FIRESIDE CHAT

This kind of project was exciting in that every student had the chance to present a belief for four minutes, with everyone’s undivided attention. Some presented on things that could be considered quite ridiculous, while others shared deep and personal convictions. On the whole, however, everyone seemed passionate about what they did. In my case, I really wanted to illustrate how the Spirit can expand our world by helping us make friendships.

My premise was fairly simple: throughout the sketch, I would be conversing with the audible voice inside my head, which is later revealed to be the Spirit. I used my own voice because I wanted it to seem like I was inwardly debating my choice to talk to people. Additionally, I find that the Spirit often speaks to us in our own voices. The General conference quote by Marvin J. Ashton at the end is what cements the message. In between each scene, I would walk up to the whiteboard behind me and draw a bigger circle around what I labeled as “my world,” indicating how it expands with each person I make a connection to. The music I chose for each of these segments was admittedly kind of corny, but effective in conveying how I felt, as it became more complex with each time it was heard.

It was a good experience to freely share my belief about the Spirit helping us make friendships, but I found myself surprised at how I felt as I shared it. I rehearsed my performance plenty of times, but when I was actually performing it I genuinely felt the way my character did: sad and lonely, but hopeful. Maybe it’s because my audio track was playing loudly, or because I was trying to get into the right mindset, but I truly felt what I was trying to convey. Maybe that’s why media (and art in general) is so important in our lives: it helps us feel things we otherwise wouldn’t.

Concerned Citizen - Audio Documentary

Audio Documentary:
https://soundcloud.com/jared-richardson-3/michael-degraw-byu-bronies-audio-documentary

Artist Statement (for Jared Richardson and Abby Woods):

Our experience with the Michael and his involvement in the club was a highly positive one. Previous to this assignment, we had little to no experience with the BYU Bronies club—what we knew came from what we had heard from other people, as well as news articles from USA Today or BYU’s The Universe. We knew that Bronies love the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magical, and that the BYU Bronies club celebrated and analyzed the show. What we discovered, however, was that the club is less about the show itself, and more about their own magical friendships.

Arlene Goldbard stated, “the tolerance for diversity… is being demanded of western societies,” and we believe fandom-type groups like the BYU Bronies emerging from the woodwork is a direct result of that. In a culture where one is expected to pursue their own interests, BYU Bronies provides a means for people to gather as a small community and bond over something they have in common. None of that would be possible without our subject, Michael.

Michael DeGraw is the former president and the current event coordinator, or more officially: the “super duper party pony” of the BYU Bronies club. Essentially he is the man that makes friendships within the club possible. It’s only fitting that Michael serve in this position, he joined the club to make friends after returning home from his mission. The BYU Bronies have screening parties of new episodes, hold fundraisers to get them to Ponycon, or keep it mellow and just come together for some board games. This common interest of My Little Pony eases the awkwardness and uncomfortable process of making new friends. Michael facilitates the process with the events he puts together. One event, found on Facebook, was named the “Open to All” social promoted tolerance and understanding to everyone invited.

This openness and understanding was extremely apparent to us as we attended the club meeting. The vice president welcomed us to the meeting, and Michael sat close by to us, his body turned so that he could check and see if we were understanding the course of the meeting, and providing clarifications when necessary. Michael unveiled the new BYU Bronies club t-shirt, and provided information on the club’s closing social. At the beginning of the meeting a routine club member interview was held so that everyone could get to know each other better.

It was clear that the BYU Bronies had a great time in the club and all felt included; a great deal of that familial feel was due to Michael’s organizing efforts and event planning. The club was fun to step into. There was an atmosphere of family, fun, and of course, magic.

Game for Change

GAME FOR CHANGE

Twine Game - http://philome.la/JaredRi23990996/undercover-anti-human-trafficking

A few of my research sources:

-http://www.endslaverynow.org/blog/articles/child-exploitation-how-old-or-how-high

-http://www.equalitynow.org/campaigns/trafficking-survivor-stories

-www.humantraffickinghotline.org/what-human-trafficking/recognizing-signs

-www.state.gov/j/tip/id/help/

Artist's Statement:

Ever since I learned about how rampant sex slavery is in the world (and particularly the U.S.), I’ve been adamant about raising awareness. It’s not exactly the type of issue that can be solved in a day or perhaps even a century, but I strongly believe that the more people are aware of it, the more opportunities there will be to make efforts—big and small—to preventing it.

