Hero in New York
A creative way to navigate New York as a land of monsters
Motivation
I have seen many things that are iconic to New York.
Artifact 1| Image Search : New York Street People
Taipei
Bangkok
We all go to work in the morning. What are New Yorkers thinking in their mind that make them behave differently?
I have heard many fears, anxiety, and disgust
I became a monster myself
I feel I did everything wrong,
I feel I am a joke and terrified to get out of my apartment everyday.
My emotion is a mix of sadness, anxiety, and anger.
I reversed the role of being watched in to watching. The role of watching is superior. Accepting people and things as they are, give these uncertain and irrational emotions a body to live.
DOMAIN OF INTEREsT
observing sceneries and emotions
Urban study
- Why does New York look like this
- Architecture Symbols & History
Folkloristics
- Why are there monster stories-old and contemporary. What do they represent
Narrative in short film
- How to tell a engaging story in 5 minutes
Art Therapy
- How might art reduce fear and anxiety
Connect emotion and location
CREATIVE WAY TO VIEW A SPACE
Weather and Geography
Machine Learning,
train AI to recognize the buildings
What fears and anxiety does New Yorkers have?
Artifacts 2 : Questionnaire
What is your strongest anxiety/ fear in New York
Where did/does it occur?
How did/does it occur?
How did/do you overcome it?
Harlem
I walked quickly into a restaurant and waited
Not having enough personal time or space with myself or in nature
once in a while
Mouse in ma house
My room
I bought a sound maker that avoid mouse/insect
Heights
Brooklyn bridge
Socialism
Always
Terrorist
World trade
No anxiety (extreme fear), but I do fear the amount of competition there is in the city. Makes me think I am less.
Always
Hard work and vision.
Being judged by strangers
The subways or busses are where people notice it most often
Stare Back
Getting lost
Midtown/Times Square
Being in a mob crowd during an emergency
On the Street
loneliness
nowhere in particular?
Being judged by strangers
Getting lost
Being in a mob crowd during an emergency
loneliness
Categorize
That I will fade into obscurity and be lost forever. That no one will even remember to look for me
Being followed, crowd, judgement, death, roaches, rats, terrorist, socialism, being nobody, time, subway, height
Being trapped in a subway car
The subway flooding and subway rats dying. Holland tunnel breaking and the river drowning the whole tube.
Being followed
My dog died while I was walking her on the street. She fell right onto my feet
My dog died while I was walking her on the street. She fell right onto my feet
falling on subway tracks in front of train
Flying roaches, the giant water-bug kind
Freud defined horror in terms of the irrational ‘gut level’ fear, the uncanny. He writes, “the uncanny is that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar. … This uncanny is in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression.”
means irrational fear is there because we try to repress and not face it
The fear thus lies not in the unknown, but rather in something previously known and in which the repressed is made suddenly recognizable. Thus, the feeling of the uncanny occurs when either “infantile complexes” or “primitive beliefs” are revived through the encounter with monsters. In fact, the uncanny is a kind of haunting proximity. The psychoanalytical approach thus perceives the monster as that which used to be a part of the self and needed to be cast away in order for the self to become unified or, at least, functional. Thus an encounter with the monster reminds the self of what it has lost.
Accepting fears as they are, give these uncertain and irrational emotions a body to live, and cast away, which is a monster.
Monsters in Mass media
Artifact 3
Before 2000
fear of baby/ being eaten (animals revenge, alien) / technology went wrong/ a leader with twisted mind
After 2000
global territories, identities, and technologies
cute Monsters
Are they a way that artist healing themselves? Art therapy?
My own cute monsters
Artifact 4
Experimenting with narrative
1. character is in a zone of comfort
Ashly is walking on a typical Manhattan street (on her way home)- noisy, crowded, and people walking really fast. She thinks being so small in a city so big is like everything is going to swallow her up.
2.But they want something
She wants to go home where it is comfortable and relaxing
3. They enter an unfamiliar situation
Ashly was on a Subway and she stares at flitting lights inside the tunnel, its so hypnotizing that she feels sleepy. When she doze of a bit and wake up she found the surroundings and passengers looking strange (Obvious color mode transition). she realize she is in a monsters' world.
4. Adapt to it
She wants to escape every weird situation but she keeps getting into another weird situation
5. Get what they wanted
She is so angry at the situations she encountered. The emotions turned her into a monster. She then tried to scared other monsters away as they scared her.
6. Pay a heavy price for it
She sees some little monsters and wanted to punch them. She sees the fear in their eyes and give up. Ashley becomes the monster that all the other monster in the world wants to avoid. She starts roaming on the land feeling lonely. It starts to rain, a big monster appear in the rain. That big monster seems sad but tried to hold a smile on its face when it saws Ashley. Ashly gives the big monster a hug.
7. return to their familiar situation
She wakes up on the train, knowing that everything is a dream
8. having changed
Ashly sees how people related to the monsters but now accepts people as they are. The sky starts to rain, she smiles a faint smile.