DESIGN NAME: The Fear Construction Kit
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Game in the form of a book
INSPIRATION: For this project I was inspired by the society we live in today and the so-called "culture of fear".
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Nowadays, we live in a society where there are many different aspects of fear. People are afraid that the most important things in their life could be destroyed or taken away – things such as freedom, dignity, health, often, even their lives. The media is constantly reminding us about how dangerous the world is and how afraid should be of it.
Therefore, in my project I am aiming to explore the idea of how others are interacting with and responding to our personal fears. Throughout the last mounts I was collecting people’s fears via the social networks and personally. Based on them I designed an association puzzle game, which relies on the belief that it is within the human nature to be curious about others’ inner desires and deeply hidden secrets. Moreover, our knowledge and experience of emotions are not independent of the social context in which they occur. Emotions are related to the culture we are part of and as such they are shaped on both individual experiences and social norms.
The society we live in today is interested in exploring others’ fears for numerous reasons. Fear is used by many as a tool for social control, power, domination and self-reassurance. Moreover, it is difficult to imagine that a world completely without fear would be particularly interesting. Therefore, the game I designed could be considered a social experiment, because it explores the idea of sharing our fear instead of keeping it a secret. Thus, it corresponds to the idea of trust and rise questions related to how people relate to each other within the culture of fear. Within this culture trust plays a vital role. It can be described as a “social glue” that keeps human beings together. A society can, however, also be held together by fear, but that is a considerably less attractive model.
Fear is a way of looking at the world. What we fear and how strongly, depends on our conceptions of the world, of what dangerous forces exist in it and what possibilities we have of protecting ourselves against them. The idea behind the game I designed is that through creating different fearful images the player is taking part in a fictional universe which recreates experiences close to a psychotherapy session. Therefore, I have chosen the dominant color of the edition to be white as a representation of a mental state. The book sleeve, on the other hand, refers to a straitjacket again representing association with a psychiatric hospital.
The game consists of two books, both digitally printed. All the images are based on collages, digitally edited and painted after scanning. The aim of the images both included in the kit and the sample booklet is to be as abstract and surreal as possible in order for the game to be more challenging.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: This is a puzzle game, which consists of two books - "the fear construction kit" and "the sample guide". The fear construction kit contains puzzle parts, which have to be cut out and rearranged in different images depending on the player.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: Duration: From September.2012 until January 2013
Location: London, UK - Sofia, Bulgaria
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Office Furniture Design
|
PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: -
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: The overall size of the edition is 215 x 20 x 215 mm
it consists of two books and a dust jacket
TAGS: fear, puzzle, game, phobia, psychology, therapy, self-exploration, mental state
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: My research is focused mainly on further exploring the notions of the culture of fear. I achieve this goal through different visual and written publications. I was referring to the ideas of key theorists such as Sigmund Freud, Emanuel Kant, Fr. Riemann, Martin Heidegger, etc. I tend to explore the psychological aspect of fear within the context of today’s society and twisting the idea of fear through the prism of a game. I was researching different games inspired by the notion of the fearful such as Taro cards, ink blots used by psychiatrists, websites dedicated to fighting fears and phobias and popular image association games.
CHALLENGE: -
ADDED DATE: 2013-01-23 13:52:18
TEAM MEMBERS (1) :
IMAGE CREDITS: Vyara Zlatilova, 2012.
|