Artist Statement

http://digitalarts.bgsu.edu/portfolios/krisa/BFA/index.html

“Men have to have heroes, but no man can ever be as big as the need, and so a legend grows around a grain of truth, like a pearl.”

Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

             Everybody has heroes. Some of them are real: parents, teachers, basketball stars, football stars, and military heroes like the Seals who killed Osama Bin Laden. Some of them are fictional: Batman, Superman, the Avengers. And somewhere in between there are movie stars like Chuck Norris, George Clooney, and Angelina Jolie, who are heroes on and off screen. Some of them you've met and know and love. Some of them you worship from afar. But the one thing that can said about heroes is that they create legends and legends have a special sort of power all their own. Legends create hope.

             I've always found heroes fascinating, be they the heroes of tall tales or more modern super heroes flying off to save the day.  When I was a child I used to listen to the tall tales my grandparents would tell me. These were stories of larger than life men and women who took on problems I had never heard of. As a child I knew nothing about pioneer life. I couldn't tell a corn seed from a wheat seed. I couldn't shoot a gun. The tall tale heroes were inaccessible to me until I heard about Mose the Firefigher. In my Grandfather's words Mose came alive. He was a recognizable figure, what child over the age of two doesn't want to be a firefighter?, and he lived in a place I knew: New York City.

              But like everything else, the role of the hero in our society is changing. For my BFA project I decided to highlight that change. It is not, however, a change in the way a hero works, because a hero will always bring hope and save the day. The change is in how wide the audience is that the hero must attend.  The character Mose was one that brought hope to the poor people of the Bowery in New York City. In my modern reincarnation of my beloved childhood hero I had him bring hope to more people and more situations that we see on the news everyday and make people feel so helpless: earthquakes, fires, and floods. These are still very relevant disasters today, more people are helped by the Red Cross because of fires than any other disasters, and more people are killed in flood than any other type of disasters. Mose can conquer these and bring hope.

 Tall tales will never go out of fashion because, as people, we need hope. We need heroes.

Audio Problems

So, it turns out everyone I know is a terrible voice actor. I'm going to have to come up with a new solution for my modern comic where I was going to have a bunch of rollover sound effects.  I'd post some of the sound files I recorded with voice actors but they're so terrible it's kind of embarrassing. I suppose I picked hard characters since it's hard to act like someone who is in distress. Mose shouldn't have been so hard. Too bad I can't get anyone to take him seriously.

Anyway, I think I'm just going to do a bunch of text rollovers. It will be less...sad.

Modern

I figured out after much trial and error how to make my modern images look like comic book panels. I really like the effect, but I like comics, so maybe that's why.

I liked adding the flat color background fields because they made the images pop more in my opinion.

Old Story

I fixed the interface for my old fashioned story. Now it looks like an actual book!

I added page turn rollovers and I have a voice over for each page.

Modern

I've been trying to figure out what I want to use for the interactivity of the modern story to make it different each time the user reads it.

Change the situation:
• Mose is a Disaster Response Hero
- disaster does not have to be a fire, could be a flood, earthquake, ect
- can use Sandy for references to damage

• also have to make sure Mose is super recognizable as Mose in each version.

New Schedule

I am a lot farther behind than I had originally planned to be in my BFA proposal but my concept has changed a lot since then and I forgot entirely to put research into my original schedule.  I was supposed to be done with everything by this week, originally, but that clearly isn't going to happen.

By Oct 31 - have plan for interactive part of story

by Nov 14 - have majority of images done

by Nov 19 - have majority of coding done

- work on both coding and images simultaneously to get done in time

By Nov 30 - finished, last debugging

Dec 3-5 FINAL DEFENSE

Dec 13  Completed body of work in final exhibition format, including appropriate accompanying materials

Crit Notes

Different user interface

-physical looking crease

- have page flip, animation pull over

• Too static

-old very linear

• New Version 

- not straight forward, jump around using interactive elements to tell story

-change story each time go through, new story

-physically changes room space

-different perspectives

• focus on a million things at once

-always multitasking

• different media at the same time

-comic book and video

-focus on the experience

• have TV on in background, obnoxious

• What all possible way to navigate and how change

-degrade, focus, animate, sound, act.

-nail down what could do make it super interactive

• old linear and new expands

-more contrast, bring in viewer in another level

-what happens contemporary space

-map that out

* do brainstorming

-what could change

-get specific after all ideas out there

• in out, in out, in out, modern.

Website

I realized that actually posting the link to my live interactive site would help people find it.
So, here you go.

Post Modernist

As digital artists the majority of what we do falls into the post modernist category of work simply because of the medium and how we are more team oriented than any of the other art forms. My BFA project falls under the category of post modernism because it is not an object. My project is entirely web based and does not exist in the world in a physical capacity. It is coding on a web page that the user interacts with. Also, because the user interacts with it is another aspect of how it is post modernist. In modernist ideology it is a one way connection between the art and the viewer. The art says something to the viewer, or it doesn't, and the viewer moves on. In my piece I force the viewer to become a user of the art and to interact with it in order to get the full story and to see the connection between the two pieces. 

