powerpoint that i used for interim presentation

some more book cut test stuff

Faery character design

-I watched Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell because Tanya suggested it - because it has faeries. I really loved the fey morally, and all the plot stuff about bargains and trickery and the eternal dance, etc but the actual designs of the fey were super boring.
I like my faeries to be more nonhuman looking, not just with weird white hair/eyebrows. Also for their clothing to be a lot more ethereal looking and/or made of plants or something else naturey.


The main aspects I want in my faery are:

• antlers/horns/branches/ some combination of the three
• this references the devil in the song, since devils generally have horns
• it can also look quite regal/crown like, and my faery is supposed to be a faery king or at least one of the gentry
• often oberon has some kind of horns in his character design, and I want him to be an  oberon-like character
• it also adds a nonhuman aspect
• having him look nonhuman, ethereal maybe
• being similarly designed as the forest around him, eg having antlers that look like the branches of the trees
• look slightly creepy and powerful, but not necessarily 100% evil - Like he could be the antagonist or the wise person who gives you advice (which might not be the best advice to help you but..)

a few inspiration pictures
I love this one - especially the face and horns
 having a covered face or skull(?) face adds some creepiness- but perhaps too much?
 - This one looks a bit too nice, but I love how they have bark skin and moss

non-linear book ideas

some kind of folding thing? I don't think this'd work very well since it'd only be joined by two corners....

 

a circular loop book.... might work? if all the pages fan out, or just the three parts stuck together, not sure. could have a little glimpse of the other side, maybe?

I also think I just like the idea of having three separate books, that way I can actually use old books...

I also found this book! which is a cool idea but probably too complicated to make

another book cut test.

-the drawing and colouring is very rough, obviously

things I learned from this:

• don't try to cut it right after gluing the pages because they'll rip.
• It's actually a lot easier to cut the pages when they're not stuck together?
• but if I want to have each layer stuck together (for strength, and so it's easy to turn each section over) it's probably easier to glue it before cutting
• make sure every part of every page is glued and there aren't gaps
• using watercolour/ink that's very wet will make the pages buckle so probably not a good idea. gouache works well for highlight, if I want to do them? keeping it mostly grayscale might be better. but i'll think about that more later.
• in terms of the actual composition and illustration of what's happening -I was less focusing on that than the technical side of this, but I feel like it doesn't make enough sense
• it isn't that obvious that the silhouette of the faery is the same as the faery in the second part? maybe if the acale wasn't so different? but that leads to diffuculties with what parts are covered, etc.
• OR maybe there could be some kind of...sparkly magical action lines? (in the second one) going from the back of the silhouette where he was to where he is now, in the ring.
• I feel like when it's more detailed it might help - I need to actually design the characters, and if there's like, some spellbooks and candles and other stuff associated with summoning that might help?

book cut out tests

I did these last week before the first class but forgot to upload them.

-testing if  I can somehow have a cutout in one image (the regret/memory one) that shows the thing they regret? which is one of the other images? I decided that this is probably too difficult to align all the parts, and it's probably better to have each illustration in a separate book anyway?

-trying out an idea for the bargain image- maybe each of the three parts can have some pages to flip over that show more of the scene? eg here, first you see the creepy faery and part of the human but they're obscured, then turn the page and see they're actually shaking hands. will still be pretty hard to align everything so all versions of the image work.

Pinterest/mood board

I've been collecting moodboard stuff and inspiration, references, etc. on pinterest.

>>>> pinterest link

summaries

- of each illustration idea, to see if it can read in any order


initial order:

1. human character in a dark/magical looking forest, near a fairy ring/circle of candles(?) used to summon fae. A faery (possibly faery king? or just a random sidhe. has antlers.) appears in the centre, The human and the faery make a deal.
2. human is overpowered by regrets and dark/magical thoughts, covering their face trying to hide from them. a shadowy version of the faery is in these thoughts, looming over their shoulder.
3. human is letting go of their worries and dancing in the faery revel. possibly eating fey food as well. there are lots of other fey around, and the antlered fey is watching from the background, maybe?

all other possibilities:

1. human character in a dark/magical looking forest, near a fairy ring/circle of candles(?) used to summon fae. A faery (possibly faery king? or just a random sidhe. has antlers.) appears in the centre, The human and the faery make a deal.
2. human is letting go of their worries and dancing in the faery revel. possibly eating fey food as well. there are lots of other fey around, and the antlered fey is watching from the background, maybe?
3. human is overpowered by regrets and dark/magical thoughts, covering their face trying to hide from them. a shadowy version of the faery is in these thoughts, looming over their shoulder.

