Celestin Albers iArts

Celestin.
...Albers
iARS
2020
BLOCK 1
FINAL WORK AND PROGRESS
REPORT

I STARTED OFF WANTING TO MAKE MY WORK A REPRESEN-
TATION OF ALL THE THINGS THAT I HATE ABOUT USING
MY SMARTPHONE TO COMMUNICATE WHEN I’M IN A SHITTY
MOOD.
AFTER SOME DISCUSSIONS WITH MY FELLOW STUDENTS,
I NOTICED A LOT OF SIMILARITIES IN OUR EXPERI-
ENCES. MOST OF MY PEERS WERE FRUSTRATED WITH THE
‘ALWAYS-ONLINE’ MENTALITY THAT MODERN LIFE SEEMS
TO REQUIRE FROM YOU.
COMMON TOPICS OF CONVERSATION WERE THE ADDIC-
TIVENESS OF THE ENDLESS SCROLL, THE INSTANT
GRATIFICATION THROUGH LIKES AND FOLLOWS, THE
OVERSHARING OF VAST AMOUNTS OF (MIS)INFORMATION
AND THE ENDLESS STREAMS OF NEGATIVITY THAT SEEMS
TO BE COMING AT YOUR DIRECTION WITH LIGHTNING
SPEED.
AT SOME POINT IT REACHES A BREAKING POINT, AT
LEAST FOR ME, WHERE THE ENDLESS DIGITAL SOCIAL
MEDIA BULLSHIT JUST BECOMES TOO MUCH.
THE ARTWORK ATTEMPTS TO RAISE, AMONG OTHERS,
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE WAY THAT THE VIEWER / PHONE
USER SPENDS THEIR TIME, THE HABITS THAT THEY FORM
AROUND THEIR DEVICES AND WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE
DATA THEY FREELY SHARE WITH THE DIGITAL WORLD.
CELESTIN ALBERS

CELESTIN ALBERS

I NOTICED A LOT OF SIMILARITIES IN
OUR EXPERIENCES. MOST OF MY PEERS
WERE FRUSTRATED WITH THE ALWAYS
ONLINE MENTALITY THAT MODERN
LIFE SEEMS TO REQUIRE FROM YOU...
CELESTIN ALBERS

CELESTIN ALBERS

IMade all the visual artwork for this project
in AsePrite. A program which I bought a
couple years ago and never intensivelly
used up until now. It took me a while to get
the hang of it since pixel art to me is very
different from other types of art. It is tricky trying to
translate the shape of objects into a tiny grid. But also
very interesting and rewarding to find out how much
meaning I can get out of compositions made with these
tiny dots. Most of the artworks made as practice were
actually used in the final version of the work since I
needed a lot of visual material for it.
CELESTIN ALBERS
One of the ha
project was f
I had to pick
drawing a bu
topics I liked I
I have always wanted to mak
to make it interactive. And
going to make an interactiv
what would this mean? I que
A bit too long perhaps. I g
all the possibilities. Eventua
for my project while using
some information up.

This is what the pixel art program
looks like while I am
working with it...
rdest things about this
iguring out what to do.
my medium first. So after
nch of sketches around
arrived at pixel art. Since
e a game I now also wanted
so the idea was born. I was
e pixel art experience. But
stioned this for some time.
ot a bit too intimidated by
lly I came up with the idea
my friends phone to look
Us ing my friends phone felt
very strange because he had a
different brand phone. Everything
felt familiar yet alien at the same
time. I knew what the icons meant but
they looked slightly off. I knew how to use the
menus and yet it felt strange to do so. I started
thinking about how someones phone is somewhat
like a representation of their whole world. I came
to the conclusion that I could do CELESTIN some form ALBERS of
interactive storytelling through a pixel art styled
simulated phone.

The programming was hard to account for. I as very low on
time, the crunch was real. With only days left I did the
only logical thing; staying up for multiple days to hack
this experience together. Part of the roadmap for this artwork
is that the experience will evolve over the days as
the exhibition goes on.This was not done because of a lack
of time, but was simply always part of the plan.
CELESTIN ALBERS

For this project I used a heavily outdated piece of software.
(Game Maker studio 1.4.99) I had to do this since
the licenses to the newer version is very expensive and I
only own a key for this older version. Nonetheless it still
holds up for making interactive html5 experiences. I have
used this program a couple times before, so I knew where
to get started. My goal was to dive into the programming
a bit more. And I certainly got what I had hoped for. brand
CELESTIN ALBERS

I HAVE WORKED ON SOME SMALL PROJECTS IN A PROGRAMMING POSITION BEFORE, WHICH I QUITE ENJOYED
DOING. I WANTED TO EXPAND MY KNOWLEDGE BY TRYING SOME THINGS I HAVE BEEN WANTING TO TRY
OUT FOR A LONG TIME, STORYTELLING, WORLDBUILDING, INTERACTIVE MEDIA AND ANIMATIONS, TO NAME
A FEW. I HAVE VERY LIMITED EXPERIENCE IN ANY OF THESE FIELDS, BUT I WAS VERY ENTHUSIASTIC
AND INSPIRED BY OTHER WORKS THAT EXECUTE THESE THINGS PERFECTLY. ONE OF MY FAVORITES IS
'PAPERS PLEASE' BY LUCAS POPE. A PERFECT COMBINATION OF WELL-CRAFTED PIXEL ART AND EXCELLENT
INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING THROUGH CREATIVE WORLDBUILDING.
CELESTIN ALBERS

CELESTIN ALBERS

CELESTIN ALBERS

SINCE THIS IS AN ONLINE APPLICATION, I
WILL BE ABLE TO MANIPULATE, UPDATE AND
TWEAK THE WORK DURING THE I/O EXPOSI-
TION. SHINING A LIGHT ON THE DIFFERENT
TYPE OF CONTENT INSIDE OF THE LARGER
BODY OF WORK THAT IS SEROS. THIS WILL
KEEP THE WORK FRESH.
MY AUDIENCE WILL LIKELY BE FAMILIAR WITH
THE TOPICS DISCUSSED IN MY WORK. I’LL
HAVE TO DO SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL TRICKS TO
KEEP THEIR ATTENTION. I WILL DO THIS
BY LURING THEM IN WITH THE FAMILIAR-
ITY OF THE SMARTPHONE INTERFACE, THEN I
WILL INTRODUCE AN ELEMENT OF SURPRISE,
AND HOPEFULLY WITH SOME GOOD TIMING, A
SPLASH OF COMEDY. THE END GOAL OF THE
ARTWORK IS TO MAKE THE AUDIENCE RETHINK
THEIR (OFTEN BY OWN ADMISSION UNHEALTHY)
RELATIONSHIPS TO MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
CELESTIN ALBERS