Storyboards

Rooms

Modern over the top kid's rooms

Change in bedrooms from 1950s to present.

Bedroom 1908

New York Slums
Really nice photos of New York.

Thesis Defense Notes

Javascript - Bonnie and Kim

-can sit in on their interactive classes

• Stories get retold

-like the game telephone

• Story seems same

• 2 identical bedrooms

-everyone in one relates exactly to other roll over and turn into what it was

- 1:1 makes navigation easier

- forces user to make that connection

• expand even more

-everything should be super interactive

-make it super complex

-later on can add complexity through randomness

- keep user exploring for awhile

• spend a lot of time researching bedrooms

- research illustration styles

• use one monitor

Heroes

• There are six types of heroes:

• Transforming heroes - people who transform the society in which they live. 
• Traditional heroes - individuals who show exceptional talent or who perform a single great moral action.
• Transparent heroes - individuals who do their heroic work behind the scenes, outside the public spotlight. 
• Transitional heroes - people whose heroism is unique to a particular developmental stage in our lives. 
• Trending heroes - individuals who are on a trajectory toward becoming heroes.  
• Transitory heroes - people who perform a single nonmoral action that bring them great momentary fame.

- The most common are the transparent heroes that take shape in parents, teachers, coaches, nurses, soldiers, policemen and firefighters. 

- "These heroic individuals are everywhere, quietly going about the business of nurturing us and keeping us safe. They are quite possibly the most under-appreciated members of our society."

"the modern day heroes are ordinary people doing their job. people might think heroes are big flashy people who draw a lot of attention, but they're not in the 21st century where population continues to grow exponentially. a hero might be a regular person who thinks he's just doing his job (e.g. firefighters of sept 11). true heroes don't think that they're heroes. that's what makes them heroes."

Group Critique Notes

OVERVIEW

Went over how going to change it so that is a parallel between the Great Fire of 1835 and 9/11.

• Could be a fictional fire

 - try not to be so literal

• exaggeration

• modern massive legends

Sports heroes

- Heroes let us down

        -play on how culture has changed

        -contemporary legend - so flawed, captivating and in love with characters we would never want to meet in real life

       - meth addict save the world

       -obsession with finding flaws and negative

Old way:  face trials and get ahead

New way: face trials and fail

• Comparison: old hero and new

-obvious clear shift

- magic, how child views icons

     •books, toys

       - hat and a garden hose

       -pretend to be that character

     •Kids room today, branding

       -toys

* KEEP MOSE

- legend lives

- real crisis, firemen since 9/11 not given hero status

- hero revered

- real life ones forgotten

- reality: nobody cares

• reveal information:

    -recession wages

    -learn about heroism through aftermath

    - real heroism doesn't live

• use statistics

•CLEAR UP CONCEPTS

• shoe parallel worlds/gameplay

• need to see more

• Oil rig incident

- legendary based on corruption

- look for more stuff

• how we consume these stories has changed

- old: theatre, books, word of mouth

- new: twitter, email, movies, television

More on Firefighting

MODERN FIRES

• burn hotter and faster due to synthetic materials 

• completely new way of fighting fires

• old way: used to cut in a hole to ventilate out the smoke and give the people inside a fighting chance

• new way: get water on the fire as soon as possible but do not ventilate because that lowers the oxygen content of the room to unbreathable levels and makes the fires hotter

• todays firefighters need to fight fires faster and update their strategy

FIRES IN OTHER MEDIA

I've found that cartoons are pretty similar to tall tales in that they tell stories in an incredibly unbelievable fashion. Here are some examples from 1930s-1940s.

Firefighting 1800s America

• There was no government run Fire Departments in the US until the time of the civil war ~ 1860

- prior to this independent, private fire brigades compete with each other to be the first to respond to a fire because insurance companies paid the brigades to pay buildings

• Fire Houses were social gathering place rather than a place where professionals would meet and the money paid to the brigade went into the house's fund rather than to individual members

Firefighting used to be a for-profit industry

• private "clubs" or "gangs" were in charge of putting out fires

• first club at the scene got the money front he insurance company

-incentive to get there fast

-incentive to sabotage competition

-got into fights over territory and many times buildings would burn down before the issue was resolved

• they were glorified looters

• New York companies famous for sending runners out to fires with a large barrel to cover the hydrant closes to the fire in advance of the engines

-fights would break out over choice fire hydrants

-firefighting became a spectator sport where people would gather on the streets and cheer on their favorite company

Firefighting in the early 19th century was difficult and dangerous work.

