Happy Halloween!

Halloween, without a doubt, is my favorite holiday of all time. While I do celebrate it all October, I wish it were longer than one day. Not to mention, it is my birthday! The big 21, guys. But I'll keep those festivities off the internet the best I can.

I decided to go cheap as possible this year (still on that college girl budget) and just went the face painting route. To get this little number going, this was all I needed:

$1 dollar tube of face paint

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$1 cheap ass liquid liner 

(I didn't want to muck up my usual stuff)

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"Crave" on Urban Decay's Naked Basics

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a whole lot of blending

Unfortunately, UPJ is not as festive as I would like it to be. Apart from the Humanities Department and a handful of students, I was an odd man out. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?! It's the day before Halloween people! It was worth the stares though, as some came with complements. 

True Detective Cut Up Poetry?

A new form of literature and art I'm really interested in learning about is Generative. While I'm more interested in a sort of coding-based technique to learn about, analog Generative Literature is really interesting. 

I decided to just test out an analog method by taking a quote from Detective Rust Cohle from True Detective. My "rules" for this was to delete all but every third word and I may go in later and put in punctuation and such for my own sanity.


"I'd consider myself a realist, alright? But in philosophical terms I'm what's called a pessimist... I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware. Nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself - we are creatures that should not exist by natural law... We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, that accretion of sensory experience and feelings, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody's nobody... I think the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming. Stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction - one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal."

myself alright? philosophical what's pessimist... human a in became Nature aspect separate - creatures not natural law... things under of self, of and with that each in nobody... the for to to programming. walk hand  - one brothers opting a...

After looking at what is left, some making no sense at all, I decided to play with some poetic breaks. A new "rule" developed: any ellipsis found will make a break; hyphens and periods make a new line. While the end result still could use some filling out to make sense, I like the cool, choppy structure it developed. 


RUST

Myself alright? 
Philosophical what's pessimist

Human a in became Nature aspect separate 
Creatures not natural law

Things under of self, of and with that each in nobody

The for to to programming
Walk hand  
One brothers opting a...

My Interactive Narrative: The Company of Wolves

I am obsessed with the horror genre of film and books. So I thought it would be perfect to combine the both of them into an interactive novel-like structure.

One of my favorite movies is The Company of Wolves, a British-gothic horror from the 1980's. It is based off of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and they both use cues from werewolf lore and Little Red Riding Hood tales. Something I love the most about the film is the use of physical effects (I will always appreciate them to computer generated).

In the spirit of the Halloween season (aka the greatest time of year), I wanted to develop a project that really told all the stories within the story of The Company of Wolves. I took quotes from both the film and The Bloody Chamber and then created my own story by filling in the rest and tweaking some endings here and there. I wanted to be able to move through the stories without any definite direction. Overall, I think it turned out pretty well using a flipbook maker. It was hard to find a free maker that gave me exactly what I wanted but FlipSnack definitely gave me the most. To link stories together, I put them in both the flipbook and a blog on WordPress.

To navigate this interactive story, you can either go to the DigitalWolvesProject page and read from there or follow the story through the flip book.

I'd like to add, most images are from the film but several images including the one shown above and the cover were edited by me.



I suggest reading it in fullscreen, but to open a link you must either have your pop-up blocker off or escape fullscreen and click on the widget.

A Look Into Student Work: More Interactive Narratives

Your Hero: The writing in this was really impressive in my opinion. It was to the point and you guys created endings within the story that were both realistic and interesting to follow. I felt for the characters and was actually excited to read through and find out all the endings.  I really like “Choose Your Path” storylines and this was a great example of an ambiguous perspective. Your choice of phrases, quotes, and scenarios for the path options were really smart. Is the reader Ryan? Gracie? Are you just an onlooker? It changes and I think it shakes up the narrative’s direction a lot.

