Essay plan

Essay Plan.

• Architecture
• Locations
• Origins
• Specific designers
• Influences of the movement
• Inspiration
• Visual arts such as fashion, architecture, painting, graphic arts and film.
• Links to other areas of design.
•  The Chrysler building, designed by William Van Alen

For the past few weeks i have been looking at art and design movements and i have been surprised, by the amount that i have learnt and also the amount of information that has wanted me to research more into art and design movements.  I have found the past lectures on movements such as futurism, bauhaus and art deco fascinating.  I have found myself looking for ways to see each design movement in every day life, and it is these movements and elements of historical design that are inspiring me to get a greater knowledge to help me should a client ask me to help design a futuristic scene in the future for example.

I have found myself liking a lot of the design movements i have seen so far, however Art Deco really stood out to me.  I love the way that the designers used curves and an almost pyramid shape to create some of the worlds most famous landmarks such as the empire state building.  And it is Art Deco that i have chosen to write my historical design essay on.

When researching Art deco i realised that it was not only architecture that was influenced by the movement, but also jewellery, clothing and even interior design.  This is what i liked best about the movement, that it was not just in architecture, that it could be applied across the wide spectrum of design reaching objects like jewellery, another factor that i like is that objects in Art deco do not need to be nessicerally practical as long as the final outcome was aesthetically pleasing it didn't matter, it was appearance over functionality. Also looking back at my two mood boards that i created i really love the Art deco over the futurism image, i find the Art deco mood board to be pretty and aesthetically pleasing to the eyes like it should be where as the futurism image is still good but lacks flow and like the founder of futurism Filippo Tomasso Marinetti said, "futurism should embrace chaos." which is what my mood board looks like and that is not a theme that i would enjoy writing about, which is why futurism was ruled out as an essay at the beginning of the essay process.

I love the way that Art deco in its time was so simplistic with its ideas, the way that ideas only had to be pretty and not functional, and they fact that walking around any city today we see elements of Art deco everywhere and that is the reason i would love to write an essay on Art deco.

The midland hotel in Morecambe, one of Britons finest examples of Art deco architecture still open to date.

Art Deco essay

Andy Elliott

For the past few weeks I have been studying the art deco movement, I have chosen to look at it more in depth because of the way we still see influences of the movement to this day in cities all across the world.  The art deco movement fascinates me and has inspired me too look at the movement in detail.

The art deco movement was first founded in the early 1920's when a group of various artists and designers, from all different areas of design such as architecture, fashion and interior design combined to make create a society named  a Société des artistes décorateurs which basically translates as the society of decorating artists.  This is why the genre of art deco is so large and varied because there is so much influence from all areas art and design.  And this society was driven at the forefront by two French artists named Hector Guimard and Paul Bellot, who had the sole purpose of globalising the French arts and the evolution the country and their arts.  And in the year of 1925 they organised an international show to expose the French arts, the show was called "Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes" ,which translates as The International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts and this was a show that was noticed by designers and artists all over the globe.

One main focus that is at the core of the Art Deco design is the use of geometric shapes and lines.  Colour pallets and the use of bold and use of block colour in geometric shapes again makes the movement special, art deco design was a sign of wealth and well-being which resulted in the expansion and boost in the industry as people were willing to pay more and more money for these giant projects and these bold geometric shapes, to stand out.  The movement spread from just architecture to items such as jewellery and mass production of items such as auto mobiles and cars.  One design that was used the most was a shape named the ziggurat, a geometric design from which the Mayan civilisation had adopted in the construction of their pyramids.

