Research | Charlotte E Animation

Final Major Project

Contextual Research:
Theme Survey

The questions I asked were as followed:

What comes to mind when you hear renewal and decay? (text answer)
What comes to mind when you hear change and transitions? (text answer)
What do you think the world will be like in 100 years time? (text answer)
What would you like the world to be like in the far future? (text answer)
How optimistic are you for the worlds future? (scale of 1 - 5 with 1 being very pessimistic and 5 being very optimistic)
Do you think we should prioritise those in the future or people in the present? (multiple choice with explanation)
Do you think it is more important to prioritise human advancement (e.g. stronger technology, space travel) or current global issues? (e.g. climate change, human rights) (multiple choice with explanation)
If you discovered a way to make humans live forever would you share it with the world? (multiple choice with explanation)
If you were given the opportunity to prevent death would you? (multiple choice with explanation)
Do you think any one individual should have the power to make decisions for the entire world? (multiple choice with explanation)
What positive things come to mind when you think about humans and nature interacting? (text answer)
What negative things come to mind when you think about humans and nature interacting? (text answer)

I waited a week to check my responses and received a total of 30. I left posters linking to the survey around the college for students to answer, so students ages 16+ are the main demographic of my responses. Here is what I gathered from them:

What comes to mind when you hear renewal and decay?

For these text responses, I am going to focus on the most common answers and any interesting outliers. The most common answers to this question were: the life cycle, recycling, entropy, withering and rot, abandoned places, death and birth/rebirth and nature. Most of these answers equate to things that I already plan on researching especially in regards to how they exist in the natural world and the way humans exist in the cycle so it is nice to see that these are the majority of initial thoughts. Another answer I found interesting was as following: 'it is often used in terms of the urban environment whereby an existing community is replaced by another demographic, or where community project priorities are replaced with more commercially focused entities.' I found this an interesting take as most other associations with renewal had been positive, but this shows the impact that modern commercialisation has given

people, giving a new association to the word based on our current climate.

What comes to mind when you hear change and transitions?

For this question, common answers included: fear and a want to control the change, growth and acceptance, new beginnings and caterpillars becoming butterflies. I liked that the caterpillar metaphor came up multiple times as it ties into representing these themes with nature, which is what I want to explore. Some unique answers were: puberty, seasons and coins. Again, I appreciate the nature themes and I found puberty to be interesting with the human aspects but in a different light.

What do you think the world will be like in 100 years time?

The majority of answers here were on the more negative end, with around 25/30 responses being bad to middling. Most concerns centred around rising environmental threats, corporate greed, AI progression and death or apocalypse. The more positive predictions were mainly focused on technology advancement to combat the same negative predictions. The positive leaning people state that necessity will drive us forward to fix global issues, but probably not until they get even worse first.

What would you like the world to be like in the far future?

The answers were more hopeful overall compared to the previous question, with common answers like: it will be calmer, more peaceful, more empathetic people, more human rights like basic income, community driven progression and very natural. Some other answers I liked where that there would be robots doing boring jobs, humans would be gone but the environment would be renewed and for billionaires to not exist. Most of the answers want for a world that moves away from the current capitalist structures and focuses on joy in other people and a flourishing environment.

How optimistic are you for the worlds future?

This question was on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being very pessimistic and 5 being very positive. The end stats came out to the majority picking number 2 at 46.7%, followed by 3 with 36.7%, 1 at 10%, 4 at 6.7% and most interestingly no one chose number 5 at all. I think that this reflects the answers to the previous two questions and reflects that though people have positive hopes for the future, the current climate does not reassure them.

Do you think we should prioritise those in the future or people in the present?

The responses to this question came as 80% of people saying we should priorities people of the present and 20% saying we should prioritise those in the future. Arguments for those in the present included that without helping now, there will be no future and that prioritising for a future that isn't set in stone is pointless due to how many things could change. Points arguing for the future include that the next generations should be prioritised so the world is more liveable for them and that long term goals are more important than short term fixes. I actually think that even though there is a split in answers, the reasonings all have the same sentiment of bettering the world for as many people overall.

Do you think it is more important to prioritise human advancement (e.g. stronger technology, space travel) or current global issues? (e.g. climate change, human rights)

The percentages here came out to 86.7% wanting to prioritise global issues and 13.3% preferring advancement. The arguments for global issues are quite similar to the previous questions responses for the present, but with an extra emphasis on how while advancements can make life easier and nicer, the impact that the capitalistic development of them has on the world isn't worth it until global issues are tackled. Most of the answers that pick advancement again are actually following the same sentiment as the human advancement reasoning, with statements like without advancement we wouldn't have ways to tackle issues like global warming in the first place.

If you discovered a way to make humans live forever would you share it with the world?

This question also had a maybe option that shifted the trends reflected in the last two questions. 56.7% of people said no they wouldn't, 26.7% said maybe and 16.7% said yes they would. The reasonings for no are largely that the joy of life is that it will eventually end and that humans aren't built for perpetuity as well as that if everyone lived forever there would be too many logistical issues with resources and overpopulation. There was also a suggestion to look into a sci-fi short called 'the trouble with lichen' that relates to this, but there was a warning that it is outdated and sexist. Those who said maybe said that they would want to extend the lives or certain people but that would causes lots of ethical issues when you have a power like that and you are in control of who is deemed worthy to live forever. Finally, those who said yes had reasons such as that extending our lives had been a human goal for a long time and that if they did share it they would make a lot of money. That last answer actually shocked me quite a bit based on the previous answers that focused on how greed was a bad thing for the world.

If you were given the opportunity to prevent death would you?

The answers here came out to 60% saying maybe, with answers such as they would like to prevent the death of loved ones or unnecessary deaths like those to incurable illnesses but believe the logistics and ethical issues with getting to choose wouldn't be right. 26.7% said no, echoing the earlier sentiment that humans aren't meant to live forever but there were a few answers marked here about not wanting to share this power with anyone but themselves. Finally, 13.3% said yes and that it would be too big of an opportunity to pass up on and they would if they got to choose.

Do you think any one individual should have the power to make decisions for the entire world?

The response here was more unanimous with 83.3% of people saying no, since no one person should have the right to choose for everyone at that the power will inevitably be abused. 10% said yes but these answers were essentially saying 'if it was me I would do it', which once again surprised me when looking at previous answers. The final 6.7% said maybe and that only if the person was a good person, but I found that to be an answer that needs more clarity and that 'good' can mean so many different things to different people.

What positive things come to mind when you think about humans and nature interacting?

The most common answers here included: growing new life, leaving behind documentation of our world for the future, conservation, the awe of seeing and living amongst other creatures, biodiversity and community. These are all helpful to think about, especially in regards to animals as I have mostly been thinking about plant life for my upcoming research so that would be something interesting to branch out into. Essentially the positives relate to growth and renewal more than it does decay.

What negative things come to mind when you think about humans and nature interacting?

The common answers here are related to destruction, death, climate change, pollution, deforestation and exploitation of resources. All these answers focus on how when humans being to take from the environments around them, it is for personal gain rather than trying to be in an exchange with it.

Overall, the survey has shown me that people want a world where nature flourishes and humans grow and care for each other along with it. Renewal usually has positive associations for people with decay being more negative, but the majority understand that you need decay to have renewal afterwards and that things like death aren't necessarily a bad thing, while still being scary. I have been given a lot of things to think about in regards to what else I can research. I will definitely go ahead with looking into environments and withering and abandoned areas as well as how humans prepare for the future and the obsession with us living on into it. Some new ideas I have are to look more at more wildlife, especially animals, look into how capitalistic ideologies shape our world and what gets to live in it and focus on more human emotions in regards to renewal and decay, which I will likely explore through some artworks. I am going to start my research by looking at examples of renewal, decay and change in the real world - beginning with some different ruined and overgrown envionments

To kick off my research I wanted to make a survey with some questions I thought would tie into some ideas I wanted to explore, such as: what people thought of renewal, decay, change and transitions, what the world could be like in the future, what peoples thoughts on death and its permanence are and ideas about humans and nature interacting. My plan is to take the responses from the quiz to help me choose what areas to focus on in my research and help with my eventual audience evaluation as I get to see what the majority of people agree with when it comes to these themes.

Theme Survey

Visual and Contextual Research:
Ruined and Overgrown Environments

For this section of research, I want to look into examples of renewal within nature, especially how nature and man made structures interact. My plan is to look into areas where nature has reclaimed buildings, places where the decision was made to destroy structures due to natural effects and the ideas and visuals that are associated with natural decay and renewal.

Primary Images: Before and After Nature is Cleared Away

On the left, I was able to find some images of my garden from May of 2024 that I took before all the plants in it got almost completely cleared. The overgrown plants were a result of just over a year without any maintenance. After I found these, I thought I would take photos of the same areas of the garden now, as it is regularly maintained with clear flower beds and new plant life, so that I could compare them. Some things I noticed were that when all the plants were there, wildlife was more frequent. For example, there was a mole living in the ground at one point and another animal that was never identified kept breaking into the cracked shed window and taring holes in bags of saw dust to stay warm in there. There were lots of bugs around as well, especially towards the back end where there is a fruit tree; the fruit would fall off the branches and rot, calling the attention of lots of flies. In the play house and shed lots of spiders, snails, slugs and other bugs would hide amongst the stacks of old toys and gardening supplies. Speaking of the storage spaces, as everything was cleared away the shed, play house and log store had to be torn down due to: water damage, the plants growing and causing the wooden panels to collapse, broken windows, cracks in the concrete foundation below them and it just being an easier process to get rid of them rather than trying to clear all the plants away. Looking at the timeline of the garden getting overgrown, I was surprised by how quickly everything actually grew over. The grass reached knee height, roots spread away from the flower beds, trees from either side of the fence grew and intertwined creating an almost canopy over some areas and everything got so wet and muddy, even in the summer months due to how much greenery there was. Now, when everything has been cleared away, the overall presentation is much neater and it is much easier to walk across the grass. Since it is currently winter, not many flower have bloomed but since they are regularly maintained I found that although there were so many plants before, the flowers that grew in the beds this past summer where much more vibrant and alive looking compared to all the dead bushes and weeds from before. Being left alone made way for lots of different plant life to grow. We had ivy growing up the walls of the house, weeds in the cracks of the pavement, thorned bushes but also a few colourful flowers that contrasted the green. While it was a pain to have in your own garden since the plants made the majority of the space unusable, it became a place where nature was able to flourish in its natural state. I really like the visuals of green sprouting out from the side of buildings and the random human creations thrown in as well. My favourite before image is the third as you can see all the elements like the bush on the fence, the falling mossy log store, the washing line with plants growing through it and the small white flowers standing in contrast with the overwhelming green. In regards to renewal, I think this comparison shows the strength and persistence of the plant life without a human

trying to maintain the area for aesthetics. In the current garden, it has to be consistently managed for things not to go out of place. When trying to grow flowers from bulbs you have to consistently check and cut away and pieces that aren't growing quite right or when they have been in bloom too long you have to cut away the heads. This makes me wonder if plants would be better off if they were left to do just do what they are going to, but that conflicts with a gardener wanting to maintain presentation and grow plants that aren't native to the ground your garden started with. Without maintenance, roots and weeds and rot will continue to grow and - if you're one for keeping up visuals - sabotage the human impact on the space, whether that's flowers you choose to grow or architecture. If I were to make it more metaphorical, I think this shows the lack of lasting impact that humans can have on a space if time is left to go on, but also shows the control and consequence we can have if we do constantly cut away at nature. Now the garden has been cleared, while weeds still try to grow, weed killer has been used on the gaps in the pathway, meaning it has to overcome a lot more and take a lot more time to reach the height it once had.