Cabin by the Lake: This piece was actually both thrilling and quirky. The writing is full of imagery that really immerses you into the spook of it all. I played through all the possible combinations of moves and really liked the in depth deaths. I actually laughed at the matter-of-fact “You are dead” at the end of each death scenario. I think it made it cute to contrast the scariness. The fact that it’s a group of young adults follows that timeless theme of kids getting in a sticky situation with a killer. It’s good. I would suggest adding more actions that influence the other people’s deaths. It looks like that is in the works with the last scenario. I think it will really add a layer to the game. It kind of reminds me of Until Dawn (A video game located in the deep woods and a group of friends are surviving certain occurrences. Your actions as different characters influences the lives of your other characters). I’m also assuming that the “You do/don’t die here ;)” are place holders so I’m excited to see what happens. I really enjoyed the overall narrative of it all. It sort of follows a CYO format, which I’ve mentioned is something I like.

Interactive Narrative in Video Games

I am in love with Interactive Narrative games. For the sake of inability to go into detail about each one, I'm going to get into my two most enjoyed Interactive Narrative games: The Sims and Alien Isolation.

I have owned all four of The Sims and have bought more expansion packs and DLC than I am proud to admit. You can create a beautiful, utopian family/neighborhood...or you can remove all the doors in your home and watch your sim go insane with incontinence and bad moods. You can do anything with millions of options as far as interactions go. Glitches are always welcome for the entertainment or the horror.

That being said, I think outside of when I owned it on Gamecube, I mainly used Sims for the houses. I just love building/designing houses and interiors. I actually use a lot of other 3D “home building” and contracting programs just for the hell of designing houses without the limitations of Simoleons or unhappy Sims (though I always used cheat codes, I’m that guy).

This is my chance to nerd out about my newest favorite interactive video game, Alien Isolation. This is a daithful adaptation of Alien, one of my favorite movie franchises.  I'm embarrassed to say though, I have yet to actually “beat” the damn thing. It is so interactive and dependent on your actions, that every decision you make (conscious or otherwise) dictates something. This can be the xenomorph learning your moves, other survivors reacting towards you, or the ship itself being "unlocked" by your actions. So many of my actions end up being impulsive and unwise under the pressure of danger (It’s scary, okay).

The story follows Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda, on a Weyland Corp vessel where she not only has to cautious of a xenomorph on the loose, but desperate survivors that could betray her. The creators did a fantastic job mirroring the original Alien design of the ship, so of course that's enough to get me fangirling.

If you're not a fan of the standard interactive survival/visual novel/"choose-your-own" adventure game set up with physical paths, you should really give Alien Isolation a try. It is far from dull, you don't really know what your actions are going to result in, and it's really well done.

MAKEUP!

I'm finally posting about one of my many loves, MAKEUP. The money and time I have spent on anything cosmetic related is horrifying but almost makes me proud. One day I'll show off my little collection of cosmetics.

But to start off my makeup-related posts, I'll give you a little introduction to my tastes:

My everyday makeup is a blended, neutral crease and winged liner with nothing on my lips or cheeks. I usually like a little highlighter along the top of my cheekbones, browbones, and cupid's bow. I normally don't put anything on my waterline but when I do I mainly use bronze, gold, and purple. I also love a smokey eyes, but you rarely see me without winged liner and I try not to mix the two for everyday wear. When I do wear lipsticks, I'm obsessed with burgundy, plum, and nudes that lean towards the pink side. And of course I've been in love with dark eyebrows well before the bold brow trend, I'm just lucky to have them naturally and only have to define my tail.

That's my makeup in a nutshell, not to say I don't like to shake it up every now and then and try a green cut crease or what have you.

COOL-TONED FALL LOOK

Today, to match my favorite rainy weather in fall, I went on the cool side and wore a light grey crease and a muted purple eyeliner with the same grey eyeshadow blended on my lower lashline. Cool tones are usually great for any eye-color, and I'm always looking for ways to make my eyes look a little less caca-brown. Purple or golden shadows are my usual colors of choice if I'm working with color at all. Nudes nudes nudes are forever my favorite shadows.

PRODUCTS

• Maybelline Eye Studio Master Smoky in "Smoldering Violet" (615)
• Urban Decay Naked Palette (Using mainly "Gunmetal," "Naked," and "Virgin")
• NYX Tame & Frame Eyebrow Pomade in "Espresso"
• NYX Matte Liquid Liner
• Urban Decay Perversion Mascara (Without the primer today)

Thinking of Spring So Soon

It's only October. I haven't had most of my midterms yet, I'm balancing my work/school/love/clubs/sleep/free time like a Chinese circus, and I just want Halloween here tomorrow. But it's already time for... Spring Enrollment.

