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Reader

1) Batinic, J. (2016). “Enhanced Webcomics”: An Exploration of the Hybrid Form of Comics on the Digital Medium, Image & Narrative vol. 17  No 5, pp. 81-90

Available  at: https://proxy.europeana.eu/2048427/item_BXHT3ZQWARXNVDAQSWDVQF5OWF6QP6QT?view=https%3A%2F%2Fids-pub.bsz-bw.de%2Ffiles%2F7008%2FBatinic_Enhanced_Webcomics_An_Exploration_of_the_Hybrid_Form_of_Comics_on_the_Digital_Medium_2016.pdf&disposition=inline&api_url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.europeana.eu%2Fapi

This text explores how webcomics have adapted and changed from their original form, while maintaining characteristics of printed comics. The author identifies three new enhancements, the infinite canvas, the use of video and sound, and interactivity. Examples using those enhancements are explored and discussed. The author also questions whether this current urge that exists to merge comics with other mediums like film stems from an insecurity around the medium of comics and poses the question of whether this evolution is good or bad for the medium.

This made me question whether maintaining medium specificity when creating my own work matters, and it also was relevant to my personal practice by providing me with examples of how new enhancements are used and how I could incorporate them in my work.

2) Dianne Lalonde (2021) Does cultural appropriation cause harm?, Politics, Groups, and Identities, 9:2, 329-346, 

Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/21565503.2019.1674160?needAccess=true&role=button

This text explores whether cultural appropriation can cause harm. The author identifies three potential harms caused by cultural appropriation, nonrecognition, misrecognition, and exploitation. Each of them is explored and based on them the author develops a guideline that can be used to assess the harm caused by an instance of cultural appropriation. Furthermore, it discusses how cultural appropriation can be avoided, emphasizing the importance of forming equal partnerships with other cultures. A lot of examples are provided, but most relevant to me are two examples of game developers creating games based on other cultures, one being harmful to the culture it was appropriating, and the other being more aspirational, and beneficial for all involved.

This was very useful as it gave me a guideline for avoiding cultural appropriation in my work, as well as what to ask myself when assessing if the media I consume is appropriating other cultures.

3) Figueiredo, S. (2011) “Building worlds for an interactive experience: Selecting, organizing, and showing worlds of Information through comics,” Journal of Visual Literacy, 30(1), pp. 86–100.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/23796529.2011.11674686.

The text explores the relationship between comics and information design and supports that using elements of comics can improve information design. The author points out a lot of common ground between the two, but also highlights some significant differences. In information design, the focus is more on conveying and organizing the information clearly and effectively, while in comics, more emphasis is placed in creating a world that the reader can travel through, making it more engaging. The author argues that information design could benefit from this kind of approach.

This is relevant to my practice because, I hadn’t considered comics in such a way before. Seing how they can be used as instruction manuals or tools for conveying information opened new possibilities for me, and areas that I would like to explore. Also, I think learning more about information design principles can help me convey information more clearly in my personal practice.

4) Hergenrader T. (2011). Gaming, world building, and narrative: using role-playing games to teach fiction writing. In Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Games + Learning + Society Conference (GLS'11). ETC Press, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 103–108.

This text details the findings of an experimental creative writing course. The course incorporates a lot of ideas and alternative approaches to teaching fiction writing based on Joe Amato and Kassia Fleischer’s work ‘Reforming Creative Writing Pedagogy’ The author describes the structure of the course and places a lot of emphasis on the last part, where students play a tabletop RPG based on the world they created throughout the course, and write short stories based on the events of the game from their characters point of view. The reactions to this course and the results were overwhelmingly positive and showed how RPGs can be used as a tool to improve fiction writing.

As someone who struggles with writing, especially character focused, this is useful as it provides me with ways to improve, and highlights how engaging with RPGs and other collaborative ways of storytelling can be a tool for that.

5) Hergenrader, T. (2020) "Transmedia Storytelling, Immersive Storyworlds, and Virtual Reality," Frameless: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 5. Available at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/frameless/vol2/iss1/5

In this paper, the author discusses the incorporation of VR experiences into pre-existing storyworlds. He starts by discussing transmedia Storyworlds. He explains how VR experiences can be categorized in four ways, sneak peeks, short demos, action games, and narrative extensions. He then dedicates a section to each of them, where he explores specific examples and discusses how effective they are and why. The examples he discusses are of VR experiences from the story-worlds of Harry Potter, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, The DCEU, and the Marvel Universe. After evaluating each category, he concludes that while narrative extensions were the most effective since they create a connection to the storyworld, only Star Wars has explored experiences like that so far.

This is relevant to my practice, VR experiences are gaining popularity, and their use can only increase in the future, so it’s important to be informed about it.

6) Hsiao-Cheng (Sandrine) Han (2019) Moving From Cultural Appropriation to Cultural Appreciation, Art Education, 72:2, 8-13,  

 Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/00043125.2019.1559575?scroll=top&needAccess=true&role=tab

This text explores how cultural appropriation manifests in social media and in the classroom and focuses on the importance of moving towards cultural appreciation. The concepts of cultural appropriation and appreciation are defined and put into context. The text guides Art Educators on how to move more towards cultural appreciation in the classroom and highlights the importance of making students more aware of the influence of the images they post and consume online, as well as the importance of having awareness of the meanings associated with cultural imagery.

While this is geared towards Art Educators, I it can still be useful to me, as it defines cultural appropriation and appreciation which are concepts that are important to know as an artist. It also deals with how to navigate social media, which has become a big asset to artists both in terms of self-promotion and networking, and a source of inspiration.

7) Metraglia, R., & Villa, V. (2014). Engineering Graphics Education: Webcomics as a Tool to Improve Weaker Students' Motivation. Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology, 7, 4106-4114.

This article discusses how using webcomics for educational purposes can help motivate weaker students. This is explored through a study that was conducted with an Engineering Graphics Course. The students where split into two groups and one of the groups was taught using webcomic support while the other wasn’t. Findings showed that students from the group with webcomic support paid more attention, and a majority of them reported finding the webcomics stimulating. On the other hand some higher level students considered the webcomics too removed from reality. The study showed that webcomics as a teaching tool

8) Ndalianis, A. (2009). The Frenzy of the Visible in Comic Book Worlds. Animation, 4(3), 237–248.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1746847709344789

In this article the author explores how comics have their own unique way of presenting time and space. She delves into the contradiction of how a static image can convey time and space, and how that perception of the two is particular to comics. She discusses certain techniques that are used to convey time and space in this particular way and uses a page from the comic Astro Boy as a main example.

I think this is relevant to my personal practice, because I am really interested in creating comics, and understanding this property of the medium, as well as using the techniques described in the article is something that could help me make more effective and interesting comics in that sense.

