Final Presentation

Did my final presentation two days ago. I've improved with my presentations and ability to talk in front of people now, which is a good thing. I'm not sure if I seemed natural though because I was really really nervous. Overall, I've improved heaps from previous presentations where I wouldn't say much at all.

Anyway, here is my presentation. I made it on a flash website creator. Thought it might be a really simple, sneak peak in to how to make websites. It lacks the coding element though with this creator, which is why I chose it because I tend to avoid any form of programming. I want to improve on that next year as well.

Un-reality: Presentations

Presentation went reasonably well today, I wasn't as nervous as I was with previous presentations so I actually said something. I think I've gotten used to it so now I'm more comfortable with talking in front of people. This improvement would definitely help with presentations for next week.

Anyway, I heard other groups presenting and some of the games they talked about seemed really fun. Two of them really stood out to me.

One is Jenny's group. I saw some pictures of their game running and I liked the kidnapping part. A good thing in my perception of what went on with the game is their acting, which made the game really convincing.

The other is Emile's group. I liked it because it seemed really fun and I liked the variety of little experiences inside it. I tried out their binoculars to see the message in the red lines, I really liked that to be honest.

Hand-in is all completely ready too. V^^V I've been taking care of group hand-in since the first day, so there wasn't so much of a rush to get anything finished.

Un-reality: Run through

Run through day was today. It didn't go as well as intended because the digital parts were completely missed out so the setting of the game wasn't defined. What the digital parts did was set up the story so that it makes more sense and gives a clearer idea of what's happening.

A good thing is we could write a lot in the "potential next steps" on ways to improve the game. I think it would have worked better if we had more run throughs so that we could test out the game.

Below is our video, which was missed:



And here is the link to our blog as well.

Un-reality: Final work day

There's not much to say about this final working day for the project. At the moment everything is falling in to place, which is good.

A slight feeling of apprehension about tomorrow's run through though. It feels like something's not quite right yet. Whether it's just my imagination or not shall all be revealed tomorrow.

Un-reality: Filming

Since costumes got sorted yesterday we're half way there to filming. At this point time is running out so we had to simplify. Since planning was not sufficient enough for the filming in terms of location especially, we decided to do the filming in Albert Park in a quiet spot.

Michelle was in charge of makeup, since she's really good with that sort of thing. We got Tim, who was acting, to look tired and dirty to play the perfumer quickly writing down his last wish prior to his execution.




We got locations for each stage sorted and consequently the journal sorted as well.

For locations we simplified it down to three instead of the original five we intended. This would make it easier for us and keep costs down. We also made it so that the decrease in locations won't affect the plot either in accordance to the journal.

On to the journal. The actual writing isn't difficult. The part that took the most thinking was the clues. So while working on the journal we had to think about how to place and present the scents at each stage for selection.

With clues, originally I was thinking perhaps some kind of code. For example, deliberately misspelling words where the correct letters grouped up would make a sentence. Or maybe dots and dashes at certain letters of words to form a sentence. However, that would be rather difficult to do especially because there could be instances where the ink would splatter at some points and break the code.

I remembered reading about how back in the old days perfumers were also alchemists and perfumes were commonly sold in apothecaries. (Lyttelton, 2007) We took that and thought about their relationship with alchemy, which led to alchemical symbols. Symbols are useful because in my opinion they're a beautiful and simple way to convey some kind of message. Take a pen for example and view that as a symbol. It can say a lot of things with just a pen. It's writing, ideas, expression--the freedom to think. This is conveyed through a single symbol. On the other hand if you used words you'd have to carefully craft your words to convey the same meaning.

So within the journal this is what happens:

There is one main symbol for the complete perfume and different parts of it are drawn on different pages. So manipulating the property of the moleskine journal paper where rubbing oil on it would cause the first page the oil is applied to become transparent, this is how the complete symbol is revealed.

This rubbing oil action is first introduced with that main symbol. Therefore, in subsequent stages the player would get the idea that they're have to do more oil rubbings.

This leads on to the stages. Now, each separate component of the perfume has its own symbol hidden on the label of the bottle. What happens is you rub the oil on the seemingly blank label and the symbol is revealed. Each correct symbol to the correct scent when combined with all the other ones would ultimately create the whole symbol of the perfume. Of course, at some stages you'd get identical symbols mixed in at selections so that you'd still have to use your nose to find the right scent. Also, inside each bottle would be a message to tell you what to do once you have your selections at each stage.

Hopefully everything will fall in to place. It still feels like there's heaps to do for everyone.




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References:

Lyttelton, C. (2007). The Scent Trail. London, Great Britain: Transworld Publishers.

Un-reality: Here

Full group is back V^^V Yay, so we got some work done today. Not as much as I hoped, but it's still something.

I did the last practice painting I'm going to do, which is shown above. I think that's my best one so far. Things I still need to improve on is perspective and lighting.

Tim brought in a really beautiful, old perfume bottle to show us. We won't use it though because it's an expensive antique.


He also brought in a strip of leather for Edrian to tie the journal closed. It adds a nice touch to the aged journal.


Edrian also did some amazing drawings as well.


Michelle and I got some little pots to hold the scents. An idea I had was to put the little pots inside eggshells so that it would be more interesting since when you crack the eggs open the scent would come out.

In my head it worked out like this:

Empty out the insides of the eggs as shown below.


Then cut the eggs in half, put in the pots, glue the halves back together and do paintings on the shell.

Tried cutting it in half with a craft knife since I didn't want to use special expensive tools to do it. Obviously it didn't work out as shown below.


An alternative is to use origami. It looks pleasing and they're easy to place. They're also cheap and easy to make.

I wasn't sure about suggesting origami as an option at first, because I know that it's an obsession of mine and I don't know if the rest of the group would like it too. But they approve of using origami as well so I'm glad.


Group dynamics:

Energy is down in the atmosphere today, but still made some progress so that's good. I know that Jason is feeling useless because he's not doing much yet, but rest assured when it's his time to work he will do it well. I think the problem is because a lot of his work is post-production of various objects. For example, he can't edit the film until we actually have footage and he can't set up speakers either until the day comes and until we have definite locations.