From this if I do decide to make any environments that look this way, I will take note on the amount of wildlife like bugs and mammals and the variety of plants you can find. I love the visual of the small coloured flowers sitting on top of the array of green leaves so if my design work for the project calls for it, I would like to reflect that. I want to look more into areas that have been reclaimed by nature and the different reasons that it has been left to happen. I want to reflect on questions such as, have these areas been left to grow by choice or out of necessity, what consequences or positives has human interjection had on that environment or what consequences has nature had on the people who once lived there.

Orford Ness: Demolition and Continued Ruination

Orford Ness Lighthouse was a lighthouse on Orford Ness, a shingle spit on the coast of Suffolk. In July of 2020, demolition of the site began due to threats of coastal erosion, with the structure only being 15 metres from the shoreline and it advancing approximately 3.5 metres each year. 11 other lighthouses had existed on the shore here before, with the earliest being wooden structures that would burn coal to signal out. These lighthouses were vulnerable due to them either being washed away by the sea or threats of attack from pirates and the French in the early 1700s. According to the charity that maintains the modern lighthouse's artefacts, this model was built in 1792 by Lord Braybrooke of Audley End and was lit by oil lamps. The lighthouses were built due to the especially

hazardous area of coast, with a record of 32 ships wrecked on the coast in 1627 as a result of a single storm. In 1836 the lighthouse was compulsorily acquired by Trinity House - the general lighthouse authority for a large part of the UK. They managed and improved the lighthouse until 2013, when it was put out of commission due to the approaching sea waters. The Orford Ness Lighthouse Trust was then established to allow public access in the years onward. Leading up to the demolition, volunteers pile sandbags on the shore in attempts to slow the waves, but they just kept coming so after months a decision was made that no further action would be taken to save it. Over the summer it was set to be demolished, people showed up in boats to say goodbye to it, an almost wake for it was held by the surrounding community. Key parts were saved by the trust including the lantern room, entrance plaque and the wooden staircase with future plans to form a memorial structure for them when funds are available, situated on the opposite side of the spit.

What I find interesting about this area is that there has been another time where structures have been abandoned. In 1913, a large part of Orford Ness was purchased by the War Department where top secret experiments were conducted during both World Wars and the Cold War. The site is subject to various conspiracy theories as most secretive military bases are, but when the site shut down in the 70s, it was interestingly decided by the national trust that they would not intervene with the area, put by them as 'continued ruination'. This was a unique approach to conservation as the area being a shingle spit has a unique ecosystem that makes the area a national nature reserve but it also contains lots of undetonated explosives. It is interesting to leave the decaying buildings alone in an area where their falling could be a danger to life. The national trust has directed people away as much as they can by roping off buildings, leaving signs and just letting the natural

processes of the environment take place. Usually, conservation means rooting out things that would destroy the buildings, when you think of an uncared for area you often think of invasive species and weeds that would threaten the area. Though in Orford Ness, plants that are considered rare due to the loss of habitat on shingle beaches are thriving. The sea poppy is a protected species in certain regions of the UK and it grows consistently in the ruins left here; it is a ruderal species which are plants that are the first to grow on disturbed lands after disasters, such as wildfires, avalanches and other disasters - human or natural. For example, fireweed is often found in the remains after fire or war, during World War II it was found growing in ruins across bomb sites in London.

I find the different approaches to conservation within the same area to be fascinating and it reflects that the boundaries between our infrastructure and our environment can become more blurred with the threat of decay, creating these areas where certain species can grow where they can't anywhere else. Though with demolition being a solution to encroaching decay, it also creates clear loss of heritage. If the lighthouse isn't there anymore then what happens to the memory of it? With time, the human memory of what once was there will fade, and even though preservation of the artefacts has happened, there is no real way of knowing if that will be maintained into the future, there just has to be hope that someone else will keep maintain the memory of it after the people who are trying now. It is interesting to see the different results of decay - sometimes there comes renewal and others there is loss, but with time and lack of human control on something it seems to always come. In this case with the environmental effects and loss or architecture.

I want to look at these ideas more in other contexts. I find the ideas of lack of control over the world and the want to preserve are a very human reaction to the thought of eventual decay and what may be lost and what will come after - the renewal - and want to find other ways this is presented. Before I look at human reactions, I want to look at a few more examples of environments and ways they are preserved or reasons they are left alone. A good part of my survey was also about humans and control over the future, so I plan to look into these ideas all together after I have analysed the environments I want to.

Houtouwan

Houtouwan is a famously abandoned fishing village on Shengshan Island, one of the nearly 400 islands apart of the Shengsi Islands located 40 miles East of Shanghai China. The village was built in the 1950s and had around 2000 fisherman residents living in 500 homes. In the 1990s, the population of the island began to decline as a result of low job opportunities, difficulty accessing mainland China and low access to education. The fisherman of the island couldn't compete with growing competition in Shanghai so chose to relocate there for better opportunities. By 2002, the village had been depopulated but as of 2015, a few people still lived there. Around that time, a photographer named Alan Taylor photographed the day of one of the only remaining citizens, a former fisherman named Sun Ayue, who lives in the village with no electricity or running water, only occasionally leaving to visit neighbouring villages. Now, the village is a popular tourist location due to the abandoned appearance and thick layer of greenery covering all the buildings. Many photographers visit the island to take capture the scenery and I understand why, there is something alluring and eerie about there being an entire village that has been completely abandoned. While the reason for its abandonment is know, the decades of nature growing around the structures, puncturing windows and climbing walls does make you think about the lives once lived there and where these people are now. Some images show piles of abandoned objects and it does make you wonder about why those things were left behind and by who. Similarly to my primary images, I find the bright all over greenery to be very beautiful, more so here when there is over 30 years of build up. The layers of foliage create a whole new rounded structure over what I imagine to have been more angular and organised array of buildings. Though I also really like the way some of the homes look like someone has sculpted a bush into the shape of the house, as the plants have molded to the human structures. Once again, for my project if I make any overgrown environments I will definitely reference the vibrant appearance of Houtouwan.

State Guest Mansions

The State Guest Mansions are an area of abandoned luxury housing located in Shenyang, China. The intended purpose of the areas was to build 260 European style villas for the rich, but the project was abandoned in 2010. After two years the project was put to a stop with no official explanation given as to why, but only 5% of homes had been sold by the time the project ended. As of 2020, it was reported China had about 65 million empty homes with them becoming known as ghost cities. The land where the mansions were built is now occupied by farmers plowing the land in between for future crops, with garages being repurposed to store hay bales and wooden fences placed between properties. The contrast between the marble floors and grand chandeliers against the piles of rubbish and dust of the interiors highlights the state they have been left in. I find it strange that projects like this, designed for the wealthy, are just able to be built and abandoned when there are shortages of housing for working class people all over the world, its just throwing money away on a fruitless amount of work. Though they have at least been able to be repurposed by the local community in this case, which is a renewal in purpose, compared to renewal in nature like my previous examples. Though with the buildings not being tended to really, they will get more messy and destroyed as time goes on. If I were to apply this to my project, I think a grand buildings that has been brought to ruin is an interesting visual, making you wonder about the past of the place and why it hasn't been maintained if it is so glamorous. Although there isn't really a dramatic story behind it in this case, the silence and monotony of the landscape and dead grey surroundings opposes the lush greens I have liked before. This has given me some things to think about in regards to environments and the different ways I can display them either growing through abandonment or breaking as a result of it in my own work.

Gina Soden: Chernobyl Collection

Gina Soden is a photographer who documents abandoned and ruined spaces. The images I have picked come from her Chernobyl collection, a series photographed in 2015 and 2016 but just releasing now. Chernobyl is probably the most well known example of nuclear fallout in the world, and with the disaster happening in 1986, the buildings pictured here had been left untouched due to radiation in the area for around 30 years at the time of the photographs. She captures images of abandoned public spaces like schools and pools as well as a few images inside homes. I was drawn to these images due to the brightness and well thought out compositions. These photos aren't grey and miserable or entirely green like others I have looked at, instead she uses the natural colours of the buildings - primarily oranges, blues and wood tones - and makes them more saturated, creating a more intriguing scene that relies less on the sadness and ominous feelings that can come from ruins. There is also lots of clear textures in the images that reveal the layers of the scene. Peeling paint and exposed brick overlapped create a lot more dimension in the scene and tell a story about the history of the buildings. I also love the compositions as she tries to create symmetry in a lot of the scenes but due to the crumbling nature of ruins, it isn't just a cookie cutter layout. I am inspired by her work to maybe explore some photography myself. My primary photos I used before didn't have that much thought put into them other than how much area I covered so I would like to try and take some photos and edit them with a clearer idea. Additionally, this research can support any environment work I do going forward as it has given me a different perspective to the other ruined environments I looked at before in terms of colour and brightness, so now I have lots of different styles to explore.

Now I have looked into some different examples of decaying environments and the reasons they are either left to nature or torn down, I want to reflect more on some of the other topics that I was drawn to from my survey. With the research I have done so far, I know I want to make some pieces during the project that focus on derelict or overgrown environments, so I want to think of some other things in the world that could inspire and inform my approach. I think next I will look into the effects and causes of environmental change, with a focus on loss and growth of wildlife and how capitalism and over consumption can affect these things, as taken from my survey responses.

Ruined and Overgrown Environments

Contextual Research:
Effects of Environmental Change

I want to start this section by looking at the impacts that capitalism and our modern societies can and have had on the environment. This is something that was commented on lots in my survey in regards to tackling global environmental issues or prioritising development as well as what people predicted the world would be like in the future with the way our current society is going. After reading some of these opinions and some research this is what I have deduced in regards to the positives and negatives a capitalist society can have on the natural world.

Capitalism is defined by a drive for profit from private owners, and a drive for profit can result in environmental damage due to material extraction, but it also prioritises technological advancement that could eventually help reverse these negative effects. As we go further into the future, I find that our societies find new ways to deal environmental damage - pollution, toxins, the advancement of technology that relies on water - these things all threaten the environment to prioritise making money from the practices that cause the damage. An example of something recent in the world that was intended for sustainability but had failed has been the opening of new lithium mines. Lithium is used in many electronics including electric car batteries and in the US, new mines have opened in Nevada and California as of 2025. These mines are utilised by Tesla, who make the electric car batteries in order to reduce emissions from petrol cars, but the action of mining in mass amounts has caused detrimental effects on the area, similar to that of extracting fossil fuels. According to an article by Hill Baptista (2025), the surrounding areas have been impacted by 'soil degradation, water shortages, biodiversity loss, damage to ecosystem functions and an increase in global warming'. It seems as companies make more money, the extract more resources, meaning more global impacts. Though there has been change in companies to engage with more sustainable practices to reduce the amount of harm they put out. For example, Nike launches collections made from recyclable materials, they use recycled packaging and renewable energy across their stores. Though there is an argument to be made that these things are only implemented to seem like a better option compared to their competitors and there may not be a real motive to help the environment. As well as the fact that a positive change from one company does not reverse all damage in the past. In regards to reversing environmental damage, capitalism does lead to scientific advancement which creates technology that is able to manage and deal with the consequences created from previous environmental damage. Although, I think if such plans had been made on a large enough scale, they would be underway, but the want for profit is greater than the want for a better world in our current time. Renewable energy and disaster management has the potential to be implemented, but it hasn't because it is expensive and takes time, the main things that get in the way of making more money.

Biodiversity in Abandoned Spaces

Environmental damage and abandonment also has its effects on biodiversity. A primary source of species decline is the industry surrounding agriculture and fishing. On a small scale before commercialisation, past humans relied on a relationship with their farms where there would be a food chain - the area is maintained and taken from selectively to ensure there will be food left there in the future. Although certain species would probably have been pushed to the brink of death still in the past at times. Though with large scale fishing and the amount of farmland that so much food gets wasted from anyway, we are overconsuming from the environment and leaving it a mess for other species. The below tables document the decline of freshwater and terrestrial populations in the tropical (between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn) and temperate (North or South of the tropics) regions of Earth between 1970 and 2010 as well as overall global decline from research gathered by the WWF.

