Last week’s lesson was cancelled, so this week was our first class with Nigel for this term.
We went over how to develop potential topics, and how our thesis and proposal should be structured. Nigel mentioned that while it is more standard for the Thesis to be connected in someway to our FMP, it doesn’t need to be. This does feel reassuring to me, as I often get very uninspired and demotivated when I am focusing on one topic or project for long periods.
I began considering areas of research I am interested in. While I am still unsure what would make a good research topic, my current interests are:
- Unique visual styles/techniques in digital media
- Viewer immersion
- Empathy towards fictional characters
- The link between phycology and the way we interact with fictional stories
- Socio-political themes in modern digital media (especially those that have conflicting themes against the production houses/streaming services they are featured by, such as anticapitalism themes in Apple TV show Severance for example)
I have also been considering potential artefacts to write about. I would want to choose those I have either enjoyed or had an interest in analysing, as to keep my focus while writing about. Some I have considered:
- Andor (2022)
- Arcane (2021)
- Severance (2022)
- Spider-Verse films (Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Across the Spider-Verse (2023))
- Scavengers Reign (2023)
- Russian Doll (2019)