Un-reality: Away

Most of the group was away today, so I continued practicing and experimenting with paintings. This time I used 100% opacity with a hard round brush and then a grainy rectangular brush for the more blended strokes. I like this one more than sticking to round brush the whole way through because it looks more like a painting than failed realism. This fits an approach to making art that I learned earlier this year; Stylise what you can't do.

So these are the two paintings that I did. Since other group members were away I was worried that all production would be at a standstill. I knew that the journal probably isn't going to sort itself out so I spent some time thinking through it.

At first we were going to use an existing famous perfumer's name as the perfumer who wrote the journal. But that seemed disrespectful, especially because they were dead and if anybody else saw the content without knowing that it's a game we could run in to problems. In the end it was decided that we should make up a fictional perfumer all together so that when Googled our content would be the ONLY content to come up. Thus, our content would not be missed by the players.

I wrote up the fictional perfumer's history and the letter he writes to the reader at the beginning of the journal. Now that we have a good story along with a solid character now, things should get easier from this point onwards in terms of production. I still need to write up the rest of the content of the journal though. The content is dependent on locations for ease of creating clues, so we have to sort that out.


Group dynamics:

Even though the majority of the group was away I'm glad that communication was still working between members. This is a great thing because it means that ideas can still develop and even though things would be really slow in terms of production it's better than having no productivity at all.

Un-reality: Working

Individual work has begun for each section. Michelle was away sick, but she's done a great job with the perfumes. She's finished the final smell and she's got the fake decoy smells together as well. So that part of her job is finished and I'm really pleased with that because that's one solid thing done.

Edrian's aged the journal over the weekend too, but filming-wise for the short film fell apart because the planning didn't go into it and the costuming, props and locations weren't nailed down.

Today Jason got some good speakers as well. They're perfect for us because they give out a decent amount of sound and the quality isn't bad.

Tim began work on the blog as well, but we still need to sort that out because that's quite an important part.

I'm doing the digital paintings for the blog, but I don't know what exactly to paint yet since the content at the moment is uncertain. So I got practicing today, experimenting with different brushes. Below are two of the practices I did today. I painted people because I have no experience in painting people.

Originally, it was supposed to be renaissance styled digital paintings, but at the moment I'm going for a more digital look. Mostly because my painting skills aren't quite good enough to do really realistic paintings yet so I'll have to work around that. Luckily, it would still make sense with the blog because pictures in blogs illustrate the content so the style of the pictures depends on the purpose and personality of the blogger really. The blogger is a person who is interested in making links between real events and myths and legends. Seeing the relationship between them and how various legends are born from actual events of the time. So they'd be interested in history and legends. No doubt they'd have a great imagination.




We really need to get our locations, film, and ending of the game sorted though and time is getting tight. I think at this point we gotta think simple and do it as efficiently and beautifully as possible. I want it to be amazing even though at the moment it feels like most parts are at a standstill. We'll push through it and complete it as best we can.


Group dynamics notes:

As mentioned before the group was split in to sections. It worked and didn't work in some ways. It worked great for Michelle and Jason. I find that they're quite good at working in their own sections and reporting back to the group with what they've done and what to do if something needs confirmation/persmission from the group. For example, Jason made sure that the rest of the group was fine with the choice and cost of the speakers that he thinks would be good for what we need.

For Edrian and Tim however it was more difficult. Edrian was supposed to plan out the filming process and getting on to it. But the planning didn't happen and various circumstances prevented the filming from happening due to props and costumes not being ready and a good location hasn't been decided on yet either. It feels really unstable with the short film at the moment. Nothing's really solid. That has to be fixed.

For Tim, the blogging is a little halted because a lot of the content is dependent on what happens with the other media objects and how that would fit in to the plot. So tomorrow that will have to be sorted out.

As a result, my paintings have to be put on hold because they are dependent on blog content. As for journal content I can write up the content in the simplest form and Edrian can then add whatever he thinks is necessary to the frame I give him. I would have to add notes on the side as well to make sure that whatever he adds fits in with what happens in the game.

At the moment the group feels like scattered sand. Will need to rebuild a supporting core to keep group morale and productivity up.

Un-reality: Designing objects and deadlines

Today was quite short. Some more experimenting happening while we waited for some more members to turn up so that we could decide on roles and have a stronger idea about making each object.

Edrian is getting really good with ink and calligraphy nibs.



He printed out some Leonardo da Vinci drawings to learn how to draw in a similar style with the ink. This is one of his practice drawings based on da Vinci's.

Michelle continued experimenting with the oils as well. She brought in a little tray so that it's easier to do experiments on with different combinations.


Also, member roles finalised today along with set deadlines.

All members have multiple roles and I've timed out the deadlines so that they can do a little bit every day and not be overwhelmed by the work load. It's still going to take a decent amount of time though.

The sections are divided according to the media objects that we've got. These are the details for each object. Of course, the details will develop and expand as they are in the process of being created. Design notes will be kept to document this.

Short film:

-Short film of Grenouille writing in journal. Done like the Jude Law scene in Series of Unfortunate Events.

-Has link in description to the blog. This video is like a little trailer/advert to the blogger's posts about a legendary perfumer who they think is Grenouille

-Face of person not shown, only silhouette. Should have interesting shadows and the lighting has to be strong enough to give a silhouette. Edrian would like candles, but additional light source would be needed to produce a good silhouette.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fggw2spjaU8&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLD9E2F95BB545318E

Like the beginning of this trailer.

Edrian will be directing, Tim will be in the film and Jason would be doing the editing.

Blog:

Text

-Introduces topic by talking about the book and film Perfume

-Links the similarities to a well-known legend about a mythical perfumer who used unusual ingredients to create powerful perfumes. Later sentenced to death for supposedly practicing witchcraft and dark magic.

-Concludes they Grenouille and this legendary perfumer may have been the same person

Pics

-Has Renaissance style digital paintings of the journal and Grenouille (artist's impression) writing in it including him being punished by the church

-Paintings of various ingredients

-Maybe some paintings of murdered people

*the blogger is a person interested in history and its relationship to myths and legends. Enjoys linking them together through similarities and differences.

