Alexander Bower

Pivoting from my experience/skills as an animator/motion designer/compositor...
Explorations using free 3rd party assets in Unity.
Tests include:
Cinemachine / Camera animation / Post Processing Effects / Volumes ...
Unity will enable me to combine digital and physical elements, to increase the immersivity of a live (in person) experience, digitally enhanced theatre or gamified theatre.

This used to be a 32 inch tv.
Now, its the beginnings of a skiff's skeleton.
Using Creative Re/Upcycling.

I create models intuitively, depending on what
materials and components are available and to hand. I like this fluid and open way of crafting and creating. Results can be surprising. You know, when a part just fits perfectly!

The creations help me come up with a story.

Maquettes, Models, Marionettes, Puppets, Animatronics, Automatons and 'Pinocchio'.
Mechanisms, Joints, Armature, Rigging...

Sketches, Concepts, Drawings...
I've realised the abundance of my ideas and creativity.
It is overwhelming and its no wonder I struggle to
utilise it all in the ways I might hope.
When there are too many ideas, the creative process can become muddled, so I'm learning a new creative process, which is to focus on small parts, then join them up. This forms a modular system of ideas and stories that I can combine, or focus on as stand alone projects. I'm trying to find the time to tinker with these ideas. I also learn as I go.

I love science fiction, but also science fact.
I tend to do a lot of scientific research as well as create, so I'd like to combine science and art to see what boundaries can be pushed and perhaps come up with new possibilities and solutions to real world problems. I liken this process to invention and 'imagineering'.
Future thinking - Design thinking.

I'm spending more time practicing getting the basics right. Elements like light values, composition and depth. Also, working quickly and simply allows me not to dwell on things too long. I have found, when I spend too long analysing, I can get frustrated.
I learn to get marks down quickly and then
go through an iteration process.

Storyboarding is a great way to plan an immersive experience. I usually use the technique to create animations and explainers, which helps me explain to the client what I'm going to create before creating it and potentially wasting time, effort and budget.
I like to think of an immersive/interactive experience as entering the story and becoming a part of it.

I can imagine, I will be utilising storyboards and previsualisation as I develop my creative practice.

I believe it will be a different process than how they would be used in linear storytelling, because there could well be branch offs different choices to make and as such, the story can change, depending on the actions taken by the participant/audience.

Here is a part of a sketch I did as part of a new project.
The idea centres around the small items, trinkets, mementos and keepsakes we pick up throughout our lives. Each has a particular story and each item has a personal meaning.

The idea is to use available technology, to create an interactive, physical 'story book' based on these objects. The 'reader' selects one of the objects and interacts with it. Sensors pick up the information and play the corresponding story on a video screen.

The idea is to be able to share all these stories I have, whilst engaging others to identify their own as a response. New stories can be created, there could be a way to capture them.

There is an opportunity to utilise the 'Digital Twin'
to link the digital and tangible reality.
In doing so, I can save the objects I find and hoard in a digital format and share the story related to it, rather than filling up my flat with stuff.

A quick sketch of an animation to try out another technique. This is a form of puppetry and the illustration was taken from a photograph I took of a 1980's copy of an 'Eagle' comic,
I bought in a charity shop.

I love the idea of using nostalgia and childhood to make new art and stories. Nostalgia is very powerful and there it has the capability to reach and connect to a lot of people in a deep and meaningful way.

I also like the idea of mixing genres and characters to create new universes. Such stories and landscapes could piggyback off a backstory, but ultimately create new concepts that are post-modern and unique.

I'd also like to create puppetry that can be driven by live action. Live voice or video. There is a sense of safety and creative freedom to be had from performing using such masks. Plus, I'd like to create my own puppets, rather than using 3rd party tools to do it, so I can keep my own intellectual and personal property.

The drawing tablet has allowed me to work quickly and stay loose. This is a fantastic thing for me, given how much I can deliberate on personal projects.

I started to create posters for ideas for stories and narratives to create. The idea is to create the image firstly and then the story follows, not the other way around. This is a very quick and satisfying way to develop stories very quickly and intuitively.

As soon as I create one of these posters, all manner of ideas, possibilities, characters and scenarios pop into my head intuitively. This is a great way to maintain creative flow and also stay productive.

More animatics, using simple animation
and basic storytelling.

I love to create characters. I have a million and one of them and more, just waiting to burst out of my imagination and into some form of reality, digital or otherwise.

I started to think about how T-shirts are a form of advertising and storytelling. Such a medium is a great way to get awareness of my story and characters to others in an organic way.

It would be great to print some of these T-shirts and see what the reaction is. I would find it extremely fulfilling if others engaged with my characters and stories.

These are more abstract and expressive.
Themes - Flow, motion, expression, gesture, balance, creative freedom, spontaneity, fluidity, embodied practice.
Mixed media - Amalgamations of traditional, analogue and digital media.