Assignments | Art Of CJ

This page is dedicated to the Video Game Design Club & assignments I've gotten from my art classes at Boston University. I include these to showcase my design skills and ability to curate an experience.

Video Game Design Club

Google Drive of Club

At Boston University, I was the founder and president of the Video Game Design Club. I founded the club as a space where people passionate about game design could research interesting topics and have discussions. I performed research to give presentations to teach new members important game design concepts. I organized and led activities made to practice game design amongst members. I performed presentations on the following topics:

- Combat Design in Video Games

- NPCs in Video Game

- Video Game maps

- Video Game towns

- What can we learn from Zelda Ocarina Time

- Story telling in video games

- Multiple presentations on 2D Games

The Next Dimension Welcomes You!

For a study in graphic language, the assignment was to come up with 5 categories that we would find in every day life to implement a graphic language onto. I chose clouds, dogs, puddles, Picasso paintings, and graffiti. Each category has a different graphic language, such as line weight, style, and spacing.

Afterwards, we were tasked with combining at least 3 forms out of the 5 categories to make a poster. I chose to create a poster that gives the feeling you are staring into another dimension.

I used the Picasso shapes category as a background. Then using the cloud, dogs, and puddle catergories, I populated the poster, giving the dimension it's inhabitants. Lastly I used the grafitti catergory to to put on shapes like it's a screen showing something.

The professor said I was succesful in creating an abstract dimension that also gave a friendly feel. I was given an A for the assignment.

Prompt: Make the audience experience a passage of time

I thought one is never more aware of time passing than when you're being forced to watch a video you don't care for. Therefore, I curated a purposeful uncomfortable experience, to make the audience think, "how long is this gonna take?"

Creating a video where it's just zoomed in on my face as the video gets increasingly disturbing, I knew it would be easy for audience members to look away and tune it out. To add another layer of discomfort, I acted as an erratic audience member, laughing manically to my own face counting number.

I got positive feedback that I accomplished the prompt very well. My class said they were disturbed by watching the performance, and they were wondering how long will it take for it to be over.

Prompt: Make an interactive installation that sticks out of the wall

I wanted to make a video game like installation, where as the audience interacts with it, it changes. I made an installation that was uncomfortable to be around. The sign "Are You Going To Help? Or Will You Just Stand There and Watch?" was hanged from the ceiling towards the audience. On the side there was a table with paint, happy pictures, tape, and various other art materials. On the side, I also played eerie music on my laptop. The implication was the audience would use the materials on the table to cover the evil painting. As they covered it, the eerie music would be slowly replaced by more cheerful music, encouraging them to do more.

The class got the idea immediately. They started to cover the disgusting drawing with pictures of puppies, smiling faces, and blue paint. I recieved feedback that it was a fun and gratifying experience that was supported by the music. I was told I was successful in making it feel like a video game.

Prompt: Make the audience experience an emotion

Listen with headphones and eyes closed.

Read the video's description.

I chose the feeling of anxiety. All elements of the video and it's presentation are intentional. The commands were there to add pressure to the viewer. A black screen for it's ominousness and for people to project their own anxiety's upon it. Lastly, the chaotic music to trigger certain reactions in the brain. All these aspects, pressure, ominousness, projection, and chaos are factors of what cause anxiety.

General feedback was that it did give my class an anxious feeling in their chest.

Leave Rain Leaves at 12:50

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The assignment was to collect pictures that inspires you. We were then paired with a partner and with that, we had to find a way to make both of our collections of photos communicate with one another.

To do this, I created a story that involved aspects from both of our collections. When printed, the story board is suppose to be folded and cut so it forms a handheld booklet. The story is about a fox and an invisible man who were both outcasted from society. They meet and find out the beauty of the world is dying, and it is up to them to save it. I also created a cover page for this story and printed it on a risograph.

The Imprint of Imagination

Part 1:

This assignment was to create an experience of a memory that you have through gift giving. The memory that I chose was one where I am in my elementary school's music class. My music teacher would teach us how to make aluminum foil people. He usually would play piano and he loved The Beatles, so to further the experience, while I taught the class how to make the figures I put on a piano cover of "Here Comes The Sun" by The Beatles.

Part 2

This part of the assignment was to create an archive based on the experience from part 1 of the project. As my memory was children making their own craftable toys, I decided to make an exhibit of craftable toys that one can imprint their imagination on, such as Play-Doh. I had my fellow classmates make something out of Play-Doh and put it in a paper covered box. To further develop the idea of imprinting imagination, I also had my classmates draw in the box with whatever they want. These elements combine to make a box with a feeling of childhood inside of it. With Play-Doh, goggly eyes, and colorful drawings, it gives the sense that a bunch of kids got together to make something. It is a box of imagination.