Tim will be writing the contents of the blog while I will do digital paintings that will be put in the blog. I think that would be fun for me because I've been wanting to get more practice for digital painting.

Journal:

Look

-Da Vinci style drawings of ingredients and any other relevant imagery

-Aged paper, aged look

-Neat, organised calligraphy

-scented pages with the ingredients

Content

-Addresses reader and talks about an ultimate perfume, Grenouille also states that he will follow the reader until he/she either fails completing the perfume or completes it successfully

-Description of perfume and when to use/make it

-Talks about perfume structure, the 13th essence and maybe the history of key ingredients. Specific ingredients on specific pages with the scent on it.

For the journal Edrian's in charge of how it looks and all the art inside the journal. I will be providing the written content for the journal.

Scents:

Smells

-Less satsuma, more vanilla + mango. We'll need some fake smells as well to provide different choices for each stage

Presentation of smells

-A novel way of presenting scent/spreading it out over an area

-Something to hold the ingredients/oils they need to collect and pick out

-Something to hold the final perfume

Michelle's been experimenting the oils that we've got and trying to find a great scent from different combinations. As for the presentation of the smells Jason will be taking care of that but the group would pitch in and help with that as well because that's an important part of the game and it's a huge load of work as well.

Music:

-Background music in the trail to lead player in the right direction/show that they're on the right track.

-Inspired from soundtrack of film

Tim will be doing the music for the trail as well and anything else to do with audio. He's good at music so it's good to use that skill of his for the creation of a better experience that pays attention to various senses.

Arduino (Look for better alternatives, since Arduino would be too quiet and wouldn't give us what we want)

-Placed nearby location of scent

-Sensor to trigger music

-Must be hidden from sight/be discrete in surroundings

Since Jason's good with electronics I got him to look after the placing of the sound in the game. At first the rest of the group was thinking Arduino, but he brought up various problems that could pop up with using Arduino for it such as the sound quality wouldn't be good enough and the sound wouldn't be very audible either and how it is more complex than simpler methods. So now we've decided to use his suggestion of using hidden speakers and iPods instead. Since when you walk closer the sound would fade in anyway and this is much easier than doing it with Arduino and we could achieve better results with the sound as well.


Another thing I'll be looking after is getting all material ready for hand-in at the end of the project and all the planning and timing throughout the project. So I'm technically the project manager for this.

Anyway, group notes:

Even though Jason felt like a killjoy when he said what he thought about the Arduino sound idea I think it's good that he brought up the potential problems we could have with the Arduino. A lot of the time when you work in groups people worry about making other people feel bad so most of the time people choose not to say anything unless it's really really big. I think that decision is costly to the group and does not give any benefits at all. In my opinion it is nothing but emotional masturbation that ultimately ends in disappointment. Therefore, it's much more beneficial to the group to speak up about potential problems right at the beginning before you actually go about making something for any project.

Un-reality: Reviewing member roles and the media used

We've got a mostly solid plot now. The only bit that we need to think further about is how to end the game. Other than that, the rest is pretty much up and running ready to be created. For efficiency and timing, the group will be split up in to independent sections so that all objects can be made simultaneously. That will be sorted out completely tomorrow.

As for the plot this is what's happening:

A mysterious journal is found, and is discovered to be written by Grenouille. Which leads to the player looking up in Google about Grenouille and some videos pop up as little trailers about how Grenouille may have been a real person. These videos then lead to a blog of an amateur historian interested in finding relations between myths and legends and real events.

The game itself is about the player following Grenouille's guide in creating the ultimate scent.


For the media that's all sorted now on definite things. For digital we've got the YouTube videos and the blog. For physical it's obviously the journal, the scents, and some background music along the trail to enhance the atmosphere. I'll blog about the details in the next blog when we'll have an initial design down for everything.

We got the journals yesterday and Edrian went and bought a calligraphy set and some ink for himself. He started experimenting with those today and learning how to use those tools properly.


As you can see from the pictures there's a splodge in the middle. We're going to scent the journal so we put a drop of some oils we got today on it to see what happens with the paper. It's going to be kept shut over night as well to see if the scent moves on to other pages as well.


And these are the oils that Michelle bought. They were quite expensive to be honest. Our group budget is not looking good. We're all very grateful that the costs are split between five people.

From left to right we've got sandalwood and ginger, mango, pomegranate and raspberry, satsuma, and vanilla.

We did a little bit of experimenting with the oils as well. This is Michelle testing out a combination of oils.



We had Roy Davies in for a talk today too. We won't be using anything he talked about though. At first I thought it might be cool to use QR codes, but we decided against it because it doesn't make much sense or fit with how the journal is from a really old time period. I liked this bit he brought up at the beginning about the bridge between technology and the mind; what you want technology to do. I think that's important because what a lot of people think is that technology just does whatever it does all by itself and that it's extremely smart so it can magically read your mind and figure out what you want it to do. But that's not what happens. With technology the human has to decide what they want it to do, then create the technology with that in mind, which is a long and arduous process. It doesn't happen in a second, but when the final result emerges the time is worth it.

Un-reality: Solid

At the end of yesterday we decided that by 2 or 3pm today we have to come up with something solid to work from. I'm quite impressed with our progress today to be honest. We did everything we needed to do today by around 11 or 12pm despite two members being away.

At first we were thinking that we would go on to further develop the Devil + Murderer idea. As we went along we realised that that particular idea just wasn't strong enough as there were still many empty areas that could further complicate the execution process while keeping the reality fun and believable. Also, it felt like it was far to similar to the book, killing people to get their scent. It's more copying the book rather than growing the idea around a central concept

So we took a step back, went back to the themes presented. The strongest ones are how scent is a powerful thing and the scent is the soul. Jason later combined the idea of scent being a powerful thing with a recurring object in nearly all of our ideas. This is using the mysterious journal as an invitation in to the game.

The idea is that the journal makes no sense until you find the smell, which gives you a lead to the next smell. This expanded and became a guide to create the ultimate scent left behind by Grenouille from the book/film. Since in the book/film Grenouille does have a consuming goal where he seeks out to create the ultimate scent. Multiple scents will be there at different stages in the game for choices and branching out to multiple possibilities and show the consequence of choice.