9) Ruberg, B. (2019) “The precarious labor of queer indie game-making: Who benefits from making video games ‘better’?,” Television & New Media, 20(8), pp. 778–788.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419851090.

This article explores issues relevant to the creation of queer indie Game-making. It discusses how while the general narrative is that there is an increase in games based on and inspired by experiences of queer people, which is pushing bigger corporations to diversify their games, and inspiring marginalized people, there are issues faced by those creators that go unacknowledged. The author interviews a sample of queer indie game creators and identifies several issues based on their accounts. Including, unfair compensation, lack of recognition, exploitation and the unacknowledged risk that goes int making these games, by creators that are already in financially precarious situations. I am interested in creating independent content, so it is good to have a realistic view of what issues I could face. Also, this article highlights the importance of directly supporting queer indie game creators, to make the space safer and more accessible.

10) Van Rooij, M. (2019). Carefully Constructed Yet Curiously Real: How Major American Animation Studios Generate Empathy Through a Shared Style of Character Design. Animation, 14(3), 191–206.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1746847719875071

This article explores how modern computer animated films by Pixar, Disney and DrewmWorks can evoke empathy and strong emotions using a shared style. The author claims that these studios create characters that are in a state between being lifelike and abstract. He uses Mori’s Uncanny Valey theory to argue that there is a point in that graph which he calls the Pixar peak where these characters exist, and they can generate maximum amounts of empathy.

This is relevant to my practice, because understanding the ways that these studios make their characters generate more emotions can help me incorporate these techniques in my character designs and improve.

This article explores issues relevant to the creation of queer indie Game-making. It discusses how while the general narrative is that there is an increase in games based on and inspired by experiences of queer people, which is pushing bigger corporations to diversify their games, and inspiring marginalized people, there are issues faced by those creators that go unacknowledged. The author interviews a sample of queer indie game creators and identifies several issues based on their accounts. Including, unfair compensation, lack of recognition, exploitation and the unacknowledged risk that goes int making these games, by creators that are already in financially precarious situations. I am interested in creating independent content, so it is good to have a realistic view of what issues I could face. Also, this article highlights the importance of directly supporting queer indie game creators, to make the space safer and more accessible.

11) Walters, M. (2009). What's up with Webcomics?: Author-Reader Relationships and Finances. Interface: The Journal of Education, Community and Values 9(4).

Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/48851688.pdf

This text discusses the experiences of webcomic creators outside of the comic creation process. It explores how creator and reader relationships have changed from traditional comics and now allow for more close interaction and more interactivity, which can affect the creation process of the comic. The author also discusses how communities form around fans of the comics and how they can expand and exist outside of the internet. Furthermore, methods and strategies for monetizing webcomic content are also discussed.

As someone who wants to create webcomics, I think this is useful for understanding how I can make my work more interactive and catered to this newer environment of comic creation. Also, the section about financing is especially useful since it can be difficult to monetize webcomics, as people on the internet expect everything to be free, so creative solutions like the examples given in the article are necessary.

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Critical Analysis

Hergenrader, T. (2020) "Transmedia Storytelling, Immersive Storyworlds, and Virtual Reality," Frameless: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 5. Available at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/frameless/vol2/iss1/5

I have chosen to analyze a section from a paper titled, ‘Transmedia Storytelling, Immersive Storyworlds, and Virtual Reality’. It was published in Frameless and was written by Trent Hergenrader, associate professor of the English Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His research revolves around transmedia Storyworlds in fiction and worldbuilding using games and Tabletop Roleplaying games. He is also quite knowledgeable about narrative and storytelling, as he has had a lot of success writing short fiction stories. He has also written two books about worldbuilding and co-edited two others on Creative writing, as well as publishing various papers. All of that forms a picture of a reliable author with a lot of knowledge about storytelling, transmedia and narrative.

The paper in question discusses the incorporation of VR experiences into pre-existing franchise Storyworlds. Hergenrader discusses transmedia storytelling and then moves on to discuss how VR experiences can be split into four categories, sneak peeks, short demos, action games, and narrative extensions. He uses examples from 5 major franchises’ attempts to incorporate VR experiences into their Storyworlds and considers different factors like interactivity, cost, and replay value, to assess how effective they are as transmedia experiences.

This analysis will be focused on the section of the paper titled ‘ACTION GAMES ‘where Hergenrader examines three examples of action games as VR experiences and assesses their effectiveness and entertainment value.

The section starts with the author stating that VR experiences that are categorized as action games, have not had a good reception. He notes that this is surprising considering that in the previous section where short demos where discussed the most positive responses came from demos with more mechanics-based action and stronger connection to the transmedia story world. He then goes on to explain why that is the case.  

He determines that this difference in perception between the two categories comes down to the fact that action games have a longer duration and are more expensive than short demos.

Furthermore, Hergenrader explains that he will be referring to users of action games as gamers since compared to the other categories, this one involves elements like leveling up and score tracking that resemble a game the most.

In the second paragraph he brings up two examples that he will be discussing, Justice League VR (2017) and MARVEL Powers United VR (2017). Both games are described as having a similar structure, where the gamer fills the role of a superhero and uses their unique powers to fight enemies, and mechanically they work the same as the short Demos. As he explains however, the difference between the two categories is that action games last longer, so the gamer loses their initial excitement over the mechanics, as opposed to the experience of a short Demo, where the same number of mechanics are experienced over a shorter time. He also explains that aside from getting repetitive and tedious, having more time to engage with the VR mechanics in action games, he explains, also has the downside of drawing attention to their clunkiness and lack of precision.

In the third paragraph, Hergenrader considers the ratings and reviews of both games and compares them. He brings attention to the fact that MARVEL Powers United VR fared much better than Justice League VR, getting a better rating and fewer negative reviews. He explains that while both games were criticized for a lack of variety in their mechanics, MARVEL United Heroes VR gets redeemed, by its variety of playable characters, as opposed to Justice League VR which does not offer that kind of variety and gets stale and repetitive faster.

On the following paragraph, Hergenrader mentions two other examples of action games, which while falling under the category of Augmented reality share a lot of similarities with VR. These games are Star Wars: Jedi Challenges (2017) and Marvel: Dimension Heroes (2019) .

In the fifth paragraph, he explores further the example of Jedi Challenges. The game is expensive, but according to Hergenrader, its mechanics, graphics, and gameplay are very impressive. There are a lot of options and variety when it comes to game modes, and while the graphics were not on the same level as those in VR, he still found the mechanics more fluid, the gameplay more challenging, and overall had more fun exploring the different game modes than he had with other VR experiences.  He also writes about some downsides of the game, which include, that the mobile phone heats up over time, allowing only limited play time and that eventually, the game modes become repetitive.