The sharp decline as a result of human interaction is devastating to see, but there is evidence that leaving environments alone after they have been in use for so long also causes decline. Leaving land abandoned can result in the decline of local species that had ties and relied on the people and architecture of that land or cause one species to increase so drastically in population with the return to its natural environment that it overwhelms the other species in the area and causes their population decline. Though as I mentioned in my research on Orford Ness, abandoned spaces can allow ruderal species to thrive. Typically, they will dominate the area for a few years before being overtaken by local species but in some cases of extreme disturbance to the area, like when the soil is covered in a foreign substance, a single species of plant can overtake the whole area. Additionally, some invasive species may have an advantage over native species that they can prevent the area from ever going back to how it naturally was. In regards to animals, creatures like spiders, wasps, birds, bats and other small mammals are able to thrive in abandoned areas after being left behind by humans.

After looking at the images of Chernobyl earlier and this information on animals being affected by abandonment of areas, I now want to look into the effects of radiation that caused mutations in the animals around the site. The majority of domestic

animals have moved away and some deformed farm animals were born but did not reproduce, with some deformities so severe that they only lived a few hours. Some of the defects included: small size, extra limbs, facial deformities and off colouring and this was mostly seen in cattle and pigs. Additionally, some exposed cows that ate radioactive feed made radioactive milk. Even years after the fallout once issues from radiation exposure to animals diminished, some still have issues with exposure. Chernobyl birds and mammals often had smaller brains, cataracts and malformed sperm in comparison to the same species outside of the zone. Probably most famously, around 900 stray dogs live in the area, leading to vets and volunteers capturing, tagging, vaccinating and sometimes fitting them with radiation collars. They are then used to map out radiation levels across the site as scientisats can't get that clear a view on most animals

there, but can keep a close eye on the dogs. They are still radioactive though so people are advised to avoid them to minimize radiation exposure.

After looking at all of these points about wildlife fluctuation and the causes of drastic environmental change, I know for a fact I want to make a story that relates back to the decay and renewal of environments and the people and wildlife that live within them. I am interested in the mutation and adaptation of species as a result of an area being abandoned or the location of a disaster and would be interested in finding a way to include that in my project, perhaps by creating some of my own wildlife concepts. My next focus is going to be finding these themes of environmental renewal and human emotions that I haven't explored yet in other media and artworks. I am hoping with exploring some artwork I can get a clearer direction on where I want my project to go and what sort of design work I could create.

Evaluation Week 3

Effects of Environmental Change

Renewal, Decay and Change in Media and Art

Contextual and Visual Research:
Renewal, Decay and Change in Media

Here I want to look into some different media and artists that lend to the my theme of renewal and decay. So far I have mainly focused on environments, which I will look into a bit here, but I want to focus more on emotions to do with change. I hope I will be able to tie the nature and human aspects that I find interesting together by finding artworks that contain both themes or metaphorical links.

Annihilation

Annihilation is a 2014 novel by Jeff Vandermeer that explores the nature of in-between spaces. I found this book and wanted to research it as the supernatural elements interested me and I found that the story could be a unique representation of renewal and decay in portraying it as something that exists with no moral bounds. I am only going to write a synopsis of the book here but won't go into the film as it has a very different story.

The story follows the narrator, who is referred to as the biologist, who specialises in transitional environments which are the places where the land meets the sea, like tide pools, lagoons and estuaries that have unique ecosystems due to the mixing of environments. She and a few other women are a part of an expedition to a mysterious place called Area X. The book doesn’t give much of an explanation as to why or how this has happened, but at some point a barrier appeared between the outside and inside, with the inside changing in strange ways. There are sounds of strange wailing creatures hidden in the marsh, under microscopes cells in the area are mutating to resemble human brain cells and on the walls of a tower descending an unfathomable distance down into the earth, fungus takes on the shape of human language. The biologist ends up inhaling some of the spores on the wall, allowing her to bypass mind control that another member of the group, the psychologist, has been using to either control or calm the group. This lets her see some of the true nature of Area X, while beginning to change her body and make her a part of it. Her senses heighten, her body begins to heal itself after injury and most importantly allows her to see the truth of the tower that was being psychically hidden from her. The tower was alive, the walls thrummed with a heartbeat and something was deep within it writing the text on the walls. Early on in the expedition the group sits around the campfire and speaks about the creature from the marsh and how it feels ‘like an old friend compared to the tower’ and that ‘it would become known in a way we feared the tower would not’. I found the sentiment to be that the more inhuman the creature, the easier to reduce it to a discovery, a natural part of the world. Soon things changed for the worst: the anthropologist is killed by the creature in the tower as she was mind controlled to enter it late in the night, the psychologist is attacked by it as she hides away from the others in a secluded lighthouse and the surveyor is killed by the biologist as she attempts to kill her first, she noticed her body changing. Inside said lighthouse, a pile of journals from the decades of expeditions sits rotting in a hidden compartment, there are so many journals that the ones at the base are becoming mush. She tries to read them all but can’t, so focuses on finding out all she can about the tower. All this comes too as she descends to explore the tower. She comes to the conclusion that nothing ever dies in Area X, it just changes, and the tower has too. It was once a part of the lighthouse and has now been moved underground and the creature that writes in the base of it wears the face of the old lighthouse keeper, whose photo sits in an old frame on its wall. The same goes for the rest of the land here, a dolphin with uncannily human eyes, plants that have grown in the shape of human remains. This place provokes a horror that the biologist describes as ‘the narcissism of the human gaze’, that it only causes fear because of the visuals humans attribute to it. She believes that whatever is happening in this place might not have a deeper meaning or a goal to cause destruction, that the change it’s causing is just what it does. When she first comes face to face with the creature in the tower, she describes it as unknowable and impossible to explain what it really looks like, its appearance shifts and changes non stop. Eventually she escapes the tower and writes her account in her journal for the next person to travel to Area X, leaving it on the top of the other pile of journals. The reader is left unsure of her fate other than to assume she became a part of this place like everything else.

Illustration of the fungus text - nervous system (2015)

I found the story to reflect the nature of decay in the real world. The people exploring Area X are fighting against a world that is always changing by attempting to name, understand and catalogue things that will never be still. This reminds me that decay is the process of something changing from one thing to another, like an abandoned building being the middle point between a home and an empty space. While the book is an exaggerated version of this that gets its uncertainty from its use of cosmic and body horror, I find the sense of fear for the future that it creates reflects the emotions many people feel at the thought of change. One of my favourite parts of this book was its environmental storytelling. During the biologist’s journey to the

lighthouse, she stumbles across an old village that is overgrown with a variety of plants that don’t make sense together, as well as roots and vines that have formed through human skin. The idea that the environment is reflecting the information that it has learnt from the people who have been there before is really interesting to me. All the different places in Area X are a sort of transitional environment: the strange combinations of creatures, the flowers that shouldn’t be able to grow side by side, it’s the most transitional environment you could come up with. The changing environment is the drive for the whole narrative, with the human consequences seeming to come second to the organisation sending people in. I think the uncanny and otherworldly mood it creates through its atmosphere is the book's strongest point.

My main criticism of the book is with some of the character emotions. The biologist hardly has any reaction despite the fact her whole body is changing, she discovers she has been lied to for months and has essentially been sent to her death. She is very indifferent and distant but then again this could be by design as we do learn through flashbacks to her life before that she has always been emotionally disconnected, even with her husband who was a part of the previous expedition to Area X. Most of her emotions come from dealing with her poor relationship with her husband and her hopes that things might change when he came back, but they didn’t and now she is where he was. I found she is written in a way that plays into her being ‘not like other girls’, especially when she talked about things like hating makeup and the way she talks about friends in her flashbacks; most of her thoughts linger back to her husband and she doesn't have much sense of self, which is something I am not a fan of, especially in female characters. Though I do think the point was to show how a person is and how an environment is, I didn’t expect her to completely change as a person over the course of the few days the book covers. Ultimately, her narrative and the narrative of Area X are about having to accept that you can hardly begin to understand what is happening around you before it begins to slip away and become indecipherable again. Another criticism I came across with the book is that it feels like an incomplete story without the rest of the books (there are 3 more in the series which I have not read) and although I can’t say if the other books lend to the narrative or not, I found I liked the uncertainty of the ending and the fact that we don’t get to know what is really happening in Area X. Taking the story as an allegory for decay as I am, it reflects its nature as something that will persist without us stopping it. In the world, time goes forwards and change will always happen even if you try your hardest to prevent it happening. The open ending of the novel shows that Area X is persistent in its growth and biological change in ways the biologist can’t predict, similar to how decay will cause change in ways we can’t always predict or stop.

I am inspired by the environment in the novel and would like to reflect that in my project by creating a story where the world plays an important part, which will help with my want to create pieces focused on environments as I said before. The visuals like the human plants, text fungus and mutated creatures really appeal to me and remind me of some of the apocalyptic themes I want to explore and the mutations I looked at previously. I think for my project I want to put more of a focus on world building and narrative than I did last year and building up a supernatural environment is one direction I could explore. I am also inspired by the feelings of the unknown and mystery, so I will continue to explore these ideas in my research. From what I have found out so far, I want to look more into people’s fear of change and different ways that decay exists in the world other than just biologically.

The Crane Wives

The Crane Wives are an American indie rock band formed in 2010 made up of Emilee Petersmark, Kate Pillsbury, Dan Rickabus, and Ben Zito. Their music uses a wide variety of different instruments and unique harmonies due to there being two lead vocalists. I wanted to look into their music for this project as they are one of my favourite bands and their songs carry many themes, including change and time which is a part of my focus. Additionally, they use lots of nature or death related metaphors in their songs to convey these themes, which aligns with my want to combine the human and natural aspects I am exploring in my project. I am also drawn to the unique style of their album art so I am going to look into that first.

All of the bands album art has been illustrated by Rebecca Green, who works primarily as an illustrator for books. She has said how in every piece she is given creative freedom to design whatever comes to mind as she listens to each album, so her process has been completing an initial paper sketch to pitch, then applying colours digitally before moving into a final gouache painting. I really like the paper cut out, collage like style used in the paintings. There are lots of different textures and patterns when moving from the background to foreground, with the geometric patterns for the ground and tree lines jumping out to me the most. In the 'Foxlore' cover, the full extended image has many different patterns used in the different types of plant that can be seen and I think this is my favourite piece in regards to the visual interest and amount of details in the wildlife. This collage style is actually implemented a bit in Green's process for making them, as she explained when making the 'Coyote Stories' illustration, the coyotes were sketched out on tracing paper and then placed on the final painting in different compositions before being stuck down and painted into the piece. I also like the imperfections of the artwork, as there is hardly any symmetry or repeating textures, further keeping that collage feel. I think this is most clearly seen in the piece for 'The Fool in her Wedding Gown' with the bride figure looking off center and the fishnet veil falling in random directions and orientations of the pattern. In the cover for 'Beyond Beyond Beyond', the style has changed a bit in comparison to the previous work to a more story book style illustration. I personally prefer the older style as I find it is more unique, but I really like the lighting and composition in the piece with all the different animals circling around to create a frame for the bright light the girl interacts with. I also like how the typography interacts with the beam of light and fades into darkness towards the base. I think if I were to apply any of this to my work, I could experiment with collage or applying more texture to my pieces to create more contrast and variety as that is my favourite part of this work. Next, I am going to analyse some different songs of theirs that fall under these themes as well as picking some of my favourites, then I will evaluate the messaging and imagery that interests me.

