Descent into the Self: Project 2 @APR

Day 1: Life Journey/Personal Reflection/Brainstorm

Main goal for today is to have notes that respond to each of these 3 main questions/concepts for a board game that might be an exploration of your life. Don't worry about whether things are good or important enough - just write everything down, so you have more resources to play with later.

1. Environment Design 

(Group brainstorm about what that could look like, 5 minutes to record)

+ What environments describe our life? Are there multiple? 

+ Do you want to build a game based on your life out of real/literal things? Or are there symbolic landscapes that feel more evocative?

+ What are some possible landscapes we could us to describe our experiences? (An airplane taking us to different countries, a treasure map, a moon landing, a river?)

2. Obstacles - things in our lives that slow us down or force us to deviate in our path 

(Group brainstorm about what that could look like, 5 minutes to record)

+ What is an obstacle? What are some ways they might manifest in someone's life?

+ What obstacles have we faced, or expect we might have to come up against at some point?  

+ What could we use to represent those obstacles? (Anxiety Monsters, Walls, Sisyphus etc)

3. Pathways through Life

(Group brainstorm about what that could look like, 5 minutes to record)

+ What does your path look like? Smooth? Rocky? Like a maze, a garden, a golden brick road, a stairway to heaven? What are some different kinds of pathways?

+ What support structures exist in your life? (Family, friends, religion, sports, time/coming of age/future plans?)

+ What could we use to represent them? (bridges, helping hands, ladders, time warps?)

+ What are your goals? (To get through High School, to become an adult, to pass regents, to know yourself?) 

Day 2: Intersections + Map Making

Look at different kinds of Board Game play styles, pathways

Some basic gameplay structures:

1. Pathways heading to a destination or outcome

2. Traps/walls/blocks - things that slow down a player

3. Gifts/jumps/magical bridges

4. ?


Draft initial components:

Core rule requirements to be considered:

1. How do players move + escape obstacles

2. How does this game incorporate personal experiences into gameplay?

3. What needs to happen for the game to be concluded? What is the goal of the game and how is it achieved?


As soon as you are ready to begin on your final piece - present your sketch to receive materials. By the 3rd session on this project, we will all be constructing our games. 

Our 4th session on this project will be playing each other's games.

My version:

Body Scan @APR - Project 1 of 3

Step 1 - Intro (Day 1)

Introduction to the program:

+ who am i?

+ what is my goal here?

+ what is my relationship to art?

Questions for Students (mirror):

+ who are you?

+ what is your goal in this program?

+ what is your relationship to art?

Step 2 - Art Dissection

Step 3 - Brainstorm

Body Scan:

Gentle meditation - Eyes closed or gaze soft, imagine or try to remember what it felt like to be in the first grade. See if you can pour yourself into a chair in your first grade classroom and see what you notice. Are you hungry? full of wiggles? Feeling frustrated? Silly? - Now I want you to shift forward in time to being in the 6th grade. What do you notice? How did it feel to be a 6th grader? Were you nervous? Excited? - And finally, I want you to come back to this moment, in this time. How does it feel to be who you are right now? Is it different then when you were in 6th grade? 1st grade? Are some of your feelings new? are some of them old? What colors and textures are those feelings?

Take a breath, let it go and come back to me.

Recording what you find:

First do a group check in and ask if anything came up that wants to be shared - take notes on the board, see where there is consensus (maybe group things somehow). Ask what colors and textures go along with those feelings. Write those down too, and validate everything. The experiences and the relationships students have with those experiences are true - and very clearly protect any attempts for anyone outside of a student to rename any part of the experience they are sharing.

The rest of this session is time for them to write out/name/take notes on everything that came up, things they are feeling and want to communicate about - to support us once we have art media to communicate with.

Step 4 - Feeling Collage (Day 2)

Today is about translating our notes into rhythms of texture, shape and color - the main goal is to listen and stay true to what feels right, while filling as much of the white paper as possible. There will be some time on our final day of this project to finish any details. 

Step 5 - Silhouette (3rd Day)

 

 

Here is my finished version from both this year and last year. Do they feel different? In what ways? What would you imagine has changed in my life when looking at these 2 versions?

Examples from students last year:

ps288 final project