In the following paragraph, Hergenrader examines how the game connects to the transmedia story world of Star Wars. He notes that other examples, only connected the experience to a single film from the franchise, however, Jedi Challenges attempts to connect to several installments from the Star Wars transmedia storyworld”. He describes how the game incorporates aspects from all around the timeline, which appeals to more a knowledgeable audience as it offers familiarity and immersion, but this knowledge is not necessary to enjoy the game.

He then concludes the section by explaining how while the examples that were examined in this section allowed users to participate in the world of the story, they also lacked a meaningful connection to the storyworld, as nothing the users do in these experiences has any impact in the larger storyworld, and that’s where action games fall short as VR experiences. Finally, he adds that this can be achieved by narrative extensions, which he will examine in the following section.

Overall, in this section of the paper the author shows that action games are not entirely effective as VR experiences incorporated into pre-existing Storyworlds. This is justified by their longer duration in combination with repetitive and stale mechanics, and most importantly by their lack of meaningful connection to the storyworld.

I chose to analyze this section because I would have originally thought that action games would be more successful than they were, so seeing all of the reasons why that wasn’t the case was interesting and highlighted issues with VR experiences that are important to keep in mind in order to make them better, and it also highlighted the importance of having meaningful connections between the experience and the story-world in transmedia storytelling. Furthermore, as VR is a very new field that is constantly being developed and offers a lot of possibilities, it is important to be knowledgeable about it and the ways it might develop in the future.

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Incorporating VR experiences in Theme Park Rides

I recently visited the theme park Tibidabo with my family. One of the rides I went to was called "Virtual express" and according to the Tibidabo website, it was the first ride in Catalunia to incorporate VR (no date).

I found this ride very exciting and immersive, it was pretty tame, however, that is understandable as is aimed at kids, and also having the ride being too intense could detract from the VR experience.

During the attraction, the guest wears a VR headset and is transported to a mine, where they and a group of cartoony anthropomorphic animals ride through precarious rails in a minecart. The setting is really beautiful and the guest can look in different directions and see different parts of the mine. I think the experience was quite immersive, even though it was hindered in some parts. The aspects that broke my immersion were 1) the weight of the headset 2) The fact that if you looked next to you, the mine cart was empty, even though you know that there is someone sitting next to you 3) While I found the moments where the minecart was supposed to be flying mid-air pretty exciting, (unique to a VR experience since it's not something that could be done in a regular ride for safety reasons), it did feel like the ride should have sped up a bit in those moments. The dissonance between the speed I was expecting to experience if I was in a minecart that was flung mid-air, and the speed on the ride broke my immersion a bit. Another potential drawback for me, unrelated to immersion, was that while in other rides you experience the ride with the person next to you, the VR took away from that, as you can't even see the other person. It could be argued that you are forming an attachment to the characters in the VR world, however, experiencing rides with other people is a good opportunity to bond and make them more fun.

In the article "What will the Disneyland of the future look like?", Stephen Johnson states some more potential problems with incorporating VR in theme park rides. These include, "longer wait times, technical difficulties, and motion sickness"(2021). In my experience I only experienced the drawback of having to wait in line for a long time, however, I can see how motion sickness and technical issues could be a problem.

Despite those issues, however, in her article, Candice Louw that "if this trend continues, it’ll soon become the norm to enjoy a new VR spin on an old roller coaster favorite."(2022) Furthermore, she explains how older roller coasters that are losing visitor's interest, could gain more attention and interest by incorporating VR (Louw, 2022)

Johnson also adds to the positive aspects of incorporating VR that it can increase immersion, by exploring different themes in more depth (citation).

Overall, incorporating VR into theme park rides has some potential downsides, but mostly it has a lot of positive aspects, and the potential to enhance the experience and make it more immersive. There is an argument that in order to overcome the downsides of incorporating VR into pre-existing rides and having to work around them it would be better to create standalone VR theme park rides. This is already happening, seeing as VR theme parks have already opened in China and Dubai (Johnson, 2021). However, a lot of steel rides that have started to lose public interest exist around the world and VR is a great way to repurpose them and give them attention. At this point, we can't know what the future of VR in theme park attractions holds, but it seems exciting.

Bibliography:

Johnson, S. (2021) What will the Disneyland of the future look like?, Freethink. Available at: https://www.freethink.com/series/hard-reset/vr-theme-parks (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Louw, C. (2022) How virtual reality is giving the world's roller coasters a new twist, The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/how-virtual-reality-is-giving-the-worlds-roller-coasters-a-new-twist-101395 (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Tibidabo (no date) Parc d'atraccions Tibidabo. Available at: https://www.tibidabo.cat/ca/en-el-parc/atraccions/virtual-express (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

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Panel Composition

When creating comics, it’s important to consider panel composition, and be creative with it. I recently created a short webcomic, and I wanted to analyze it and see how I can improve. Before creating the comic, I hadn’t really researched panel composition, and based everything I did either on intuition or in things that I picked up on consciously or unconsciously from reading other comics. So, looking at different sources about panel composition, should be helpful for picking up on mistakes and things I can improve upon.

In their article, “Seeing the big picture: The use of Composition in Comics”, the author states that “The composition is the perspective the information is shown from. It is how the comic creator controls the reader’s pace, direction, and reaction throughout a comic.” They explain how composition has two levels, one being the composition of the individual panel and the other being the layout of the page. The first level involves making smaller decisions about the angle, positioning of characters and objects, etc., while the second mode determines the way that the narrative progresses and how time flows. They use an example of a sequence of small same-sized panels that make time feel like it’s dragging and passing slower. (2012)

The author also discusses how metaphors and symbolism can be used through composition. These two aspects were really interesting and something that I would be interested in incorporating in my work, but in the comic I created, I didn’t really incorporate them.

I also read a post titled “Pannel Composition”, written by Evan Waterman. In the article, he gave a lot of useful information and advice. He explained how people tend to read in a “Z” order, so it is important to not disrupt that order, as that would confuse readers. He exemplifies that through the use of this image:

Furthermore, he emphasizes the importance of considering panel gutters. Smaller gutters between panels will make them feel connected and the reader will transition between the images faster. This can be used to manipulate the flow of time, and group panels into categories. However, if used too much it can lose that effect. (Waterman, no date)

Finally, another piece of advice that I found useful in his post, was to consider the size of the panels. Larger panels take longer to process, slowing down time for the reader, and consecutive smaller panels are read faster (Waterman, no date). This is something that the previous author touched on. In the comic I created, I didn’t really take into consideration how panel sizes would affect the timing of how the action was read, and mainly used size variation to make things aesthetically pleasing. So, this is important for me to keep in mind in the future, as it’s something I’ve neglected so far.