Time Will Change You

‘Time Will Change You’ is the 8th track on the band's 2024 album ‘Beyond Beyond Beyond’. The song explores the inevitability of change and how growing and letting go of things that no longer serve you is a good thing despite the pain of it. The song puts its meaning out quite forwardly, with lyrics maybe implying that the singer feels some sort of grief over a loss of an important person in their life, whether that’s due to death or just the relationship falling apart. In the first verse, I think the line ‘Planting hearts in a grave / Pray they grow after it rains’ could refer to the singer’s heart belonging to someone who is no longer a part of their life and hoping the relationship can be rekindled with time, but the act of leaving it in ‘a grave’ means it is already too late. Later in the song, in the bridge before the final chorus, these lines are reflected back on with the following: ‘Leave your love in a grave / If it won’t grow then let it stay behind’. I think this indicates that the solution to the pain their heart feels is to let themselves go into the future by learning to live with and eventually let go of these feelings of grief. The love not ‘growing’ means that by trying to cling onto it, the relationship just gets more sour and restrictive over time, and by leaving it you are actually bettering yourself. The chorus refers to nature as a representation of change in the repeated line ‘Time will change you / We all outgrow our roots’ To me this says that ‘our roots’ are our beginnings, being a safe and secure place, but as time changes, even the security that is brought by your roots is uncertain and bound to change in the future. I like the messaging of this song as the lyrics themselves are quite straightforward, but the melancholic tune and references to roots and graves make it stand out more. The end of the song has an instrumental that reflects the vocalisation at the end of an earlier song on the album titled ‘Higher Ground’, which is a more upbeat song about the aftermath and anxiety of self preservation. The songs reflect each other with ‘Higher Ground’ commenting on the early fears and regrets of separating yourself from a negative relationship in a more upbeat tone, whereas ‘Time Will Change You’ slows down into a more sorrowful tune and shows the relief you can get from letting go of a relationship that was holding you back if you push through the initial fears.

Ribs

‘Ribs’ is a song from the group’s 2016 album ‘Foxlore’ and it is about finding ways to protect yourself in a cruel world. Emilee has said she wrote the song when she was in a bad relationship with someone. The lyrics explore the story of Lillith, a Jewish mythological figure created in medieval times who was Adam’s first wife. Her story has her cast from paradise after refusing to submit to him. In many stories she becomes a demon of the night or a serpent creature after leaving paradise, forming a tale of women being below men. In the song itself, the first line makes a comparison to the book of genesis with the lines ‘Marrow made a wife of Eve / But no one gave up a rib for me and mine / My heart stayed exposed to the elements / Calloused and untouched by a man’s design’. This reflects on how the singer is not a creation of man like Eve, who was made from the rib of Adam, but she is instead independent and while her heart is unprotected, it serves her better than being shielded by a man. In the second verse, Lillith’s narrative continues with her being cast away from paradise and eventually forgotten from the Bible over time in the lines ‘Brick and mortar between my bones / Built a kingdom fierce and fortified / And my name faded from a yellow page / But the stones are laid upon the mountainside’. These lyrics depict how despite being cast away, it allowed her to create a better life for herself and grow stronger. In the final verse you have the lines ‘Time has changed the metaphor / Now, dust is not the origin of bone / Little girl, don’t let them sell you any armour / All your ribs are still your own’. Here, she reflects on how the biblical story has become that women came from man (through Eve as a part of Adam’s rib) but in reality, the metaphor for women’s creation tied to Lillith was that she was created from the same material ‘dust is not the origin of bone’. Over time her story was replaced with one about women being below men. She then tells a listener - the little girl - that she must remember she is independent of men through the fact that her ribs are her own, not belonging to any man before her. In the pre-chorus before the final chorus, she reiterates this point in telling the little girl how lucky she is to have been raised to believe she is equal to men and has not suffered the hardships she has by being in a modern community. This is seen in the lyrics ‘Oh. my precious child / How lucky you are / (How lucky you are) / Handed down a shield for your tender parts’. I find this song interesting as it explores the changing of stories and history throughout time and how mindsets and perception can manipulate the truth to press a certain narrative - in this case referencing the medieval times and the belief women are lesser. It shows decay and renewal in that in her original story, they were equal, the story then decays and changes with time to make them unequal, but eventually it comes back to our modern day where many areas of the world focus on equality again, therefore renewing this belief.

Strangler Fig

‘Strangler Fig’ is the fifth song of the album ‘The Fool in Her Wedding Gown’ which was released in 2012. The song is about a relationship where the singer feels trapped and overly protected by their partner. It uses the metaphor of a strangler fig, which is a type of plant that grows around trees on all sides with intertwining branches. They are commonly found in dense and dark forests, where they are able to reach sunlight but at the expense of the tree it surrounds, eventually only leaving the strangler fig behind. I wanted to look at this song for its natural imagery as well as the theme of one person holding another back, trying to prevent change for their own comfort, but only causing resentment for not letting time pass. The first verse goes as followed: ‘You built your kingdom around me / Now I’m trapped within your walls / And all I want is to be free / For as winsome as you may be / All you’re doing now is losing me’ The singer feels contained by their partner and has realised that despite their good qualities, the bad outweighs them and the only thing they feel is the want to leave and grow beyond them, which is represented by the tree being deprived by the strangler fig. The second verse explores the fact that the partner preventing change and stopping the singer from living her life will be the thing that ends their relationship, as trying to stop her from growing is futile and her leaving will be only their fault. This is seen in the lyrics ‘You’re the culprit, so don’t blame me / When I’m gone and you have naught / When you’re hollowed out and empty / From your pulpit what will you preach? / How to live a good long life that’s full of suffering’. After analysing this song, I am interested in the visual of the strangler fig and other plants that take resources from others, which could be something interesting to explore with my work. Although the theme of change being inevitable and trying to stop and control someone who wants a change to be a pointless task is what interests me the most as it is a very human response to change and could be interesting to look into further.

Back to the Ground

This song also comes from ‘The Fool in Her Wedding Gown’ and is about a relationship that is obviously bound to end as it has become one sided, but the singer is unwilling to let it go until they have given it all they have. She only asks her partner to give her ‘back to the ground’ when the relationship is finally over so she can grow and start again. This song interested me as again, it reflects on the inevitability of change and the security of the relationship being lost and that by trying to cling on the singer is only hurting herself and the time she has for her future. The chorus goes ‘So I know you’re not the one / Use me up and when you’re done / Just give me back, give me back to the ground’. She knows that the relationship isn’t meant to last forever but still allows herself to be used until she can’t be used anymore. She then begins referring to herself as a plant, asking that her partner gives her a chance to grow again once the relationship is finally done. This plant metaphor continues into the following verse with the lines ‘Though I planted the seeds, gave them everything they need / But the flowers in our window box don’t grow / Little buds make their graves as the warmth inside us fades / But I still don’t know shit about letting go’. She uses the idea of tending to her plants by following all the right steps but they still fail to bloom to represent the effort she puts into the relationship even though it's not getting any better and despite this, she still struggles to let go of it. This is continued in the bridge in the lines ‘Our hearts lay still and cold / Under ice and frozen soil’. Plants can’t flourish in ice, they will die and their seeds will stay until the warm weather comes back. This is the same in their hearts being cold, as this is a common representation for falling out of love and is reflected by the continuing plant metaphors. I like this song's use of decaying, stagnant and growing nature to represent the failing relationship and would like to explore this more as combining these elements of human emotion tied to change and the changes in nature is one of my goals.

I found it interesting looking at these songs and have found the main focus here is the prevention of change and the passing of time in relationships. I haven’t thought about this avenue yet so this could be something I explore more going forward. The thing I like most from these songs are the motifs used to represent the change and restriction in the relationships of plants, bones, graves and twisting vines. I think I could find ways to incorporate similar icons into my work through my designs. Now, I want to look at ways that decay and renewal has been represented in different artworks across eras to see different perspectives and levels of expression in the work.

Depictions of Decay and Renewal in Art Across Time

Here I want to explore different depictions of my theme throughout different artistic eras and what the focuses were in each timeframe to help inspire the themes or appearance of my project work.

Romanticism

While searching for romantic artwork aligned with my theme, I have found that ruins were often used as focal points of paintings. I find that they were used as metaphors for time changing landscapes and as a representation of the loss of past societies - which is depicted in both melancholy and peaceful tones in different works. For example, a piece that portrays this in a more sad way is the painting ‘Abbey in the Oakwood’ by Caspar David Friedrich, painted between 1809 and 1810. The painting depicts a ruined gothic style abbey in a misty winter landscape. The scene makes me think of death and rot mostly due to the dark landscape, graves and figures in dark cloaks marching toward the building. The lack of vibrant colours also gives this impression, especially in the

empty window frame as I imagine that it maybe has a bright stained glass or was just clear and shining, but the lack of it at all really emphasises the loss here. I find there are lots of ways the progression of time is shown in the painting too. The natural elements like the moon, dusk sunset and leafless trees show the natural scale of decay that goes on forever, cycling between the seasons and day and night whereas the ruined building shows the shorter lifespan of human creation and experience that can be lost much more easily. The romantic artworks seem to find ruins and the reclamation of nature the most meaningful in regards to renewal and decay with the general themes being the power of nature overtaking human history.

Early 20th Century Depictions of War

Lots of Early 20th Century artwork depicts destruction through scenes of war due to the climate at the time. Many of these pieces are almost opposite to that of the romantics as the scenes of warfare and death are shown clearly and realistically in order to convey the tragedy of war. A piece I want to look at is ‘The Trench’ by Otto Dix painted between 1915 and 1916. I found the history of this painting interesting as it was made by a German soldier in WW1, inspired by his experiences of trench warfare. As an anti-war piece, it was condemned and confiscated by the Nazi regime in 1937 and was included in the Degenerate Art exhibition, before being sold and going missing around 1940. Dix made many anti-war pieces and around 260 works were confiscated by the Nazis to be sold or destroyed. This painting stood out though as it depicts death and destruction so vividly with the mixture of bodies, gore, ruined buildings and military gear. There is no censoring or covering of the

broken human bodies with blood and torn limbs everywhere and I think that shows the tragedy and decay powerfully. I think this straightforward approach to showing death allows the viewer to face it as a terrible thing but also preserves the memory of the tragedy, allowing renewal and growth through remembering the pain that came before.

Surrealism

Surrealism reflects destruction and rebirth through symbolism, abstract concepts and dreamlike scenes. The pieces don’t depict physical decay and change but more psychological and immaterial scenes of time changing and lines crossing. ‘I and the Village’ is a piece by artist Marc Chagall that depicts his memories of his home village in what is now Belarus. It shows people and animals living side by side through connecting lines that show their dependence on each other. I think this shows renewal through the cycles between each figure in the painting as well as time passing with the different actions occurring in each fragment. The bright colours and sharp edges create contrast and barriers between each section but they are still all a part of a whole, building different parts of faces and buildings. The ties between people and nature has been something that I have wanted to focus on from the start of this project and I think this depiction is a really interesting way of showing it, especially due to it being on the smaller scale of how the cycle of farming in one village helps everything there. Putting it in this smaller frame rather than an entire ecosystem or world is a great way to see this and show how people and nature can exist together in many ways.

After looking at these examples, it is interesting and helpful to see different ways decay and renewal has been thought about through different eras and what ways that has been artistically expressed. Despite interpretations going from realistic to abstract, the overall themes are that life and human influence is fleeting and transitional, but despite destruction, will come back around again in a new way - similarly to how these different eras come and go but the pieces still replicate the same themes. For now, I want to move on from looking at renewal and decay and narrow down my focus further. In my project proposal and initial work, I was interested in looking at apocalypse themes and I know even more now that is what I want to do. After reading Annihilation and being interested in the visuals of unnatural death and supernatural creatures growing, looking at the different overgrown and abandoned environments and looking at emotional and environmental responses to change, I think looking at the future and apocalypse will be a good route to go down. To start my research here, I want to look back on the questions I asked in my survey about hopes for the future and how we should plan for our future and future generations to get some starting points.

