Assignment:
- Please upload (DO NOT LINK TO THESE) 10-15 images that connect to your understanding of the play. These images should connect to your research on theme as well as time period and location. In addition, you may also find images related to thematic content as you have interpreted through your analysis and conceptual work. You can upload the images as simple embeds or you can create a gallery if you would like to invest more time. At least 5 of your images must be pulled from the Bertrand Library Research by Subject, Interdisciplinary Image Resources Site.
- For your scene book you may find these images anywhere on the internet so long as you document where you found them in the description section of each image upload.
- For your cocktail director’s book you can only use images that are labeled for reuse or labeled for noncommercial reuse. I recommend starting your search at Creative Commons.
Criteria:
Your grades on Visual Research are based on
- How well you followed the instructions and guidelines posted above.
- The originality of your images.
- How well the images match your research, analysis and concepts.
- The aesthetic presentation of your images (galleries and slideshows present better than simple embeds unless there is contexualizing content framing each of your embeds. Contexualizing content are descriptions of each of the images you select and ideas on why you selected them or how they relate to your research, analysis or concepts.)
I chose this image because I feel it conceptualizes the main problem within the play, without outright demonstrating the evils within the show. In this image, the transparent cake reminds the audience that the objects, and experiences in The Nether may be theoretically fake. However, the emotions and reactions from residing in the hideaway are clearly as real as they come. Essentially, this image juxtaposes virtual reality with real emotions, which shows the audience that the horrors outlined in the play are causing a non-virtual emotional response. –Reid
The Nether: The Struggle Between the Internal and External World
This image shows how debilitating one’s own mental health struggles can be, whether that be in the form of addiction, anxiety, or depression. Mental Health is isolating, and failure to maintain it can result in someone becoming a shell of a body, as exhibited through the lack of facial features in this image. This is applicable to the Nether because it shows how isolating one’s own addiction and proclivities can be from the outside world, but how heavily involved they can be internally. The Nether is mentally taxing beyond what meets the eye.
The Nether: Anonymity, Technology, Ethics, and Consequences.
The Nether explores realms of technology/virtual reality and the consequences of those. This image immediately caught my eye because it is how I picture Sims and other people in the Hideaway. It’s advanced virtual reality so I doubt they’re using laptops, but the general premise is there. In the Nether, people are anonymous and can theoretically do anything without consequences – especially because their identity is not readily available. But the internet carries consequences in the real world, regardless of anonymity. I think this picture captures that well. – Miki
This image is a still from a production of the Nether. I like it due to the stark lighting design and blend of virtual and physical realities. I think a challenge of producing plays is incorporating technology without “indicating” in a way. It’s hard to show a complex blend of two worlds without making one cheesy, this production achieves it. – Nabeel