Research Festival

Publication Description:

It is a board game created based on some unpredictable events experienced by the artist. Two players per round play the game, each throwing the dice and moving the pieces made of lava stones forward and back. The game simulates a third point of view to experience unpredictable events and explore how each move has an ongoing effect on what happens next.

I used Procreate to expand the previous drawing and add some details, which outlined the shape of a map. The map uses the darker areas of the outer edge as the game board. I decided to fill in the blank spaces inside with illustrations related to the unexpected events I wrote on the game board.

When drawing the illustrations, I consciously blended these events, either through colour or shape, to show life's mish-mash nature and make the players consider that all these things are indirectly related.

Once all the drawing content was completed, I used Photoshop to add the text sections and game instructions.

The board grids read as follows.

Seven Lucky Things (Forward):

“There was a beautiful sunset after a day of rain.”

“I bumped into my best friend, whom I had not seen for a long time.”

“I caught the last day of a favourite artist's exhibition.”

“I was lucky to see whales on a boat trip.”

“I grabbed concert tickets for my favourite singer.”

“The weather was perfect, so the hot air balloon took off.”

“What I dreamt at night really happened the next day.”

One Stop：

“The shop I wanted to go to was unfortunately closed.”

Thirteen Accidents (Back):

“The egg slipped down the sink when I cracked it.”

“The laptop got stuck during rendering, and the images all disappeared.”

“I cut my finger while chopping onions.”

“The water was wetting the freshly painted picture.”

“The train stopped running today due to a mechanical problem.”

“The hob broke down just as I was getting ready to cook.”

“My puppy was in a car accident and has turned into an angel.”

“The Disney ride I wanted to play was temporarily closed after queuing for a long time.”

“Pedestrians prohibited during volcanic eruptions.”

“I strained my shoulder while sleeping.”

“I got grease stains on my favourite shirt that could not be washed out.”

“I found out the hot water had run out while I was covered in bubbles.”

“The ceramic cracked during the firing process.”

Game Instructions:

· The game's participants are two players; the player holding the black piece goes first.

· The player moves forward to the designated space according to the number of dice points, continues to move once more according to the instructions on the space, and then the next player throws the dice; the operation is the same as above.

· The player who lands on the end position first wins the game. If the player skips the end position during the forwarding process, the player has to go around again until landing exactly on the end position.

Based on the dimensions of the Unit 3 artwork, the publication is A2 size when fully unfolded, so I came to Chelsea to print the large format artwork. When choosing the paper, the technician suggested a thinner paper like Matte 120, as the publication needed to be folded. Still, I wanted the publication to have some texture to the touch and wanted to go for a paper like Graffiti Smooth. So I printed both papers separately, compared the colour effects and the folded results, and finally chose the thicker, textured Graffiti Smooth.

The folding method I used was to fold it in half up and down and then fold the sides towards the centre, finally presenting a folded size of A4 so that when the board is unfolded, there are not many creases on the paper, and it will not be difficult to lay flat.

After this, I started working on the cover pattern for the publication to be screen printed. It contains the illustration of my dog that died in a car accident, which I mentioned in unit 2, and uses "Life Prognosticator" as the title to provoke the players to think about whether we can be a real "Life Prognosticator". The piece is divided into four layers and prepared to print four colours.

The wrong choice of the first pattern to be printed resulted in some deviation from the expected position of where the puppy was when all the printing was finally done.

This result also taught me a lesson about screen printing; when printing a multi-layer artwork, it is essential to think about which pattern to print beforehand. I should have chosen to print the large background pattern first to position it as a whole, and then the position of the other patterns would be determined accordingly.

The final printed result has some texture of uneven colour bleed, which is something I like about the presentation. At the same time, on the cover, I used guiding text and a symbol to indicate to the players to unfold the publication and start their game journey.

Research Festival site display diagram

Two lava stone pieces

I mapped out what I wanted my publication to look like at the Research Festival. And I need a table and two chairs. Two players sit on the same side of the table facing the board, which unfolds at A2 size. The small items included in the game are a dice and two lava stone pieces.

During a tutorial, Yuchen suggested I consider the game's presentation in great detail. The original idea for this publication was to give players and viewers a third perspective on the impact of unexpected events on their lives as a whole and to focus on their subconscious feedback on these unexpected events. For the players, they are in the third perspective of the life of the game creator, and for the audience watching the game from the side they are in the third perspective of the game. It is a fantastic loop, so I will document the physical and emotional reactions of the players and the audience in real-time during the game through photos and videos at the Research Festival to explore and draw conclusions for the project's future development.