I've never liked spring semester at school. I may adore snow and chilly weather but I lose all motivation to be anything but a lump in my comforter. Which makes it difficult to schedule classes I will adore knowing how I'll dread trudging to them through the unkempt ski slopes sidewalks of UPJ (I'll rant about our useless maintenance another day).

Despite the inevitable loss of drive I'll have, I can't wait for more courses! I'm making a point to take several more digital media based courses because I truly think what we are learning is valuable. The courses I'm looking at include courses that will give me more experience with photoshop and two more digital narrative/writing courses with two of my favorite Humanities professors on campus: Dr. Cox and Dr. Justus. Other courses will be in marketing/communication.

I'm the type of person who needs to see everything planned out, color-coded, and visualized. So I think a really great tool a lot of people skip out when scheduling is My Student Center's Planner.

It may not be pretty but it's organized. You really just have to look at your major requirements, browse the course catalog for what you want, and add them to your planner as you go. I take it the extra step of breaking them into the exact semester I plan to take a course up until I graduate. I also have an extensive document that truly shows my need for planning where I made a grid to check off each graduation requirement I finish.

Excited or not, I still need some time before I can start thinking about spring.

Mambo No. 5 Disney Mashup

This project was based off of the idea of "remixing" and appropriative narratives. That can consist of taking pre-existing ideas or products and shaping them in a different way (through editing chronology or audio, overlaying different artifacts, or in some cases just changing authorship).

With three other classmates (Rachel Addoms, Kayla Stockdale, and Kylie Truscello), I was able to do not only a collaborative project, but an appropriative one. Two of these classmates, Kayla and Kylie, worked with me on my recent Pinterest project, so don't forget to check that out!

Our main goal in mind was to create something light-hearted that appealed to nostalgia and humor. We are all "90's babies" and that meant having some iconic entertainment in our childhoods. With that in mind, we chose to appropriate different dancing clips from both new and old animated Disney movies. The result in mind being a dance sequence, we needed a song that almost every person our age has heard a million times and still hasn't tired of it. We chose Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5" (I know, basically the best dance song ever made).

Overlaying this song lined up perfectly with our video montage and it was actually a fun experience to polish our project up to make certain clips match the beat. We mostly used various YouTube videos and cut them to our liking on iMovie. A lot of our footage was from Tarzan's "Trashing the Camp" scene because of just how much their movements went with the song.

All in all, I could not be more pleased with the result and how easy it was working with my group. The video turned out cute, clean, and fulfilled our goal of nostalgic entertainment from our childhoods.

UPJ Backroads

Something I've mentioned before is the UPJ's literary magazine, Backroads. I'm the Art Editor and am very excited for upcoming work with this club! Something I'll be somewhat in charge of is the website, promotion, and some of the artsy stuff. Exhibit A being flyers!

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What I'm posting about this week is the celebration of collaboration, much like my post last week about using Pinterest as a collaborative medium. This magazine is made up of student or faculty submissions in poetry, photography, prose, and art. We also have a website not only to archive, but to display student work that can't be on print like music, video, or other digital art. We publish it yearly after gathering and voting on submissions.

Right now we are in the phases of calling for submissions, holding events, and fundraising. I was put to work at developing some more stand-out ads to catch interest before I develop more informative flyers and eventually a poster.

This has actually given me a great opportunity to play with more digital art platforms. The vague brushstroke backgrounds were my own quick creation and the middle poster used to be my own artwork until my Autodesk Sketchbook app started bugging out. Now there is a placeholder drawing that I will soon replace with a drawing of my own. After all, we are a club centered around celebrating the creativity and skills of students.

UPDATE: If someone were glancing at this post and my blog you would think I am obsessed with pinks and yellows (ironically, my favorite colors are black and grey). Really I was just looking for colors that pop against our class buildings' dingy blue walls and the sea of blue and gold pageantry.