As for media we've got some ideas flying around. A definite one would of course be the mysterious journal and various scents. For digital we're thinking some short film clips about Grenouille mixed in with extracts from the film perhaps. Will need to think about copyright if we do that though since we don't want to violate copyright laws there. The videos should have a link that leads to the blog of an amateur historian interested in myths and legends who names Grenouille as a legendary perfumer and has various bits of information about him and how the book is about him and so on. Tomorrow, we need to have a clear idea of what we're doing in terms of media though. The journal is solid. We got the journals today. They're moleskine ones because Edrian wants to use them for himself after we're done for this project. I bought one for myself too for when I go to Hong Kong in the summer so that I can still draw.


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It's been a while since I've written about group performance. I think I should write one of these every few days so that we've got our group performance notes all documented ready for hand in.

As of now, group dynamics are smooth and works perfectly with my colour identification. Jason's orange is obviously showing as he gives sudden ideas that we like and agree with. Orange people are the creative spark, basically, they're highly likely to think up an amazing random idea that somehow works, or one that doesn't work but could work after a bit of tweaking. He's quite willing to work as well and is a positive person. I think later on in the process of making the game would be the time when his best qualities will fully emerge as oranges need to do things, especially concrete work like the actual object in the project, to gain the feeling of satisfaction in knowing that solid progress is made.

Tim's a blue, I'm a blue too. Blues are the organisers and problem-solvers. Tim does a great job pinpointing areas of confusion or areas that aren't quite right yet and asks very good questions which help the group develop ideas. It makes a good flow I think. I've been organising everything that goes on, on a day-to-day basis since the beginning of the project and deciding when something has to be finished. So far the time-management side of the group is fantastic. We're right on track. In the future of this project I believe Tim will spot potential errors in making things before we actually make the mistake. This would be handy to make the best use of time and optimise efficiency. I'll continue to plan out deadlines, monitor progress, continue with our group portfolio, which we already made a start to in addition to getting all our materials ready for hand-in, and do documentation.

Edrian and Michelle are yellows. Yellow ones are like the arms/hands of the group. They're quite supportive and they execute the plan. They're the doing people and help the plan/idea become real. They've both given great input on what they think of the ideas that we come up with and what I like about them is their willingness to work and flexibility in working. When we get around to making our media it would be their moment to shine.




Since we need to pay particular attention to group dynamics, I'll seize this opportunity to test my colours idea and see if it works. A major flaw with the colours idea though is that it completely ignores personality traits and only points out how people work in groups.

Un-reality: Movie-watching

Today's movie day :D It's probably too fun to be work, but there shouldn't be a reason why work can't be fun. Anyway, this is our brain food for watching the movie.


And this is our little setup in the hallway. We moved out of the studio so that we won't disturb the other groups while they're working.


After finishing watching the film we went back to brainstorming on how the murder mystery would work. I'll admit we were a bit lost on how to go about it, so we started designing bits of the murderer first. The most popular aspect was drawn from the book/film where Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is the collector type of serial killer. He collects the scents of beautiful virginal girls to create the world's most exceptional perfume and to give himself a soul. A strong theme in both the book and film is the idea that the scent equals the soul, where scent is what makes a person human (Süskind, 1985; Eichinger & Tykwer, 2006). There's also the idea in the book that Grenouille is not human as he possesses no scent of his own, this is marked as a sign of the Devil. So there's as link to that and his collector approach as a serial killer.

Bits and pieces of ideas that we had was:

The player is given a scent at the beginning, and is required to find the ingredients that make up that scent. I liked this, thought it would be more fun than simply looking for clues. It has a strong interaction with the scent as well.

The player gets framed for the murder or better yet, the player IS the murder. If the player is the murderer instead I think that would make it more fun so it's not completely like a cliche murder mystery because it would be the other way around since the objective would be to kill people.

An idea that went quite far today was this one:

Murderer (the player) makes a deal with the Devil. Devil gives them a full scent at the beginning and they need to find the ingredients to recreate the scent. Ingredients happen to be the souls (scent) of people. Murderer must kill and obtain scent within a certain time limit, or else the Devil will come for their soul.

There's a few things we still need to think about if we do that idea. For example, what's the relationship between the Devil and the Murderer? How does the Devil turn up in the game? Why would the Murderer want to make a deal with the Devil in the first place? What does the Murderer gain? What's the incentive to kill?

We had a little brainstorm on that too. Maybe the Murderer is on the brink of death or maybe it's the Devil's sick game. The latter doesn't sound strong or convincing enough to be honest. Or perhaps the Devil promises the Murderer something he/she desperately wants.

There's no definite decision on exactly what we're doing yet, but at the moment we like the idea of the player being the murderer and setting a time limit for the completion of the game.





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References:

Eichinger, B. (Producer), & Tykwer, T. (Director). (2006). Perfume: The Story of a Murderer [Motion picture]. Germany: Constantin Film.

Süskind, P. (1985). Perfume. Germany: Penguin Books.

Un-reality: Murder Mystery Ideas

We decided that it's a good idea to have the book Perfume by Patrick Süskind and its movie adaption Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Tom Tykwer. reinforce our ideas for the game. We need some kind of link between the actual game and the book though.

The concept pitch went quite well, and we agree with Maggie about the needed link between the book and the game as well to blur the realities. She suggested perhaps a copycat killer who reads the book and repeats crimes in a similar fashion, or perhaps a character from the book comes to life. We prefer the copycat killer, but we'll need to look around for more options to find the best solution. This is good because we're still in the developmental stage for setting up a more solid idea of what we'll be doing.

We're thinking that if we're going to use the copycat killer, maybe the invitation in to the game could be a direct link to it. I'm thinking a mysterious journal, that's seemingly empty. The only line on the first page is "Let there be light." And the rest of the journal is written in invisible ink, where a candle or heat source such as a microwave is needed to reveal the writing. This is the murderer's journal notes. It's an idea that we could consider. If we do this we could use lemon juice to make the invisible ink. Any other acidic substances can be used to make invisible ink as well, but lemon is apparently the most effective. (McNally, 2010)The lemon would give off an invigorating smell which is likely to make the player feel refreshed and pumped about playing the game. It's also the most simple option because with heat the lemon juice would turn black/brown. (RuthJ, 2011) Of course there would be safety concerns, so the safest option would be a simple candle so that you can sit the candle on a stable surface. This way there's less of a chance for anything to get burned.