I also read another post, called “Tips for creating Vertical Scrolling Comics” which was more focused on Webtoon Comics and the vertical scrolling format, which is what I used for my comic. One thing that the author stated, was that in Webtoons, in order to adjust to the smaller screen size and scrolling, the space between panels should be quite long, especially if there is text (no date). My comic doesn’t really have text (aside from some sound effects) so it’s less crucial but still important. Furthermore, variation of lengths between panels can be used to suggest a change in the action.  There are a few other tips in the post, but they are not relevant to panel composition.

Here is a portion of my comic, where I can analyze some of the things that I could improve on, as well as some things that I got right:

Gutter Spaces:

In some cases like the gutter space after panel 26, I did consider that after that there would be a transition, so it would benefit from being bigger, that being said I feel like a bigger gutter space could have also been used for some smaller transitions, like between panels 11 and 12 or 19 and 20. Furthermore, most of the panels are very close together, which doesn't really benefit the scrolling format. And even then they are pretty inconsistent in size, some being bigger than others with no real purpose, like the gutters between panels 1 and 2, and 2 and 3.

Panel Size:

As I mentioned previously, I only really considered size variation in terms of aesthetics, and not pacing and giving emphasis. Looking at it again, I would switch the sizes of panels 1 and 3 and I would make panels 10 and 12 bigger.

Individual composition:

I'm pretty satisfied with how the panels that show how the character is solving the puzzle, as they benefit from simplicity, but for the larger panels that showcase the environment I think I could have added more visual interest by making the angles more interesting.

Overall, I think I learned a lot from this, and will aply this newfound knowledge to future projects

Bibliography:

Delaney, C. (2012) The Hooded utilitarian. Available at: https://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2012/06/seeing-the-big-picture-the-use-of-composition-in-comics-2/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Tips for creating vertical scrolling webtoons (no date) Art Rocket. Available at: https://www.clipstudio.net/how-to-draw/archives/157055 (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Socket_sp (no date) The box, www.webtoons.com. Available at: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-box/list?title_no=815023 (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Waterman, E. (no date) Page composition, – Evan Waterman. Available at: https://evanjwaterman.com/guide/drawing/page-composition/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

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Mystery Flesh Pit National Park

I recently came across Mystery Flesh Pit National Park. It started off as a worldbuilding exercise by Trevor Roberts on r/Worldbuilding on reddit. (Rocket, 2020) Since then, according to the article “Welcome to Mystery Flesh Pit National Park, One Redditor’s Colossal feat of worldbuilding” , it has “evolved into a series of imaginary NPS effluvia showcasing the monstrous attraction” (2020) (NPS standing for National Park Service).

I find this project fascinating! What I like so much about it, is how it emulates elements of infographics, maps, posters, postcards etc. from similar real-life locales, into the presentation of the world. The website contains a big variety of images and documents that relate to the Mystery Flesh Pit, and they all feel familiar and are easily recognizable as maps, information documents, posters, photographs etc. since they resemble the presentation of information shown in other national parks.

According to Baudrillard “The generation by models of a real without origins of reality: The hyperreal” (1988, p.166) I believe that the Mystery Flesh Pit National Park fits that definition. While it’s not really an immersive experience, it uses the same patterns and symbols as information documents from real life, making it believable, however, its premise is completely rooted in fiction.

Here are some examples of the work that Trevor Roberts has produced:

They feel like they came out of a National Geographic book/ magazine Page or an NPS information document.

Another thing that Trevor Roberts did that I find really clever and enjoyable, is how he presents monetization means like his merch and Patreon in a way that makes it feel like they are part of the National Park too.

For his Patreon, he names the tiers, park supporter, park member, and park benefactor and makes part of the description seem like the Patreon is actually supporting the park itself. For example, the first part of tier one's description is "Directly support the creation of future Mystery Flesh Pit materials!"

(screenshot from Trevor Robert's Patreon)

His Giftshop also contains items that seem like they would be sold in a real national park, like mugs, t-shirts, hats and posters.

(Screenshot from Trevor Robert's Giftshop)

(Screenshot from Grand Canyon Gift Shop for comparison)

I find this project fascinating, and the fact that it was made by a single person is really impressive. I think this is useful to my practice, as it is a very unique way of presenting world-building and concept art, as well as means of monetization, and I can learn a lot from it.

Bibliography:

Trevor Roberts: Creating fictional worlds (no date) Patreon. Available at: https://www.patreon.com/t_roberts (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Roberts, T. (no date) Mystery flesh pit national park, Mystery Flesh Pit National Park. Available at: https://www.mysteryfleshpitnationalpark.com/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Rocket, S.the (2020) Welcome to mystery flesh pit national park, one Redditor's colossal feat of worldbuilding, Tor.com. Available at: https://www.tor.com/2020/01/03/welcome-to-mystery-flesh-pit-national-park-one-redditors-colossal-feat-of-worldbuilding/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

(no date) Grand Canyon South Rim Shop. Available at: https://shop.grandcanyonlodges.com/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Baudrillard, J. (1988) Selected Writings; Stanford Universit Press.

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Information Design in Comics

I recently read an article called, ‘Building Worlds for an interactive experience: Selecting, Organizing and Showing Worlds of information’ that discussed how comics can enhance information design. I found it interesting, and it got me thinking how this could be applied the other way around too. As in information design influencing and enhancing comics.

In the article “A Comprehensive Guide to Information Design (With examples)” Kai Tomboc defines information design as “the practice of presenting clear, accessible information. Good information design helps your reader understand your data or information and digest it quickly through a clear and engaging visual.” (Tomboc, 2022) So, it is used to help readers form an understanding of the information that is presented to them, in a way that is simple and easily digestible.

Information design can be found all around, in instruction manuals, infographics recipes etc. Furthermore, it can be useful in comics. A lot of the times in comics, as well as other forms of media, complex ideas and aspects of worldbuilding need to be conveyed, but if done incorrectly it can become way to convoluted and unnecessarily complex, loosing the reader’s attention. That’s why I believe it is useful to incorporate principles of information design to comics and other media. I have already seen this being done, and it’s something I really enjoy seeing, so I wanted to look at some examples.

Information design is often used in shonen manga, as they often feature complex worldbuilding and power systems, and also have a relatively younger audience that could loose focus quickly if the material is not engaging enough.  Applying principles of information design, allows the creators to present information that is essential to the understanding of the story in a way that ensures readers can understand it.

An example of that, is this page from the manga Naruto, where one of the characters is explaining what chakra and jujutsu is. Understanding that is essential for understanding how other powers and concepts that are introduced later work.

