It is fascinating that such deep stories can be told in a picture and 20 words. I feel like the round robin gives us an opportunity to have these collective, small bursts of creativity, that can turn out to be quite beautiful. It was interesting to see how the stories progressed as they went through each set of hands. I didn’t imagine where the story would end up, when the idea originated. The first idea seemed the most difficult, and the later rounds became easier to write. It was as if the first Idea was a little spark and once it caught, it was easy to put wood on the fire. The beauty of collaboration is that you have to give up control. Most of the best art is produced when it is created with restrictions because it causes the artist to think outside of the box. When several artists work together that's that much more box to think outside of.

One interesting result of this project was that upon sending off the latest story to the next person, it was rare that the next story would convey what the original author believed to be the important or interesting aspect of the story. Some stories meant to be taken literally were read by the next person as containing a deeper meaning. Other times, the story was meant to be deep, but the next author took the story at its surface. Regardless of the author’s original intent, the next story was often surprising and enjoyable. Each string of stories goes off in a direction the original author most likely did not imagine. These results exemplify the idea that stories are more creative when working as a team.

In the article about the Exquisite Corpse by DJ Spooky, he talks about how fragmented, varied puzzles reflect more accurately the collective memory of our culture and how we as a whole progress. Perhaps this idea could stand a few more test runs from us, but the point is valid. It is simply a silly thing to assume complete control over anything, let alone a creative process, and indeed when a person freely gives up what control they have they not only have an opportunity to be presented with new, interesting points of view, but also insight into other people.

Spooky compared the exquisite corpse and other similar methods of creation with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein—as accurate as any comparison could be in two senses. Firstly, in the literal sense, it really is sort of a mismatched and vague representation of a story-isn thing, which is beautiful in its own right. It is also a figurative compilation of numerous consciousnesses, opinions, experiences, and interpretations. A “living” thing,” according to Spooky, as “‘text’ is never inanimate”—an entity of sorts built up from the minds of five independently thinking people.

While writing these blurbs, I felt that I was building up part of a community.  As a collective we have our own personal beliefs and experiences, but then putting it together is like a realization of how we fit together as people.  In a community, when new people come in contact, lives are changed and a person has a choice to take different paths in their life.  This process is similar to when a character beat is formed within story.  Now within this exercise, it as if we are introducing the characters developed in the stories to a new person, who has their own perspective and experience to change the life of this character forever.  Mimicking this natural process allows the story and characters develop more naturally.  Just as we do, the characters have the opportunity to be influenced by the introduction of new ideas.   Then the community grows the with the development of new characters and the introduction to new ideas to each of us as creators.  

"Conroy" by Cake

As I read “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, one little anecdote jumped out at me. It was only one sentence and it described how a photography professor happened to see a bird die midflight one day. The first thing that impacted me about this was how random and unique of a thing that would be to see, but then something else struck me. Why was he looking up? This idea of knowing where and how to look was explained and addressed throughout this whole article, but that moment of looking up was what really inspired me. I loved how Dillard talked about seeing things from fresh eyes and from fresh points of view and I wanted to create a piece that had specific meaning to me and yet could be readily used to tell an equally specific story to someone else.

As I listened to “Conroy” by Cake, I tried to start with a fresh slate. I wanted to have nothing else on my mind as tried to “look up” at this piece. As soon as I started listening to it, it took my mind back to the first time I heard this song. It was a year or so ago and I was sitting angry in traffic. As soon as the song came on my anger evaporated, my mind was filled with ideas and my body with joy. I was so struck by the song that I just listened to it over and over until I was out of traffic. Its odd mixture of sounds forced my mind to make stories. It’s this story telling quality that made me so enthusiastic about wanting to work on this piece.

As I began to paint I thought about Storm Thorgerson who did artwork for bands such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. Each of his pieces have a story telling quality that compliments and at the same time stands alone from the work that it was inspired by.