Easily accessible travel that became available in the 1920's gave way to a new species of designers and archaeologists that were now able to travel the world, which in turn allowed us to become influenced with new designs, patters, civilisations and architecture being discovered such as hieroglyphics when excavating Tutankhamen’s grave and the city of Pompeii.  The term art deco was derived years later in a post-world war two world, with both Hector Guimard and Paul Bellot being the main designers held responsible for being influential to the movement. After the sudden boom of explorers in the 1920's it was inevitable that soon after new designs and blueprints for design were created.  In the early 1930's art deco became more mainstream and more available and more of a market for the art deco design.  There was an increase in consumer products being made with the art deco style such as cars, furniture, textiles and even telephones.  However this new design captured the thoughts of designers who had the capabilities to create monumental buildings, amusement parks and even ocean liners such as the "SS Ile de France".  This was a French built ship in a post-world war one world, it was the first ever ocean liner to fully incorporate the art deco designs throughout the ship.  The interior of the ship and especially the living quarters were specifically designed not to reproduce styles and designs of the past but to look to celebrate the styles of the present, which is why the interior was heavily influenced by art deco. As you can see from the image from the SS Ile de France the design in co-operated the simplistic and geometric shapes that was stereotypical of the art deco era.

However the movement was meant for bigger projects than ocean liners, and all across the world to this day we can see influences not in ships, fashion or jewellery but in architecture. To this day we see buildings all over the world however we can see many examples in north America, when looking at art deco architecture we can look at the Bullocks Wilshire building in Los Angeles.  The building was created in 1929 by a father and son architect team named John and Donald Parkinson, and was used as a luxury department store.  It was aimed at clientele in a higher class which is why i believe that it was important that the exterior was designed and built the way it was, at the time art deco design was a sign of luxury and wealth and for this department store to be made with this design in mind really did show the importance of the store.  To this day the building is still in use and is now a national historic landmark and has been used in many films from Aerosmith's love in an elevator music video and even the the final scene in Ghostbusters was filmed on top of the building. I feel that seeing that the fact that the building is being used for high budget and class films to this day is incredible and shows that art deco has stood the test of time as a great movement.

THE CHRYSLER BUILDING

The Chrysler building is one of the world’s most recognisable buildings not just for its stature and location but also for the design of the building.  It was designed and created by William Van Alen, who was born in New York in 1883. Building commenced on September the 19^th 1928, the construction of the building was fast and frantic as the designers were in a race to build the world’s tallest building, this was achieved at standing 1,047 feet above the New York streets it became the world’s tallest building, however this was only fact until 1931 when the empire state building was built also in New York leaving the Chrysler building the wold’s tallest for only 11 months.   What really stand out to me are the fact that it was built so fast and the design and beauty of the building was not compromised.  The top of the Chrysler building is the icing on the cake with seven floors of radiating arches each smaller than the one below it with triangle windows around the arches.  These types of windows, the odd shape and the design not for human use and living but for the overall design and aesthetic look of the building.  On the 61^st floor graced eagles are placed in each corner, these were made of steel and again shows the influence from other cultures, as this was around the time explorers were documenting their work from all around the world and I believe we see this influence with the eagles and sun shapes from the top of the building they have a very foreign look and design that could be linked to cultures such as Egyptian and Mayan civilisations.

There are links to other areas of design and art movements, such as the art nouveau movement.  Art deco was not the first art and design movement and there have been many since but what links these two is the style, the sleekness and the beauty of the designs.  The art nouveau movement was before the art deco movement and was pre-world war 1 and reigned the art and design world from 1890 to 1910 the term art nouveau literally means new art in French, and it was the group of French artists that defined the art deco movement  and created the society of decorating artists.  Art nouveau was most popular in Europe and especially France and one main designer was a man I have already mentioned he was called Hector Guimard, a main designer for art nouveau who lived and helped create the ideas through into the art deco era and helped spread the ideas and morals throughout the world.  And we see influences of this from all around the world such as the Chrysler building in New York to the Bullocks Wilshire building in Los Angeles and the Midland hotel in Morecambe, proof that the art deco movement really did spread like wild fire across the globe.