Since I'm the only in the group who has read the book, I think it would be good to show the rest of the group the movie adaption because it follows the same plot only with very few alterations, and it would take too long to finish reading the book as well. So I'll bring that in on Tuesday and we could all watch it and let ideas grow and solidify our foundation blocks.

Here is a trailer of the movie: (memoubuenrostro, 2008)




And here's one of my favourite tracks from the movie. Beautiful! Will probably buy the album for the soundtrack. (BrusNekoSolo, 2011)





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References:

BrusNekoSolo. (2011). BSO El Perfume - 17. Perfume - Distilled. [Youtube Video] Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OuOSozbMNk

McNally, C. (2010). Why Does Lemon Juice Make Invisible Ink? Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.ehow.com/facts_7313493_lemon-juice-make-invisible-ink_.html

memoubuenrostro. (2008). PERFUME - The Story of a Murder Trailer 2 HD. [YouTube Video] Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES_rfgjeTuE

RuthJ. (2011). How to Make Invisible Ink Using Lemon Juice. Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.ehow.com/how_2304278_make-invisible-ink-using-lemon.html

Un-reality: More concept-making

Brainstorming was done today to branch out from our main idea of exploring the scent and how it relates to the world we live in. At this time I was worried that we would pin down on one thing too quickly without consideration for other ideas but at the same time I was also worried about not progressing far enough to get a solid concept at a suitable time for optimum productivity. These fears were banished as it appears we are on track with developing our ideas. Since the lecturer said that today should be considering more options rather than sticking to one thing.

I think for my group from this viewpoint of what we're supposed to be doing is right on time. Not too late, not too early. We do have a foundation of what we're like to find out more about, which is scent and how it affects people. So this makes it easier for us to branch out from this main idea.

Some ideas we have so far is to confuse the senses by contrasting them to smell. For example, something absolutely disgusting like a dead rat infested with maggots smelling like fresh apples covered in morning dew. Or perhaps a durian, which smells like cat feces but tastes delightful.

Another is about pleasure and vanity. This one is more about the senses in general rather than just the sense of smell. Here the idea is to appeal to all the senses at different stages to make the person feel extremely good. Then right at the end you reveal the cost of their pleasure and vanity: for example, starving slave children making chocolate for you which they have never tasted, and never will, in their life.

One idea that Edrian came up with is doing a murder mystery in relation to scent. The "how" in this idea isn't figured out yet, but at this stage we don't need to know that at present. We can sort that out at a later date further down the road of development. This is the most popular idea among the group thus far, so it is highly likely that it will be further developed.

The previous day we did a bit of individual research. Jason found this really interesting research paper about the relationship between scent and humans and what their effect is on the person. The most interesting thing presented in the paper is that just by placing a pleasant aroma in a casino caused a 45% increase in gambling. I thought it was interesting how strongly scent can affect out decisions. For example, in one part the paper talks about how some unlabelled shampoos were tested for being the most effective. With the scent in tact, the worst shampoo with the best scent scored the highest ranking and the best one with a scent that wasn't as good as the others was ranked last. After removing the scents however, the one that smelled the best before came last and the one that smelled worst before came out on top as the most effective shampoo. (Fox, 2011)

I read about an approach to perfume-making in my part of researching as well. It's where the scent is made to "evoke an atmosphere"; an approach in perfume making begun by the Guerlain perfume house which revolutionised the perfume world. (Lyttelton, 2007) I think this is an approach to creating the scents that we could use, though it depends very much on our plot.

However, it is definite that we can't make scents with a full set of top, middle, and base notes as it takes hours for the entirety of the perfume to unfold all its layers. Basically the top notes are the introduction of a perfume. The first scents you catch, which then move aside to reveal the meat of the story (the middle notes) and finishing with a finale of base notes. So it would be better to opt for a linear perfume, which stays the same scent throughout its lifespan as we don't have that many hours for a complex scent to unfold. Maybe we could have the different stages of the story be made from different notes from the top, middle, and base range so that the narrative in a way mimics the structure of a perfume?

Also, I think it may be a good idea to base our game on Patrick Süskind's novel, Perfume, and its movie adaption Perfume: The Story of a Murderer directed by Tom Tykwer. It could be a place to draw in major inspirations to inform our work. It's a very intriguing book as well as a gorgeously executed film with an enchanting soundtrack to match.




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References

Fox, K. (2011). The Smell Report: An overview of fact and findings. Retrieved September 29, 2011 from http://www.sirc.org/publik/smell.pdf

Lyttelton, C. (2007). The Scent Trail. London, Great Britain: Transworld Publishers.

Un-reality: First day

Today's the first day of the new project. The brief is really open and you can pretty much tailor it to your tastes. The idea is to create an alternate reality; blurring the line between worlds I think is another way to put it.

There was a brief mention about putting groups together for fresh combinations of people today. Luckily for me I hadn't planned out who I wanted to work with in advance like I usually do, so I really did get a group together where I haven't worked with any of them before. As mentioned in various previous blog posts I pick my groups based on my perception of what colour they are in terms of how people work in groups. The main ones are yellow, blue, and orange. Putting together a group is based on balancing these colours. Somehow we randomly got a good balance. Two yellows, two blues, and one orange. Fine combination for getting work done.

With this new group the atmosphere is light and fun. We got a bit brain dead at the end with concept making, but I'm happy with what we've got so far and we seem to be working together quite nicely.

