For our second digital reflection, I decided to incorporate Never Alone, anonymity, and data without context as my three core concepts. I felt like the concepts we were able to choose from this time around were a little more difficult, simply because they were either too different or too similar, at least for me. This brought me to look at some of our topics in a bit of a different light in order to tie them in. I specifically included a different approach to the idea of anonymity than the one we had gone over in class.
Never Alone:
The entire purpose behind the creation of this game was to teach people about the Iñupiat culture, and maintain the culture in a modern way. As I designed this piece I decided to put a lot of my focus on maintaining the integrity of the game's design as possible. I pulled a png directly from the game for the girl and her fox, focusing my efforts on creating a loyal setting for the adventurers. Throughout the game, there is a dark border around the player's screen. I believe that their goal with this was to represent the mind's eye, as the Iñupiat culture has relied on verbal storytelling for centuries. I wanted to bring that darkened edge into this piece as a direct callback. I also incorporated a raw, almost scratched effect to imply the constant motion of the wind that was an important factor during gameplay.
Anonymity:
I believe that the way we discussed anonymity in class was more along the lines of whether we can actually be anonymous online. I don't believe we can, though our presence can become harder to detect. That idea felt connected to the spirits that would appear while playing Never Alone. I created humanoid shadows or spirits that surround the girl and fox, which are meant to represent the many players who will be recognized as nothing but numbers. All of these faceless and nameless beings have come together to appreciate and quietly support these efforts of the Iñupiat tribe and their developers. Anonymity, however relative it may be, is a powerful tool that we use in society on a near daily basis to bring change to the world. Take the Epstein meme for instance. Instead of allowing his death to be swept under the political rug, the anonymous masses held it in the forefront of everyone's minds, and demanded more.
Data Without Context:
This specific concept seems to be fairly straightforward. Without an explanation to accompany data, it turns into meaningless numbers. I thought that incorporating this image of data lines (matrix style) into the aurora borealis image used for the background would be a nice way to visualize the gap that the Iñupiat people were bridging with their project. Their way of life could have faded into one of the many distant data points of history, but they found a way to maintain their place in the world in the same way they always have; with a story.
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