Everyday Cake

Modelling to Filming

Cooking My Project

Day Three of modeling week and today's brief is to make an edible representation of my final year project. My first immediate idea was fairy cakes. Fairy cakes are just normal little cakes with two semi circle cut out in the middle, fill in with cream or butter icing and the semi circles placed on top to look like wings. My idea is to look at the anthropomorphism in these types of cakes and make my own cakes but instead of fairies make irons, toothbrush cakes, showing the characters from my project so far. Tonight will be full of baking magic and Martin Conreen is coming especially to taste our projects tomorrow. Hopefully they will all be very tasty.

Model Week: Day 1

During an intense modelling day using only black and white card, and some fabric from Fleur, I made two stages. I have been thinking about the situation in which the animation couls occur and whether or not I want to concentrate on films of the stories or on live performances. I am going to try out both during my Christmas holiday and discuss the benifits for communication of my project in both mediums in my context report.  

These are photgraphs of the laser cut shadow puppets I made last week sitting on the window sill next to my desk. I have been considering the difference of still photography perhaps speaking just as much about the personality of an object as puppet animation. I need to produce more of these experiments in order to determine which has better anthromorphic qualities, so through out my blog I will post as many examples of this as I possibly can in order to decide. 

A New Description...

The desciption of my blog used to be; My project is about finding personality in inanimate objects. I hope to discover the different way people animate objects from childhood toys to everyday household items. I have three areas of research I am particularly interested in; children and toys, adults and childhood toys, and puppets and puppeteers. This will be ongoing research in order to apply to a design process. I hope to produce a series of outcomes and test if this creates any attachment feelings towards the user.

I have decided that since my territory presentation I have followed the direction of of the puppets and found I have a special interest in animating everyday inanimate objects in order to change peoples values of them. Today I went to a story telling show in Deptford which was assisted by shadow puppets. The show was amazing, even though they didn't end up using the shadow due to technical problems. I have become very excited about the different was of story telling as I have been talking about in my previous blogs that I feel I should change my blog description to the new direction my project has taken. 

Writing stories

This week I have been thinking about the context in which I could build a narrative around my objects. I have picked out a few key themes in shadow puppetry. One particular theme that came to mind is the relationship between shadow puppetry and the mystery of the dead. One of the first shadow puppets I made was an iron including a length of string as its cord, with a plug on the end. I'd like to write a story about how an iron dies. It is usually related to a mechaninical failure, but in order to change peoples value of an object dying or being no longer of use I'd like to narrate a story in which the other irons ritualistically 'cut the cord' from the iron to the plug and the plug dies. I find this approach quite peotic, yet striking. 

I'd also like to look at existing myths or stories and reassign characters to everyday objects and then act out the show accordingly. Another idea suggested in my group tutorial was to get other users to use my objects as props, puppets and stages to create their own stories about these everyday objects and see what ideas emerge.

Another area of interests came about when I was first looking at the shapes of the shadows. The image of the toothbrush that looks like it's talking to it's shadow has provoked me to start a collection of objects relating to their shadows and attempting to play with light sources and other object to try to create warped or skewed shadows to tell a story about the object. I find these images so intriguing that they might become the core of element of inspiration for narration, or a piece in their own right. 

Why animate everyday objects?

I have been thinking about the difference in animating objects meant to be animated or have human-like quality, or objects with mundane everyday qualities. I have decided to go with the mundane as a reflection on use of everyday objects and how their essential qualities are over-looked in everyday life and routine. What if we treasured or appreciated these objects as if they were thinking beings. 

I have been making some shadow puppets of everyday objects such as tea cups, an iron and a toothbrush (taken from the image in the previous post). I hope to develop a narrative around which the viewer could develop a sense of the objects personality. To help develop the sense of my objects personalities I have been reading The Design of Everyday Life  where they talk about the abundence of things made to keep together systems and routines, 'there is no doubt that social life have things, that things have social lives'. This book is a great starting point for me in deciding the context of my work.