VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/P9ZGpIFsjpk
My project aims to show the difference between the outside perception and true inside deliberations of the human mind. We often like to seem in control of our emotions, setbacks, or achievements to the outside world; showing vulnerability is not always easy or even deemed appropriate in most social settings. Nevertheless, fears and disappointments can take up much space in the mind. This comes out most clearly perhaps while meditating, in the attempt not to think about anything but just feel our true emotional state. As we are continually busy doing one thing or another in our daily lives it becomes easy to push non-immediate thoughts aside. Much more goes on inside our mind than is apparent at first glance, even to ourselves.
The first scene is a forest. A woman is sitting in front of a candle in a meditating position, surrounded by animals. Her nudity relates to the vulnerability of the human body and its connection to the natural world. Her position reflects introspection and the effort made to keep a calm appearance on the outside. As soon as we come into contact with the body, the viewer is positioned in a second scene. Now entering the deeper inner thoughts of the mind, the woman’s calm exterior is contrasted by the stressors and random thoughts persisting inside. These include global issues such as our immersion in the pandemic, and disasters ranging from climate to war. More common ones like education, work, and creativity are also included, among random thoughts. It is especially when sitting down and trying not to think about anything, that the true contents of the mind are revealed. While meditating, these thoughts float by with a persistent sound that is difficult to ignore, yet not taking over. The contents of the mind are simply there to be acknowledged and accepted, only to process and release them. Perhaps the mind needs to go into free fall to be able to let our thoughts go.
Process:
For the first scene, I started out with a terrain. I sculpted it to create hills and painted it with a grass texture and various types of trees. I then created a female model in MakeHuman and animated her positioned in Mixamo. After importing the character into the scene, I completed the environment with ferns, mushrooms, and animals. Finally, I added a skybox and an audio source to pull all of the elements together into a quiet and serene environment.
For the second scene, I created a terrain and left it flat. In line with my initial idea of this scene, I added all the assets that came to my mind. I then added a skybox and used one of its textures on the terrain to integrate it into the environment. I chose a space skybox to represent the mind as a place far removed from our everyday concerns. The experience is completed with different audio sources playing as we move through the space.