To analyze this example, first, I'd like to present the 6 principles of information design, listed in the article that I referenced previously. These principles are 1) Defining the problem (identifying what information needs to be conveyed, by who and to who) 2) Providing a clear structure to the information (this makes it easy to interpret and understand what is being presented) 3) Providing clarity (in terms of text legibility, layout, and language) 4) Providing simplicity 5) Providing emphasis (to attract and direct attention) 6) Cohesiveness (Tomboc, 2022).

In the example shown, the information that needs to be presented is, what chakra is and how it is used to perform jutsu. The information is presented by both the creator and the character in the story, and it I meant to be consumed by Naruto as well as, most importantly the reader. I think this is an interesting property of information design in comics, as it usually is intended for two audiences, in-story characters, and the audience, and is created by in-story characters. This can allow the creator to add a lot of personality to the way the information is presented and make it more engaging. The way that the characters respond to information can also be useful, as they might ask questions that the audience has, or just add more characterization. The structure provided is clear and easy to follow (if the reader knows that manga is read from right to left) and the use of a scroll to frame the information guides the readers' eyes in the right direction. The font is easily legible, the language is clear and simple, and the little supplementary drawings add clarity. The language is simple, and other than the characters, who are rendered in the usual style of the manga, the drawings on the scrolls are a lot simpler and easily digestible. The amount of text is not overwhelming, and the information is broken up with bits of entertainment and characterization, like Sakura’s description of herself as a beautiful young girl, showing that she can be a bit vain, and Naruto questioning it below, this makes it more engaging and easier to pay attention to. Finally, the language is pretty cohesive, and while there is a difference in style between the characters and the other drawings, the difference is not jarring enough to be a problem, and it makes sense within the context it is shown in, as they are Sakura’s drawings and are therefore drawn in her art style.   

There are countless other examples of this, especially in Shonen manga, but in other forms of comics too.

I’m not sure if the creators of these comics are consciously employing these principles or if they are just doing it intuitively or being influenced by other comic artists doing this. Regardless I think when done well it can be very effective, as conveying information and aspects of worldbuilding often risks tiering readers if it’s not engaging enough. I love seeing small bits of information design like that in comics and other media, so I think it’s important for me to understand it and learn how to apply it to my work

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adam, of darkness (2019) Naruto: Basic terminology and stuff, Top-Strongest Wikia. Available at: https://topstrongest.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Adam_of_darkness/Naruto:_Basic_terminology_and_stuff (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Tomboc, K. (2022) A comprehensive guide to information design (with examples), Piktochart. Available at: https://piktochart.com/blog/information-design/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

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‘Doki Doki literature club’.

‘Doki Doki Literature Club’ is a horror game that is initially structured like a visual novel/ dating sim. The player starts off meeting the characters and pursuing whoever they are more interested in. Throughout that section, there are small meta jokes and small hints that something is off. Eventually, it is revealed that one of the characters, who runs the game’s program, Monica, has become sentient and is trying to get the main character to fall in love with her. She keeps messing with the code of the game to achieve that, taking the story in horrifying directions. I will not be describing the game's plot in a lot of detail, as it contains disturbing themes, like suicide and self-harm, which I don’t want to discuss here.

This game is unique in the way that it causes discomfort to players, and I wanted to explore that in this post. According to the paper “Horror, guilt and shame – uncomfortable experiences in gaming” while discomfort can interfere with the players enjoyment of the game, it can also enrichen the experience and be a cause for further thought and reflection (Gowler & Iacovides, 2019). The study also describes the ways in which discomfort can be caused.  It can result from “uncertainty in high pressure environments (creating anxiety and fear); when things do not go as planned (leading to frustration and feeling foolish); being provided with much responsibility but limited choices (creating anxiety and guilt), the tragedy of losing an in-game character (resulting in sadness and helplessness) and unwanted exposure to disturbing themes (leading to disgust and nausea).” (Gowler & Iacovides, 2019)

The game uses all of these.

The player gets exposed to disturbing themes on many occasions, and especially in the beginning its easy to get caught off guard by it because of the cute art style and aesthetic as well as the expectation that this will play out like a regular dating sim.

 Things often don’t go as the player expects as disturbing twists keep taking place, not to mention that the entire structure of the game that the player was expecting to play takes an unexpected direction too as even time and space get warped.

The choices that the player is faced with also contribute to that sense of discomfort. While the player is seemingly offered choices, a lot of them don’t matter or serve to change the events in any way, and sometimes, the player is even forced to make a specific choice by the code of the game. Sometimes the player has to make life or death choices, for the characters, but is either forced to choose specific options, or ultimately, they don’t impact the narrative because Monica is controlling everything, and this sense of being trapped is very uncomfortable

 Regardless of what choices the player makes, other characters in the game will inevitably die, which is another big cause of discomfort, especially because the illusion of having had options to prevent it causes a sense of responsibility.

Furthermore, since nothing seems to work as the player expects it, there is a big sense of uncertainty and that in combination with the stress caused by the potential of characters dying or getting hurt, as well as other horror aspect causes great discomfort.

This shows how the game can cause the player discomfort by controlling their choices. While it is counterintuitive to think that taking away interactivity from a game can make it more effective, I think it works in this, as it enhances the horror. The game’s success speaks to that, as it got overwhelmingly good reviews on steam (no date)

Bibliography

Doki Doki literature club! on steam (no date) Steam. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/698780/Doki_Doki_Literature_Club/#app_reviews_hash (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Gowler, C.P. and Iacovides, I. (2019) “‘horror, guilt and shame’ -- uncomfortable experiences in Digital Games,” Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/3311350.3347179.

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Inside Mari: Gender and sexual identity

In a previous post I talked about inside Mari and how it relates to the Male gaze. An other layer about it that I find interesting is how it seems to have captured what it feels like to inhabit different sexual and gender identities for a lot of people. 

As discussed in a previous post, it captures the feeling of being a woman and struggling to perform what is pushed on to you by society whilst also experiencing and internalizing the male gaze.

I related to the previous paragraph as someone who was raised as a girl, but the story also resonated with me as someone who identifies as non-binary. Not all of the aspects of the story were relatable to me, when Mari reaches a point where she feels comfortable in her body and sexuality I stopped relating, but the parts of the story where Komori feels trapped in a body that is alien to him, as well as the difficulties he has keeping up a persona, and the horror of existing in that state really resonated with me personally. 

It could also be argued that Mari’s dissociative episode was a way to cope with her attraction to other women. Internalizing the identity of a man to come to terms with the fact that she likes women. This can be evidenced by the way her relationship with a female classmate of hers develops throughout the story and her feelings seem to become romantic. As Komori, Mari kisses their classmate, and contrary to a similar experience they had with a guy (where they felt disgusted) they expressed that this one felt instinctive, and it was like Maris body moved on its own. However, there is no explicit confirmation that Mari is gay. 