At the moment we're really interested in working with and exploring the realm of smell. It's one of our senses that we don't really pay conscious attention to even though it affects us strongly on a subliminal level. So now we know what we want to do for this particular project we just need to figure out how we want to express/expose this aspect of reality we've chosen. This will be sorted out tomorrow when we make our concept more solid by pinpointing what we want to do with this reality of scent. At the moment we're not worrying about how we're going to make the actual thing yet though, I think that should be worked through next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Things that interest me about scent is its ability to stir up memories and make a person think of something without them knowing the real cause for it is the scent. (Dowder, 2011)

An example of this is how scent is used in marketing. By using how scent works with memory in the brain, marketers are able to manipulate it to produce a strong sense of product association. Basically, when people smell, the scent goes straight to the emotional and memory center of the brain. So the smell is connected strongly to the emotions it causes and according to their memories that have been associated with a particular scent. (Scent Marketing Institute, 2011)


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References


Dowder, S. (2011). Does what you smell determine what you buy? Retrieved September 28, 2011 from http://money.howstuffworks.com/scent-marketing.htm

Scent Marketing Institute. (2011). Scent Marketing Institute | smi. Retrieved September 28, 2011, from http://www.scentmarketing.org/

CD

For the CD I went for a really minimalist look. I made a really simple stencil of this logo that I plan to use personally. It's basically an equilateral triangle, that's also the alchemical symbol for fire. I value the strength that it represents. So this on the CD is just a simple symbol to say that this is mine and this is my work.

This will be the last blog for this project since I've finished everything for it.

Add Ribbon

Final touches were added today. With the halves joined together the only thing left to do is to hide that crack between the two halves. Since the theme is sustainability, it would be a good idea to have a dig around the house to look for any usable material.

Luckily for me in my house there's a actually a huge stash of arts and crafts material accumulated over the years. In one bag there's a whole lot of ribbon that I bought ages ago that I never ended up using. There's exactly enough for my boxes too. So I used that to hide the cracks. The ribbons were glued on as well, this hardens the ribbon making it strong and keeps it in place.

Stick them together

Results were favourable after drying. Sides became exceptionally strong and the glue drying clear gave it a really nice, shiny finish. They also closed up a lot better than before due to the glue holding the sides in place. Even if they move out of place a little you just need to put your hands on opposite sides and push in very slightly all around the circle. Then the sides would hold in place and the box would lock effectively. Before strengthening, sometimes the box would pop up and not lock properly, with the glue painted on this problem has been solved.

I sliced off the area then joined the halves together with double-sided tape. That worked out surprisingly well, I was so pleased with that. Before I was thinking of just gluing them together, but since the halved don't perfectly match together it may prove difficult. Then I found some tape at home, which helped out very much and worked very effectively in what I wanted it to do.

Strengthen Sides

Strengthening of the sides was done today. First, I paint the glue over the sides first.


Then I let the half sit on a surface and paint the glue over the area that won't be sliced off giving it that extra bit of strength.

So far so good. Now I have to wait for this to dry and see how it turns out.

Thin Card - Fold

Folded up the crease patterns today and here's all my halves of each box. 10 in total.

I haven't sliced the bottoms yet. In stiffening fabric, one way is the paint glue or a mixture of water and glue over the fabric. This makes the fabric really hard and the glue would dry clear. I've decided that to add strength to the sides I would paint glue over it as a prevention against ripped sides. I'm thinking that maybe I don't have to slice off the entire bottom either. I think maybe only slice off a small area in the middle and leave the rest on. That remaining surface would be a good place to join the halves together without having to make an extra band to put them together. The advantage to this is that since you'd still have that area on the side as a separation on the inside, you can now use the packaging to put two CDs in, which I think is good for my theme on sustainability.

Thin Card - Cut

This blog entry is going to be particularly short. The day was spent drawing out the 10 crease patterns with the template and cutting them out in preparation for folding the next day. Not much development today.

Thin Card - Make the template

These are templates for each part of the crease pattern. Three parts in total. I made templates out of the thick card I had left over to speed things up. This would be much much faster than drawing out the crease pattern out full 10 times on the thin card since a lot of measuring and compass work is involved.

This is what they look like when separated. You use the big circle first, then have the one with arms laid over that and finally the thin circular one in the middle to get your sides.

This is basically the final pattern. I'll draw out a smaller version of it to put in my journal with the actual measurement on the side to show the design. Will put these pictures along with it too.

Thick Card - Ways to fold it properly

To get around the card thickness being too much I tried two ways to get the card to fold properly.

One was slicing out the parts that join the pleats together and seeing if that would still keep the shape together. If this one worked then I would have to cut out a band to hold the sides in one piece. I think very fortunately this method failed. If it worked, I would have to do a lot more work for it and it would take too much time.

The second method was a pain and good thing it didn't work either. It was perforating each folding line. THEY'RE ALL FOLDING LINES. What this did was even though it made them fold more easily when you try to collapse the pleats to close it the folds would rip in a way that was very ugly and ruined the look of the box.

Will have to use the final option, which is thinner card that is more flexible. It would be more suitable for folding and strength, I believe, would be fine even though it won't be as strong as that thick card.

Pattern on Thick Card

Drew out the final crease pattern I had on the thick card, cut it, and proceeded to fold it.

The card was way too thick to fold properly. Ugly creases that aren't supposed to be there shooting everywhere, surfaces warped unintentionally; TOO THICK. Not suitable for folding. I'll either need to find a way to make this card work, since it's pretty strong and great material for a box, or something more flexible than this to fold the boxes properly.

Test fabric

The original plan was to make the boxes out of stiffened fabric. I became doubtful that fabric would be strong enough though, but tested out stiffened fabric anyway. Above is a sample of fabric that was tested.

Actual fabric stiffener is expensive, so I looked around for other alternatives. One is a mixture of starch and water, which I used on the sample above. There were other alternatives too but they were more for hardening fabric after it was made in to your project rather than for preparation of the fabric to make it in to something else.

The fabric did get harder, but it wasn't strong enough for my liking. So I think it would be better to use card instead. It also has more of a connection to sustainability and the human presence.

Sliced bottom

Bottomless tato viewed from the top.

What it looks like inside.




I had an idea on how to fix the problem about the pleating not being the same. I thought, why don't I draw up a standard tato design and just slice off the bottom afterwards? This way the pleating at the top would still be perfect for all my aforementioned requirements while still being bottomless.

So I spent the day designing a new crease pattern to fit the CD inside and changed the height of it so that it won't be really bulky when the two halves are joined together.

This still isn't perfect though. I found that when I sliced off the bottom the folds on the sides began to rip a little. It might be because printer paper isn't good paper for strength. Either way, there has to be a way around this.