Evaluation Week 4

Princess Mononoke

(Added post next section)

As I said in my weekly evaluation, I wanted to come back and add another piece of research to this section as I felt is was lacking compared to my other sections, so here I am looking at the Ghibli film Princess Mononoke. The film follows Ashitaka, who is cursed after a battle with a boar God turned demon, as he is doomed to death, he travels far to seek a cure. On his travels he gets caught up in a conflict between the forest gods and the nearby Irontown, who fight for control over the forest to either keep it as it is or clear it for resources. This also reveals the conflict between the towns leader, Lady Eboshi and the wolf Gods, including her human daughter San. Eboshi admits to shooting the boar God, causing his demonic curse by instilling him with hatred. She is collaborating with Jigo, a hunter whose aims to behead the Forest Spirit to receive the reward for delivering it to the Emperor. Their battle reaches its climax as the rest of the boar clan attack Irontown as they would rather fall fighting for the forest than allow their kind to become regular game to hunt. The fight leads Eboshi decapitating the Forest Spirit, it transforming into a corrupted version of its night form, the Nightwalker, who explodes into a dark fluid that kills all it touches, including the forest. Although reluctant to help the humans who have destroyed her forest, San and Ashitaka are able to pry the head from Jigo and

return it to the Nightwalker. As the sun rises, the Nightwalker dies and dissolves, with the ravaged land then renewed with new flora that covers the mountain where the forest once was and the destroyed Irontown. The film ends with Ashitaka's curse being lifted, Eboshi resolving to build a better town that aligns itself with the forest more and San remaining in the forest, unable to forgive humanity.

The films main themes are the conflicts between nature, technological advancement and humanity. I like how the conflict doesn't present the positions of the forest Gods and the people of Irontown as complete opposites and there is the additional conflict within both parties too. The different clans of spirits disagree about how to handle the conflicts with the wolves wanting to wait and the boars charging on, and there are battles between the human parties over protecting Irontown or heading to kill the Forest Spirit. Ashitaka acts as a mediator but he is also unsure of what actions to take to try and bridge the gap between humans and the forest. The groups aren't out to get each other as pure enemies, but are just struggling to find their footing in an emerging new era of technology and development. There is criticism of humanities mistreatment and pursuit to control the natural world, but it admits how it is sort of inevitable that nature will be taken from in order for technological progress to continue by the ending where nature is no longer personified as Gods but is just left as is. The film is set in a version of Japan that existed before the countryside was deforested for rice farming and this timeframe furthers the conflict of the emergence of technology and expansion of humanity. The anthropomorphism of nature into the ancient forest Gods appeals to me, since it gives an audience more understanding and sympathy towards them, they are not just animals for humans to kill and use, as well as making them appear more grand and active, rather than a passive existence of nature. Overall, I like the way the film has more nuance when looking at conflicts between humanity and nature as it creates a story where not all of the ending is satisfying but gives room for the humans and forest to regrow and adapt with each other in the future.

The Ghibli art style is so renowned and loved but I think it shines in this film, especially with its ties to nature and the environment that the studio so loves to focus on. The style feels warm and organic with its focus on character expression and intricate hand drawn scenes, especially the scenery. In regards to character design, I find they are able to convey emotion and personality very well even though the style is relatively simplistic. The characters' personalities are seen on their face and in their different movement styles, for example San's attitude and hesitance towards the humans is contrasted by her expressions of care and love for the forest. Though my favourite part of the studio's films are the background illustrations with their natural but vibrant colours and gentle lighting. Similarly to the images I have researched previously, I am really drawn to the greenery and brightness of most of the forest landscape, especially the soft lights that peer through the trees and illuminate the water in the Forest Spirit's pool. I find the scenery has lots of focus on tranquility and the films have lots of moments where no action is happening, so the audience can just look at an environment and reflect in the peacefulness. For example when Ashitaka arrives in the spirit forest, he calmly follows the Kodama through with no rush, and you just get to take in the natural environment with all its foliage and sounds. I'm also a big fan of the little creatures in Ghibli films and the Kodama in this one are no different. They have simple black dots for features but appear very expressive in their over the top animation and how they huddle in groups. They lend to the already vibrant and cozy environments by adding another layer of whimsy and a magical feel, combining the historical and fantasy themes of the film. In regards to the other animals in the film, I am also a fan of these designs, especially the Forest Spirit with its almost weirdly humanoid face and layers of antlers, signifying its presence and age. I have focused a lot on environments in my research but also need to remember that they are filled with creatures, not just plants, so these magical animals and species will be helpful to look back on if I go that route in my project. My favourite scenes visually are the ones where the decaying curse is seen, the Forest Spirit's steps as the ground grows and withers instantly and when the greenery covers the mountain range at the end. I find the contrast between the lush surroundings and the destruction that is left in all of these scenes really stunning and reflects the kind of scenery I would like to use in my work. The idea of rage and hatred corrupting the Gods and leading them to destroy the domain they once treasured, or waiting for destruction to lose their Godly powers is saddening and an interesting concept that I think I could draw from when applying decay to my work. Adding this research section has helped me see some more visual and story beats I am drawn to and what I could include in my project. I know that I want to explore a story of nature and humanity and how the lines between them blur and conflict.

Visual and Contextual Research:
The Apocalypse and Far Future

Looking at my survey questions, I think the ones that are most relevant to what I want to research next are the following: 'Do you think it is more important to prioritise human advancement or current global issues?', 'If you discovered a way to make humans live forever would you share it with the world?', 'If you were given the opportunity to prevent death would you?' and 'What do you think the world will be like in 100 years time?'. I have chosen these questions as I haven't really gone into these topics with my research so far, but so much of renewal that I have looked into and been interested by is to do with time, the transition from past to future and the loss of human structure as a result of nature. This is why I want to look into current ideas on what people around the world think about the future and how renewal and decay will affect us going forward. I also think that the apocalypse is interesting to research as it is a disruption to these plans and is essentially the ultimate form of destruction and human loss. Lots of media and stories depict the aftermath of something like this and how the world or people restore what has been lost, or cause more destruction. In this research section, I want to look into what an apocalypse is and how people are dealing with moving into the future. This should help me narrow down my project focus more and once I have done so, I plan to look at apocalypse media and fictional stories to take inspiration from if I am still interested in this route.

What is the Apocalypse?

The apocalypse in the modern day is used to refer to a world ending catastrophe that changes Earth as we know it. They usually fall into categories of natural disasters like a climate collapse, man-made disasters like a nuclear fallout, technological failures that result in disaster, or supernatural and fictional events like a zombie virus or alien invasion. I find the most common themes in apocalyptic settings are the fight for resources, dealing with the mental effects of living in a destroyed world, environments filled with forgotten remnants of the world before, factions and conflict amongst different surviving groups and extra threats caused by the apocalyptic event itself - like zombies in that scenario. Though after looking into it more, apocalypse was originally used in a religious context, mostly in Christianity, as a word meaning 'revealing' or 'uncovering'. According to a Cambridge transcript by Dr Alastair Lockhart, the first place it was used was in the Book of Revelation, where the writer is writing down a vision that was revealed to him about the 'end times' and the 'triumph of the divine all over the Earth.' From this, some religious groups have come to believe that eventually so much sin and suffering will exist that God will return to cause a worldwide catastrophe where sinners are punished and good people are rewarded. This also reminded me of a more recent belief of 'The Rapture' which is the idea that good Christians will be sent up to heaven and kept safe while everyone left on Earth lives in suffering and judgement. Often times, groups with such strong apocalyptic beliefs are more likely to get involved in cult behaviour and violence where they have beliefs of the exact dates of the end times and in extreme cases will commit violence like mass suicides in an attempt to ascend to heaven. I am more interested in the modern interpretations of apocalypse though, but I want to look more into why humans are so obsessed with the idea of the world ending and what this may reflect about our current world.

Why are Humans so Obsessed with the End of the World?

Historically, paranoid and apocalyptic media being trendy aligns with real world political and social issues. For example, the Victorian era had lots of advances in technology in a short amount of time, leading to a rise in sci-fi work, then in the 20th century with the World Wars and Cold War, there was an increase in stories about world ending events and catastrophe. While in fiction the apocalypse feels like a distant fantasy, I would argue that humanity has gone through events akin to apocalypse in our history. Tragedies like war, famine and genocide have been committed against other cultures, practically wiping them out in some cases, as a result of colonialism. With tragedy, violence and drastic change on the mind, it is only natural our fiction reflects this, but the fact an apocalyptic story can be an appealing one and not just about the devastation of it is what is interesting to me. I am looking at this from two scenarios, end of the world stories where we are saved before it happens and stories where the apocalypse does take place and what happens in the aftermath.

Some of the most popular modern fiction enjoyed by the mass audience are superhero movies, which practically all feature threats to the Earth or the destruction of major cities. The government and armies don't usually do the saving in these stories, but instead a group of powerful heroes who take matters into their own hands. The general population typically does nothing to help save the world in these narratives, but instead gets to sit by as an unknowable outside force comes and saves them. I think this can reflect our climate in regards to reacting to disaster in some ways, we are led to believe that the general person can't do anything to change issues with our world and are then lulled into a false sense of security that any problems we face will just disappear - or are just forgotten about and moved on from as a future threat isn't actually affecting anyone in the moment. I find this reflects our general reaction to the impacts of climate change. For many, these threats don't yet feel like total annihilation is coming since the consequences have come more slowly and gotten worse over a long period of time. Although we have no miraculous cure to solve disasters like there is in popular fiction, so it seems that people will only react when things are too late if we keep going on the same course. The thought of our world slowly dying with the majority being apathetic towards it feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In regards to post-apocalyptic stories, I think some of the love for them comes from the the idea of it being an escapist fantasy. The idea of the end of the world and the loss of everything you've ever known and loved should be horrifying, but surviving and making it to a broken world may actually feel like a relief. The modern world is a fast and complex place built on consumption and efficiency, so the idea of a world with no external expectations, no monotonous tasks and no work is an escapist fantasy. Although it is objectively bad to live in a world where your life is threatened constantly, for many the idea of living a simple life where we return to the basics of human living feels more appealing that continuing in the current cycle. In these worlds people often live in a more hunter-gatherer style way, even if that's hunting for supplies instead of animals, though that is the way humans were doing it originally and the way our bodies evolved to work, not the more disconnected and automated way we interact with the world now. This idea of being a survivor in this situation is a fantasy though, its the want to be the main character in a world that feels more interesting that our own. The likelihood of the average person surviving the end of the world over a billionaire with an apocalypse bunker is low and the ramifications of that prioritisation is something I want to explore more in this research section. My takeaway here is that thought of an explorable world where you get to learn and exist at your own pace, despite the danger, feels like a simpler and happier life for a lot of people who are tired with the current system of living.

This research has helped me understand the appeal of apocalypse stories and the way they reflect our world. I next want to explore the ways different people prepare for the future and different ideologies regarding how we should focus our resources on different global issues. I also want to look at the consequences of an apocalypse and how some groups think it would be a positive or negative thing.