1. human is letting go of their worries and dancing in the faery revel. possibly eating fey food as well. there are lots of other fey around, and the antlered fey is watching from the background, maybe?
2. human is overpowered by regrets and dark/magical thoughts, covering their face trying to hide from them. a shadowy version of the faery is in these thoughts, looming over their shoulder.
3. human character in a dark/magical looking forest, near a fairy ring/circle of candles(?) used to summon fae. A faery (possibly faery king? or just a random sidhe. has antlers.) appears in the centre, The human and the faery make a deal.

1. human is overpowered by regrets and dark/magical thoughts, covering their face trying to hide from them. a shadowy version of the faery is in these thoughts, looming over their shoulder.
2. human is letting go of their worries and dancing in the faery revel. possibly eating fey food as well. there are lots of other fey around, and the antlered fey is watching from the background, maybe?
3. human character in a dark/magical looking forest, near a fairy ring/circle of candles(?) used to summon fae. A faery (possibly faery king? or just a random sidhe. has antlers.) appears in the centre, The human and the faery make a deal.

1. human is overpowered by regrets and dark/magical thoughts, covering their face trying to hide from them. a shadowy version of the faery is in these thoughts, looming over their shoulder.
2. human character in a dark/magical looking forest, near a fairy ring/circle of candles(?) used to summon fae. A faery (possibly faery king? or just a random sidhe. has antlers.) appears in the centre, The human and the faery make a deal.
3. human is letting go of their worries and dancing in the faery revel. possibly eating fey food as well. there are lots of other fey around, and the antlered fey is watching from the background, maybe?

1. human is letting go of their worries and dancing in the faery revel. possibly eating fey food as well. there are lots of other fey around, and the antlered fey is watching from the background, maybe?
2. human character in a dark/magical looking forest, near a fairy ring/circle of candles(?) used to summon fae. A faery (possibly faery king? or just a random sidhe. has antlers.) appears in the centre, The human and the faery make a deal.
3. human is overpowered by regrets and dark/magical thoughts, covering their face trying to hide from them. a shadowy version of the faery is in these thoughts, looming over their shoulder.

/// I think it makes sense all ways?

Faery research

I'm very interested in faeries so I already have a lot of general knowledge about them, but it always helps to do some research to refresh myself when doing something like this.

I had a readthrough of my fey lore books and also the notebook I made a while ago with notes from about 10 different fey books I got from the library.

I also (re)watched the movie Labyrinth, because that's a great example of faery bargains and trickery (and a great movie).

A few other fiction books I take inspiration from are The Darkest Part of the Forest, Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside by Holly Black, the Wicked Lovely series and Faery Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr, The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagwa, The Dark Artifices by Cassandra Clare..

Also, though I'm not that familiar with the original play, I've seen a few adaptations of A Midsummer Night's Dream which also are good inspiration (particularly the recent BBC movie)

some internet things:

The Biggest Reasons Why Faeries are Evil

Fairies, or the “Good People” from the legends of Ireland, Scotland and England, are usually depicted as capricious at best, and downright wicked at worst.

While probably most cultures have tales of earth spirits with uneasy relationship to humans, the Celtic fairies have done a lot to inform the modern popular interpretation of what a fairy is and looks like. Part of this is due to the collection of fairy lore as a serious anthropological pursuit in the 1880s by noted scholars and poets like W.B. Yeats and the gorgeous and romantic Pre-Raphaelite art movement that illustrated the tales. Sensibly superstitious people sought to avoid the notice and ire of the fairies. The terms “Good People” or “Fair Folk” were used to placate a temperamental neighbor — and as an accurate description of their general nature. With good reason — get on the bad side of a fairy, and they would mess you up. 

According to the ballad of Tam Lin, the Fairy Queen pays a tithe to Hell every seven years. The fairies kidnap mortals, like Tam Lin, to pay their due on Halloween. It is from this fate that Janet must save her lover. In the story "Soul Cages" collected in Yeats' Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, an otherwise sociable and friendly merrow (a type of merman) collects the souls of drowned sailors. The merrow places lobster pots at the bottom of the ocean and the confused, cold souls of the dying sailors seek refuge in them. The pots are collected and put on the merrow's curiosity shelf — but other than that the merrow was an alright and friendly fairy. 

While human women tend to be carried off, men tend to be seduced by fairy women. While the activity is more pleasant, it still doesn’t end well for the men. Yeats describes a type of fairy called the Leanhaun Shee (Fairy Mistress) If a man refuses her love she becomes their slave, but if they accept her love they are trapped by the fairy until they find another to take their place. She is considered the Gaelic muse and the inspiration for art and poetry, but she dries a man up and leaves him a wreck. It is said this why the Irish poets die young. People with bad characters and dubious behavior leave themselves open to magical enslavement by the faeries. The story of “Teig O’Kane and the Corpse”tells of a rowdy womanizer who's compelled into service by fairies for a terrifying night of work. In “Master and Man,” the hard partying young man is enslaved by a fairy for seven years. The young man thwarts his Master’s wicked plot and get released after one night.

other things including: baby stealing, murdering children for petty grievances, stealing brides and mothers, and general overreations to rude behaviour.

The Erlking 

Erlking (from Elf-king or Herla-king; German: Erlkönig) is a name from Danish and German folklore for the figure of a spirit or "king of the fairies". While early stories feature the Erlking's daughter as a malevolent figure, Goethe's poem "Der Erlkönig" and those following it have the Erlking himself prey on small children.

Alternatively, the term may derive not from "elf-king" but from the name of Herla king, a figure in medieval English folklore, adapted as Herlequin, Hellequin in medieval French, in origin the leader of the Wild Hunt, in French known as maisnie Hellequin "household of Hellequin" (and as such ultimately identical with Woden), but re-cast as a generic "devil" in the course of the Middle Ages (and incidentally, in the 16th century also the origin of the Harlequin character). Sometimes also associated is the character of Herrequin, a 9th-century count of Boulogne of proverbial wickedness.  

The story portrays Sir Oluf riding to his marriage but being entranced by the music of the elves. An elf maiden, in Herder's translation the Elverkonge's daughter, appears and invites him to dance with her. He refuses and spurns her offers of gifts and gold. Angered, she strikes him and sends him on his way, deathly pale. The following morning, on the day of his wedding, his bride finds him lying dead under his scarlet cloak

The People of the Mounds 

In the first article of this series, I looked at the survival of belief among the Celtic peoples of an invisible realm inhabited by Otherworldly beings known collectively as the Sidhe, or the Good People. This belief was once common throughout all the Celtic countries, in localised forms. The Sidhe are considered to be a distinct race, quite separate from human beings yet who have had much contact with mortals over the centuries, and there are many documented testimonies to this. Belief in this race of beings who have powers beyond those of men to move quickly through the air and change their shape at will once played a huge part in the lives of people living in rural Ireland and Scotland. A notable feature of the sidhe is that they have distinct tribes, ruled over by fairy kings and queens in each territory. It would seem that the social order of the sidhe corresponds to the old aristocracy of ancient Irish families, which is in itself a reflection of the ancient Celtic caste system. It is interesting to note that many of the Irish refer to the sidhe as simply "the gentry", on account of their tall, noble appearance and silvery sweet speech. They have their own palaces where they feast and play music, but also have regular battles with neighbouring tribes. The great fairy hosts seem to be distinctly Milesian, but there are still folk memories of perhaps older pre-Gaelic races and their gods, in the form of the 'geancanach', a spirit of Ulster, or the 'cluricaun', of Munster. We must not forget also the 'leprechaun', a diminutive creature who is said to know the whereabouts of a pot of gold hidden in local fairy raths. The leprechaun could possibly be a folk memory of a dwarfish race of Fir Bolg people who lived in these raths before the coming of the Gaels.

The Perils of Faery - about fey being tricksters but that' a good thing?

Faerie

Faeries are magical beings residing in the Nevernever. They are a very heterogeneous group, as there are many different kinds of faerie. Some of them are humanoid in their form, some like animals, and others like various monsters. For a list of Faerie kinds, see the list below.Many of the faeries belong to one of the two Faerie Courts of the Nevernever, the Summer Court and theWinter Court. Those that do not belong to either are the Wyldfae.  

The concept of a debt and obligation is a huge factor in how they behave.^[1] The Sidhe are unable to give anything away for free. There must always be balance. Never take anything without giving something of equal value in return. Never give a favor without getting one in kind. All of Reality depends on it.^[2]It is generally tricky and dangerous to ask the Sidhe direct questions. Questions that deal with conflict especially may receive obscure and maliciously misleading answers.^[3] They are, however, "fanatical gatherers of information and guard their information as ferociously as a dragon guards his gold". Information is more valuable than gold.^[3]Faeries are often insane, mischievous, and very dangerous, but they are also good to their word. (ref?) It is possible for faeries and humans to produce offspring, who are called changelings.^[4]As part of their magic, they can use glamour to change their appearance.^[5] They'll try to put a mortal off balance with their beauty.^[1]Sidhe cannot speak an outright lie.^[6] They are, however, very adept at word plays and the twisting of meaning and literal speech.Faeries are vulnerable to iron, which is deadly to them. Running water and also can disrupt faerie magic and glamour.^[7]
Faeries will try to entrap mortals with bargain and deals. They offer things to get the mortal to trade. It's built into their nature. It works both ways: if a mortal offers a something, they'll have a conduit to use magic against them. They find anything other than an equal exchange to be either enticing or insulting.^[1]The rule: do not accept anything from them and don't offer them anything.^[1]

• Words, promises, and oaths are binding to the faeries. They have to make good on their own promises, but also make sure that an involved human does the same. Combined with their way around words, they can often snare an unsuspecting mortal with a bargain or even an accidental promise. 

• A promise thrice made is as close to absolute truth as a faerie can give.^[8]

• Asking a question three times creates a binding in which the third answer is the truth.^[1]

• Oaths put mutual obligation on both parties, Such as an oath of fealty to a Faerie Queen puts an obligation on the Queen to carry out the obligations of the one who is sworn to her if he is not able to for whatever reason, even death.^[9]

types of fey

justfairythings is a great tumblr about various terrible things fey do.

The faery lore of ireland 

In Ireland, the Faeries are called the Aes Sídhe (singular Aes Sídh). Sídhe happens to be the name for the earthen mounds and hills that dot the Irish landscape. Irish mythology, legendry, and folklore claim the Faeries live under these mounds, so the term "sídhe" has come to mean Faerie in general, but it more properly refers to the palaces, courts, halls, and residences of the Faeries. However they are known by a wide variety of euphemisms, including "the Fair Folk", "the Good Neighbors", "the Little Folk", "the Little Darlings", and "the People of Peace". This is done for two reasons. The first is to avoid attracting their attention and the second is to avoid insulting them.

Faeries tend to live completely independent lives. They ride, revel, dance, play sports and games, hold markets, make their own crafts, work in their own mines, and grow their own food. They have their own animals, such as horses, dogs, and cattle, and they make use of various wild animals, such as deer and goats. Their crafts include spinning, weaving, grinding meal, cooking, baking, and churning, metalworking, leatherworking, tailoring, and boat-building. They love music and dancing, at which they excel far beyond what any human can hope to accomplish. They hunt and conduct wars, both between themselves and against human kingdoms. They play various ball games, including football and hurling. They are masters of the game of fidhcheall, generally believed to be similar to chess, but also play cards and dice. Their natural food, even among the aristocrats and the gentry, consists of barley meal, deer or goat milk, butter and cheese made from such, and the roots, leaves, and stalks of weeds, all of which are disguised and spiced by glamour. The exception seems to be the small, delicious cakes the gentry and rustics give to their benefactors. Yet they have a curious dependency upon humans, as is witnessed by the things they steal from people, particularly food.

Nonetheless, a captive can be rescued as long as he or she does not consume any Faerie food or drink, because otherwise he or she will be trapped forever, having partaken of the Faerie nature. Even then the rescue will have to be made before seven years has passed, otherwise another attempt can not be made again until seven years later.  

Aside from theft and borrowing, there are two other major ways that humans and Faeries interact. The most common is when humans visit Faerieland. It is possible for people to enter and leave Faerieland more or less unscathed, however, this is rather rare. Usually, once someone enters Faerieland, he or she becomes trapped forever. As with other dealings, humans enter Faerieland in one of two ways: having been kidnapped by Faeries, or agreeing to render them a favor. Both demonstrate just how dependent Faeries are on humans. 

(there's a LOT more info at this site)

Florence + The Machine research

I've decided on Shake it Out as my song

The Estoteric Meaning of Shake It Out

Second, there is a definite occult influence in her music but it is not hidden or concealed, but rather all out in the open. In an interview with Nylon magazine, Florence stated:“I wanted to be a witch when I was a kid. I was obsessed with witchcraft. At school, me and my two friends had these spell books; I always wanted a more magical reality. I had a little shrine at home and I did a spell to try and make the boy in the other class fall in love with me.”
Despite this known fact, I never found any review or analysis of Florence + the Machine’s work from an occult point of view, a field Florence Welch is obviously well versed in. The videos of her first album Lungs had some occult concepts infused into them. For example, her hit Dog Days are Over alludes to the dog star Sirius, an all-important celestial body in esoteric teachings (for more information, read the article entitled The Mysterious Connection Between Sirius and Human History). An article on Pseudo-Occult media described some of the occult and MK aspects of the videos from her first album – centered around the imagery of white rabbits, bird cages, Alice in Wonderland and so forth – so I won’t dwell on those. Her second album, Ceremonials, is slightly darker and more focused on profound esoteric concepts that deserve some analyzing.
The videos of Shake it Out and No Light No Light both contain enigmatic imagery (see the confused comments on YouTube) that relate to ancient occult concepts. Analyzed from an esoteric point of view, both videos can indeed by seen as “ceremonies” where symbols and colors describe a story of profound transformation. The imagery of Shake it Out tell the story of an initiation ritual in a strange secret society.

Taking place in a strange masquerade ball with masked guests – reminiscent of the secret society orgy in the movie “Eyes Wide Shut” –  Shake it Out follows Florence’s evolution. From being shy and reserved, she becomes ecstatic and almost demented. In an interview, Welch described the video’s setting this way:“Think of a psychedelic 1920s dress party with a demonic twist. Possession meets The Great Gatsby. (…) We were kind of going for a sort of ‘Gatsby at West Egg’-style house party but with maybe slightly ritualistic and sort of satanic undertones and séances.”In this strange setting, there are several Florences, with different personalities and wearing dresses with symbolic colors. Each of them tell a different part of the story of Florence’s initiation and its results. As we have seen in previous articles on this site, the theme of initiation is often found in modern pop videos and there is one thing they all have in common: a focus on the colors white, red and black. This video is no exception as the color of Florence’s dresses tell a lot about the meaning of the character she is embodying. 
The lyrics of the song sustain the overall theme of these kinds of initiations as they pertain to the abandoning of a dark past and the embracing of a new life. Some parts of the song are particularly interesting as they appear to allude to specific aspects to Masonic initiations. This following passage refers to candidates being “in the dark” before the completion of the initiation.

There's more info about the masks- representing hypnos (god of sleep) and specific lyrics that related to initiation ceremonies, and the gold/red/white/black dresses and the importance of balance and duality

Genius lyrics

The 1st official single from Florence and the Machine’s 2nd album Ceremonials.Voted as “2012 Track of the Year” by NME magazine, the song was favourably received. The uplifting yet mournful sound is matched by lyrics depicting twisted clichés. The song was wrote whilst Florence Welch was suffering from a hangover, evident through the chorus – she describes singing the song as “cathartic”.

some annotations of certain lyrics:

• Regrets are possibly the worst kind of memories you can have. They can come back to you at anytime and anywhere, and can be hard to push away into the back of your head. 

• Florence wrote this song whilst hungover. She stated during an interview on US talk show Chelsea Lately that a hangover brings you to a whole new world, allowing you to access new areas of your brain. In her own words:" You build up all the experiences and then have enough regrets to write songs about them."

• The future is daunting; her path is dark. She’s unable to see the light through all the demons that have come back to haunt her.
• Florence admits to being naive. And that the mistakes and moves she has made in the past will never escape her.
• Two meaning are present:
• -Shaking the devils of regrets off her back. It’s a metaphor for moving on and letting go of her past problems. 

• -Literally, this refers to “shaking out” the sluggish feeling of a hangover; Florence was in a hangover when writing this song.

• What matters here is the metaphorical meaning. It’s a simple, inspirational phrase. Dance with them, not for them. Shake off your regrets and dance! 
• Florence has emphasised the importance of this lyric ("What the hell") in her interviews. She explain that sometimes you just can’t move on, you simply have to face the fact you might make a mistake again. This time embrace it.“‘What the hell’ is really important as well, because you’ll dance with the devil again at some point, and maybe it will be fun. I’ve heard he does a really good foxtrot.” – Florence Welch
• She said in an interview about this song that the “devil has a nice foxtrot” – he is charismatic and smooth and intriguing. There is an enigmatic romance in her “relationship” with the devil, but she recognizes how it leaves her in a darker place than where she started.
• Looking for heaven (a good time whilst out drinking), actually brings the devil (a bad hangover on the morning after). It’s a paradoxical phrase out of context (how can you find a devil in heaven?), but it works when compared with reality.

Songfacts.com 

This video piece is all about these processions and it's kind of colour based and everyone's wearing masks and there's all kinds of different colours...coloured balloons...and strange ceremonies going on. That word - ceremonies - got stuck in my head. And then went it came to this album which was influenced by hymns and poems and sounds of church bells. There's kind a lot of ceremonial influences and aspects to it, so it seemed to fit."

MTV article

"I think I came to the studio with a bit of a hangover, and it was one of those strange days where you're not really sure where a song comes from," she explained. "[Producer] Paul [Epwoth] just had these chords on the organ, and they sounded optimistic and sad at the same time. And I was thinking of regrets, like, you know when you feel like you're stuck in yourself, you keep repeating certain patterns of behavior, and you kind of want to cut out that part of you and restart yourself.

"So this song was kind of like, 'Shake yourself out of it, things will be OK,' " she continued. "[Because] sometimes I have to write songs for myself, reminding me to let it go. But then, the end refrain of 'What the hell' is really important as well, because you'll dance with the devil again at some point, and maybe it will be fun. I've heard he does a really good foxtrot."

And in keeping with that last point, Florence (and her Machine) made it a priority to get devilish with the "Shake It Out" video, which was shot in the grandiose Eltham Palace and was, by all accounts, a pretty excellent party — one that, like most of Ceremonials, seemed to span space and time.

"We were kind of going for a sort of 'Gatsby at West Egg'-style house party but with maybe slightly ritualistic and sort of satanic undertones and séances," she laughed. "That was such a fun video to shoot, for me especially, because I had all my friends down there, and they all came and we all got to dress up and do a casual séance in this beautiful art-deco mansion. It's basically a party house; there's one room which was purely just for cutting flowers. My best friend is sitting with me in the tree at the end of the video, and we just got to hang out in a tree for a while. It was really fun."



I also found some sheet music and started learning it (on piano), since that helps me understand songs in the tone/mood/etc kind of way which might be helpful.

ASSIGNMENT TWO

som non-linear research-

an interesting article about non-linear narratives for web/devices

very cool slideshow about non-linear narratives that is non-linear itself...it goes back to old slides and combines them and you can drag it around yourself and read what you want in whatever order

ideas for possible ways of presenting:
I'm not entirely sure which song I'm doing or what my narrative will be about but these are some possible ideas


(Isabelle Ouzman - lots more examples herehttps://isobelleouzman.com/altered-books-2/)
cut out book illustrations- i like the idea of having the cut out pages creating a different illustration if viewed from the other side? of course this does mean that it'd be read in a certain order...unless maybe the cover has nothing on it and the illustrations aren't up the same way therefore you could read it from either end? would have to experiment. if I do a faery idea this would fit because fairytales/folklore  make me think of books and old illustrations



some kind of shadow art lamp thing? maybe circular with three images going around? or maybe different lights inside it which the viewer can change and show different images (if that's possible..). or maybe parts of the shadow paper can move somehow. This could fit with "Lullaby", because light and shadows come up in that song, (and something to do with nightlights/being told scary stories/childhood/fear of the dark..)