I’ve researched the topic before, but because this project was about a video game, I decided to read through stories of victims’ perspectives. I will freely admit that it wasn’t a pleasant experience. The things people have done to take advantage of people, and particularly small children, is haunting. I knew it wouldn’t be hard conveying the disgust I felt if I were to create a game from a victim’s perspective (a la Depression Quest). However, despite knowing that the project would work well enough this way, I wanted to try something different. I decided to look and see if I could find positive stories—that is to say, not positive stories of human trafficking, but of people being rescued or delivered from it. One in particular stood out to me: A story of an undercover agent posing as a pedophile to infiltrate a children sex-slave group (please see top source above). The account was still shocking in some aspects, but had a happier ending than most. I decided to base my Twine game on this account.

There’s real value to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s adage of how there’s “danger in a single story.” Our views on things are skewed so much based on how we become acquainted with such stories. In order to become less biased, we need to see every side of an issue. I personally feel that video games are a great means of doing this. One such that does this is called “A Dark Room,” an online text-based game where all you do (at first) is continually stoke a fire to keep warm. Eventually this game gives the player more and more choices until the player either becomes an explorer or a dictator or both, as they are continually met with moral dilemmas, all the while trying to keep track of precious resources. The story is minimal, sure, but because the player assumes the role and determines the ending, it becomes all the more meaningful.

And that’s what I feel the strength of my game is—the decisions you make. While I regret that their aren’t more choices than what’s available, and that the endings aren’t too varied, I’m glad that I can give players a chance to live through a true-life story and feel as though they themselves were the ones taking physical efforts to stop one of the cruelest things that currently exists. In this way, I have accomplished my goal of making players more aware of the issue, and perhaps develop a desire to contribute to the cause. Now I just need to find a way to make more people try out the game!

World Building

Group Members: Jared Richardson, Ryan Romanovitch, Daniel Taylor, Sidney Unga

FINISHED PRODUCTS:

Radio News Broadcast Clip: https://soundcloud.com/jared-richardson-3/leafite-news

Propaganda Posters:

Dirt Pyramid

Garden of Eden Video:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B02kXVCUAhNhYVpsMWZJZHRENjQ

GROUP ARTIST STATEMENT:

Julian Bleecker said, “Design [helps] tell stories that provoke and raise questions. Like props that help focus the imagination and speculate about possible near future worlds — whether profound change or simple, even mundane social practices.” We hoped to capitalize on this idea with artifacts that both directly and subtly tell stories about the fictional world we created—one in which plants and animals can speak, and where humans are torn on whether or not they should treat these things as food. This simple premise gave us lots of ideas of things we could make, as such a politically charged environment would definitely be cause for not only propaganda but normal, every-day aspects of citizens.

What would you do if you couldn’t eat plants or animals? That is the big question raised by the world we created. We imagined that it would break people up into different groups, those who truly do not want to eat anything living, those who feel okay eating plants but not animals and those who love meat and don’t care about the plants or animals. The two most radical groups are the Leafites who eat only dirt and do all in their power to protect the plants and animals from the anti-Leafites, who are at the opposite end of the spectrum. We tried to create artifacts that would represent the conflicts of such a world. The radio broadcast gives a little insight into the trouble brought about by the anti-Leafites while the two propaganda posters give a clear idea of the ideals of these two groups. The dirt pyramid gives an even better idea of the extremes the Leafites go to in order to protect life. We also wanted to create an artifact that would tell a little bit of the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, if not only the serpent, but also the apple could speak. We put together a small clip that would tell the story of Adam and Eve as it would be in our world, where both plants and animals could speak.

In our world, humans still exist as the beings with the highest intelligence, but one of the questions asked is whether or not you would eat something that you can have a relationship with. We don’t eat our pets because we come to love them and create a bond with them. If an apple could talk to us, would we want to “kill” it by eating it? In his blog post entitled, “How Do You Vegans Justify Killing Plants When They’re Living Things, Too?” Bobby Rock says the following, “In other words, if we’re all destined to be murderers anyway, what difference does it make who or what we’re murdering, be it plant or animal?” This shows the complicated nature of our current world and the rhetoric surrounding the ethics of what we eat, in our world such divisions and arguments would be much more exaggerated and extreme.

Webspinna Battle

BUSINESS MEN VS. MOUNTAIN MEN!