Planning for Future Generations: Effective Altruism and Longtermism

I have been searching for different opinions on how humanity should plan for the future and have been looking into ideas of effective altruism and longtermism as interesting view points. Effective altruism is a philosophical and social movement that suggests calculating ways to provide the greatest amount of good in the world. Actions taken under this include donating to selective charities and addressing global issues. It has come to face criticism for prioritising speculative long-term risks over immediate and current issues as well as focusing on individual charity over making actual systemic and political change so the issues can be fully dealt with. The prioritisation of speculative future goals leads me into longtermism - the ethical view that positively influencing the long-term future should be our main priority. At first, this seems like a given; I think most people would agree that we have an obligation to care for future generations, even those who don't care or believe in things like climate change would think we should care for the future in other ways, but this is not that thought. Longtermism takes it further in saying that our current short and middle term issues don't matter and don't need to be solved at all over ones in the future. There is a big focus on 'existential risk', described by longtermists as 'a risk that threatens the destruction of humanity's long-term potential' - essentially human extinction or societal collapse. So from this view point, an existential risk is the worst thing that could possibly happen to humanity as it stops us from reaching our full potential. The catastrophe would not be tragic because so much suffering is caused by humanity being wiped out, that is only a personal tragedy, the even worse second tragedy would be the loss of a long and prosperous future for humanity where humanity expands to heights never seen before, for example in space travel and technology. In this view, something like our current climate issues in human history would be the equivalent to a 100-year-old falling over as a child. This is even more concerning when you look at what an 'existential risk' could be in our modern day. These ideas are mainly heralded by rich, technology loving people living in higher income countries, who by thinking our value is in technology, would prioritise the people living in places where there is a higher change technological advancement would come from, therefore prioritising and giving more value to the lives of those who live in rich countries over poor ones. Similar views of the value of life can be seen throughout human history and explain how we got to this point with our climate issues - the first places threatened to be destroyed by it are lower income countries and indigenous communities, rather than western cities. The idea of prioritising our future by solving all problems with more technology 'conveniently' aligns with tech billionaires goals to accumulate more personal wealth and power forever. Looking into these ideas also made me think about what a technological future for humanity could actually look like, where we venture into space and exist as a posthuman species, or if the world did face an 'existential threat', who actually would survive and how long would that last? Looking at these views and the reflections of what people think our future will be like from my survey has made it clear to me that many people don't want this tech future where no concerns of climate change and suffering from genocide, poverty and whatever else are taken seriously, this is the way we have been going in a world run by billionaires. Things like AI are where the money is at so that is what is focused on, it makes me see a tech future like this as a dystopia. From my research so far, I am interested in the visual and cultural differences between a more natural solution is taken to problem solving versus a technological one, or a balance between them both and I think one of these ideas or a combination could be something I explore in the world of my project.

Bunkers and Separation from Earth

It seems when actually faced with the idea of apocalypse, the rich are burying underground. These are framed as a precaution, but what would actually happen to someone if these bunkers were put to the test? The horror of only a handful of the rich being able to survive the apocalypse isn't even my main concern, but more what the day to day life would be like being trapped underground unable to ever leave. Some of these bunkers are small and designed to house immediate friends and family for a few years, but others are much more ambitious, for example Mark Zuckerberg's bunker is supposed to house at least 100 people, including a full team of staff. Here I want to look into what it might be like to live inside in the same place forever.

These photos come from a doomsday bunker located in Kansas designed for the ultra rich. The idea came from a man named Larry Hall, who converted a Cold War era missile silo into the bunker - called the survival condo - which is made up of 15 floors of living space, recreation facilities, food stores, medical equipment, classrooms, libraries, gyms and more. The interiors are designed to reflect the outside world, with the fake TV windows and bright pool room, but to me it still feels so sterile and bland. A bunker like this would be a closed system where everything that allows you to live is inside the bunker, energy is exchanged but no new materials come in or out, like a terrarium. This works with a terrarium as the biological processes of plants absorbing carbon dioxide and water, in exchange releasing oxygen which then bugs and bacteria use, they eat decaying leaves and release carbon dioxide back for the plants. So in theory, a near perfect closed system in a bunker could last forever, but they never seem to because of human reaction. The isolation of it all would be enough to drive someone insane. After hearing about Zuckerberg's bunker and his plans to have a full staff, I could only think about how miserable that life would be for the staff, waiting on him forever with no other life to go back to. I can only imagine how the resentment would just build up and up until eventually spilling over, and if its anything like apocalyptic fiction, they would try to kill him or throw him out in some way. Social breakdowns in isolation are common, when watching a video by Sarah Davis Baker on the problems with containment in bunkers, she comments on winter-over syndrome, a phenomenon causing depression, anxiety, loss of time and sleep disorders in people who work and maintain research stations in Antarctica over the winters. Conditions like winter temperatures of -60°C, pitch darkness for majority of the year and nowhere to go but the same station you're living in for nine months can cause these issues. In this case, there is an end date for living in the research station, but in an apocalypse where you have no idea how long it will be until you can leave, these mental effects will surely get even worse. The options in this scenario are to either live and go insane in containment, or brave leaving to get the freedom from the outside world you so desperately need, either way it makes you wonder what the point in having the bunker was in the first place.

Something else I mentioned wanting to look into in my last segment was asking what it would be like if we actually moved into a tech future and began travelling from Earth to different planets. When looking at this I came across the concept of generation ships, which came from NASAs art program in the 70s where artists would explore what a human space colony could look like. The scenario would be that we find another Earth-like planet that would be able to sustain human life, but a planet like this would be galaxies away and potentially thousands of years of travel.

These pieces were created by artists Rick Guidice and Don Davis and depict what a spaceship that would pass through multiple generations of people could look like before getting from Earth to the next planet. Unless our understanding of physics changes and we are able to travel through space much faster, the crew could be born on the ship and die on the ship without ever stepping foot on a real planet. I think this has a similar effect that living a bunker would, in the sense of the isolation and disconnection from the real world you would feel. Though there are even more logistics to think about here. The original crew of the ship have the goal to move to the new planet and have seen and lived on our Earth before, giving them a first hand account on why they want - or have - to go somewhere else, but maintaining this collective goal into new generations when there is no one who made the original decision there feels impossible. Why would someone born part of the way through the space expedition even care about Earth or their final destination when they never get to see it but are forced to work to get future generations there? Yes it is a kindness to think about the people who will come after you, but in this scenario you never asked to devote your life to space travel and human expansion. Additionally, if a bunker or spaceship is anything like Earth's society, there would likely be a hierarchy. Those who are considered more important or leaders would get more freedom and services for them, and the rest would do the manual labour of maintaining the spaceship or looking at Zuckerberg's bunker again - being essentially servants. I imagine if this was a real life scenario that those in higher positions would try and find ways to control the majority, perhaps by banning images or talking about life before and what happened to make the generations before you leave Earth. It would be a way to make you think you aren't missing out on anything and that being the transition from point A to point B is what you were always meant to do, it would be a way to stop people lower down in the hierarchy from questioning the power system and the whole set up of their life as workers. I think that both of these scenarios are destined for failure if played out like this. In earlier research, the main Earth disasters I have been referencing are ones to do with the climate, so say that's what caused everyone to hide away or leave in these scenarios. So much time and money is spent to build these bunkers and ironically let the rich who are the cause of climate collapse be the only survivors, it makes me think that surely it would be easier and more reasonable to just deal with the problems of the planet we already have.

In regards to the visuals of these pieces, I think they fit into the retro futurism style, where visions of the future are blended with past bright aesthetics and predictions of technology. These illustrations combine a typical suburban town look with bold coloured and bright rings surrounded by a variety of smaller flying spaceships. The pieces feel very optimistic in their colourfulness, chunky sci-fi features and green natural layout of the towns within and I think that reflects the limitless feeling of new technology in the 60s and 70s. The contrast between the emptiness of space and the Earth-like land in the ships sticks out to me as it feels unnatural for them to be this close to each other, which I think furthers the whimsical themes of the style, as it makes living like this possible in the world it creates. Despite me talking about all the negative things I think could happen if we were in this scenario in real life, I do really like how this style feels more positive compared to modern sci-fi where the most common theme is a dystopian future. The vibrant colours, flourishing landscapes and sense of nostalgia really contrasts the dark, destructive and metallic appearance that of lots of modern depictions of the future. These illustrations feel really inviting and highlight all the almost magical possibilities people thought technology would have, it shows a world where technology allowed for fun, exploration and knowledge. I find I prefer this colourful and magical appearance over the opposite and based on this and my previous research of lush nature-filled scenery, I know that I want to apply this to my projects designs. Despite my main focusing being on natural elements, I think I could experiment with including some technological designs, depending on what direction I go for my FMP story.

This research has given me more insight into what an apocalyptic future could look like in the real world though I am unsure if I want my project to go down the route of a technological or disastrous future. I am very sure that I want to explore an apocalypse story but I need to think about what medium this concept will work best in. I am still mostly drawn towards the natural renewal and decay elements of my earlier research so I am leaning further from this bunker and space style, but I could find a way to comment on both things as I do still find this very interesting to think about. My next steps will be to explore apocalyptic media so I can get more insight into what sort of story or medium I want to go into with my project, but before I move onto that I want to look at the images I took on my trip to the Tate Modern as I think they go well with the rest of this research section.

Primary Images: Tate Modern, A Year in Art: 2050

On our college's trip to the Tate Modern, I was most interested in the exhibit 'A Year in Art: 2050 ', but specifically the sculpture pieces on display. According to the website, this exhibit was designed to 'reflect how new technologies and experiences of modern life alter our relationships to the body, the city, and to each other.' I want to analyse these works as I think they align with the ideas of humanity in the future and what moving into the future in our society would be like, especially these sculptures that both reflect the human body.

This sculpture, titled 'Unique Forms of Continuity in Space' was made by Umberto Boccioni in 1913 and cast in heavy bronze on 1972. Boccioni was a member of the futurist movement, which were artists and writers who eagerly embraced new technologies and were influenced by the ideas of a mechanised body and the industrialisation that came to Italy at the time. This piece is of a body changed by speed and exaggerated dynamic shapes that reflects a futuristic mechanised human. I find it interesting how the components look almost like recognisable objects or features but when you really look it is just a mixture of angles and shapes, giving it both an uncanny and futuristic feel. I also find that despite the statue being solid bronze, it still looks fluid, as if to reflect the speed and movement we have to go towards the future and this new type of person that embraces technology. This sculpture reflects a different human identity that was expected of the future at the time and reminds me of my early research into what a future of humanity could look like when embracing a robotic post-human form.

'Predators 'R Us' is a 2020 sculpture made by Andra Ursuţa. The sculpture is made out of multi-coloured glass and depicts a human figure - made up of 3D scans of the artist's body - with a bottle for an arm, no head and slippers referring the aliens from the Predator movies. Ursuţa has commented, 'I return to the body a lot because it represents an obstacle, vulnerability, decay, shame. It's the thing that is impossible to transcend.' I find this piece reflects these limits that our body has, as if it is pushing the limits to the maximum of what the human identity or body can do or be like in our present. The bottle and slippers remind me again of technology and human creations of the present and future and how integrated these things have become with our lives in the modern world. I really like the multicoloured glass used to form the body and how the mix of colours is imperfect and random looking, it makes the piece feel more free and unique. These themes of the human body changing with the world really interest me and after looking at these pieces and my other research, I would like to find a way to explore this in my project and I think this concept goes well with the themes of the apocalypse.

For my project, I know I want to experiment with multiple mediums in my design phase and looking at both of these pieces makes me think I could maybe create a sculpture, especially as I mentioned working with physical 3D mediums in my project proposal and my classmate suggesting I could make a model of an environment I create. As I said previously, I next want to research apocalypse fiction and media as I know from what I have done so far that I want to make a story about the future after an apocalypse, but I want more direction and to decide what medium would suit this best. I plan on starting this research by looking at the origin of apocalypse media but more in depth than I did when talking about what an apocalypse is earlier in this section.

