For the preliminary task we were asked to revist/remake a piece of art from before we were born. I chose Judith ii by Gustav Klimt. Judith ii depicts the biblical heronine Judith. The painting explores themes of sensuality and violence, and how these themes interact with eachother.

Digital colours on photoshop, learning to overlay gradient maps over a tonal b&w image. 

I decided to riso print the illustrations using different colour combinations as i really enjoy riso at the moment and love the way the colours and textures look. I think it worked best with the first colour palette of neon orange, violet and yellow. 

We have now formed a group based on common interests of mystical/fantasy imagery and folklore, with aims for outcomes to form sculptures, costumes, interactive rooms and film. Initial artits we haver talked about : hieronymus bosch, john william waterhouse, and reinterpreting disney movies. There is 8 of us in the group which is quite a large collective but we all have varying skills and interests so i am confident we can come together to create something that highlights our different skills. 

Researching medival tapestries after Caitlin mentioned it in one of our group meetings, I have found interest in the unicorn tapestries, specifically the hunt for the unicorn and the lady and the unicorn. Both are a series of woven tapestries, in the hunt each piece narrates a different part of a story of the capture of a unicorn. in the lady and the unicorn depicts the 5 senses in each of the five tapestries- this would be an interesting theme to explore for a immersive exhibition. The unicorn is said to depict religious purity, love and desire. I like the idea of a narrative sequence, the unicorn tapestries remind me of a kind of medieval comic, this could be translated into a modern take of the themes and create a sort of immersive comic.

notes from our first group tutorial, establishing our next steps. we have yet to decide on a source for our remake so thats the first step. also establishing that with a larger group we can delegate tasks and stick to our confident abilities and lean our outcome towards these skills. Once we have narrowed down a solid idea after a vote, it is our plan to delegate tasks and decide who is directing what part of the different processes.

Our group has settled on revisting James and the Giant Peach, a Roald Dahl childrens book adapted into a disney movie. The film contains elements of stop motion as well as live action. Tasha’s idea was to remake the gaint peach with a new angle of genetic modification- reframing the gaint magical peach as a GMO experiement gone wrong. The current plan is to design and build a gaint peach as an immersive sculpture where you can enter the peach and interact with different elements of our creation, we are aiming to highlight our different skills and collaborate these together to create a multi-media outcome. 

Some notes from a group discussion now that we have set on an idea. Thinking about our different skills and how we can expand on and explore these within this project. Everyone is taking on roles and delegating tasks so that everyones knows where to make a start. Maddie and Tasha are going to create bugs that parody the iconic film/book characters, Katy and Martha are going to do the structural planning and engineering of the peach, Caitlin is going to create the peach ‘atmosphere’ and design the outside as well as help with interior, Joni is going to design and create the interior of the peach, Emily is going to design and create costumes for the aunts who will take on a role of mad scientists. It is my job to create a film/ animation to be projected inside the peach. I am going to explore stop motion and hand drawn elements and showcase the story of mutation with a parodical view on the orginal story. 

Mad God is an adult stop motion animated film that immerses the viewer into a bizare nightmareish world of mutated monsters, the narrrative is less of a focus as its more of a showcase of visual language and world building. I am taking inspiration from the bright colour palette in this one scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij_qwE-23AY&t=2s) and its weird and wonderful character design. 

I work in a nursery and the children often watch this very hungry caterpillar animation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NQK-Sm1YY) which has been inspiring me a lot, the textxured cut out animation is really charming and the aesthetics and themes relate to this project and my plans for my animation.

Gaia Alari is one of my favourite visual artists, her hand drawn animations have a beautiful and loose drawing style with expressive movement and intriguing subject matters. This style of animation is really inspiring to me and I love the subtle storytelling through visually pleasing sequences. (http://www.gaiaalari.com/)

In a group tutorial with Phil, we spoke about looking at our remake through a more comedic lens, with novelty infographics. We spoke about this piece called the hell bus which is a spin off on the oil company shell, in the bus there are mini exxhibitions making a mockery of shell and highlighting environmental issues through a dark humoured exhibition. This idea of informed comedy aligns with our theme of genetic modifictaion and could help to intertwine our exhibitoon with a real message.  

