Concept:
The work I will create is a visual novel presenting my idea of what memory is. I argue that memory construes meaning, where, oftentimes, memory serves as a placeholder for raw emotion. In my piece, I argue that emotion can be forgotten and misplaced, the same way memory can. The project will be script-based, idealizing a rough draft of a movie.
Inspiration:
Natsume SÅseki was a Japanese writer who lived through the dawn of the 20th century, and some more. He was considered a prominent member of Japanese literary culture, helping to bring about a profound effect (stylistically) amongst aspiring Japanese writers. His work, Kokoro, chronicles one manās regret, which ends with his suicide. The piece, in my understanding, illustrates emphasizes the association of memory to guilt, showcased by Senseiās inability to forgive himself. In my piece, I will be attempting to mimic a light-hearted version of this sensation ā instead making a more āslice of lifeā style. Slight changes within my writing, stylistically, would be trying to keep his descriptive style while eliminating the first-person narration and having a third person narrator.
Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese writer based in the United Kingdom who has also received critical acclaim. His book, Never Let me Go, is a dystopian science fiction novel. It chronicles the first-person experience of a woman named Katie, who sees the two people she knows and loves, leave her. The piece plays with a bittersweet feeling of regret and loss, tying in the two for the fated plot-twist that initially shocked me. Foregoing the plot-twist due to time constraints, I chose instead to borrow the unusual inner-peace that the narrator exudes in the end scene, despite the loss experienced.
Logistics:
The project will consist of audio, images, and text. The audio component will be a recitation of the script by me and a willing female (or someone with a feminine voice) volunteer. The text will be a typed-out version of a short story I wrote.
The text box will be displayed next to an image box. There will be a JavaScript function that will write out the text (i.e. w -> we -> we_ -> we_l -> we_li -> we_lik -> we_like) and will have a mouse hover function to control image and auditory display.
Because the idea is based around the idea that āsorrow is silentā there will be two versions of the image. Initially, the image will initially be in black and white, but have audio. However, if the mouseover function is put to use on either the text or the image, the audio will stop, and the images will have some color. It is unclear, as of now, if this function is to be instructed to the user. Images and audio will be cycled through if statements, using the variable (i) which is to be used to automate the typewriter. A pause and auto play button will be included below the image and text boxes, in the middle of the screen.