A month ago, the world was hit with something impossible; a virus that has no cure. Because of this, classes have been cancelled all over the country and it gave myself and my classmates a two week spring break. Starting back into classes online due to social distancing, it is a wonder how the art department will be able to continue. In person is the best way to experience and create art. As an upcoming teacher, I am hoping to see the examples that my professors and educators across the world and decide what I would be able to do if there was another pandemic in my lifetime. Hopefully that is not the case, but it is always good to be prepared.
Shortly before the spring break, myself and my classmates in ARTT 2372 gave short presentations on what our "Impossible Projects" were going to be. This project was designed to push an artist to their limits and push them to learn more on their own than they otherwise would have. A way to feel like a child again viewing and touching and learning something for the first time. This feeling is way to important to forget as an educator. This assignment was supposed to take half the semester and many many hours and workdays to prepare and create. Because of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus), we are unable to have the same resources that we would have had in person, to include the professor's input and computing technology at the University. This meant that I had to change what my project would be.
My initial project was going to include:
1. An animatronic toy (mainly for the motor and skeleton inside)
2. A micro:bit
3. A moto:bit
I wanted to make an animal paint based on a voice command. This was going to be very interesting to create, be way out of my comfort zone, and perfect for this project. Unfortunately, this had to change. I am not confident enough that I will always have the resources and the know-how to do this on my own, and it was suggested that as students we chose something attainable online using the incredible website- Scratch.
My little brother was definitely a huge inspiration going forward with this project. He was the one I asked for help. Connor is 12 years old and loves, loves, loves video games. His favorite character is Luigi, my main character in the Scratch game I have decided to develop. I wanted to be able to implement similar elements into my new Impossible Project, like voice commands. My idea is to be able to have a "choose your own adventure" kind of game. It will contain multiple story lines, several characters, and the choice as the player to decide whether you want to "tell" the character what to do or be able to click on where you want to go. This new project will more than likely be way more work, considering I will have to code the entire thing and figure out how I am going to make the voice commands work in Scratch. All in all though, I am very excited to figure this out and then eventually show my little brother what he helped me create. Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, maybe even some cross over characters will be featured to assist in this great adventure.