After another tutorial we spoke about how i would intergate my animation within the peach, since Joni has some new developments on her interior plans involving poetry on the walls, I was suggested to show my animtion on a screen instead of projecting it which was my origninal plan. I really like the idea of getting a vintage TV (CRT Screen) and placing it inside the peach, i think it would work well with the overall aesthetic and would compliment the interior instead of interfer with it as the projection might. 

I started by chatting to maddie and tasha, who are designing and creating models of the bugs based off the characters from the book, and made sure to communicate the clear characteristics of each bug so that my drawn characters resemble the same ideas. I started drawing random ideas and sequences, thinking about how i can tell a sort of story based off our theme and characters. 

I was orignially planning on creating a stop motion 2D cut out animation but after having difficulty booking into a dragonframe studio / thinking about time management i ended up deciding on a hand drawn animation with pencils and soft pastels to create a sort of sketchy and expressive animation that doesnt require weeks of drawing and cutting. 

I then created this thumbnail sequence, starting with the peach growing on the tree, and then having the aunts come and inject it with a mystery serum to modify it. The peach then grows and James encouters it, peeping into the hole the frame then zooms into the peach to show the genetically modified bugs in a sort of morphing sequence. The ending shows James slowly mutating after eating the peach. 

Finishing up the frames and scanning them individually, next step is to compile them into photoshop where i use the timeline tool to animate the frames. 

I am pretty pleased with the final animation, i think its not my best wrok but considering the limited time frame i did pretty well and im excited to see it in the peach structure at the final exhibition. i like the sketchy-ness to it and i think its quite charming and sutbly shows a narrative to support the remake exhibiton. 

Animation successfully linked up to the TV and on a loop, looking really good inside the peach and acts as a light source as its quite dark in there. 

Katy and Martha created this infographic of lab-notes from the evil aunts, it really informs the viewer on the overall ideas behind the peach by dropping stuble details on the creatures and it helps to inform my animation too. 

Pics taken during the exibition, i think it all turned out really well and i really enjoyed seeing peoples reactions and the involvment from the public. Katy and Emily playing in character of the evil aunts worked really well and helped to bring people into the peach.  

Emily’s friend Syd kindly made this after-movie of the exxhibition and the peach interior, which worked really nice and shows the peach in better detail!!

For our collaborative exhibition project, our group chose to reinterpret James and the Giant Peach through a contemporary lens. We developed the concept James and the GMO Peach, reframing the original narrative into a darkly comic exploration of genetic modification and ethical ambiguity. By combining informed comedy with immersive exhibition design, we aimed to balance nostalgia with discomfort, creating something playful yet conceptually critical.

Our revised narrative imagined the peach not as magical, but scientifically engineered: excessive, and faintly grotesque. This shift allowed us to explore themes of bioengineering and consumerism while parodying the innocence of the original story. Constructed collaboratively by Martha, Katy and Caitlin, the structure became both stage set and sensory environment. Inside, the atmosphere was intentionally cosy yet uncanny: warm lighting, enclosed space, and soft textures contrasted with the unsettling implications of mutation and modification.

Emily designed and produced costumes that extended the performative quality of the exhibition, while Tasha and Maddie created sculptural bug characters parodying Dahl’s originals. Their interpretations leaned into exaggeration and satire, reflecting the GMO theme through distorted proportions and hybrid forms. Together, these elements built a cohesive aesthetic language: bright, tactile, slightly grotesque.

My individual contribution was a hand-drawn animation displayed on a CRT television inside the peach. Although this was largely a solo process, it contributed significantly to the immersive quality of the space. The analogue screen added nostalgic texture, reinforcing the “remake” aspect while contrasting with the futuristic GMO concept. However, because animation required independent production time, my role felt less overtly collaborative during development. I sometimes felt removed from the physical making process that others were engaged in. That said, the final installation demonstrated how our varied skill sets: costume, sculpture, construction, and animation-interlocked to form a unified experience.

Ultimately, the exhibition succeeded in creating a sensory, interactive environment that reimagined a beloved narrative through satire and material experimentation. The project highlighted both the strengths and challenges of collaboration: while processes differed, our combined practices produced an ambitious, immersive outcome that none of us could have achieved alone.