The Midland hotel

The midland hotel is based in Morecambe in England; I have chosen to look at this building in detail because of its history and the design.  It was built in 1933 right in the middle of the boom in art deco buildings being created and built; it was built as a take on the streamline modern design of art deco and emphasised curved lines and long horizontal lines which would stretch right around the building still keeping the forms and aesthetics of art deco true to its roots, and more often than not it would use nautical shapes and designs, which could explain as to why ships such as the SS Ile de France and other ships built around this time.  And we can see these generic themes running throughout the midland hotel, such as the large windows in the top of the building to bring in light which contrast with windows further down the building which are smaller and not ergonomically built for people to live with as minimal light will be drawn in through the window, a classic factor of the art deco industry.  In its prime it was a busy building and taken care of however in 1939 the building began too loose popularity and was handed over to the royal navy and then slowly run itself down to the ground.  However it was seen as a remarkable building both in design and meaning to the local community, and was re-opened again in 2008 but with a new splash of colour and re furbished furnishings.  Being true to the art deco era and design the hotel the designers kept true to the art deco roots.

When thinking about an art and design movement to study it was really easy when I see how the art deco movement has changed not only life and the way that we see the world but how it has stood the test of time and we still see influences of the movement still too this day.  Travelling through the city I can see the architecture that has been inspired by artists and designers over 100 years ago.  It was a movement that began in France and with French artists that wanted to showcase their skills to the world which in the end helped shape art and design as we know it.  It was a movement that not only shaped the architectural world but also other areas of art such as fashion, textiles, jewellery and even interior design and the creation of new and exciting auto mobiles.  It was also the interior design that also drew me too the movement just as much as the architecture did.  The bold colours and shapes and the symmetry of the interior design.  The multiple buildings that I have researched have shown me the specific style and beauty of the art deco era and also the simplicity of the design and with art the pieces that are created need to be desirable weather it be abstract, mainstream or post modernism art it always needs to be desirable.  Looking at art deco, the artists and designers surrounding it and the rise and history of the style has shown me that art deco, is desirable.

Bibliography

http://www.allpar.com/history/chrysler-building.html. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6th, 2012, from www.allpar.com.

http://www.arthistory.net/artstyles/artdeco/artdeco1.html. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6th, 2012, from Art history: www.arthistory.net

http://www.brynmawr.edu/cities/archx/05-600/proj/p2/npk/historydeco.htm. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6th, 2012, from www.brynmawr.edu.

http://www.urban75.org/blog/the-art-deco-splendour-of-the-stunning-chrysler-building-new-york-city/. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6th, 2012, from www.urban75.org.

Robinson, M. (2008). Art Deco: The Golden Age of Graphic Art and Illustration. Flame tree publishing.

History of Games and Metal gear

Core games designs mechanics and theories!

Meaningful play.

This is one of the most important mechanics a game needs, without meaningful play there is no point to playing a game or even designing one in the first place.  There is a reason as to why humans have been playing games since we can remember not only in our own individual lives but as the human race and in history.

There was once a man named Johan Huzinga, he was a dutch historian.  He also wrote a book named Homo ludens which translates in english too Man the player!
This book looked at games and what they mean to us as humans, in it he describes how games have been around for thousands of years and how it is human nature and that games make us human he wrote, "Play is older than culture".

It (plays) is a significant function that to say, there is some sense to it. In there is something "at play" which transcends to the immediate needs of life.

When designing a game meaningful play is mechanic that not only needs to be understood by the designers however it must transcend right down to the players, without this games have no overall meaning and are less likely to impress.

Two kinds of meaningful play!

Descriptive - This is easy to understand, basically you get what you give in games. As the player interacts with the game we expect certain events or interactions too take place for example if we shoot a barrel with a gun we as players would expect visual and audible prompts, such as the character shooting the barrel and the barrel exploding, we would expect to hear gun shots and explosions.  If this does not happen then the game has failed the player.

and

Evaluative - This type of meaningful play is slightly harder to understand, this is where we as players take a step back and evaluate the game on a more complicated level than just a like or dislike of the game.