In my piece I wanted each image to speak for a moment in the song, but I wanted the combination of these images to be what tells the story. I wanted the colors as well as the images to mirror each other and yet be very different in their content. The images needed to be viewed together so that they could highlight how different they are from each other. In the song we hear sounds that are not normally heard together, and that combination is what brings such vivid story lines and images into the mind of the listener. This idea of combining ideas to make new ideas so perfectly embodied the concept of looking at things with fresh eyes and from different points of view. In my painting I tried to tell a story that was specific to me, yet was ambiguous enough for each new pair of eyes to create a different story.

Kyler Sommer

Winter 2016

Thinking and Writing

Fallout 4: Function before Form

Fallout 4 has only been out for a few months now but it has already become a cultural facet of our society. While it has several older successful games in its lineage to lean on, the impact of this game is different. I have heard countless people talking about it in passing, and not just people who are gamers, even people who have not played the game! It has had such a strong impact on those that have played it that those around them have not been able to avoid the shockwave it has created. While at first it would seem that a game so popular must be an amazing artistic contribution to the world of gaming, as one looks closer it is clear to see that is not the case. When it comes to Fallout 4, it is clear that the road to addiction has been paved with the illusion of artistry.

A Russian man recently sued Bethesda because he claimed that their new game Fallout 4 is “too addictive”. What makes this significant is that if you have played the game you can almost sympathize with the poor Russian fellow. While I wouldn’t be inclined to sue anyone, my poor wife and the companions of millions can attest to the feeling of having lost a loved one when the start button was first pressed. It is clear that this game has placed itself near the top of the list of the world’s most universally addictive games, but it does so in a new and unique way. What makes this game so addicting is its combination of game types. It is an open world RPG, optional first person shooter that also has a building component. It would be hard to find a gamer that does not like some aspect of the game. In analysis of this, one could easily focus on why just one element is addictive, but that would not do the game justice. It is not each element that makes up the game that draws one in but the unity of said elements that keeps a person playing hour after hour. That connection is what makes up for the flaws

It’s this combination of ideas that makes fallout 4 stand out, but what makes it work in a way that is so addictive? First we need to understand on a simple level what makes video games addictive in general. We all knew that kid in high school that seemed to live in World of Warcraft, but fallout 4 is different. Fallout 4 does not have any online play so the real world social aspect is almost non-existent, a somewhat surprising fact for a game that is so life absorbing. But this is replaced by an almost overwhelming amount of characters and in-game dialogue at your fingertips. Because the game gives you options of companions to bring along on your wasteland journey, you find yourself talking to the screen, and for little moments forget that they are not actually real people on the other end.

     A moment must be taken to acknowledge that while the game is addicting it cannot so easily be written off as another thing to rot your brain. Fallout 4 draws you in, and presents you with opportunities to make decisions that are surprisingly hard. You must make decisions that impact a world on a social and economic level. You must make personal decisions about your stance on artificial intelligence and at what point defending a people becomes controlling a people. This type of decision making in Fallout 4 really does show how powerful of an art form gaming can be. While I would love to stop there and say that’s why Fallout 4 is wonderful, sadly it often sacrifices this beauty for the purpose of making the game more addictive. The main narrative is a perfect example.

The narrative has many flaws and frustrations and it would be easy to take time to focus on how they detract from the game, but this is not a game review. The narrative of the game is not that amazing on its own, but it serves an important and destructive purpose.  That purpose is to drive the player forward to complete tasks, and ultimately that is the crux of what makes gaming addictive. I don’t know a single person on this planet that does not like achieving goals. Achieving goals gives us a sense of accomplishment while video games give us that satisfaction from the comfort of our home and with fictional high stakes at no real world cost. That is why both World of Warcraft and Minecraft are both highly addictive games and yet are so different. Fallout 4 has played on what is popular in society at the time to present a platform for endless goals to be achieved in so many different ways. With each completed goal another one becomes available. It’s like a hamster in a cage.

 If the game was a more neat linear narrative the sense of accomplishment would be a large one at the end of the story, but instead it is hundreds of small moments that have no end throughout the game. For this reason I both love the game as a gamer and feel manipulated as a consumer. Function has been placed way above form, and because of that even some of the games roughest critics find themselves playing hour after hour. While it not doubt has artistic components and tries to make some important commentaries on technology and even government, those commentaries are secondary. Above all, Fallout 4 is a well-crafted machine of addiction.