Game For Change

ADHD Quest

I decided to make a game about having ADHD and dealing with the social stigmas surrounding this particular learning disability. It is something that I have had to come to terms with during my life and one that I think still needs work within society. A lot of my game comes from personal experience, but I also reference WebMD and a news article. Here are links to them both:

http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/guide/10-symptoms-adult-adhd#2

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/12338.html

It was rather difficult to complete this game. Despite how excited I was about it, I was also a little overwhelmed by how large it started to become. I added little bits over a couple days, but had a lot of trouble completing it.

Almost every option in my game was actually a personal experience with some of the minor details altered. So, it required me to be very vulnerable since I'm putting a large part of my life out here for other people to experience and make meaning of. It was a big deal for me, but I want people to get a better understanding. I think I will continue to work on this project to refine it even more. I played Depression Quest while working on my game and it completely changed how I wanted to go about my game. It took it from a day-in-the-life kind of game to a larger time span that captures more of the bigger picture.

The political stance that this is pushing would be a greater understanding of ADHD. I do not believe that it is over diagnosed, but that it may be over-medicated. I think that there should be a wide range of help available for this learning disability. While I think that medication can be great on a short term basis to help people get on their feet and develop skills. However, I am nervous of long-term use of Adderall because research has started to hint at a possible link between heart disease and long-term use of Adderall.

Round Robin Story

The Story of Mr. Fluffytail

Fluffytail was usually punctual, but today his car got a flat tire. He tried to catch the bus, but it was full. So, he ran as fast as he could.

Fluffytaill ran and ran until he was breathless. The rain started to poor and his little feet gave out under him. This was not going to be a good day.

Fluffytail sat in the wet grass, ready to turn around, give up, and just go home. But then he saw a little mouse, struggling to walk through the heavy rain.

Fluffytail pitied the mouse struggling in the rain. After a moment’s hesitation, he hopped up to the mouse and offered to take him to his intended destination.

The mouse replied, “Yes, thank you so much!” and climbed up onto Fluffytail’s back. They hopped off together into the sunset as Fluffytail took the mouse home.

Artist/Teacher Statement

Textual Poaching - Remember your place

For this assignment, it took me a long time to come up with an idea. The aspects of myself that I felt were most impacted by media related to gender. I watched a lot of Disney movies as a child and found myself trying to act like the princesses I saw. After some research, I decided upon the 1953 version of Peter Pan. Here is the scene I chose:

I found this on google with the caption, "Yes Wendy, remember your place..." When I visited the site hosting the image, I found it was a blog pointing out the racism and sexism of the movie; however, there are still plenty of people in the world who share the sentiment that women should "remember their place." Once, on my mission, I was even told by someone on the street to let the men teach the gospel and get back to my kitchen. Thinking of all of the pressures put on women and the jokes that went around in high school about women going to make their man a sandwich, I decided to swap Peter and Wendy.

Wendy gets to be the adventurous one, sitting carelessly back while Peter is kneeling on the floor with a needle and thread, doing the work for Wendy. The chain around his neck represents the shame messages that women in society often receive, pressuring them to do certain things, dress a certain way, and be a certain person. I actually thought of the image of slave Leah as I drew the chain around his neck. In her skimpy slave outfit, the chain is found to be seductive and alluring, but around Peter it is quite disconcerting and dark. My position is that there should be no chain around either Wendy or Peter. Genders should be equal with freedom to be adventurous and the respect from others to be taken seriously.

I could use an assignment like this in my future theater classes to help teach my students about production concepts. An image and interpretation can change the way an entire show is directed. I want them to see that even plays that have been around for quite some time can be reformed with a new concept to say something new.

Process Piece - Sound

For this project, I originally thought of doing a timelapse video of me making dinner. Then, I realized, for one, my kitchen wasn’t clean enough for that and the example was the sound of washing dishes. Also, I watch Tasty videos all the time! I didn’t want to just copy something that I have seen someone else do. So, I was super original and decided to record the sounds of me making dinner. I actually really enjoyed this by the end and was thinking of tons of ways I could adapt this to my future classroom. For a technical theater class, I could first play this clip that I recorded and ask them to write down all the different sounds that they hear and what likely made those sounds. Then, once they have written all the different pieces that made up this whole, we can have a discussion about the complexity of sound cues, including the advantages and limitations.

Finally, I could give them the assignment to take a piece of a script (likely a scene that I will assign) and record sounds that they feel could fit the setting and environment of the selection. The recording should be 2-3 minutes and should include at least 3 different sounds. It should be something that could be in the background to add dimensionality to the scene. I could also ask them to choose something that they do regularly and record the process of that, ei. Brushing teeth, shaving face, making popcorn. They should not speak during this recording, or cut out their voice, however, they can catch the sound of another person speaking from another room. After this, they could write a reflection about the things they learned.