

• playing with different textures, and using them to visually section off the spaces on the table
  
• This helped with making it look less cluttered as the space subtly appears more organised.
  
• use of found objects to provide an earthy, scavenge-like atmosphere
• These were good space fillers while also pushing the woodland theme.
  
• having badges at an easily accessible point, both for customers and for me to refill

Things I would improve upon in a real life scenario:

• I would substitute my laptop for a tablet as my laptop would likely overheat over the course of a full day. Furthermore, a tablet is more transportable than a heavy laptop.
  
• I would use a mask stand rather than a tripod to hold the Dweller's mask as it would look more professional, I simply didn't have one at my disposal when shooting.

Overall, I think I did really well with this hypothetical merch set up, and I met all my aims in my opinion. I feel like my stall would really stand out from others because I have set it up with a more conversational approach than a monetary one. Furthermore, I feel like the scavenged, forest vibe is something that would stand out from other game stalls.

> View As A Site Here, Embed Only Shows As Slideshow <

This is the last of my final outcomes: a website that acts both as a concept launch and an online merch store. I decided to make this because nowadays a lot of distribution, promotion and even commerce is done online. So, I thought creating an e-commerce store would widen my reach for this game concept, and [outside of a hypothetical context] would increase my sales.

The site works both as an e=commerce store and as a concept launch. In the site, I go over the concept, the characters, the store and other ways that people could possibly support the project. The 'support us' section talks about different points of distribution that I would have, going over things like patreon and kickstarters. All of this is hypothetical and not yet made, however in the future I want to continue working on this game concept, and these are points of distribution and funding that I have thought about using.

My main aims with the website were:

• to provide enough context for the story and characters
  
• to make something that felt cohesive and understandable
• to build a pathway for further engagement

Some more minor aims I had were:

• to have a layout that felt clear and uncluttered
  
• to create product posts that provided enough information for someone interested buying the product
• to have a distinct theme running throughout (mainly within writing + presentation)

Things I could improve upon with this site could be:

• having a section on game mechanics
  
• these aren't entirely fleshed out yet as I was focusing more heavily on the merch launch side of this concept, however in future/if I had more time I think talking about mechanics would really interest people in the game side of the concept
  
• creating a logline for the piece
• loglines are great in terms of being easily shareable and easily memorable, they act almost as a 'slogan' for a creative project
  
• considered adding something like this into the title screen for the site, however, I didn't feel it was needed as there was already a lot going on
• using more of my own illustrations throughout rather than free Canva designs
• this comes more down to a time constraint issue, it would've taken up too much time to illustrate each filler design myself and also create the rest of the site and the previous works
  
• I'd definitely have preferred doing this and in future projects where I can give myself more time and lee-way I would 100% use all my own designs
• namely because it can be a lot more specific, personalised and relate directly back to the piece you are doing
  

Overall, with the website and the concept launch, I think I did really well in the time I had the create it. Also, the way I went about creating it was very unique; I liked the way that the exposition was written as a story and I feel it gives you a lot more context through imagination. It's better than just giving bland contextual knowledge of the story. The way I went about using my storytelling: one, really sets the mood from the start; two, introduces them to my writing style and three, it creates more of a connections between the reader and my story because they're imagining it playing through in their heads. Furthermore, I think the way I laid out the merch was still very in theme, it was clear in terms of categories and organisation. The use of limited edition character items would work really well in a real life scenario of generating funding because things that are "limited edition" or "collector's" are things that people are really interested in getting when they are invested in the concept. Especially in early stages, when things like that would then become rare over time.

If I had more time to spend on it, I would probably do it on a different hosting site, such as Wix. I feel like I would have more creative freedom over it and I feel like the site would feel a bit more professional. Furthermore, I'd be able to actually host a real e-commerce store on such a site. I went for Canva with this 'mock-up' version for this final piece because it was much easier in terms of having access to free design elements to fill out parts of the site. On canva, it was a lot easier to fiddle around with things and figure out how they fit within the context of the site, but now that I have that knowledge I think I would be able to go on to make something like a professional Wix site for the concept & merch launch.

I also want to add that I did the concept and merch within the same site because I felt like the merch store itself needed context and a reason for people to want to invest in that and buy that. So, I felt like doing those together would feel more whole and work better in terms of audience interaction.

12/03/23

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I think I've got a good start to the project so far. I'm currently on track and have made my Pecha Kucha, bibliography and have been planning the overall project timeline out.

I made a Gantt chart as a more in-depth overall plan, and am considering using a copy of the gantt chart as a tracker for how I progress. I say consider, because I don't want to overwhelm myself with too many things to be updating alongside completing my project. I've also decided I am going to make Google Keep planners at the start of each week. I may not necessarily keep up with this throughout, but it's something that will definitely help to keep me on track for the start of the project in the very least.

This week was admittedly a slow start as I gave myself some time to rest after developmental and thus I only worked on my contextual research this week, and will start on other research from next week. Well, I did start reading 'Entangled Life' a little and I also watched the Fantastic Fungi documentary.

