Layering Realities

     After brainstorming the environments and scenarios of my simulations, I've decided that both will be set in a setting that should not have smartphones. Using the smartphone as what defines texting and driving, it is central that this element remains as recognisable as possible. I've considered perverting the smartphone itself instead and using the act of texting + driving- looking away from the road, being distracted, having one/both hands engaged in an activity that should not be taking place (for example, a knight writing a letter while riding a horse). However, smartphone itself is a better connection to the "real" than the act of texting while driving itself, in my opinion. Altering the environment without altering the smartphone will be an interesting exploration in relative alignment with the perversion of basic realities on a dual scale.

    First, my settings will be finctional, but based on already existing traditional fictional material, directly referencing from it. It is fascinating that most of that fictional material was, in its own time, directly referencing and so perverting the "real". Specifically, well-known sci-fi environments such as "Back to The Future" (which I initially intended on referencing) or "Akira" (what I'm currently intending to reference) were attempting to "predict" the future, in a way reaffirming a certain understanding of the "real". Now, they are treated as an alternative rather than plausible reality, as the times in which both fictional settings were set have already become history. In a way, rather than perverting reality, they now are a fully realized "real" of their own, though I doubt that was the intention originally. What's even more fascinating, though, is that multiple artists now reference and even directly recreate scenes from those environments, essentialy perverting a fictional "real" that in its own time used to a perversion of "real". Accordingly, my fictional settings will be set in the hyperreal, then. 
    

the sci-fi cityscape of Akira, set in 2019, is filled with taller-than-the-sky, overflowing with unorganic neon lights scycrapers, feeling completely unalive, structured like a maze, yet breathing with human activity.

Next up, the existance of smartphones where they should not be: it's rather simple to imagine that smarphones will not be what they are today in a setting similar to Akira's. Yet, futurizing most elements in my project except for that will, hopefully, align my message stronger: no matter the time and space, texting while driving remains the same: distracting and dangerous. I feel that if I were to futurize that element as well, it would feel like it is only relevant to that specific reality, and is not a matter of concern here; by keeping the smartphone exactly as it is here, I hope to maintain the connection between my perverted reality and the "real" to which the message of my project should ring to. 

In my other animation, the one I'm currently designing due to its lesser complexity in both camera work and artistic design, the reality will remain as it is now, but the smartphone, on the other hand, will be somewhat perverting the reality by altering its size every time a text will pop up. The whole setting will be completely "real" for the first 4-5 seconds of the animation. In the latter ten, however, the smartphone will begin to pervert the reality as a way to illustrate the feeling of urgency and anticipation- something inherently subjective and individual and thus a simulation- when receiving texts while driving. The consequences of texting while driving will be perverted while the environment will be kept "real", whereas in the previous scenario, the reality itself would be perverted and shifted in order to demonstrate the "real" effects of texting while driving. Woah!

Here's my very rough draft of a snippet of the finished animation; it was such a frustrating and unnecessarily complicated process... I feel so angry! Anyways, the next goal is to settle down on what software I will be using for the final product (Procreate + DaVinci, Procreate + Blender, Blender), and creating reference for the scenes. 

Tomorrow, I'll make a short blog entry on my frustrations with the working process so far; I'm putting in a lot of effort in, but very countereffectively.