Evaluation Week 5

The Apocalypse and Far Future

Visual and Contextual Research:
Apocalypse Fiction

Origins of Apocalypse Fiction and Literature

The oldest known examples of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are different prophetic writings from different religious texts, for example the Apocalypse of John from 95 AD in Christianity and the Apocalypse of Abraham from some time around 70-150 in Judaism. These types of prophetic writings reference the author or character having an interaction with God and receiving a prophecy or blessing, following the original meaning of apocalypse in which it originally referred to a revelation of God's will. According to Wikipedia's list, the story regarded as the first modern speculative fiction to depict the end of the world was 'Le Dernier Homme', a novel by Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville, which was published in 1805. The title translates to 'The Last Man' with the story being written in the format of a prose poem. The story follows the protagonist, the last child to be born in a world where Earth has become sterile and humans are losing the ability to reproduce, on his journey to find the last fertile woman. After adventuring there, the Spirit of Earth persuades them to have a child to begin the rebirth of humanity but they are also met with the first man Adam, who has been condemned by God to persuade them against it. He succeeds in persuading the woman to leave the man, and the Spirit of Earth cannot survive without humanity, leading to the graves of the dead opening and initiating the Rapture described in the Apocalypse of John/Book of Revelation. Many other early apocalypse fiction was inspired by the biblical signs of the apocalypse, prophetic writings and eschatology - which is the belief that negative world events will reach a climax and lead to the end times as depicted in multiple world religions. Some of these works include the 1816 poem 'Darkness' by Lord Byron, in which the world ends by the sun extinguishing and Mary Shelley's 'The Last Man' published in 1826, where there has been a global pandemic of the bubonic plague. Shelley's work was inspired by finding prophetic writings in a cave near Naples which she edited into the books narrative of a man living at the end of the 21st century (between 2073 and 2100). Lord Byron's was inspired by the growing belief that a God many not be real and other events in the romantic era that resembled signs of a biblical apocalypse to some, including unexplainable darkness and cold temperatures across Europe in 1816, which we now know was caused by volcanic ash rising from Mount Tambora in Indonesia. Moving into the late 19th and early 20th century, apocalyptic themes moved away from biblical ones to more modern ideas, focusing more on disasters arising from environmental and technological problems such as 'The Purple Cloud', a 1901 novel by M. P. Shiel where most of humanity has been killed by a poisonous cloud that has emerged from volcanic eruptions. Currently, the apocalypse genre has many different causes for disaster, set across all different time periods. Causes like impact events and nuclear disasters rose in popularity post Cold War and the very popular zombie apocalypse trope gained gained influence in the 1968 with American horror film 'Night of the Living Dead', directed by George A. Romero.

Now there are so many different kinds of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction for me to explore in my work, that appear in many different mediums like games, films, books and TV. Because of the wide variety of research options, my plan is to start by researching the examples from my project proposal, 'Adventure Time' and 'Gwend of the World' before asking my others what some of their favourite media in this genre is.

Adventure Time

Adventure Time is an animated fantasy TV series that follows Finn the human and his magical dog Jake in their battles across the land of Ooo. The series is set around 1000 years after the Mushroom War, which was an apocalyptic global nuclear war that wiped out nearly all human life on Earth. Not much is known about this war or what led to it besides that it ended with the Mushroom Bomb being dropped on what used to be America. There has never been an official timeline but there are hints that there was conflict between world powers and that it happened sometime between 1980 and 2010. The bomb left the world mostly devoid of life, with almost no humans left and those who survived did so by hiding in fallout shelters, escaping to space or living through supernatural means. This background establishes the modern Ooo we see in the series as the world has healed and changed; the event caused the creation of new humanoid species, new environments and societies because of the way the world mutated. Zombie like species called Oozers were created as a result of the impact and other hostile creatures emerged from hiding to hunt down humans such as vampires and rainicorns. In regards to the early plot, this event also created a main villain - the Lich - as well as causing a resurgence of magic, which became the focus of the plot forward episodes in the early seasons. The series was inspired by other post-apocalyptic media but subverts the expectation that they should be living in a wasteland with the world being at the stage where civilization has been rebuilt and there are very little remnants of the Mushroom War left. Only a few signs of nuclear devastation remain in Ooo, for example in the episode 'The Vault' where the character Shoko falls in an irradiated river and is mutated by it, causing disfigurement and swelling. The few remnants of human influence that are left in modern Ooo lay in disarray and abandonment, with only abandoned buildings and military paraphernalia left behind. Despite the fact the show takes place after the world has been

rebuilt, technology and society aren't at the height they were pre-apocalypse and the effects of this remain clear in the story and shape of the world. With technology, it is implied that much knowledge was lost as it is said certain things need to be 'reinvented' (for example the knowledge on how to build spaceships was lost), but due to new inhabitants arriving on the planet, new developments were made such as universal translator devices and holographic newspapers. I am really drawn to this setting as I like how the apocalyptic event was far in the past and the world has rebuilt and changed in strange and magical ways. While I enjoy apocalypse stories set during or close to the disaster, I find having the story set far after really interesting since you get to see how a new society has developed and what ways have been kept from the past and what has been rebuilt new. In regards to the magical changes and new species, I think this is a really fun way to show the affects of an apocalypse without making something too zombie-like or just evil, it instead focuses on people and environmental changes. For my project, I think I can get inspired by these elements and making a story set in the far future after an apocalypse could be a way to combine my ideas about nature and technology as both would have had the time to develop and change.

The series style has changed over time from its conception to the modern spinoffs, most recently being Fionna and Cake, but even in the early days the style was built on experimentation. TV animation in the 2010s primarily had visuals like sharp angles, thick lines and large facial features, but Adventure Time subverted these characteristics by having soft edges, small eyes and no noses, expressive characters, simplified human limbs, bright colours and tapered line art. This fluid, simple and more random style complimented the early seasons' strange and disconnected plots between each episode. Series creator Pendleton Ward has said he was inspired by his time studying at CalArts, his work on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Ghibli movies and his teams love for D&D. I think these inspirations and the shows style lead to the focus on silliness and worldbuilding in the show. I find the simplistic style both compliments the silly moments in the show and helps create more tension in the darker episodes. The animators end up breaking their pre established style rules in order to add fear, for example using realistic faces, darker colour pallets and more rigid designs. Going back to the Lich, I think this is done really clearly in his design with his unmoving skull head that is only lit by a green flame in his eyes, contrasting the fluid and floppy movements of Finn and Jake. Additionally, as the franchise has progressed the style has made changes. In Fionna and Cake, the style has changed by having more realistic backgrounds to contrast the simplistic characters, more weight in the animation, more painterly and textured colouring to draw attention back to the characters and coloured line art in the backgrounds to make them more seamless. The change in style reflects the change in the narrative, for as the story gets more complex (Fionna and Cake delves into ideas of the multiverse and alternate timelines) so does the animation style. I am personally drawn to the style for its fun and bright scenes that can then be so quickly contrasted by strong moments of emotion and dark colours. Looking into this series has given me some insight into what my project could look like if I go down the animation route, as well as making me want to include both moments of joy and drama.

Gwend of the World

Gwend of the World is a six-part comic written and illustrated by lenadoodllles, otherwise known as Helena. The comic follows 19 year old Gwen Harper, who discovers that another planet will collide with Earth in 343 days. She finds herself loosing all of her momentum, as she feels she has wasted her life away by worrying and not truly expressing herself to others. After making changes to her appearance and routine to help her feel more refreshed, she reunites with a childhood friend - Priya - who she begins spending her time with. They spend their days exploring and going on spontaneous trips before watching Priya's band perform a show for the end of the world. In this moment, the distractions from their demise stop working for Gwen and she is confronted by her feelings again. She tells Priya how she was too scared of what others thought of her in the past and that the reason she distanced herself from her when they were younger was because she was scared of her feelings for her. They then admit to each other that they are in love under the light of the incoming planet, finally feeling content with their fate. The final chapter has Gwen chasing after a deer that has kept crossing paths with her throughout the story and it leads her to a place she can view the end of the world taking place. She is no longer scared or angry, but feels peaceful looking up at the planet, living in the comfort that everything will end at the same time and that the time she had left was spent so valuably with Priya. It ends with her saying how she doesn't want to die, but finds this is a hell of a way for it to happen as she stares at the falling lights and rocks alongside the deer. I am really compelled by this story as so many emotions and feelings of both joy and despair are conveyed in such a short amount of time, but nothing is glazed over pushed to the side. The conciseness of the story and short format is really refreshing, nothing is unnecessarily drawn out and the characters growth can be seen in the key points. Additionally, I like how when Gwen and Priya's relationship started, it didn't become the only focus of Gwen's like. Getting those emotions off of her chest and confessing her love helped her see her true self clearly, allowing her to grow and accept what was coming. In the last moments before impact, she sits alone in a field to face the incoming destruction herself, which I think reflects her growth. The fact the story has an all female cast appeals to me as well, especially as a young woman, I find relatability in Gwen and Priya's emotions regarding repressed identity and authenticity in order to appeal to society and by having no men in the story there gets to be less holding them back from becoming their true selves in the end. I think that having an impending end of the world as the catalyst for the characters emotions and growth is really interesting and unique from many other apocalypse stories that focus more on trying to put a stop to impending doom or show the aftermath. The planet looming over Gwen in the frames where she doubts herself and lighting an even brighter pink conveys this even further. Just showing the life of a regular person and their struggles with knowing everything is going to end, especially a young girl is something that really drew me to the story. I think in my work, I can reflect on this comic and the focus on characters emotions and my draw to female characters for my own work. I am currently leaning towards making a narrative that surrounds an apocalyptic event with overgrown landscapes, so I would like a protagonist character or characters that reflect on what life is like in the world that they live in and their other emotions, similarly to how it is done here.

For my visual research, I want to look at Helena's work on Gwend of the World and their other illustrations, which are primarily focused on character designs. In most of their design work the focus is on female characters and I really like the way they draw women with all different styles, body types, and personalities conveyed through the designs and posing. In the character spreads they make, they often have designs that all carry one theme, for example below there is a group themed around pearls and a group themed around strawberries. I like how despite all being in the same theme, all the designs look very different with small motifs like bows, patterns, a matching item of clothing or a certain colour tying the designs into the overall lineup. The paint-like look of their more detailed pieces is something I really love as the unblended colours and lack of line art along with their use of vibrant colours and shadows provide interesting texture and contrast between light and dark. I see this use of colour and lighting most in their Gwend of the World work with the bright light of the planet casting onto the characters, the drawn textures and pops of colour to break up all the pink. Regarding the planet, the use of its colour in the storytelling of the comic stands out to me as scenes where Gwen is unable to distract herself show the bright pink light more than the scenes where she is avoiding it, which look more like a natural sunset over the scenery. Additionally, Gwen dyes her hair pink, reflecting the planet whereas Priya's hair is green, which contrasts the pink and reflects how she was part of the reason Gwen tried to live her true life despite the incoming death. As for their background work, I am again really drawn to the painterly feel here and I think that it is heightened even more in the dramatic and open natural scenery they draw. They again use vibrant colours and natural hand-drawn looking textures to convey the shapes of elements like trees, water and mountains. Back to the planet again, I especially love the texture and effects that come from it, with the brightness lines it emanates and the smoke and stars as the meteors come falling down. Looking at this for inspiration during my design work, I find I often pose characters quite statically with uninterested facial expressions, so if I make character references for my work, I would like to reflect on Helena's posing and carried on motifs through all the characters to make cohesive designs. In my personal work, I already lean towards a more lineless and textured style in both my character and background designs, so I think this work can help me further my understanding and give me more inspiration for this style if I end up going that direction, I could even maybe try traditional painting instead of digital. As I mentioned before I am drawn more towards female characters and it is likely I will make my story's characters women, so when I work on those designs I could come back and reflect on this design work for inspiration.