I have set up my website, I'm organising it in section of criteria. I'm not going to date everything like I did in the previous units because the way the sectioning is now will not work with it. I'm having some anticipation anxiety with updating the coursework on my site as it's once again a new software to adapt to and I'm having a bit of a brain block towards it. I have at least written up all of the Pecha Kucha stuff on to it. I'm going to try and getting the contextual research reflections written up later today.

19/03/23

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This week I focused on primary research.

Already, the project isn't going how I expected. I don't really know whether to be frustrated about it or not. I don't really deal well when things keep changing, but also the fact the project isn't going the way I had thought out in my head is technically good because it means it'll likely continue to develop in unexpected ways. I just need to try to make sure it doesn't develop out of my control.

Keeping my site up to date is proving to be a struggle. I can get bits and pieces onto there, however, it takes so much energy to write up and I also need to be able to split my time between doing the project and writing what I just did for the project. For now, all I can do is keep trying to push myself to keep it as update to date as I can.

26/03/23

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This week was secondary research.

I won't lie, it's getting a bit overwhelming! I think I'm currently struggling with the fact I don't really have a clear end goal post for this project so it feels like I'm just aimlessly kicking. I am passionate about it, and I really do want to get through it. However, I am very conditioned to researching and testing and experimenting with some sort of end goal or at least a clear medium. Of course, I did this to myself, and I acknowledge that. The weird thing is that I don't think I'd go back and change it to have a clear end point because, ultimately, the project just doesn't fit that. It's a project that needs room to grow and evolve, and I don't actually hate that at all. What I hate is the looming dread that I've made this too up in the air for a project with a deadline.

My site has a bit more on it. I'm trying to make sure I label criteria and arrange it all in a way that's easy to understand.

02/04/23

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This week was working on creative development and also some testing here and there.

I feel a bit more secure now as I feel I have a bit more of an outlined goal in what I'm creating as I now have a concept to focus on.

I've enjoyed this week a lot as I've got to do a lot of creative writing for the project. Plus, I really love developing characters and adding extra little details to their character information.

I need to start on production next week. I'm not sure if I will actually manage that because:

1. I don't actually know what it is I'm going to be making exactly
   
2. I feel like I need more testing and development before I can just go into it.

I might give myself some lee-way next week to delay starting production a bit... Or maybe I can do them at the same time? I can definitely do testing at the same time as production I think. So, I might just need the beginning of the week for further creative development.

09/04/23

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Yeah... I didn't really start production.

Okay, well, to be fair, I did start it I just started it really late into the week. I spent most of the time working on creative development and resting. I didn't realise how exhausted I was until spring break hit and I just felt like I had been buried under a pile of bricks. I'm gonna give myself an allowance with that rest because I have been working pretty much non-stop.

I did not touch my site at all this week, and I just realised I actually didn't talk about that in last week's reflection. Well, last week wasn't much better either. I put maybe some very minimal stuff on there and then I was so overwhelmed with everything I think I honestly just gave up and forgot about it. I think I'm gonna struggle trying to do it the same time as making my final pieces, and I don't want to give me something to procrastinate with instead of actually making the final thing. So, I'm gonna say that I can give myself Week 7 to whack as much as I can onto the site.

16/04/23

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Okay! Whoo! We are getting places!

I've made a good start to the final pieces this week, and there was a whole load of testing involved in that so I think I should be good for testing now, fingers crossed. Honestly, I still don't really know what it is that I'm making exactly as a whole. It kind of feels like I'm making bits and pieces of something that needs something else to tie it all together...

Like, my whole final thing is a 'game concept' but I'm making 3d models and binding books. I'll admit, it was a very spontaneous thing of what I ended up starting to make. But I rolled with it because I was enjoying it. I pretty much did this entire project because it was fun for me and they're topics that I knew I could hyperfixate on, so when it came to the final pieces I was very much let myself go free and make whatever seemed the most interesting to do in the moment.

I think I'll have a chat with Grace. I think I need it. I need to see if what I'm doing can actually be used for my project or if I need to do anything else. I'm gonna put a little pause on the production until I talk to Grace, but I'm going to see if I can work on my site in the meantime.

23/04/23

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Okay, I talked to Grace at the start of the week! That's given me a good bit of reassurance and a clearer idea.

I'm going to focus on the pieces I'm making as part of a a 'merch launch', and I'm going to make illustrated badges in order to tie it together a bit more. I'm also going to make a concept art of the main character. Since I am making some extra things like badges and a concept art, I'm sacrificing things I wasn't really far along with such as the storybook and the house 3d model.

I've been working on that this week and am pretty much finished with them. I haven't gotten site work done this week like I said I would because I'm focusing my efforts onto finishing the final products. I'll make sure I write up next week, though. Well, at that point I have very little choice.

01/05/23

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This is going to be my last reflection/project diary entry.

I finished my final pieces and I've written up to my site! I'm not entirely finished yet as I still have to fill out the critical review, but I plan to do that today. I've also got to go back through my site and fill in any gaps that are missing as I think there were a few things I had forgotten to do yesterday. I'll see how I go with the critical review as it might take me a while, but I'll go over my site tomorrow if I can. If I feel I really need to leave it till Wednesday to go over it, then I will.

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