Introduction
The primary class for the Narrative 2 unit was in English III. Once we’ve started doing the WorldBuilding unit, we first read “1984” by George Orwell throughout the first two months (January to February). When we were reading, we’ve also done analysis on the book and participated on various challenges when it comes to creating a story. Additionally, we’ve also done analysis on other books as well, such as “The One who Walk Away from Omelas”.
One of the most intriguing parts in this class was to come up with a completely original story, along with characters, a setting, and lore, so that we would pitch our ideas to the whole class for a presentation. As we begun this assignment, we were put into groups of 3-4 people. I came up with the idea of a science-fiction story with my group members, 2326.
The story follows two brothers living in Portland, Oregon, named Reuben and Jonah Andrews, who find a portal inside a cave and get transported to 300 years in the future, where the environment is being destroyed by MICROEDGE, an industrial company that seeks out to create new technologies in order of a new paradise. With the help of a new robotic friend named Cleo, they join a rebellion to take down the corporation, save the world, and for the boys to get back to their time period.
Annotated Bibliography
Prior to coming up with our own stories, most of the students in English were assigned to do annotated bibliography so we can come up with a topic for our stories. The topic that I focused on was about deforestation – meaning the purpose of clearing of forested land for non-forest uses. Throughout my research, I’ve learned a lot about this issue than just “pollution is bad”, and “recycling saves the environment”. I’ve also learned about greenwashing – a term that describes a marketing practice to present a product as more “environmental-friendly” than it actually is.
If you want to learn more about this issue, you can click on the image and see the PDF.
Character Biography
During our research process, each group had to come up with original characters individually for our stories. The character I mainly came up with was Cleo, a half-bot who meets the two brothers and helps them get back to their time period.
Cleo:
An 18-year-old halfbot from the future who comes from Area 7130-C. She has orange hair, wax-like complexion, and wears greyish-blue clothing with the number “7130” seen on the back. She maintains a snarky yet friendly demeanor, and is also fascinated by history and wants to know about the past, but she struggles between making friends due to being a half-bot.
Description is from group document
Character image was made by Maarten Bousse
When I was still working on the treatment for the story, I came up with other characters for the story, which they can be found right here in the group document.
Surreal Composition
The next assignment we had to do was to make a “surreal” composition on Photoshop, by combining our characters and storylines to showcase them. For my composition, I used various stock images from the web to create this masterpiece called “Unfortunate Reality”, as you can see below. It took me about a few days to finish it, which was quite easy. You can also see my artist statement too as well.
Artist Statement
Unfortunate Reality
Using Photoshop, I created this piece by combining stock images together and using techniques like quick selection, blending modes, mask layers, eraser, and brush to mesh them into one.
In my group’s WorldBuilding Project, we’ve created a world where governments and corporations are controlling the world by manipulating the population into thinking that the planet has become a much better place, when in reality, the whole environment outside is being vaporized. The main message of my composition is that it’s inevitable that humans and technology will likely merge, but it’s not inevitable for them to rule your whole lives so our planet doesn’t turn into a wasteland.
My WorldBuilding Research focused on how deforestation can negatively affect the world through “false solutions”. The composition is represented through the wormhole, the robotic arm, and the mysterious face in the background, all of which represent the future that’ll happen in 300 years from now. In my piece, the conflict between our characters in our storyworld and my realworld research topic ties to how that technology will get worse over time if we let them rule our lives. I found that being able to use Photoshop to create visual composition made me realize how beautiful it is to use several images to make an artwork, and using the tools helped me do so. When I look at others’ surreal art, I love the effort they put into it and how they can represent complex themes that are hard to explain.
Accolade
Furthermore, my surreal composition also won first place in the Young@Art contest that was sponsored by the Rotary Club in Los Altos. I didn’t expect that my composition would be rewarded. I went to Rick’s Cafe down at Los Altos, the restaurant where the ceremony took place.
Worldbuilding Pitch Video
The final assignment for the unit in English was stemmed from the Worldbuilding Project, by turning the live pitch into a 5-minute video. We started doing the process by making a slideshow for the live presentation in English, then we had to turn the pitch into an online video in Digital Media via After Effects. The pitch video consists of several revisions to the script we followed for the presentation. We talked about the storyline, the characters’ motivations, and the lore about the time-traveling element.
If you want to watch the pitch video of the story, 2326, see below: