Zombie Apocalypse OCD

http://philome.la/roadkillturtle9/zombie-apocalypse-ocd

For this game, I was inspired by the anal retentive character played by Jesse Eisenberg in "Zombieland" to explore what it would be like for someone with OCD to survive a zombie apocalypse. This game medium gave a lot of opportunities to explore how factors like choice and scenario can communicate the experience of OCD. For example, at one point in the game the player is confronted with a choice- leap over a large puddle, or pace around it nervously. While it appears that there is a choice, either option still brings the player to the same outcome- pacing nervously. Since one of my best friend deals with OCD, I have an understanding that one of the most frustrating things about having OCD is how little of a choice he has when it comes to making certain decisions. Compulsive hand washing, for example, doesn't sound that bad to some people. However, it can become incredibly and surprisingly disruptive in one's life when menial activities like that begin to dominate one's activities.

One of the reasons I chose OCD is because the problems the disorder causes in those that have it are often minimized or ridiculed. Most of the time, people do this unintentionally with no desire to offend whenever they compare their preference for cleanliness or organization to OCD. Sometimes this happens with seemingly harmless yet obtuse statements like "oh yeah I'm really organized, I guess that's just my OCD lol" that reflect the idea that OCD simply means being really organized and clean. Since this isn't the case, and is really insulting to those like my friend who deal with the disorder, I tried to make a game where one has to deal with the disruptions and obstacles associated with OCD.

I also found that placing a character with OCD in a post-apocalyptic zombie infested world presented great opportunities to show how disruptive OCD can be. At one point in the game, the character obsessively checks how much ammo they are carrying with them. The first time this happens, it seems that their compulsion to check their ammunition is beneficial, as this obsession seems to be what is keeping the character alive, like Jesse Eisenberg's anxiety riddled character in Zombieland. Later on though, the character's paranoia that firing less than three shots at a zombie and therefore having an amount of ammunition that is not divisible by three ends up becoming their undoing. I thought it would be interesting to explore both the good and the bad that can come with OCD, and I think that by having the whole scenario take place in a post-apocalyptic world I can somewhat illustrate life with the disorder.

World Building: The Sight of Sound

If I had to spend a week wherein I had to rely solely on one of my five senses, it would be my vision. Reading, driving a car, riding a bicycle, recognizing friends and family, locating food; these are all activities that I accomplish with my eyes (and the visual processing part of my noggin).

In the world we created, the eyes are not the primary sensory organ. The inhabitants of this society rely primarily on their ears to navigate their world and accomplish their daily tasks. These people react to sound waves similarly to the way in which humanity process light waves. Their brains are capable of processing sound waves in such a way that sound is translated into colorful imagery and detailed landscapes.

My question was, “how do these folk have any kind of recorded language”? Because they do not use their eyes in the same way that we do, I decided that a hand-written hieroglyphic language would be unsuitable. I also decided that a form of braille would not be the right way to go either. These people would want a form of recorded language that interacts with their most intricate sense AKA their synesthetic sense of hearing.

So I came up with a sort of music box. The music box has a hand-powered crank that can be turned at the user’s pace, much like turning the pages of a book. The crank simultaneously gives the “music box” book a source of power, and also controls the rate of playback. With each full turn of the crank, a certain amount of sound waves are emitted. These sound waves are processed  by the brain of the user, not only as sounds, but also images and colors. The resulting “reading” experience is deep and interactive.

I used a crank because I thought it would be impractical to have a “music box” book that required re-charging of any kind. Can you imagine a library full of books that need to have energy sources replaced? It would be terrible. But the crank? A little more practical.

(My contribution) 
Another aspect of a world where sounds are seen that was considered for this project was live musical performances. To represent what an event like this would be like, we designed a poster for a real life band, STRFKR. Because music itself is the conglomeration of many different sounds layered on top of each other, I decided to represent this by using photoshop to manipulate a pre-existing logo for the band rather than use waveforms. I found that by selecting and deleting portions of the image, and telling photoshop to replace those deleted portions using a “content aware” algorithm, that the geometric shapes forming the original logo created a unique pattern that could represent the sights one would experience in this world. I found this to be appropriate since the band’s identity is not only defined by its music but also its logo- and who’s to say that in a world where one can see music that the music being seen can be visually distinct according to the band it originates from?  I also took into consideration that STRFKR’s live shows already use many different lasers and lights that correspond with the music, and by using a photograph of them where this is evident I feel that I bridged the gap from our imaginary world with the real one. 

My first thought when presented with this world was “what would become of headphones?” The concept was cool and really to me everything that emitted music and sound took on a new light. In my piece I thought I would convey this through a popular method we see in our own world, the Youtube sensation of unboxing a new tech item and then reviewing it. This is seen all over the web and can often be comical and in some cases it showboats over analysis of items. Using terminology like “watching music” and “I am sure you have (literally) seen this song” serve to further build up this world in which people see music. The cell phone footage, cheesy after effects intro, and plea at the end to subscribe all showcase the growing trend of technology in everyday life. If one was to watch music than, instead of listen to it, how would that effect things like this? My hope is that I was able to capture that in this small video

The freeway is one of the noisiest parts of first-world civilization. Cars race past each other at speeds ranging between 55-100 miles per hour, if we’re being honest. It is also an environment where sight is critical; you need to see the road, the other cars, the environment, the buttons of the radio, the wheel, your passengers, the gas tank, the speedometer, which exit to get off of,

So, how would a freeway look in a world without visuals? My first answer would be that freeways, if they existed at all, would ultimately function off of sonic interdependence. “Cars” would feel their way from point A to point B similar to how bats fly, by detecting the vibrating soundwaves of the traffic around them. I tried to keep in mind that while sounds travel across time and space, someone who understood the world through sound would most likely have trained their focus so that the average person in this world would only be registering a specific radius of noises. I used hue and value to try to visually represent this range of focus; the brighter and thicker the color, the more “in focus”. There are tiny, dark, thinner and fading audial marks for probable objects emitting sounds, including the electricity flowing under the roads or the rustling of leaves in trees. 

Textual Poaching - Record Collectors and Album Art

            For this project, I decided to represent myself as an avid record collector by remixing the album cover of “A Hard Days Night” by The Beatles, from 1963. 

I chose this particular record not only because it is an iconic record cover that collectors like myself adore, but because the format of the cover itself presented many opportunities to further represent my hobby and how it has become intertwined with my identity. This is due to the 20 panels that make up the original cover, in which John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr pose in four different photos. I decided to take advantage of this unique format by using the four rows to pay tribute to four of my favorite bands – The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd and STRFKR. In each of those rows, I chose five of my favorite records by each of those bands. I found that by doing so I could not only pay tribute to some of my favorite bands and records but also show why the medium I am choosing to represent myself – album covers – is significant. I love record collecting not necessarily because they sound better, but because I love having a physical piece of art that I can behold. Album covers are an art form distinct from the record’s content, and since they are the primary reason I collect records in the first place it felt appropriate to make those covers the centerpiece of my album cover.

            On the back cover, I took some more liberties and only partially stayed true to the original format. 

I stuck with the four pictures of the Beatles that were originally on the back of the record and took four different pictures of myself from distinct periods of my life. I also really liked the original Parlophone and Emitex logos and text boxes, so I decided to keep them. Where I deviated was with the text that originally was on the back of the record, and instead inserted a photo of me filming my TMA Application video behind my turntable. I really like that photo because it shows two defining features of how I identify myself – an aspiring filmmaker that loves to collect records. The context of the photo makes it even more appropriate – my application video was about a record collector desperate to obtain a copy of Rubber Soul (the copy I used in the film is also in the picture).

            Putting this album cover together was challenging. I used InDesign to build it from scratch, using A Hard Days Night as a guide for drawing text boxes, placing design elements like bold or thin lines, and getting the right dimensions. It was the first time I used InDesign since I was an editor on my highschool newspaper, so I was a little rusty, and some trial and error was involved. However, the difficult process of putting this piece together gave me further appreciation for album cover designers and the beautiful work they produce. I love how their work stands as a way to represent record collectors, and I love that I got to pay tribute to some of those famous album covers by both re-making one of my favorites and putting some of my other favorites on display in my piece.