Task Two

Last weeks task engaged you in background research through the use of literature review. Although the boundaries of this research were not strictly drawn on academic lines, and you were permitted to conduct your research as widely as possible. The intention behind that exercise was to get you to look at beyond the prescribed text, in last weeks case Little Dorrit, to seek a deeper more meaningful way of understanding of the impact hardship has on individuals. To empathise with the characters situation and through that empathy better understand the character before engaging with design.

This week you are expected to look at the specific boundaries of characters within the narrative. Look to:

• what role do they fulfil in the the narrative (Hero or villain or even anti hero material)
• What are the characters personality, and disposition (are they extroverts, introverts, dysfunctional, driven or disengaged, dispassionate or the reverse highly emotional)
• Are there plot points within the narrative that affect the design. (such as pinocchio’s nose that gets longer when he lies).

The extract supplied is from the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake. The extract is beginning of the first book Titus Groan, where the author sets the scene and introduces 2 of its many characters. Your task is to read and determine the boundaries of the character using the above points. make notes directly on the pages. and write a maximum of two sentence synopsis of the characters.

Spend some time in session visualising the silhouettes of the characters. It is important to remain quite broad and crude at this stage. Use last weeks exercise into developing empathy with the characters.

Spend an hour looking around the campus for the physical characteristics of the the character,and draw them but be aware that;

• you are unlikely envisage the character in one person, but rather more likely to see it across a range of people.
• look to behavior as well as physical characteristics.
• you are unlikely to be able to complete the task on the day and so may need to go out and look for more subject matter during the week

report back with your findings.

For next session have two character sheets where you visually describe the your characters, and one composition of the character s in the Hall of Bright Carvings.