Metal Gear Assignment

For this assignment we have been paired into groups and have been given a specific 8 bit game to research and found out as much as we can about the games history, developer and key features of the game. The game we have been selected to research is Metal Gear for the MSX2.

For our first task we have been asked to timeline the Metal Gear franchise from the release of the first game all the way up to its newest release. Below is a timeline created in Photoshop which shows the timeline of the Metal Gear Solid franchise;

The Magic circle

The magic circle and temporary worlds!

The term temporary words comes from thousands of years ago and applies to all games that we play weather they're board games, arcade games and video games.
It states that when we enter a game, we change.  We enter new worlds with new rules that change who we are and the way that we act.  We use these worlds and games to escape from the stress and reality of real everyday life, and we keep playing these games because of the release we get when we play a game taking our mind of the real world and its problems.  For example a person may play games such as Super Mario at the end of the day to unwind from the stress of that day, as it allows us to be transported into a fun, colourful and vivid world.

This made me to begin thinking about weather we enter a completely separate work during computer games, i think that the worlds are separate however still have trails of the real world in there.  Games allow us to sometimes create avatars which allow us to create a virtual person, at this point we can change what we don't like about our image in the real world and look like what we want to within the magic circle.

The Lusory attitude.

The Lusory attitude is a frame of mind that one must have in need to fully immerse themselves within a game, if your forced to play a game that you don't want too then you ill not be playing the game to the best of your ability, become bored quicker and not enjoy the experience as you do not have this attitude and have not crossed over into the magic circle.  When we begin playing a game it is important that we accept the rules and know what is expected of us within a game, this is where the disincentive mechanic comes into play, as they will stop players from disobeying the rules, for example if you walk into acid the game screen starts turning red showing that your dying, this is the disincentive that the game gives to stop us from disobeying the rules.  However this also teaches us that playing by the rules does give us pleasure and is the way too play.
You need to play a game, adopt the lusory attitude otherwise you will not play a game; you will just be playing it because you have been told too.  As you have not crossed from the real world into the game.


 Every game exists within a frame that shows us a game is being played.  The magic circle is a frame that has specific rules that do not allow to be changed.  It allows us to move from the real world to an artificial game world that we create ourselves because of the Lusory effect.

Presentation

Setting up the presentation

When starting to think about the presentation it was important that we figured out an interesting way of presenting our information, it is not just a slideshow with notes it is a form of art, there is nothing worse than sitting down for 5 minutes to watch people just talk.
So i began looking at special ways to present the presentation, and i began looking at retro board games we could use as a basis for the presentation.

Inspiration
I began looking for old game boards because my topic is board games so maybe it would be interesting to maybe progress through the presentation at different parts of the game, for example we could have a cluedo board and for each topic of the presentation we could move around the board and go in rooms for different topics, this would just add another element to the show and would also show that we have used our initiative and really thought about the theme of board games.

We could use powerpoint to have slides with parts of information on, however i have used a program called Prezi before and it is very helpful in creating interesting presentations and it could be useful when trying too keep and audience entertained.









Presentation Breakdown

Minute 1 - Introduction to borad games, such as the origin and historical games that were played.
Minute 2 - Run through of a time line with specific stops on special board games such as chess, backgammon and monopoly.
Minute 3 - Future board games such as iOS games and tablet such as travel scrabble.
Minute 4 - Conclusion of presentation. 




Chess

The game of chess has not been around for a short period of time, although it has takes time through the centuries to get too the game we play today the basis and gameplay has stayed moderately the same. The first recording of chess were in the 6th century in India and was know as s chaturaṅga, this translates as four divisions, meaning the infantry, cavalry, elephantry and chariotry, which will evolve to the game pieces in the modern game as pawn, knight, bishop and rook.