Patterns without a bottom

I had two different crease patterns to create a tato without a bottom. They're similar to each other, the only difference is the angle of rotation. I had to test that out because this pattern I created is NOT an ordinary pattern for a standard tato. In terms of basic structure I made it similar to the helix structure, which is a longish rectangular strip. This would give me something without a bottom. Then in the top area I gave the design the angle of rotation to close up the box, therefore the trap in a tato box.

The first design has a 45degree angle of rotation and the second one's angle is given when you connect the bottom right corner to the division at the top. The patterns I designs for these are also in my journal. See those for more clarity.

The 45degree one didn't work. It couldn't match up and close at all because the angle was too small for the number of pleats (17 pleats) to fit around the entire circle.

The second one worked but I'm not please with the result. First of all the structure was incredibly weak and the hole was disappointingly small. It's ugly too. I think the differences between this one and the beautiful standard tato is because in this one the pleating doesn't run down the sides of the box. Meaning that the angle of rotation begins at a different point and the size of the pleats would be different, completely changing the look and how well the self-lock property works.

I need to find a way around this.

How many pleats

First step is deciding on the number of pleats. Judging from the two standard tato patterns I folded, which are the 17 and 32-sided tatos shown in previous blog entries, the less sides you have the more strength you get in the trap and the better it closes. More sides gives you a bigger hole, more aesthetically pleasing rotations because of how many pleats there are, but you get a weaker structure because in the pattern you will have narrower triangles that aren't so good for strength.

Pictured above from left to right are tatos folded from crease patterns I designed myself: 12-sided, 24-sided, and 15-sided. The design is drawn out in my journal as well as further developments towards my final product.

The number of sides here were chosen for ease in dividing 360degrees in a circle equally. The 12-sided one didn't give a hole to allow for a finger trap, it was the strongest though. 24-sided was way too weak and 15-sided still didn't really give a big enough hole for a good trap. So I decided to just stick with the 17-sided tato even though it can't divide evenly with 360degrees.

Now that pleat number is decided, I need to modify the crease pattern so that:

-It fits the CD inside
-Doesn't have a bottom so that two sides with a trap on it can be joined together to make a full trap

CD Packaging: How to modify

Drew up a total of eight modifications, which are my developments, today.

There were some really adventurous developments and some not so adventurous ones. I went for the development that had a balance on both being fun and being doable. This is the finger trap modification for a standard tato box.

Basically, you have the main parts of a standard tato on both side, which gives you both sides of the trap. The challenge here is making a crease pattern that lets both sides have a closed end while leaving a hollow between for the CD. It must also be strong and sturdy, making the middle part a particular concern in the strength of the structure.

More things to decide on would be how many pleats I would want in the tato in relation to the hole for the trap, the strength of the whole thing including how well it closes up the box, and how all that works with the CD inside.

CD Packaging: Crit session

The crit session went quite well. I'm set on the right track to finish over the break. Now, it will be focused on getting down my crease pattern.

A modification that was suggested to me by Nick Burridge, our lecturer for this particular project, is modifying a standard tato box so that it can open on both sides with the CD lodged in a small compartment in the middle. This gives you a proper double-sided finger trap. I like it because it's fun and devious, which means now you have to struggle for a few minutes to reach your CD. In relation to sustainability, this turns the CD in to a great toy even after it doesn't store CDs anymore, and it shows how humans trying to manage their resources for sustainability is a long, hard road. However, with perseverance and iron willpower I think people can do anything.

Note that I won't set on doing that yet, as I still need to consider other possibilities of modifications first before fully settling on one development to turn in to a final.

CD Packaging: Developing - Do the math

After folding up the designs the time is now ripe for learning how the math works behind each design in order to manipulate angles and measurements at will. In my journal I will make little sketches of how I would modify the designs and make it my own, these planned modifications would be my official developments. Now I just need the math to know exactly how to make the modifications.

For the crease patterns I've chosen, there are three categories as mentioned before:

- Pleats
- Helixes
- S-curves


PLEATS

Above is the crease pattern for the 32-sided tato with my added annotations showing the basic math and method to modify pleated crease patterns. Click on it to see a larger image.

I'll summarise the method here. Basically you have your circle, then you divide it into the number of pleats you want. Decide how big you want the base to be, the height, and length of pleats. Then in the height area choose whichever bottom corner of the section you prefer and draw a perpendicular line up to the top of the height area. When the line hits that point, begin your new line and bring the end of it at the division of a segment you drew up in the first step at the edge of the circle.

To understand the math in pleating a total of five crease patterns were studied to find the similarities to help figure out the math behind it. Pictures of the folded models can be found in my previous blog. I used Philip Chapman-Bells' 32-sided tato (Chapman-Bells, 2008), 17-sided tato (Chapman-Bells, 2008), pentagonal petal tato (Chapman-Bells, 2009), and octagonal tato with modified bottom. (Chapman-Bells, 2008) I used an octagonal tato box crease pattern from Jorge Jaramillo to study pleats as well. (Jaramillo, 2009)

I found the Chapman-Bells models to be the most comprehensive in understanding the math. The 32-sided, 17-sided, and Jaramillo's octagonal tatos are "standard tatos". This is where I figured out the basic math for it and from the pentagonal petal and Chapman-Bells octagonal tato with modified bottom with the modifications helped me understand how to add modifications to standard designs. This understanding of I believe would help me greatly in creating my own modifications. I also found that with tatos, if you stick your finger in it your finger gets trapped inside. I think this is fun, and the box could be turned into a simple finger trap. The reason why it can trap fingers is because the flaps are arranged in tangents around a point (radial geometry) and they point downwards slightly. So it works like the arrangement of eel's or shark's teeth where it's easy to get it, but difficult to get out.


HELIXES

This is the crease pattern for the octagonal helix which was the best for understanding on how to create a helix structure with paper.

I understand how to modify it, but it's hard to put it in to words. Here's an attempt at putting it in to words. Decide how many layers you want in the helix as well as how many sections, the angle of the layers and helix as well, and the diameter of the helix. Make the collapse area first and on one side link the straight lines to layer angles and helix angles on the other side. Do the same thing with the diagonal but opposite to the straight line. So if on one side The straight line is connected to a layer angle you have the diagonal connection to a helix angle. Add in horizontal lines according to how many layers you need and finish off by adding in the top and bottom sections.