Still, the story seems to have resonated with Lesbians. As an example, in a post titled ‘Inside Mari was shockingly accurate to what its like being a lesbian’ Reddit user bottleoficedtea describes how inside Mari related to her. ’For me, I didn't stalk a 21 year old college drop out perv (lol) but I totally felt like one. I felt so disgusting, immoral, etc etc realizing that I was attracted to my female classmates.’,(u/bottleoficedtea) she states that ’Mari couldn't cope with who she actually was, she felt like a perverted man in a girls body. I feel like it really captures the guilt and shame’ (u/bottleoficedtea)

Inside Mari could also be interpreted as an allegory for trans womanhood. In her post titled ‘Seeing your dysphoria in someone else’s story’, Brooke Holden explains how as a trans woman she found aspects of the story very relatable and had even followed a similar trajectory to the character of Komori, becoming a shut-in, before they transitioned. (Holden, 2018) She also speaks a lot about the author’s note as it has a lot in common with the way she thought before she realized she was trans. She states that ‘Seeing my dysphoria and pre-transition angst mirrored with eerie accuracy was extremely difficult. Reading this manga felt like I was reliving all of it and took a LOT out of me to get through it. I consider it to be one of the most important transgender related works out of Japan.’ (Holden, 2018)

Overall, I think it really speaks to how good the author is at writing characters if what he wrote could resonate with people of so many different gender and sexual identities, and while I do believe it’s important to have explicit representation, I also think stories like this are important. And to his credit I find it really impressive that he was able to write such a personal story of an experience that is not his own (as far as we know in terms of being cis)

Bibliography

u/bottleoficedtea (no date) R/manga - inside Mari was shockingly accurate to what its like being a Lesbian, reddit. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/manga/comments/pxosci/inside_mari_was_shockingly_accurate_to_what_its/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Holden, B. (2018) Seeing your dysphoria in someone else's story. inside Mari and me., Medium. Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@eldarose/seeing-your-dysphoria-in-someone-elses-story-inside-mari-and-me-5a4e5b2a2412 (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

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‘Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’ Narrative

‘Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’ or DHMIS for short, is a TV show that was released in 2022. The show was originally a web series released on YouTube, but through crowdfunding, the creators where able to make it into a TV show. (Mangan, 2022)

The show aesthetically looks like a kids TV show like Sesame Street, and follows a standard children’s TV structure. Every episode, a guest character shows up at the characters house, and teaches them about a social concept, such as work, death, family etc. things however always end up taking a darker turn, and in the process revealing some of the darker aspects of those concepts.

There is a huge number of things that could be discussed about the show, but in this blog, I wanted to see how Aristotele’s Dramatic Unities relate to the show. According to Oxford Reference, Aristotele’s dramatic unities are the following:

Unity of time: “Limitation of the supposed time of a drama to that occupied in acting it or a single day” (no date)

Unity of Place: “use of one scene throughout” (no date)

Unity of action: “concentration on the development of a single plot” (no date)

Unity of time:

An aspect of the show that has puzzled fans, is the constant feature of the date 19th of June (there’s even a wiki dedicated to it: https://dhmis.fandom.com/wiki/June_19th). That date is also featured in a calendar the characters own, and throughout the entirety of the show it never changes. This implies that time resets after every episode and could also be a nod to how characters in kids cartoons like for example Pokémon seem to not age.  

There are times in the show where we can see the day change, in the third episode for example, the character yellow guy has a sleep-over at another house, so we technically know that it should be the next day, but it never changes. Odd things like that happen a lot in the show, a character might die in one episode, but then they’ll be back again like nothing happened. This implies that everything resets once everything is over, or something along those lines.

So, time in this show is complicated, we can see that time should be passing and that it should be a lot longer than a day, but it feels like the show is bending the laws of reality to keep itself within the boundaries of the unity of time.

Unity of time:

DHMIS takes place mainly in the characters house, and also takes place in locations that they are taken to by the episode’s guest star. These locations are usually limited to a single environment (with some exceptions), and these locations are places like a factory, a cemetery etc. that are related to the lesson the characters are meant to learn. Every episode however, starts and ends in the same location, the house even if how they got back there makes no sense. In a particular episode, one of the characters, red guy, is really trying to fight against this and tries driving as far from the house as he can, but inevitably he ends back there.

While by going to the different locations the show already deviates from the principle of unity of place, the fact that they always end back in the same place still makes it feel like the show is bending reality to get closer to the unity of place.

Unity of action.

As I previously mentioned each episode features a guest character that tries to teach the characters something. The characters usually try to deviate from that lesson in some way, but they are always pushed and directed to a specific direction.  So once again it feels like a fight between the characters trying to pursue their own goals and wants, and the show, through the guest characters trying to maintain its structure and stay within the bounds of the unity of action.

Taking all of that into consideration, it’s difficult for me to tell if the show really fits into Aristotle’s Dramatic Unities. This constant feeling that the show is fighting its characters, and even reality to keep things within the bounds of these unities is intentional, as it reinforces the sense that the characters are trapped and really contributes to the psychological horror elements of the show.

Bibliography:

Don't hug me I'm scared (2022) IMDb. IMDb.com. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14932528/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared The Series - Official Trailer (2022) (2022) YouTube. DHMIS. Available at: https://youtu.be/WieKfLz_cF8 (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Dramatic unities (no date) Oxford Reference. Available at: https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095730218 (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Mangan, L. (2022) Don't hug me I'm scared review – you'll want to watch this brilliantly horrible comedy again and again, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/sep/23/dont-hug-me-im-scared-review (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

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Inside Mari: how it relates to the male gaze

Inside Mari is a manga written by Shuuzou Oshimi. The story is about a college student called Komori getting trapped in the body of a girl he sees at a convenience store, called Mari. At first, it appears like a typical body swap story, but slowly the reader realizes that something is different about it. The story deviates more and more from the body swap genre until it is finally revealed that Mari, having cracked under the pressure of performing femininity has a dissociative episode, where she adopts the persona of Komori and makes herself believe he is now in her body. Inside Mari turns out to be more like a psychological thriller about being trapped inside a woman’s body instead of a romance. 

I found this manga really interesting, and a very deep and thought-provoking exploration of a female character and how she, and the rest of the world view her and what effect that has on her. 

Particularly, it’s interesting to look at how the story relates to the male gaze.

According to the article ‘Explainer: what does the male gaze’ mean, and what about the female gaze’, the male gaze was introduced by Laura Mulvey in her essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.’ The article explains that the male gaze is “a sexualized way oof looking that empowers men and objectifies women. In the male gaze, woman is visually positioned as “object” of heterosexual male desire.” (Loreck , 2016)

All of these are particularly true in the beginning, Mari is completely idolized by Komori and treated as an object, no consideration of her inner self.