   • firefighters are volunteers

   • equipment is cumbersome and required great physical strength, stamina and speed

   • used pump wagons that were pulled by firefighters

System of bells informed firefighters of where the fire was

- people would light candles in the window so that the firefighters going through the streets could see

Mose the Fireman

• Mose was a New York Firefighter in the 1800s

 • most likely based on Bowery Boy leader Mose Humphrey

- printer, brawler, and firefighter

• "the toughest man in the nation's toughest city"

• Mose Appearance

- Irish : red hair

- eight-twelve feet tall, broad shouldered

- hands the size of virginia hams

- super long arms, could scratch his knee without bending over

- red shirt and a red helmet as big as a tent

-carried uprooted lamppost into battle

Mose is funny, heroic, and sentimental in his role as the guardian daemon of the Bowery

- knightly acts and honest virtue

Stories

• enters a ladies bowling parlor in female disguise, he promptly kisses a fair bowler and blows their cover.

• prospecting for gold in California, he spars with a bear and parlays hopelessly with the Indians

• in London he marvels at the mummies in the British museum but considers "They ain't no good to nuthin,"  dons the gloves of the Lord Brougham, and, presented at court, hopes that the Queen's children are "pretty bright and sassy."

• saves babies from burning building

• saves a family from a fourth story building by putting the ladder on barrels and climbing up

Mose lost popularity with the era of steam fire-engines

- killed off Mose in plays, but he doesn't really stay dead.

-when his girl turned him down fled to the South Seas where he married and island princess and became the king of the Sandwich Islands and raised forty half breed children

But even today when a bum picks up a cigarette stub he says "Big Mose must of dropped it." so the legend is still alive. 

Tall Tales

A Tall Tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if they were true and factual.

- fundamental element of American Folk Literature

- origins seen in the bragging contests that often occurred when the rough men of the American frontier gathered

• Myth and Tall Tale line is distinguished by age

- myths exaggerate the exploits of their heroes

- tall tales the exaggeration looms large, to the extent of becoming the whole story

Four things all Tall Tales have in common:

1) The main character has a regular job but is larger-than-life or superhuman in his or her abilities

2) The character has a problem or problems that he or she solves in a funny way

3) Details in the story are exaggerated beyond belief

4) Characters use everyday language and are like common people in behavior

Exaggeration is the major element in Tall Tales

   • Tall Tale heroes are bigger or stronger than real people even when the tale is based on a real person

   • Many tall tales are based on actual people or on a composite of actual people

   • a tall tale is a story the narrator does not believe but which is supposed to fool the naive listener

- told in straight faced manner for the purpose of presenting "true" pictures of 19th century life

   • during this time real and legendary exploits were inseparable 

American Values in Tall Tales

• gargantuan physical courage

• sense of humor for the truly absurd

• frontier expansion

• independence, male bonding

• chivalry

• control of the environment

• dominance by physical strength

• "one-ups-man-ship" 

- a very american trait that is critical to the spreading of tall tales. Each successive storyteller tries to add something more outrageous to the tall tale as he or she is telling it

• Heroes of tall tales were unique American pioneers and, like the land itself, they were gigantic, extravagant, restless, and flamboyant

- they had no use for modesty

- bragged outrageously about their capacity for fighting, drinking, lovemaking, swearing, and hard work

• some real men, others various conglomerations of historical fact, storytelling of ordinary people, and the imagination of professional writers

• They are creations of American Mass Media and we see them continuously recreated and reborn in books and films

The Code

• 3 sacred promises that appear to provide both independent motivation and male bonding for tall tale characters

1) Respect the land

2) Defend the defenseless

3) Never spit in the presence of women and children (the act of spitting is a male bonding experience apparently) 

BFA Proposal

I want to do an interactive story that combines my drawing abilities with my coding abilities, animation abilities and storytelling abilities.

My idea is to take a classic American folk tale hero: Mose the Fireman and recount one of his stories in exciting detail. The story will be entirely interactive so that parts of it will be revealed as the viewer clicks on certain things. Within this story will be other branch stories that can be triggered by clicking other parts of the frames.

I have to pay careful attention to camera angles as I am thinking this will be set up similar to a comic but far more interactive. I am also thinking that I will make it a vertical format because smoke rises.

The final format will be an interactive media piece that will be displayed on a computer so that the audience can interact with it.

Rough Timeline

Week 1-2 – Write script, come up with concept and do rough storyboards.

Week 2-8 – Start finalizing panels and drawings

Week 4-9 – Scan in panels and work on coding

Week 9-10 – Double check all coding and make sure everything is in working order.

Notebook Assignment

At first I wasn't so sure what to think about the notebook project. I've always enjoyed writing down entertaining things that have happened to me in the past, and I love to tell stories about my daily “adventures”. The notebook was hard, though, because I had to constantly remind myself to use it and in the end it was merely more of my same anecdotes and quotes. It didn't open up any shining new frontiers like I had been half convinced it would when we were given the assignment. So, I didn't care much for the assignment, but it wasn't too difficult to do.  

Artistic Inclination

As far as a preferred medium goes I really like to branch out and mix medias. I like to incorporate drawing or pastel work into my interactive pieces to give another layer to my artwork. I don't really have a set style or theme that I like to set my work to. My work is constantly changing and evolving as I learn and apply new techniques.