Our third project for unit 5 comes under the heading of ‘Generate’. I chose the ‘Fanfiction’ brief set by Joshua: “the challenge is to author your own work of fanfiction based on a ‘canonical fictional universe’ that you’re a fan of, utlizing your skills and knowledge of graphic design to further the genre, while
experimenting with the fine line between fiction and reality”. It’s a pretty great brief for me, considering what a film/tv/fan geek I am. The first hurdle was deciding which show to base my project on. I flirted briefly with doing something with the Log Lady from Twin Peaks (having recently been through a massive marathon of the show).
But I decided no. I wasn’t sure where I could take it. So then I remembered a passage from a book that I’ve always loved, Overqualified by Joey Comeau. The excerpt from his Nintendo letter goes like this:
“We need a new Mario game, where you rescue the princess in the first ten minutes, and for the rest of the game you try and push down that sick feeling in your stomach that she’s “damaged goods”, a concept detailed again and again in the profoundly sex negative instruction booklet, and when Luigi makes a crack about her and Bowser, you break his nose and immediately regret it. When Peach asks you, in the quiet of her mushroom castle bedroom “do you still love me?” you pretend to be asleep. You press the A button rhythmically, to control your breath, keep it even.”
I love that idea of combining the fantastical with the mundane and domestic. What happens after Mario saves the princess? It has been covered a bit:
The idea in my mind revolves around it being photography-based. Putting obviously fake characters in a real-world context would make it most surreal. The big hurdle would be making the costumes…