After swapping bodies with Mari, Komori is forced to experience what it is like to occupy Maris body. Regarding other men’s mistreatment, he notices other men ogling at Mari, and experiences an unwanted kiss from another guy in Maris class, and the unwanted attention from real life Komori.  He becomes very uncomfortable by all these situations and he also becomes aware of how he did all those things too.

He also struggles with keeping Mari’s life intact and performing femininity. This struggle is part of where the thriller elements come from, and highlights struggles people who were socialized as female face.

Mari is completely objectified by everyone in her life arguably with the exception of her brother. Her mother treats her like a doll, and she needs to keep a perfect image in order to maintain her friendships in school, which is what could have lead to her mental collapse. 

Komori who’s point of view we follow has a completely idealized view of her and views her as pure and angelic. This could be a way of showing something that can happen to people that are socialized as women, when they are bombarded with media that views women through the male gaze, which is to internalize it. Mari has been idolized and objectified her entire life, viewed as something that she is not, and any type of representation she sees of women is viewed through a male lens, so adopting a male persona could be a literal way of showing her internalize this point of view. 

Something else that is interesting to note is how adopting a male persona affects how she acts and how that impacts her relationships,

Her relationship with her friends relied on performance, Komori’s persona, allowed her to drop that performance. It also allowed her to stand up to her mum. Dropping the submissiveness that is associated with femininity. Only through the persona of a man she felt empowered to be assertive. Highlights this aspect that is pushed on women.

All that being said though Oshimi is a man, so it is important to question his portrayal of womanhood, as he doesn’t have personal experience with it. For the most part, I think it was done quite respectfully, even though the manga was quite explicit. He showed aspects of womanhood that are often ignored by media made for men, like periods. And one thing that sells me personally on him having genuine intentions is this author's note:

It feels like he genuinely wants to understand the perspective of being raised as a woman, and this is a way for him to explore that in a deep way. 

One thing that does give me conflicting feelings is the fact that even though Inside Mari is in a way critiquing the male gaze, it still views Mari through that lens. That’s not to say that she doesn’t have any depth, just that in the visual aspects a lot of focus is placed on her body. I realize that it would be really hard to create a story like that without being explicit and specializing the characters in any way, and also that the afterward explains why that is the case, but it still leaves me conflicted.

Bibliography:

Holden, B. (2018) Seeing your dysphoria in someone else's story. inside Mari and me., Medium. Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@eldarose/seeing-your-dysphoria-in-someone-elses-story-inside-mari-and-me-5a4e5b2a2412 (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Inside Mari, volume 7 ebook : Oshimi, Shuzo: Amazon.co.uk: Books (no date) Amazon.co.uk. Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Mari-7-Shuzo-Oshimi-ebook/dp/B0912ZMFK6 (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Loreck , J. (2016) Explainer: What does the 'male gaze' mean, and what about a female gaze?, The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486 (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

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'Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs' and the dangers of faulty advertising

Red Shoes and the seven dwarfs was a film about snow white that came out in 2018. While the movie had a good team behind it, it didn’t fare well at the box office. This happened because a lot of the potential audience got discouraged from watching it because of the negative backlash that the ad campaign received.

The billboards that advertised the movie, featured the protagonist in two different forms, one fit the traditional beauty standard of being tall and slender, while the other one is shorter and chubbier. The second version is barefoot and holding her shoes, and the text next to her sais “What if Snow White was no longer beautiful and the 7 Dwarfs not so short?”

The connotation of this statement is that women chubby and short women are not beautiful, and that promotes the myth that only women who fit the same standard as snow white on the left can be considered beautiful, and that there is one beauty standard that everyone should fit into. (Fiske 1982: 91)

The advertisement received a lot of backlash, including this tweet by Tess Holiday, a plus-sized model (Qingru, 2021)

Furthermore, Chloe Grace Mortez, the voice actress of Snow White expressed being appealed by the add. (Segarra, 2017)

Having seen the movie, and read others’ opinions on it as well, the message of it was the complete opposite. An element of the film is that once Snow White wears her red shoes, she transforms into a more tall and slender version of herself, like the one on the left in the advertisement. While she does use the shoes, she mostly does it out of necessity, to hide from her stepmother, and because she realizes that people treat her better and are more likely to help her when she is in that form. Snow white however is fully confident in her real body and expresses that she misses it when she is wearing the shoes. Other characters’ arcs, like the main romantic lead, involve outgrowing their vanity and superficiality. Overall the movie's message is body positive. (Qingru, 2021)

It is very important to have a positive representation of people with appearances that don’t fit traditional beauty standards and having an advertisement like that can cause a lot of harm not only to the movie because of the backlash, but also to people who see it and internalize its message. The backlash the ad received was warranted, it is however unfortunate that the movie suffered because of it, since it had a pretty nice and positive message. This goes to show that a lot of care should be taken when creating promotional material for media.

Bibliography:

Fiske, J. (1982) Introduction to communication studies. London: Routledge.

Hemmert, H. (2017) Body shaming - film studio gives fake apology, Baby Gizmo. Available at: https://babygizmo.com/billboard-movie-promotes-body-shaming/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Qingru, K. (2021) 'Red Shoes and the Seven dwarfs' – the movie doomed to fail even before release, Sinema. Available at: https://www.sinema.sg/2021/06/30/red-shoes-and-the-seven-dwarfs-the-movie-doomed-to-fail-even-before-release/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Segarra, L.M. (2017) Chloe Grace Moretz angry over Red Shoes and the 7 dwarfs ad, Time. Time. Available at: https://time.com/4800883/chloe-grace-moretz-red-shoes-7-dwarfs-ad/ (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

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The Rehearsal: Anxiety and Autism

In my previous post, I talked about The Rehearsal and how it relates to reality. Another aspect of the show that I am interested in is how it relates to anxiety and autism. As someone who has social anxiety, it really resonated with me and I found it really relatable. I think it resonated so much because the way that Nathan simulates situations and tries to prepare for them and predict outcomes is similar to thinking patterns that are common in people with anxiety (that being said people who don’t suffer clinically from anxiety can also fall into these patterns as everyone has things that might make them anxious sometimes)

Early on in the show, as well as in the trailer, Nathan is quoted saying: ‘‘I’ve been told that my personality can make people uncomfortable, but I’ve learned that if you plan or every variable, a happy outcome doesn’t have to be left to chance." (Fielder, 2022) This is a mindset people with anxiety can have, at least from my experience, and one that a lot of people on the autism spectrum are familiar with as well. Tamara May, states that ‘for many people with autism, The Rehearsal won’t be that different to everyday life, where rehearsing and practicing future scenarios is a way to cope with the anxiety of unpredictable social interactions and life events’. (May, 2022) Another common phenomenon is masking, where autistic people learn to hide their real feelings and reactions and act in ways that are socially acceptable, and the way they practice masking can be similar to what is seen in the show. (May, 2022)

In the first episode of the show, Nathan helps a guy named Kor practice for coming clean about a lie that he told a friend of his when they first met.  To do that he helps him rehearsing different scenarios with different outcomes so that he can be prepared. While helping Kor, Nathan has his own rehearsals where he practices talking to Kor with an actor. Kor ends up confronting his friend and coming clean, without there really being an issue, showing that he didn’t really have anything to worry about. 

