Rationale and final

Exhibition write up:

Download HP Reveal for this AR experience.

1.            Download the app ‘HP Reveal’ on your smartphone

2.            Open the app and hold the camera function a photograph

3.            Watch the magic happen

I’ve used traditional 2D animation to explore what the Chinese communities may have been experiencing during the late 1800’s/early to mid-1900’s in the old Chinatown slums of Wellington. The sketchy, 1920’s style cartoon is a homage to the cartoons being made at the time. These three buildings are the only ones left standing and can be found on Frederick Street.

Gold lust

-              During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, New Zealand had its own little gold rush. Chinese people travelled the ocean in search of gold, setting up communities within NZ. These communities became the slums as the rest of the Pakeha subjected the newcomers to horrendous living and working conditions

Resilience

-              The police used opium as an excuse to raid people’s homes without warning. Historically the British have used opium in an attempt to control the Chinese, starting wars just to keep the drug and the money flowing. In Chinatown they were still using opium to spread fear and hate towards the Chinese communities

Hatred consuming

-              A personification of the hatred and fear the European Pakeha felt towards the Chinese immigrants, forever chasing, chewing up and spitting out. This xenophobia reached its height in 1905 when Joe Kum Yung was murdered on Haining Street by a man obsessed with ridding NZ of its “yellow fever”

Rationale

The biggest challenge with this project for me was ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’. Starting out in a new medium was really fun and I really enjoyed exploring animation, but getting the physics right is particularly hard. From how the character would step and how their weight would shift to the overlap of the plait. With more time I'd really get into all the physics of it and smooth out the animation. If I could re-do this project I would definitely look at what animation students are learning in other schools and start from there. Testing out more walks and experimenting with physics would have helped a lot, and giving myself homework for what to test each week (eg. Week 1, squash and stretch a ball etc.). Most tests that I did were either too ambitious, leaving me feeling discouraged eg. I tried to storyboard a full 30-second animation of the squirrel just as a warm up. In saying that I do feel like I’ve learnt a lot in a short space of time. There were some technical things I’d do differently and I needed more time getting familiar with TV paint but in general I feel quite satisfied with this exploration and excited to animate more in the future now that I have a better understanding of the process. Also excited about how easy it is to create AR! A whole new medium to explore animation with.