Week 1 - Issue and Application

For this first week, Karl had us narrow down our project ideas (or lack of them) into an issue and an application.

For mine, the issues I was interested in were:

  • Identity
  • Representation
  • Fantasy
  • Diversity
And my applications were
  • Illustration
  • Concept art
  • World building
The idea I had over summer for my project this year was a story bible for a fantasy world. I have some ideas for the aesthetic of this world, but I wanted it to be an exercise in researched world building. I want to make informed design choices that don't just replicate the kind of generic fantasy we tend to reproduce without thinking.

I'm most interested in:
  • creating a society with different rules of gender and sexuality
  • creating a religion/creation myth that is unique and seeing how that effects daily life
  • making a strong aesthetic cohesion in environments and objects
For this, I've narrowed down my current issue/application to:
Exploring the issue of Western centricism in fantasy through world building and concept art. 
This is still very broad but it gives me something to start looking at over the next few weeks.

Notes from Karl: have two or more points of reference then you can triangulate and zoom in on where they all meet. Keep asking WHY.

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