Business Men youtube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK9QQqb30Wal3Ndsrj6nE7PVwGjQrQV_Z

Artist Statement (for Jared Richardson and Billy Knowles):

Doing a “webspinna battle” was one of the most different things we’ve ever been assigned to do. The concept of using audio to illustrate a fight between two opponents was a foreign concept at first, but over time we grew to love it and let it guide our brainstorming process. Perhaps the hardest part was deciding what characters we would be. After much conversation and debate, we settled on two types of people we viewed as polar opposites: Mountain Men and Business Men.

We had our characters, but now we needed a good story/conflict to put them in. Billy came up with the great idea of having the mountain man enjoying the serenity of nature, only to be interrupted by the business man’s industrial agenda. This became our framing device for our performance, and it really influenced what clips we selected for it. The beginning segments, for example, were more introductory, with Jared looping movie quotes that use the word “business,” while Billy cranked up the Paul Bunyion and Monty Python lumberjack songs. Later on, though, we became more hostile, such as when Jared played the videos of someone explaining why “camping sucks” and brandishing wads of dollar bills. The ending was a little chaotic, but overall we were pleased with our illustration of our two opposing forces.

This assignment was a great exercise in sampling—using a wide range of unique sources to create a new type of performance. When you pause to think about it, though, sampling is something we do on a regular basis in more subtle ways. As Lethem suggests, we all draw on art that we’re familiar with when we try to make something original, effectively remixing or reorganizing it into something new. This can be subtle, such as when you incorporate the “Hero’s Journey” into a story you write, based on works you’ve experienced (such as Star Wars). In the case of the webspinna battle, this principle was much more literal, as we were taking direct clips and sounds and mashing them together to create new contexts. In this way, we created something different than the sum of our parts, and we consider it to be just as “original” as any other creation.

Textual Poaching

“Lunch atop a Skyscraper” is one of the most famous American black-and-white photos ever. Taken in 1932, it depicts eleven men eating their lunch on a steel girder that’s over 800 feet above the ground in Manhattan. There’s a lot of meaning behind this photo: for one, it represents the industrial revolution. It also shows how working conditions were—not a safety precaution in sight! But it also represents an archetype that has existed for centuries: the working man.

I chose to doctor this photo because of how familiar the concept is; after all, working men are ubiquitous. It’s a gender role we all generally accept, for without work there is no pay, and “money makes the world go ‘round”. But even though I accept that males are expected to assume this function, I feel that it doesn’t directly coincide with how I identify with my gender. I view my role as a male to be, yes, a worker, but also a provider and nurturer. I don’t get a job to sustain myself alone; I get one to provide a foundation for my family and future family. Even now, I constantly spend time with my siblings to make sure they’re well taken care of, and that’s exactly how it will be when I have my own kids. Being a man means working, but also serving other people.

At a glance, it’s pretty obvious what I did with the photo: each man is seen in the same physical position as before, but now interacting with a new object I photoshopped in. Lunch boxes have been replaced with colorful bags of diapers, drinks have been replaced with baby bottles, and some men even find themselves cradling children while others point out how precious they look.  This was meant to change how an observer perceives their facial expressions—rather than talking about work and lunch, the men now look like they’re talking about their families. I recognize that people might view this and think that I’m ironically reinforcing the stereotype that fathers are neglectful (since they’re willing to bring their children to such a dangerous environment), but I’m really trying to accomplish the opposite here. These men used to be hard workers taking a break from their labors for a bite of lunch. Now, they are fathers and family members thinking and talking about those they care about. In the end, I hope my alterations show the two sides what I identify as a man: a worker and a provider. There should be a balance between the two.

Medium Specificity — Audio Dramas

Soundcloud link: https://soundcloud.com/jared-richardson-3/audio-dramas

Even though I’ve worked with audio before, I really wanted explore what can be done with the medium more—particularly as applied to audio dramas, which I consider to be a dying art form. While audio is a pivotal element of film, video games, and other media arts, people seem to dismiss it when it’s presented alone. I set out to demonstrate and provide commentary on how audio dramas are versatile and have creative potential.

The best sources of inspiration for me were the original Star Wars radio dramas that Mark Hamill starred in. Each one of these productions follow a similar plot line to the original movies, and yet they include some scenes (and simplify some others) in order to play to the strengths of the medium. Sound effects and foley are abundant, allowing listeners to create the world in their minds as they listen to the events unfold. Other, more modern examples I referred to were a fan-project called “Batman: Breakdown” and a series of comedy sketches called “Guy Noir.” While the latter is more focused on the humor of the dialogue, both were excellent examples of how audio can be used in creative ways.

Obviously my project is very meta: the characters in the drama discuss the different parts of an audio drama as those parts are occurring. While “Jared and Jamie” don’t acknowledge that they’re in an audio drama (as opposed to Daffy in Duck Amuck, who engages with the audience), they frequently bring up concepts that they’re unknowingly demonstrating. For example, Jared talks about how lines in an audio drama are often recorded separately, as Jamie’s lines get cut out of the recording entirely for a few moments. Later, Jared calls the foley to attention, right before doing an ridiculously impossible basketball stunt, causing the audience to pay attention to the sound effects of the recording. At the end, Jared demonstrates how audio dramas can take advantage of stereo sound, even though Jamie points out that he’s just talking to her. The reason I decided to have “Jared and Jamie” almost, but not quite, break the fourth wall is because it is rare for an audio drama to address listeners directly. By allowing my characters to discuss the elements of audio dramas and yet stay within the confines of their fictional world, the piece still technically remains a work of fiction, instead of a documentary. My own commentary on the medium, therefore, can be heard through the voices of my characters—and through the little audio tricks and jokes I threw in as I edited it.

Reflecting on my assignment, I'm very proud of what I was able to accomplish in so short a time span. However, I feel the greatest weakness of my project is how there is very little in terms of plot. The recording is great at exploring the artistic medium of audio dramas, yet its overarching linear skit, while effective as a framing device, doesn't measure up to the likes of Doctor Who or War of the Worlds. Despite this, though, I was able to successfully explore my chosen medium and convey my thoughts on it. Overall, I'm satisfied with what I set out to do.

Sources:

“Batman: Breakdown” (a fan-made project): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPkEVJbYfSo

The first Star Wars Radio Drama: https://archive.org/details/StarWarsRadio/01+Star+Wars+01.mp3

“Guy Noir”: https://archive.org/details/GuyNoirPrivateEyemp3AudioCollection/GuyNoirPrivateEye1.mp3

Historical Story

"Tithes and Slaves": 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxwLu9RpeNyyTm5KN1RWSXFjVFk/view?usp=sharing

Artist's Statement (by Marely Lee & Jared Richardson):

A story pitch that caught the attention of many students in our class because of its surprising story and connection to the students through the church was that of the story of Green Flake, an African American slave given to the LDS church as tithing while already haven been baptized into the same church.  Working on our script “Tithes and Slaves” was eye-opening. We got to explore and research some events behind the premise of our story and how the process of Green Flake and his church conversion came to be, how, even though given to the church as tithing, Flake remained steadfast in his faith and testimony.

Interestingly enough, legitimate sources for the recounting of Flake’s life were few and far between—even the ones we did find contradicted on a few points such as whether Green was actually freed towards the end of his life. Because of this, we picked and chose elements from the sources that we felt would fit best with the story we wanted to tell: one of the firm faith in a belief system despite the constant opposition and confliction within such a structure. One account we referenced in our script was from an article published by the church entitled “In My Father’s House Are Many Mansions” which gives an overview of Green’s life. Another source we used was a family history book Jared owned called “James Madison Flake” (pictured below) which provided some interesting details not given in other sources. Through studying and researching these sources, we were able to draw a life for our character Flake. We read about the trials and need for firm faith in the life of this man and how this led to his being a strong exemplary member of the community known for his character and faith in God.

Implementing what we had learned about Flake into our script proved a rather difficult task. Trying to bring to life of a laudable, inspiring man through the making of a screenplay was limiting: how were we to represent the life of such a man in only six pages? We decided to narrate the story with the application of voiceover narrative. We recounted what we considered to be beats, or pivotal points in Flake’s life that would lead the audience to understand the process of Flake’s conversion followed by his being conferred to the church as tithing, and ultimately, his presumed liberation. The story that we were so captivated by, was brought to creation through the writing of a script. A script with the overlaying narration of a man whose life energized the narrative of faith through tribulation.

