Return to University 20-21

Four Themes

Health Education

I started by writing a list of things about health education that I found from google to see if there was any way I could expand them further to see if they were effective sources of inspiration for me.

Sexual Health

  • LGBT
  • Safe Sex
  • Sexually Transmitted Diseases
  • Sexually Transmitted Infections

Hygiene

  • Bathing
  • Washing properly
  • Cleaning Surfaces
  • Brushing Teeth
  • Washing Clothes

Childcare

  • Changing Nappies
  • Healthy Routine
  • Diet
  • Play
  • Teaching

Cooking

  • Good Diet
  • Being Safe

Mental Hygiene

  • Meditation
  • Mindfulness
  • Relaxation
  • Positive self Image
  • Positive outlook
  • Ability to set goals

After writing out this list I sat down and thought about ways to gamify them. I had a really hard time and the only idea I liked was making a game to teach children about healthy eating habits. After doing a bit of research into this I discovered that this has already been done by many companies and even the UK government has a system for game diets.

I decided not to take this route any further due to the difficulties I had.

Textiles

I started again by writing a list and exploding the subject a little further.

Furniture

  • Sofas
  • Tables
  • Chairs
  • Storage
  • Pottery
  • Glass

Artwork

  • Drawing
  • Painting
  • Sculpting
  • Digital
  • Collage
  • Architecture
  • Statues
  • Coat of Arms
  • Portraits
  • Landscapes
  • Watercolour

Textiles

  • Knitting
  • Synthetic
  • Cotton
  • Wool
  • Blankets
  • Clothing
  • Flooring
  • Crochet
  • Upholstery
  • Cushions
  • Weaving
  • Sewing

Buildings

  • Architecture
  • Huts
  • Walls
  • Bricks
  • Cement
  • Plaster
  • Scaffolding
  • Supports
  • Anti Earthquake
  • Windows
  • Stained Glass

I Was really interested by textiles as I am someone who is quite crafty and can knit, crochet and sew.

Life- Ecosystems

Life Cycles

Diversity-Species-Subspecies

  • Mammals
  • Fish
  • Snakes
  • Reptiles
  • Lizards
  • Birds

Diets

  • Carnivore
  • Omnivore
  • Herbivore
  • Predator
  • Prey
  • Scavenger
  • Hunting
  • Foraging
  • Symbiotic
  • Parasitic

Parapsychology

I should start this section by saying that I am interested in the academic interest of parapsychology and not the ghosts of it.

Equipment

  • Voice Recorder
  • EMR
  • Ouija Board
  • Cameras
  • Infra Red
  • Kinects
  • Camera Traps
  • Spirit Boxes
  • Psychics
  • Radios

Paranormal Experiences

  • Possession
  • Seeing a ghost
  • Being Touched
  • Hearing Unexplained Sounds or voices
  • Miracles
  • Seeing something you can’t explain

Paranormal Activity

  • Tapping
  • Objects moving of their own volition
  • EVP- Electronic Voice Phenomena
  • Possession – again
  • ESP- Extra Sensory Perception
  • Psychic
  • Past Lives
  • Reading an Objects history
  • Witchcraft
  • Stigmata
  • Satanism
  • Incorruptibility
  • Prophecy
  • Telepathy
  • Astrology
  • Mediumship
  • Reincarnation
  • UFO’s- Unidentified Flying Objects

I created a power point to showcase my themes to my class to get feedback on what I should pursue further.

Slide 3

Life is very difficult to define as it has many different uses as a word. We could look at life as a biological process or as a meta physical state of being. I.E. Consciousness.

This is a question that has been bugging philosophers for thousands of years. The consensus at the moments is that it just is. It is neither good nor bad but just around.

I think that everyone who has experienced some form of life will agree that it is relevant to all of us and something that everybody has in common regardless of race or culture.

I will be talking more about the biological processes of life rather than the philosophical.

Slide 4

I got drawn to micro organisms after watching a Youtube series called “Journey to the microcosmos” Micro organisms are tiny creatures that are found all over the world. The only way to observe them is by using a microscope. They interact with each other in a lot of novel ways and a small slide on a microscope can contain hundreds of different species and variants.