The game was played in many future civilisations and religions such as the Persians and Muslims after their invasion of persia.
1851 was the first professional chess tournament in London, this created new problems and they had too be overcome by adding a time limit into the competitive chess world. It was around this time that real tactics and game plans came into their own with players planning out attacks and moves in advance.  Two players in particular were Paul Morphy, an american chess player who just had a grasp on how too be the best and knew how too prepare moves and attacks too finish his competitor.  Also a man named Wilhelm Steinitz later developed ideas on how to defend moves and avoid making his team weak and venerable too attacks, he then became the world chess champion in 1886.

The game of life.

Begin with looking back too 1860 and The game of life created by Milton Bradley, Bradley was a successful litograther whose career took a turn for the worst when Abraham Lincoln grew a beard. The game had many 'moral' issues, issues that are not as present in the modern board games we see today. Dice were not used, it was a teetotum a device that was spun and not rolled to decide the outcome of a turn. The aim of the game was too collect 100 points, and too do this you had too land on the 'good' spaces on the modified checkerboard.


Monopoly

This well loved board game can be traced way back too 1903 and too a woman named Lizzie Magie and her creation of a board game she named The landlords game.  Which involved players buying plots of land, this was apparently too demonstrate the importance of how rents can enrich property owners.  This was said too be the inspiration for modern day monopoly.

The game monopoly was made by a man named Charles Darrow, who took the inspiration from Lizzie Magie's game and kept the core rule of buying properties and staying on the property market, however with chance cards added and tiles such as GO and FREE PARKING.
Darrow took the game firstly too Milton Bradley, the creator of the game of life, he rejected the game.  However in 1935 the Parker brothers company accepted to take on Darrows game of monopoly.

Too this day monopoly is played with families all around the world, with hundreds of editions that even include TV show and film editions of the game such as Disney and the Simpsons monopoly.  Showing that it is one of the most loved board games ever.



This has began me thinking weather board games themselves are evolving with time, before games such as monopoly, board games were very competitive and orientated on players going head too head, one on one.  Monopoly brought the board game up too speed in a changing world, allowing families too play in a safe but challenging way around the family home, not only teaching children risks are good but the value of money and land ownership.


Cluedo

Cluedo was a game published by the Waddingtons publishing company in leeds, 1949.  The aim of this game is too find the killer in the mansion, players can play as characters and have too find out which character has killed the victim, where and with which weapon.
This again was around the same time as monopoly and has the same core gameplay mechanic of playing in a group.  Like monopoly you can play with more than just two players, and teaches us skills we can use in life in piecing pieces of a puzzle together.  This game mechanic pays off with cluedo also having special editions made too this day including Simpsons and sherlock cluedo, just like monopoly.


Trivial Pursuit

The game was created in 1979 by by Canadians Chris Haney and Scott Abbott. After finding pieces of their scrabble game missing they decided too create their own game.  Trivial pursuit is a game in which players must rely on skill and knowledge to win the game, and it was released in 1982.
The question cards are organized into themes; for instance, in the standard Genus question set, questions in green deal with science and nature. This game can be a challenging one if players and teams are not matched with the same intellectual knowledge as there are only two difficulties easy and expert cards.


Pandemic.

Pandemic, like newer board games such as monopoly and cluedo is a team based game.  Where it is important too play and enjoy the board game experience as part of a team, not an individual.
It was created in 2008 and the story is that four major diseases have broken out and infected the entire world. What makes this different is it is completley cooperative and not competitive.

Bibliography

Driver, M. (n.d.). A history of backgammon. Retrieved March 2013, from http://www.bkgm.com/articles/GOL/Nov00/mark.htm

Finkle, I. (n.d.). Ancient board games in perspective. British museum press.

Hofer, M. (n.d.). The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board & Table Games. Princeton Architectural Press.

Monopoly history. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2013, from http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/en_GB/discover/about.cfm

Murray, H. J. (1952). A history of board - games other than chess. Oxford university press.

Parlett, D. (1999). The Oxford history of board games. Oxford university press inc.

Shapiro, D. (2002, December). Risk : The evolution of a game. Retrieved March 2013, from http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/Risk.shtml