Research Reflection

Based on my research that I have done so far, I know that I want my project to include features such as: overgrown and natural environments, unique and possibly magical ecosystems, characters and the environment being intertwined, a female centered story, an apocalypse event, potential mentions of technology and a bright and vibrant art style. Looking back at this, I next need to decide the best way to convey these features and pick which ones would suit it best. For this I want to continue researching other apocalyptic media to help me decide a suitable medium, length of narrative and what design work I will need to do. As I have researched my sources I suggested in my project proposal, to decide what to research next I have asked different people for examples of apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic media that they either love or think relates back to some of my research I have done so far. After asking here are some of the suggestions that I was given:

Stray - Video Game
The Walking Dead - Video Games
Horizon - Video Games
The Last of Us - Video Games
Love, Death and Robots - Series
WALL-E - Film
Splatoon - Video Games
Fallout - Video Games

As most of these suggestions are video games, I want to put more focus into that medium, so I want to start by looking at some of those suggested. Based on my own interests and pre-existing knowledge of the games suggested and their visuals, I want to start by looking at the Horizon games and The Last of Us as both depict different kinds of apocalypse and have varying art styles that both have natural elements. I plan on analysing the games for narrative points, themes, visuals and maybe a small bit of game design.

Horizon

Horizon is a sci-fi action roleplaying game series that follows Aloy, a huntress living in a post-apocalyptic world filled with animal-like robots. The story is set in the USA in the 31st century, where humans now live in scattered tribes with varying levels of technology. In gameplay, you use ranged weapons, a spear and stealth to combat enemies as well as being able to hack machines to make them into mounts. You increase your strength through a skill tree that covers three categories of 'Prowler' improving stealth, 'Brave' improving combat and 'Forager improving healing and gathering. In the first game, Horizon Zero Dawn, you use these abilities to travel through the landscape on Aloy's quest to find out about her origins. She also has access to an augmented-reality device called a Focus, which allows her to interact with Old World technology. Her adventure lead her to the trail of an older woman who resembles her, named Elizabeth Sobek, who was a doctor tied to the creation of the AI and robots in the world. Here she also learns that the robots were originally created to work for humans and were advanced enough to feed off of biological material without needing to recharge. A glitch was introduced to the robots that caused them to desire humans as an energy source and wanted to destroy the whole human race. As the story progresses, Aloy is able to reach the sacred mountain

she aimed to go to understand her past and here she learns about zero dawn. Years ago, humanity invented Gaia, who was essentially AI mother nature, in an attempt to restore the planet back to an inhabitable place after it had begun decaying. Gaia would use terraforming and cloning tech to help bring humans back to life which were managed by different subroutines, one being Hades, who was a safety protocol that would restart the process of bringing life back if needed. Although Hades had become self-aware, wanting to destroy humanity and Gaia had to try and destroy it to save everyone. Then in an attempt to keep the legacy of Elizabeth alive, she created Aloy from Elizabeth's DNA, hoping she could save the planet. She then gives Aloy the instructions on how to destroy Hades, who has now infected the machines in the world to act in the same way as they did when they almost destroyed humanity last time. She and her allies are able to destroy Hades, but the post-credits reveals that it has somehow survived and been trapped. I am not going to go into the plot details of the second game as I can talk about the themes and plot points that interest me the most from this. Similarly to Adventure Time, I like how the story is set a long time after the initial apocalyptic event but I also like how there is an imminent threat of the apocalypse repeating itself. I think knowing the consequences and the death that happened to the world before and being threatened with that again is an interesting was to give agency to the characters in a post-apocalyptic world. As I have said previously, I may be interested in including a mix of technology and natural elements in my work and I think this game is a great example of that, especially in that the ecosystem includes the tech and they're not necessarily opposed. The machines are one of my favourite parts of the game as they, look cool and you can interact with so many different types in so many ways. Also the balance between the futuristic technology of the past and the tribal nature of current humanity is a cool subversion of the sci-fi trope of looking at an ancient past through a futuristic view. Looking again at female characters, I like how Aloy is a strong female character, but doesn't fall into that cliche as she feels human and has a strong personality outside of this box. She also isn't strong despite her feminine qualities, but is a good hero because of them, with her having a determined, smart and emotional personality that helps her make the right choice in the story. Her strength and femininity is in her personality and interactions with others, not her appearance or relationships to men. I like how in the game you don't get the choice to play as a male character and never do and I think that choice makes Aloy an even more important character. For my work, I am inspired by both these character traits and the worldbuilding that is built on the consequences of the previous world and people's current actions. The varying levels of technology throughout the world is something else I could be influenced by when creating my narrative.

I am really drawn to this games visuals and how the worldbuilding impacts them, it feels like every visual choice is grounded and purposeful. For example, each tribe in the game has a story behind their visuals that helps show clear cultures and personalities between them. Firstly the Nora tribe have a balance between practicality and spirituality in their appearance, they shun the Old Ones and hunt the machines for parts, resulting in their appearance focusing on natural materials. They wear leather and furs resulting in an earthly colour pallet and decorate themselves with old cables and wires from the machines that they repurpose into belts, jewellery and charms. Then in contrast the Carja tribe are the most advanced, with elaborate buildings, dress and hierarchies. As they are positioned on top of a large mesa, they are influenced by avian imagery of the birds who fly above and that influences lots of their decoration, even constructing their armour to look like feathers. They are also influenced by technological features as they have embellishments on clothing, buildings and makeup that look almost like circuitry. I think these details show realistically how each tribe interacts with the world and how their cultures differ because of environmental and spiritual beliefs. In regards to environment, the scenery is stunning and the world feels very real. You can see so far out, the weather changes and Aloy reacts to this, the lighting is so bright and colourful and looking back at my other research, I especially love the destroyed cityscapes. Unlike other abandoned areas I have looked at so far, the city setting feels much more impacted due to the twisted and fallen shapes of tall buildings and the connotations that so many people lived there before. The buildings that look like they could snap off and fall at any moment adds tension but more beauty and explorability to the area. I also love how in these scenes, the natural consequences aren't just greenery, but also flooding, flowers and different seasonal colours, as I find this adds more interest and brightness than the standard green plants over everything. As I mentioned before, I find the mix of tech and natural elements creates really interesting contrast, especially with the metallic and colourfully lit robots against a natural environment. I really like this visual in the below shot of Aloy watching a mechanical flower open as the light hits it, with the flower acting like it is a real one. For my work, this research makes me consider what location and season I would base my narrative in and what different approaches to an overgrown environment I could take, though I think I am still most drawn to where you can see different plant life and fun colours. This research has also made me want to put more thought into how the characters in my narrative would interact with the resources around them and how the apocalyptic event would change or reinforce their survival methods, as well as reflecting this in the visuals I create.

The Last of Us

The Last of Us is an action-adventure video game series set in a post-apocalyptic United States where the world has been ravaged by zombie humans that have been infected by a mutated cordyceps fungus. The first game follows Ellie, a young girl who is immune to the infection and Joel, a smuggler who is escorting her to find a cure and the second game introduces Abby, who is on her quest for vengeance. I don't want to go too deeply into the story here as I mainly want to focus on the worldbuilding and apocalypse tropes that I enjoy. Firstly, I like how the inciting incident of the apocalypse feels almost realistic with the fungus being based on something that exists in our nature now, I find this is a more interesting approach to a zombie story rather than other examples where it is just a new disease or illness, this feels more informed and makes the story feel more like something that could actually happen. Additionally, the way the fungus spreads across the world and makes a hive mind like army and giving these things biological reasons makes the infection feel even more ominous and makes the audience feel more involved as these things reflect the real world. I am also drawn to the different types of infected enemies you meet in the game and the varied designs and abilities they have. I think zombie games often have a lot of the same hordes of enemies and it can become quite repetitive, but in this game the varied types of zombies add more

interesting and unique combat encounters with mixed amounts and types of enemies. There are some more lightweight and fast running infected like the clickers, who have large fungus growths over their face and act in a very primitive and animalistic way, compared to the next stage of bloaters, who have become more sluggish but very strong and resilient due to the fungus covering their whole bodies. Besides infected enemies, there is also lots of focus on characters, factions and battles with other groups. Different factions have developed different beliefs and solutions to dealing with the apocalypse and the interactions with these different groups, or individuals is what makes the games narrative stand out. There are many times where the world feels hopeful and like there is some normalcy, but the actions and consequences of peoples behaviour cause these moments to end and you are dragged back into having to survive. I think these different groups and the fact the world isn't completely desolate despite the apocalyptic event is what makes the game's world feel alive. I think for my work, I am less drawn to a zombie apocalypse style story but I think it could be interesting to draw from the enemy design. I like the varying levels of infection and the fact that the fungus takes them over more and more and I think I could reflect this in my work, maybe by designs where the overgrowing nature and decay affects people or nature. As well as this, I am inspired by the biological reasoning an affects on the world, then looking at how different people deal with this, so I think it could be interesting if my project has people of different belief systems or groups and see how they react to the same problems.

As I mentioned briefly in my Horizon research, I am really drawn to the overgrown cityscapes in regards to overgrown areas. I especially like how in The Last of Us, locations are branded by factions and graffiti, signalling they haven't been completely left behind despite the decaying landscape. I like the elements of desolation as well, with things like abandoned cars, random belongings everywhere and varied states of homes as it sells the fact that the infection happened in a split second of panic, leaving everything behind as is for nature to claim. I also like in the cityscapes where the plants grow up different coloured buildings like red brick and coloured wood as it breaks up the only natural colours and adds contrast in colour and in texture in comparison to just city or just natural environments. The overgrowth also spreads to interiors, which again are left and abandoned just as they were, but have been scavenged through and left emptier by others who have come after, which I like because it shows the immediate effects and later consequences that the world has entered. In regards to environments, I also like how the changes in ambience make scenes either really beautiful, with natural light and brightness lighting up the overgrown scenes, making it seem more peaceful, or making the same environment more ominous and tension filled, with the use of night, harsh weather, unexpected sounds or movements and human signals in places they shouldn't be. I think overall the game has really gorgeous scenery that helps tell the story of the world and I would like to reflect this same history and mood building in my work. In regards to the TV series, while I have my issues with it something I do like is the way the fungus is incorporated into the landscape and effects bodies. For example, there is a shot where fungus spreads over a body and through the walls and floor and I just thought that effect was really cool and reminds me of my research into Annihilation and the way old bodies were incorporated into the landscape there. Another scene I liked is seeing all the lines of the fungus connecting across the ground that the characters needed to avoided. Overall, my research here has helped me see that I need to also think about ambience in my environments and that I would like to set my story in a city scene, or at least partially.

Based on this research into games, shows and comics, I do think a game would be the best medium for what I want to create, especially as I want to create a long narrative and trying to fit all of my ideas into a small animation or comic would take far too long for this project. I think my best plan of action will be to take what I have learnt in my research and form this into a game concept where I create different artworks, a narrative and work on game design. Moving into my designing stage, I want to start by generating some different ideas for my game's concept before moving into my final narrative, as I found last year I decided quite soon what my project would be and found I regretted not looking at my other ideas more. While I have my research here, I am still open to more research as I enter my next phase if I feel I need more information on a certain topic. I think this will come into play as I think about what my actual final piece could be as while I am going to make a game concept, I am unsure if I want to animate, make the game playable or do something completely different, so looking into that more once I have my finished concept would be helpful. I also think I could look at game design a bit more as while I commented on some elements like enemies and mounts here, once I have a clearer picture for my game idea I could revisit these games or find others within the same genre of play.

Evaluation Week 6

Next Section

Apocalypse Fiction

Charlotte E Animation

Final Major Project

Contextual Research: Theme Survey

Visual and Contextual Research: Ruined and Overgrown Environments

Contextual Research: Effects of Environmental Change

Contextual and Visual Research: Renewal, Decay and Change in Media