New STYX gif

I wasn’t very happy with what I’d created for my styx layer. It was ok in composition and colour, and I’d liked the boat and the character, but the background had been way too flat and light, and the stalagmites weren’t brilliant. I’d experimented with using silicon sealant to make them, hoping that they would let light through and look ghostly, but they didn’t. In this one I have instead used papier mache to make the stalagmites bigger and as if they are connected to the ceiling (I believe they are called pillars when a stalagmite and stalactite connect). I think it looks a lot grander. I also papier mached the back, and used acrylic paint instead of water colour to get a more solid layer. I think there’s a lot more depth to this gif, and I much prefer the colours and how the water moves when his rowing stick (?) goes through the hair gel (that’s what the water is made out of). I also am very proud of the way the light reflects off the water. I hope people notice it.

But how does this fit within the story, the rest of the boxes, and the concept of the subconscious? This section of the story is supposed to represent the journey through the brain, the exploration of the subconscious that Freud was so intrigued by. The light at the front at the boat is both the illumination of knowledge, and also the supposed purity of the Super Ego.

I like to think about what Freud would see if he saw this gif. He would probably comment on the phallic imagery of the staff and the pillars. And also perhaps the shapes in the background and placement of the farthest stalactite.

After a talk with Amelia I decided that I should have lights in the boxes with models in. A lot of my work is about the strong contrast of light and shadow, and the models speak best when they are lit dramatically. I had some buttons that were threaded with a nut at the back so that they could screw into a hole, so I drilled some holes in my boxes (really carefully as the models were already glued down!), and wired some LEDs in. The battery packs and light bulbs will be hidden by a frame around the sides of the box, that also serves the purpose of hiding the scenes within, unless you are looking into them.

ENTRANCE and ANGER

I wasn’t sure how these boxes were  going to turn out, but I’m fairly happy with how they look. I like the fact that they were 3D, then they were 2D, and now they’re almost 3D again.

This one is for the ANGER layer. It’s supposed to represent the gate to Dis, the inner circle of hell, where the active sins are separated from the passive sins. In the poem, the souls fight each other in the swampy water of the river. I’ve instead pictured them reaching out of the mud, as if they’ve been sucked down, to represent the superego reaching for something more moral than the Id (the mud represents the id, as it it base, and dirty and of the earth). The door to the City of Dis is slightly ajar, to carry on the feeling of the viewer travelling through the boxes, and to add intrigue.

This is the box for ENTRANCE, the first box that you see. The camera gave some glare off the paper, it’s not really that shiny. The three animals are the three main components of the id, lust, violence,and hunger; the leopard, lioness, and wolf respectively. I tried to make the leopard look a bit slinky, and less scary than the others. The lioness has scratches as if she’s been fighting, and a claw up and the wolf has a visible ribcage.

Virgil is there beckoning the viewer into the gate, another way of connecting the boxes together.