For helixes only two crease patterns were studied. Both are Chapman-Bells' models. One is a one layer helix (Chapman-Bells, 2007), and the other is a multi-layer octagonal helix (Chapman-Bells, 2006).

My favourite thing about these is that they can compress into very flat shapes which makes them wonderful for space-saving.


S-CURVES

For S-curves I used the crease pattern for the onion to understand how they work.

It was easier to work out than I thought it would be. They work very much like how pleats do. Basically before you get you straight line at the division you can control your curve to be as extreme/curvy as you want as long as it stays inside its own sector.

As for S-curves I thought they would be harder to figure out so included is a bowl which uses various S-curves. (Chapman-Bells, 2007) The model above, which is the onion, is the main one that helped me understand the construction of S-curves. (Chapman-Bells, 2008) Others also used to understand S-curves are the smart waterbomb (Chapman-Bells, 2007), and seven-sided tato box with curves. (Chapman-Bells, 2008)

They have a lovely, sleek aesthetic look about them.







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Chapman-Bells, P. (2006). The Octuple Helix Compass Rose Jar. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://origami.oschene.com/archives/2006/03/11/the-octuple-helix-compass-rose-jar/

Chapman-Bells, P. (2007). Lead Foot Melvin and the Smart Waterbomb. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://origami.oschene.com/archives/2007/03/24/lead-foot-melvin-and-the-smart-waterbomb/

Chapman-Bells, P. (2007). Peppermint Drop Bowl. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://origami.oschene.com/archives/2007/06/01/peppermint-drop-bowl/

Chapman-Bells, P. (2007). The Spiral Data Tato -- A Curiously Complex Origami CD Case. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Spiral-Data-Tato----A-Curiously-Complex-Origam/

Chapman-Bells, P. (2008). 7-Sided Tato Box, Open Top and S-Curved Sides. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://origami.oschene.com/cp/7-tato-box-open-top-with-curves1.pdf

Chapman-Bells, P. (2008). 32-Sided Tato Box. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://origami.oschene.com/cp/32-sided-tato-box-straight-sides.pdf

Chapman-Bells, P. (2008). Eight-sided Tato Box, Stackable. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://origami.oschene.com/archives/2008/02/13/beaver-dams/

Chapman-Bells, P. (2008). Meditation XVII Box. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://origami.oschene.com/archives/2009/01/11/with-apologies-to-mr-ekiguchi/

Chapman-Bells, P. (2008). Onion. Retrieved August 30, 2011 from http://www.box.net/shared/uqzdegu684

Chapman-Bells, P. (2009). Kaki Self-Lock Pentagonal Tato Box. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/oschene/3206757676/in/photostream/

Jaramillo, J. (2009). Petal Box CP. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/georigami/3193396658/

CD Packaging: Developing - Fold it

Going with my best idea, which is the origami box, for developments in to a final folding pattern I would have to learn the mathematics behind them in order to modify and create my own crease pattern for the box.

Before I jump in to that though I'll explain why origami box is the best idea for me.

In the previous project the concept was human presence and sustainability. I went more for the sustainability part and how our installation was made. We constructed it using trash and various found objects, including the wood which was also trash.

I also thought about wastage of materials in choosing the origami box. If you go around the supermarket and just pick a random box of product, I can tell you that to me it is an annoying stupid design. What's the point in having a box when it's annoying to open because the flaps sometimes rip and because after you open it you still need a rubber band to close it shut anyway? Also, the inconvenient design also wastes a lot of the material it's using because some bits aren't even functional.

If you're going to use more material I think every part should serve a purpose. This is why origami is a great idea. It minimises wastage of material because every area has a use so it is not wasted.

I could also use found materials to make it as well, which would relate back to how my group and I made our previous project. At first I was thinking of making my own special paper to use, that's a maybe. At the moment the material I'm most likely to use is stiffened fabric.

A key issue in sustainability is things lasting for a long time. I want that to be the same for my design. I don't want the packaging to be completely worthless after people simply stop using CDs. Thus, I want the packaging to have multiple uses besides storing CDs so that it can still be useful after CDs fall into disuse.

Now back to crease patterns in development. As I said before I'll have to use existing crease patterns as a base to begin my own modifications. These are the designs which I will learn from, which I folded today.

I made three categories of the designs I chose to study. They're pleated, helixes, and S-curves.

I chose a selection of pleated designs to do developments on because as the name implies, in pleated models you have the pleating of paper. This pleating joins up where the box closes with radial geometry and gives the self-locking property I'm after. Meaning that it can stay closed by itself.


From left to right and top row to bottom row: 32-sided tato, 17-sided tato, 8-sided tato, pentagonal petal tato, octagonal tato with modified bottom.

A close-up of the 17-sided tato. The part in the middle is the self-locking point where the flaps cross over each other and keep each other closed.





Helixes are really amazing. The reason I chose some helixes is because they can collapse and expand according to their own helix structure. This allows for the model to fit anywhere depending on the size. I was also thinking that if I put slots into a helix structure I could put in multiple CDs and can later use them to hold other flat objects like people's contact cards.



This is the multiple layer, octagonal helix.



And this is a one layer helix.

S-curves are beautiful and elegant. They're also surprisingly simple to achieve. What happens with S-curves is that the edges folding out are actually straight believe it or not. The edges folding in are curved, and when they work with the straight edges folding out, the curves warp the straight edges into the curves you see on the models below. The only exception down there is the bowl, since both the inside and outside edges are curved. That one was folded to understand how S-curves work.

From top to bottom and left to right: peppermint drop bowl, smart waterbomb, onion, and 7-sided tato box with curves.

For folding these paper models I got the crease patterns from Philip Chapman-Bells' blog. (Chapman-Bells, 2010) The exception is the 8-sided tato which I got from Jorge Jamarillo. (Jamarillo, 2009)




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Chapman-Bells, P. (2010). The Fitful Flog. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://origami.oschene.com/

Jamarillo, J. (2009). Petal Box CP. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/georigami/3193396658/