week six & seven 12/10 - 25/10
IG
Posts
1st
Stream
My
ideation
The first week of Open Season! We planned for our first live stream, and officially starting on our builds in the new world on the server. And since there wasn't much notable activity in
Week 6, I decided to combine it with Week 7.
I wanted to keep a fun log of our weekly activities and progress during Open Season, though I'll admit it's difficult to upkeep when you're also making new visuals for other posting materials.
Spontaneous streams announcements became common occurrences which reflected how we (core team) functioned in Discord.
But actually YH & I had a consensus to try streaming every week or so, a more consistent presence helped to hype and engage our viewers (mainly our friends and interested lecturers), and prepare us by familiarizing with the setup and conduct for Streams.
We did our first live stream on the 24 Oct, using Twitch.tv (it's like YouTube, but for streams) which was more user-friendly and easier to access to more viewership. As the site was designed with algorithms with the use of tags, type of game (and community) and timing in relation to your region. Streaming jargons.
But we realized that if you don't have a Twitch account you can't interact with us in the chat, similar to YouTube. So that cuts down viewership by, A WHOLE LOT. But we took it in stride and treated it as a testbed for our first attempt. #lessonlearnt We'll port over to YouTube!
[technically, we did stream a super casual and even more messed up version on 18th, for a team gathering]
Also...[pro-tip from future self:] remember to save Twitch.tv vods (videos) within 2 weeks of the live stream, because they don't archive it. But I took some screencaps & gameplay recordings during the live stream.
We did a short tour of everyone's WIPs if any, and played around freely. It was the chance for the team to interact with each other, start on builds or troubleshoot. And also we have our gamer sign-upee with us for the first time in MC, so the stream was an opportune moment for introductions as well.
My images and short clips differ in visuals & perspective from the official video - that you may find in YH's log. That's because we're our own avatars in Minecraft, and YH uses shaders (a texture pack overlay) which makes everything look 100x better :3c
At the end of the stream, I was thinking about what to build for the showcase. For everyone, we had gone through the process of ideation and translation with them. But for myself I wasn't sure what would be good to build.
I wanted the build (work) to reflect the introspection of using unique mechanisms & limitations in Minecraft as a form of set-imposed rules - to parallel my personal practice, particular about the process of making for the Origami series.
So I thought to myself: Remember the line drawings of flattened spaces of the origami? Why not try 'drawing' in Minecraft?
And the inspiration hit me with Minecraft Map Art & illustrations! 'Maps' in MC capture the topography of the land in and flattens it into a representation (abstraction). A standard map covers 128*128 blocks (8*8 chunks, 1 chunk = 16*16 blocks). For a scale comprehension, our MC avatar occupies 1 block wide, 2 blocks high. It's HUGE. And challenging, so I went with it tested my first map art with extracted lines from an unfolded origami I did.
Well, just see it for yourself, the spatial experience explains more than words.