For my final Open Works project I would like to focus on something along the lines of a comic. I want to represent time through a comic strip of some sort. I want to create a short story describing my move from Cairo to New York. I want there to be a situation where there can be humor in nervousness or panic. I want it to be light hearted and I believe that I can portray that through the dialogue and drawings used. Furthermore, I want to possibly create a fantasy world of a superhero that fights crime in a completely different culture moving to NYC to a completely different side of crime. I enjoy the world of comics and a world outside of reality so I wanted to incorporate this in my time project.
The main story line will consist of me as a superhero that fights crimes in Egypt. Though the characters are not real, I would like the crimes to be related to actual problems in Egypt, like political unrest, sexual harassment and other crimes that are a bit lighter hearted. I will make an excuse for my character to travel to New York, and I will have her fight crimes along the same lines of the ones in that she fights in Egypt, except they will be different in a humorous way. It also is inspired by the children’s book I made earlier in the semester “Ragab the Rat” however this would be aimed more towards an older audience.
Ok, so here are a few thoughts.
First do not forget that this is about TIME, so how does this exploration through your narrative make it clear that it is a meditation on time. How would you connect this to the kinds of time we have explored in class? How might you include it in the Time Map we made in class:
http://portfolio.newschool.edu/timeroacha06/2014/04/17/time-brain/
Second, this should be positioned as an installation, so how does this engage the viewer in a real space? What might the video component be?
I think the idea of engaging with history is good. how might it accomplish the above comments? How might the lessons from the Short Circuit project inform the way that you explore time within this narrative?
Some possible references for you:
Luca Buvoli: did some interesting work around the idea of superheros.
http://www.lucabuvoli.com/notasuperhero_2007.html
The film Waltz with Bashir
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylzO9vbEpPg
persepolis is also an obvious example that ties the past to the present through the medium of Illustration (or animation if you look at the film)
The short film La Jetee by Chris Marker looks at the past the present and the future through the lens of time travel.