At some point in the episode, Nathan deceived Kor in a way that could be quite upsetting if he found out, but wants to come clean about it. When it looks like he is about to come clean, it’s revealed he was just practicing with the actor playing Kor, who reacts in a very negative way. This scares Nathan and he decides to omit the information from Kor. 

This feels very similar to a pattern of thinking that a lot of people with anxiety experience, called rumination. Rumination according to the American Psychiatric Association is ‘repetitive thinking or dwelling on negative feelings and distress and their causes and consequences’, and it can create a vicious cycle that gets worse over time and is difficult to get out of. (2020)

This first episode serves as a microcosm for the rest of the show, and in following episodes we see how Nathan’s tendency to avoid the real world and dive deeper into the simulations he has created, gets amplified. 

After that episode Nathan has more minor rehearsals but the new focus is a participant called Angela who wants to simulate the experience of raising a kid. She is unable to find a partner, so Nathan volunteers, and as the show goes on he gets increasingly more obsessed with it and takes things to more and more extreme lengths. He gets so wrapped up and lost in the simulation, that in the end of the show he completely looses his sense of reality, deluding himself into believing that he is the kid’s father. 

This reflects the dangers of getting lost in in a rumination spiral and shows that even though planning for situations can be good and helpful when taken to extreme lengths it can be really damaging and self destructive. 

When someone is in an anxiety spiral, their thinking seems reasonable from their perspective, but, because of the nature of the show, with its absurd and ridiculous scenarios, it feels like it’s turning a mirror on the viewer and their patterns of thinking. 

This is also relevant to masking and autism, as May describes how masking can be very tiresome for autistic people as well as invalidating and can make them lose their sense of self. There is a growing movement where autistic people are encouraged to unmask more where they feel safe to do so and creating more spaces where that is possible (May, 2022) and the ending of the show seems to support that as well.

I don’t want to assume that this is what the creator intended, but the idea that this feels like a representation of anxiety seems very plausible. It feels to me, as someone who at least partially experiences the issue of anxiety like a very good way to represent it, as it never really makes Nathan the butt of the joke, as he said in the show, ‘no one is the joke, the situations are funny but interesting too’. (Fielder, 2022) It feels like a very empathetic cautionary tale that is very entertaining too, and I would love to see more things like it in the future.

Bibliography:

Apocalypto (22AD) The Rehearsal. HBO.

Rumination: A cycle of negative thinking (2020) Psychiatry.org - Rumination: A Cycle of Negative Thinking. Available at: https://www.psychiatry.org/News-room/APA-Blogs/Rumination-A-Cycle-of-Negative-Thinking (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

May, T. (2022) Nathan Fielder's new comedy the rehearsal will be familiar to anyone with autism, The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/nathan-fielders-new-comedy-the-rehearsal-will-be-familiar-to-anyone-with-autism-188071 (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

Rumination: A cycle of negative thinking (2020) Psychiatry.org - Rumination: A Cycle of Negative Thinking. Available at: https://www.psychiatry.org/News-room/APA-Blogs/Rumination-A-Cycle-of-Negative-Thinking (Accessed: January 10, 2023).

The Rehearsal | Official Trailer | HBO (2022) Youtube. HBO. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fjPFt8cpic.

[sofiastefanisacademicblog]

The Rehearsal (2022), in relation to realism

After attending the lecture about depiction strategies of realism, the first show that came to my mind was, The Rehearsal (2022), as it has a very interesting relationship with how it depicts reality.

The rehearsal is a reality tv show that came out in 2022. Its premise revolves around the host, Nathan Fielder, helping people prepare for future situations that they have some kind of fear or anxiety about. Nathan goes into extreme measures, that often involve deception and the use of an absurd amount of resources, in order to create simulations of the event that the participant is preparing for, that are as accurate and realistic as possible.

The rehearsal, is one of the most interesting pieces of media that I’ve encountered, and there are tons of things one could discuss about it, but for the purpose of this blog, I will focus on how it relates to reality and creates a sense of immediacy and hypermediacy.

When Nathan creates the simulations, he goes to great lengths to make them believable. A few examples of that are, creating a life sized replica of the environment where a confrontation is meant to take place, setting up a fake interview for a magazine between an actress and the person that the participant has to confront, so that the actress can learn and emulate her mannerisms during the simulation, and many more. These extreme and arguably unethical measures are taken because the simulations are meant to be as close to real as possible for the participants, in order to better help them prepare.

So, what Nathan Fielder tries to create for the participants, is a sense of immediacy, which Bolter and Grusin define as "a style of visual representation whose goal is to make the viewer forget the presence of the medium (canvas, photographic film, cinema, and so on) and believe that he is in the presence of the objects of representation" (Bolter and Grusin, 1999: 272-273).

For the viewers of the show though, the experience of viewing the show is very different. The show is narrated by Nathan, who documents how these simulations are created, problems that arise and how they are solved etc. as well as how he feels about events that happen in the show. This way of narrating that "increases our awareness of the con-structedness of the film’s representation of reality" is defined by Bill Nichols as reflexive mode of documentary. (Nichols, 2001: 34) The use of this mode allows the viewer to see the artifice of the show, and it creates a sense of hyper-immediacy, which is when, the elements of a medium are so obvious and constant that they make it impossible for the viewer to ignore, (Botler and Grusin 1999).

Another interesting layer to the show is the question of, how real is Nathan? All of the scenarios in the show are completely absurd and go overboard but he delivers everything with a deadpan tone, and no hint of any awareness of how surreal and ridiculous some of the scenarios he creates are. This is one of the main sources of comedy from the show, but it also makes the viewer question how much of this is real?

Overall, I find this relationship with realism, and the connection between immediacy and hyper immediacy as well as the contradiction in the artificiality of trying to create something real very interesting, and the end product is really thought-provoking while also absurd and funny.

Bibliography:

Bolter, J.D. and Grusin, R. (1999) Remediation: Understanding new media. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Nichols, B. (2001) Introduction to documentary. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

The Rehearsal | Official Trailer | HBO (2022) Youtube. HBO. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fjPFt8cpic.