Research

1.3 Research: Aberdeenshire and Highland Tours (Didn’t go to the Highlands ;-;)

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My post will be a slight bit shorter. I didn’t go to the highlands as I was feeling unwell. I will try to draw out the Aberdeenshire tour as long as I can, though.

For me, I thought that the Aberdeenshire tour was fabulous despite the fact I was a little grumpy after my shoes got soaked through and I fell in a small stream. I really enjoyed seeing the historical gravesites, the Abbey and the stone circle. I really felt a connection with the stone circle and I really did like being there although it was very very wet.

I think the rain overshadowed a lot of my thoughts about the tour. I was ill prepared for the cold wet grasslands. It was gorgeous though. I did love the small streams, and how thick the grass was and the different areas that we went to.

Dunnotter castle was my favorite on the stop, although I ended up having a bit of a panic attack once we got to go BACK up those stairs. I am really frightened of heights, so uh… climbs like that both A make me dizzy and B, scare me. Overall, though I felt it to be a breathtaking experience, and it was cool we got to explore a very ancient castle that had been standing for a very long period of time. Despite the fact that I got soaked, I had a blast. I think what surprised me was that a lot of the sites we visited on the tour were made out of sandstone. It was partially why everything was so slippery, but I found that to be a very cool tidbit of information. Another thing that I felt was cool was that a castle was almost like a whole community in itself. It was that big.

the Abbey was another of my favorite sites. Now that one I did get some photographs of. Unfortunately, they’re all files that cannot be displayed on webpages (thank you IPHONE), So I will convert them later and add them in. I really loved the architecture of this abbey. I felt it was very advanced for it’s time, and it was cool how you could see how the abbey would of looked if it were still standing as a complete building. I also loved the greenery and gardens around it. I wish we could have stayed a little longer, and that we could have actually gone inside.

The stone circle was very interesting to me. I didn’t know much about them going in besides the fact they were used for rituals and astrological readings. I felt it was cool that our guide said she was personally connected to the stone circle and she believed she was meant to be its guardian. I don’t know much about Scottish spirituality and believes, so that’s why I found that part of the tour very unique. I know my friend who I talk to frequently warned me of Whisps that take you on journeys. I wonder if it was something similar to that.

The last site I will explore is the graveyard. I really liked that site. reading all the tombstones and all of the history behind them was very intriguing to me. I was also surprised my professor had a connection to the site. I thought that was super cool.

Works Cited:

Cromar, William, “narrativeArtsTours” newMedia Wiki. 2022. http://newmediawiki.pbworks.com/w/page/149510490/narrativeArtsTours Accessed December 1st, 2022.

1.1.2 Research: Bradbury’s Rocket

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PART A: Research Sources:

In reading the wiki, I found the shadow archetypes very interesting. The diagram that showed them was very informative, and also having the semiotic square that correlated to it was helpful in showing how we could use these archetypes in synthesizing a unique character. I also really liked the TV Tropes website. I found it very cool and the writing was hilarious on each trope. They were all easily recognizable and I could identify media that I had seen them depicted in. Even though the fact they were written very glibly and were more on the comedic side.

PART B: Concept Design:

For my concept, I chose Bradbury’s Rocket, specifically from the tale called “The Earthmen”, by Ray Bradbury. I felt that this depiction of the rocket was specifically more striking. Mainly, because the story was longer, and had a bit more depth. I had more material to go on with the concept design.
I decided to go with a rocket that I often picture right away from older movies and films. Specifically cartoons like “The Jetsons”. I don’t know if that show ever had a specific “rocket” depicted within it’s universe, but it’s definitely inspired by what those at the time thought futuristic travel would be like.

bradburys_rocket_concept
Here is the rocket concept.

The men who came to Mars and the “psychologist” who treated them all died, one by suicide, the 4 astronauts by murder. Hence the really rough blood spatters on the side of the barrel. The “martians” didn’t know what the rocket was, or what it was for, so it was trashed, and then sold.
If I had more time, I’d have messed with the sizing more of the other elements so the rocket was larger than the dumpster, sign and box. I think the scale is a little unsuccessful here. I did go over in the time limit as I forgot to set a timer, but I think for the time I had I did well. I just wish I had remembered proper sizing.

Works Cited.

Bradbury, Ray. “The Earth Men”. capgeox.org. https://www.capgeox.org/uploads/1/3/1/9/131934518/the_martian_chronicles_-_ray_bradbury.pdf Accessed Sept. 25th 2022.

Cromar, William. “narrativeArtsExploringPrecedent.” NewMedia Wiki. 2022. http://newmediawiki.pbworks.com/w/page/149510484/narrativeArtsExploringPrecedent Accessed Sept. 25th, 2022.

“Tropes.” TVTropes.org. n.d. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Tropes Accessed Sept 25th, 2022.

1.1.1 Research

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For “Transmedia Storytelling 101” by Henry Jenkins,  I found the whole concept intriguing. The fact that the stories need to add to the world, and are not focused on characters or plots, but furthering the concepts within a larger complex world is fascinating. I also think the fact that they have to have synergy with the other additions to the world and also sometimes can be used to reach out to other demographics is pretty cool.

For the Scotland Links, I found the fact that Scotland has so many things that are a boon to society as a whole amazing. The baby box and the period equality were especially important to me. To be honest, I think every country should have that, and I think it’s important too with the baby box, because too many people have a baby and sometimes don’t anticipate the costs of raising a child. I think the fact that also, it’s so LGBTQ+ forward is another boon to it’s societal impact. I think Scotland’s policies are something that we could learn from as a society as a whole.

For “The Story of Sequential Art” by Oshin Vipra Sagar, I was amazed to hear that there was a group of manga-ka (females too) before CLAMP known as the Magnificent-24 that created the shojo manga genre. I adore shojo, and recently I’ve seen the resurgence of older shojo films and manga such as Magical Angel Creamy Mamie and Kodocha. It’s fun to see things come back that were from such a long time ago.

For the work, “Getting Started with Transmedia Storytelling” by Robert Pratten, I found the whole entirety of chapter two really interesting. I really like the idea of multiple different options for the way to story to end, audience interaction and influence and also the idea that the story can change on a dime. I loved that the story didn’t need to have one singular ending, and it could change based on the moment of the “world” it was portraying. I really like the concept of branching narrative, dynamic narrative, and also participatory storytelling. I hope we can use it in our project to make something unique.

Works Cited:

Jenkins, Henry. “Transmedia Storytelling 101.” Henry Jenkins. http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html Accessed Sept 9th, 2022.

Pratten, Robert. “Getting Started With Transmedia Storytelling.” Talking Objects WordPress. https://talkingobjects.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/book-2-robert-pratten.pdf Accessed Sept 11th, 2022.

Sagar, Oshin V., The Story of Sequential Art. n.A. Issuu. 2018.

“The History of Scotland”. Scotland.org. N.d. https://www.scotland.org/about-scotland/history-interactive/all-periods?all&now-1900 Accessed Sept 8th, 2022.