Also Cited:  https://history.lds.org/article/green-flake-pioneer?lang=eng

Process Piece

AUDIO DOC:
https://soundcloud.com/jared-richardson-3/audio-process-doc

Artist Statement (written by Will Morrison and Jared Richardson):

The Process of Compromise

          It is very difficult to change someone’s mind. When someone has a strong opinion about something, usually no amount of persuasion can turn them to the other side. Nevertheless, we can’t help but try to change the people around us, who, in turn, try to change us. This creates conflict. Though religion, politics, and sports are usually cited as the most inarguable of issues, there are few things that people feel as passionately about as the music they listen to. We know when we like a song and we know when we don’t. Explaining exactly why is a little more difficult. To try and understand this difficulty, we recorded the process of two strangers simply trying to decide what song to listen to on the radio.

          We recorded the documentary in an observational style. Though we asked the subjects a few questions about their tastes in music, our voices do not appear in the recording, nor do we interfere with their process of deciding what radio station they should stop on.

          The two subjects were selected based on their differences. We wanted to have two people with contrary opinions in order to create more conflict and therefore a more interesting process. The documentary begins establishing these differences. Jamie is very passionate about music, whereas Joseph doesn’t care much for pop (or listening to music in general). These small interviews also show their differences in personality: Jamie is outgoing and Joseph introverted. As they flip through different stations, Jamie very quickly establishes herself as the dominant personality, while Joseph acts too shy to fully speak his mind in most cases. Though this was different from the dramatic arguments we had originally expected, it was perhaps a bit truer to life. Many compromises are made simply because someone decides they don’t care all that much.

          A big inspiration for the concept for our documentary was the short documentary “Scriptures”, which also details the awkwardness and differing perspectives of a relatively routine event. Many times it can be easy to forget about the sheer beauty and complexity of everyday events; at times it is necessary to see them through new eyes or in a new context, which is one of the major roles of documentary filmmaking. Another great example of this is What Makes You Click! This 2016 documentary details how every little, insignificant click in our internet history can show what kind of people we are, even though browsing the internet is a common process we undergo. Though searching for the right radio station is a likewise common process, it can tell you a lot about a person. By simply listening to Joseph and Jamie’s interactions, you can get a better idea of who they are even more than by going over the generic get-to-know-you questions we ask people we meet. No one is fully defined by the habits they have and the processes they engage in, but who we really are—our soul, our personality, our passions—seeps into everything we do.

Exquisite Text

Artist Statement written by Rick Chestnut and Jared Richardson:

For our project, we chose to create a conversation between two members of a family that haven’t spoken in a while. This is a story based on a real communication between father and son. The son is very successful at what he does, and has several companies who want him in their employ. He is loyal, and finds it hard to make changes when an offer is made. It is always difficult to see the correct way to go. Besides being based on real experiences, the idea for our story came from a short story about how “jobs are like one big balancing act.”

This assignment was challenging for us in that it had to be procedurally generated, just like an exquisite corpse. Rather than scripting it all out, we decided to let the conversation between us happen naturally, over the course of a weekend. Originally we had an idea for how we wanted our conversation to go, but because of how the topic would change in our conversation (and because of our conflicting schedules in real life, which would cause our texts to be sent at sporadic times), we ended up telling a slightly different story than we had intended—with a much different ending than we expected. Additionally, each of us had a very different style of texting, which really shows through in the vocabulary, length, and even emojis used in our conversation.

With all this being said, we’ve learned that there is such a huge potential in using this type of medium to tell stories. While our execution was flawed, there are others who have learned to perfect the use of dialogue to tell a story. Take Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, for example. This 2001 video game by Capcom falls under the “visual novel” genre of games, where the story is told entirely through dialogue, with assistance from some basic images and animated sprites. Every part of the storytelling in the game is told through conversations between the protagonist, Phoenix, and the people he chats with, interviews, and goes up against in a court of law. Even Phoenix’s thoughts are discernable because he “mutters” them out loud (under his breath) for the player to read. Because of this system, which works exceptionally well, the entire game could convey its story without the visuals if it needed too, just like the script to a play.

Visual novels aren’t the only medium that relies principally upon dialogue. Some short stories, comedy sketches, and theatrical plays forego excessive visuals in favor of regular conversations between characters. The only difference between those and this project, however, is how (unless delivered through improvisation) they are all planned ahead of time. In our situation, the story was pieced together, little by little, to create a meaningful interaction between a father and son.

Collection of Dialogue-only stories: https://mjshorts.wordpress.com/tag/dialogue-only-stories/

Gameplay video of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03fHrQJeiM8