From my scanning of the internet this topic has a vast range of research available, is fascinating to observe and is very visually appealing.

Slide 5

I’ve always been fascinated by the ocean, especially the creatures that live in it. I think it’s a subject that is always relevant to modern society and has a massive impact on our sustainability. Due to it’s sheer size and variability in climates the ocean is home to millions of different species. This makes researching fun and ever evolving throughout the project. There are a lot of media that use the ocean as inspiration so there will be a lot to choose from when it comes to breaking down what I want to use. The variety of species also means that I would have an unlimited amount of choices for mechanics, assets etc.

Slide 6

I have defined made by hand as anything created by humans for other humans. Artwork, buildings, textiles and furniture.

I think it is extremely important. Everyone at some point or another has made something with there hands. Its another way we as human being express ourselves and helps to aid in communication. You can tell so much about a society or culture by what it makes with its hands and how that thing is used.

Slide 7

There are countless ways of crossing a thread together to weave different patterns. Other cultures and societies ALL have different ways of weaving and combining textiles. Often these are chosen based on climate and availability of materials. When synthetic materials where invented the prices of clothing and textiles dropped dramatically and we entered a world off fast fashion and thinking of comfortability over usefulness. I am personally fond of this topic as I do a lot of knitting, crochet, embroidery and tailoring. It has always fascinated me how different people have shown there personality through the fabrics they choose to use. I think that textiles are a thing that everyone is familiar with. Even cultures where clothing and fabric is minimal you will still see woven bags or fishing nets being used.

Slide 8

I think that artwork is one of the most fascinating ways we chose to create to communicate. There is a massive range of mediums and styles and it is something that evolves with us as humans. Again like textiles each culture has a different art style and zeitgeist of the time. There is so much research in this area that can be successfully translated into games design I cant even go into it yet. Visually there is a lot inspiration and I think this would be a very fun topic to research and take forward.

Slide 9

I think looking after yourself and others is a good thing.

Health education in itself, is getting to the point where it is needed. They’re are people that don’t know how to cook for themselves or fix a broken toilet. All of this life skills directly effect a persons well being.

Slide 10

Basic Care means bathing, feeding and making sure you have a safe home. It’s the basics of what we need to survive. There are various different anthropological research avenues for basic care. Todays modern perception of basic care is not that same was it was even 20 years ago. This also ties in with other cultures and aspects of life. If you live in an area with limited water you may have to forgo bathing in order to drink and cook with the water. Basic care can also include things like social skills, how to do a job interview, how to budget and organise bills.

Slide 11

Advanced care is care that is usually provided by others for your wellbeing. It could be on a personal level such as a treatment for an anxiety disorder or I could ramp the theme up and talk about a large institution such as the NHS.

Slide 12

Parapsychology is the study of unnatural or paranormal events involving a person. This could be to do with ghosts, psychic abilities and powers. I am talking about parapsychology as is used to study something from a scientific debunking point of view and not as someone who wants to prove the paranormal exists.

It is very interesting especially when you start looking at the equipment and processes that have been developed to record the supernatural.

It has had a resurgence in popularity in popular media at the moment and there are a lot of games, movies and tv shows that theme horror and the paranormal .

Slide 13

There is a lot of research that can be done into the culture of ghosts. There is no factual evidence supporting the existence of ghosts. There is however a fascinating culture that has grown around the idea that ghosts are real. There are lots of different first hand accounts and spooky documentaries that can be used as research. I would probably focus on how these stories have effected and manipulated society and media than concentrate my research on finding evidence of ghosts. Again other cultures all have there own individual ghost stories that always seem to parallel the fears of that culture at the time.

Slide 14

Paranormal activity is referring to events that are not currently understood by science. Psychic abilities, pyrokinesis, telepathy, magic, miracles. Again like ghosts I would focus mainly on the impact of said events rather then the events themselves. There is still not corroborating evidence that anything paranormal has ever happened. I think that these topics are very popular at the moment and again have inspired countless movies, tv shows and video games.

Slide 15

I feel like these four are great starts for researching further and finding some inspiration for games ideas.

After feedback from my peers I have decided to pursue textiles primarily and narrow down some areas of textiles that I find interesting.