My initial idea is working around the theme of childhood memorabilia because it’s a blissful, carefree time to remember. It was a different time and I had different values, but many of my interests and hobbies remain the same.
It is interesting to see how everything has changed from those times, and how vast and new the world seemed to me then, so it is intriguing to try to remember some of my experiences and material things from that time through a child’s imagination.
My project will be a series of comical photos edited with Photoshop. I may also use Illustrator for certain vector graphics to implement in the pictures. I will use my sibling as the character portraying a grown up version of me and reenacting the feelings I used to have when interacting with the environments or objects.
This is the assignment brief for what I intend to do:
First of all, I noted down some of the most vivid memories and objects from my past with the intention of later selecting the ones I want to recreate.
One of the most positive things I was interested in was the Pokemon franchise, more specifically the animated TV show and tazos. (More information on the Research page)
I used to often play with the tazos as a child, so I had an idea I could adapt that into a photo, capturing the feeling of empowerment when having some of my favorite tazos in my collection. It would be a portrait photo, and the background would be dark so that there’s focus on the determined facial expression.
Pokemon are classed into different types, like Electric, Water, Fire, Flying, Rock, Poison, etc., so I could use tazos of Pokemon of specific types, like Electric, Rock and Fire, and use those as light sources to illuminate the character’s face and make it stand out from the darkness.
Another positive memory of mine was drawing at any given free moment, on any available surface with any available tool. I think it’s every child’s passion, whether they’re good at it or not, because it’s a way to express themselves or effectively let out emotions that may have been built up but they were unable to voice them by talking. Personally, I felt like I was creating the characters and environments I drew, and I thought I was bringing them to life, so I could create a picture of the character sitting and drawing, and the drawing is standing up from the paper.
My favorite game used to be Zoo Tycoon, which is a strategy simulation of a thriving zoo. (More information on the Research page.) I felt like I was the queen of the zoo and its success was completely in my hands, so I want to create a photo in a real zoo, capturing the feeling of empowerment I felt when I used to play that game.
I also liked soft toys – animals, because I really loved animals – and I imagined that they were actually alive, but had to keep their sentience a secret when humans were present, so I made sure to take extra care of them so that they wouldn’t get mad at me. It was always fun to play with them, but my favorite was still the oldest toy I have – a fat rabbit. I remember keeping it a priority when deciding what to take on a trip or picking the toys I wanted to play with, and as I still have it, I thought I could implement that into a picture. I had an idea of the character riding on the rabbit (which is what I used to do when I was approximately the same size of it), but as it seemed huge to me at the time, I would enlarge it to appear large in the picture as well.
My grandmother and I used to go to the woods and pick mushrooms often, which is memorable to me because I like the fresh mushroom sauce my mom makes from them. I enjoyed walking through the forests and breathing the air, as well as having a keen eye out for any mushrooms, and they always seemed so big to me, especially after we had gathered them in large quantities. I could create a photo of the character swinging at a huge mushroom with a hatchet, conveying the feeling of being small, but ambitious.
There was an early morning children’s programme with a hairdressing show – I used to watch it before going to kindergarten. There was an opportunity to go to the capital and be featured in an episode to get a haircut yourself, and my mom signed me up for it. When we arrived, however, I got very nervous because I thought it would hurt, especially after seeing the scissors the hairdresser was about to use. I had an idea I could accentuate the feeling of fear by enlarging the scissors and having the character sit crumpled up and with an enduring face expression.
One of my least favorite experiences was getting chicken pox and having to stay home for a week. My mother used zelyonka – a green antiseptic used for the rashes and blisters – to also prevent me from scratching or tasting them. I remember it being quite painful, especially on open wounds, and it was uncomfortable to move around – all I could do was sit down and try to endure the day. Of course, that made me grumpy because I couldn’t enjoy any of my hobbies, so I thought I could create a picture of the character sitting down and looking fed up to demonstrate the uncomfortable feeling.
kristinedejus 