Word definition:
To understand Order and Chaos I broke down the two words separately. I went to google to research the word meanings. Order has a range of meanings but the first three apply in a way to chaos that works in each situation, order and chaos go hand in hand naturally in a surprising way, similar to the ying and yang symbol which balance one another out. They come together to create a harmonic system that functions and uses the two together, this idea of the two opposites working together is a really interesting concept and is something I could probably look into doing for my FMP project. Often times order refers to the structure and running of society, such as in the phrase “law and order”, other times it refers to sequences and patterns that are in a repeating and neat order. It is about everything being perfect and working in a certain way that is desired.
Something I am really picking up from the word order is the idea of peace and tranquility without any interruptions. Peace is something many people want to achieve in their societies, I’m often drawn to calm art (Specifically environments) so this is what comes to mind when I think of order at first. Protecting a system is something I’m interested in portraying in my project due to how much I can do like royal families, systems, war etc. It’s something I can look into for my initial research.
Chaos is of course the opposite of order, rather than order, sequences or peace it is disorder, randomness and a formless system. Order is often used to establish a system that is meant to work where as chaos is made to oppose the system, often by people who disagree with said system, they may want change or are just bored with the current system. This can often result in revolutions (such as the Russian and French revolution). I really enjoy history and revolution is a topic I have studied and looked into a lot and it could be something I could do for my FMP project. Chaos is often caused in these revolutions to create order that they want. Both of these themes go hand in hand together to balance one another out in different situations which I find really interesting to think about. As well as revolutions I’m also thinking about disorder both in systems (like anarchy) and in visual representations like modern art and illusions (An artist I might look into is Escher) Other than these few concepts it hasn’t really brought a lot to mind.
Understanding the two words that make up the theme is important since these words are starting off my initial research which builds up everything else in the project, so understanding these two words is really important here.
Word association:
I did a word association of 10 words each for both “order” and “chaos”, both of them are opposites and many different words came from each option. Order had safe, samey and secure words connected to it that included “flawless”, “boring”, “status quo” and “systems”. The flow ended with the word “routine”, which links with pattern and structure, a point I made earlier with the word “order”.
Order is interesting in the sense that society would collapse without it and it’s a good thing, but in a lot of media like games, film and tv it’s considered boring. Infact looking at my word association just makes it seem so boring (The word boring even pops up!) To me people fantasize about a chaotic system as it isn’t the norm and it seems exciting compared to normal lives so that may be why so many people find chaos so interesting as a system when fundamentally it wouldn’t work in a good way.
Chaos had a complete opposite set of words, a lot of it was about games and how you win and lose, games are often chaotic and aggressive in structure as opposing teams both want to win and need to fight for it. “Goal” is mixed in the term chaos in the sense that sometimes chaos doesn’t have a goal or purpose, sometimes it’s just there for the fun which is chaotic in itself.
While the words themselves are interesting none of them really stand out to me and create loads of thoughts as to what I can create so I don’t have a lot to go off at this stage apart from my word research.
Mind map:
Using some of the words from my word association I created a mindmap on order and chaos. At first I didn’t have a lot to go with for my word association, I just didn’t get a lot out of it. I did however decide to use some of the words from my word association to get started on this mindmap. A lot of the points ended up being about systems, running of a society and contrasts. I’ve discovered that there is a huge amount that can be done with the theme with systems, games, beliefs and goals. A lot of the words ended up going in a cycle, like a system (order and chaos). The order of workers, money, jobs and services come hand in hand as a flowing system of order. I found it really interesting that mini systems could be created by just connecting some of the words. At first I struggled with where to start but once I got into the flow words came naturally (I’m like that with all mind maps). I think this mind map has helped me out a lot more than the word association this time around since I was able to branch off a lot more freely than I could word association wise. Balance and disorder popped up quite, to me this is like ying and yang where they contrast one another but balance and connect with one another. This is something I could look into for my project with things like contrast, differences or the balance of good and evil which really interests me for potential project ideas.
I used this mind map as a starting point for my initial mood boards, order and chaos is a tricky theme initially since it felt really confining at first and that it would be boring but after looking at all these words and thinking about where I could take it I’ve become a lot more optimistic about it all.
Mood boards:
Opposites:
Order and chaos are in fact opposites; That is a fact with how they work, they balance one another out while going against eachother. I wanted to look into opposites overall (Colour, themes, civilizations). Because of how broad this topic is, there is a range of areas to look into.
With colour I considered contrast, contrasting colours go against eachother to make each colour stand out, sometimes contrasting colours work together and can create a really nice combination. I really like the idea of using opposites to represent order and chaos, Splatoon (One of my favourite games) has used opposites to represent different sides, these include:
- Order vs Chaos
- Ice cream vs Cake
- Mayo vs Ketchup
- Salty vs Sweet
All of the themes the splatfests have are exact opposites of one another and cause chaos in order for one to get on top and win the fight. It may seem like a weird example to use but they all cause order and chaos for what they believe in. They are all opposites of eachother and this can be used to represent order and chaos if I wanted to in my project.
Like I said in my mind map the idea of contrasts like good and evil along with balance and disorder really interest me as potential project ideas and themes. I think I will look into this for potential ideas since the theme is so broad and interesting to me. I can keep looking back and referring to this that way.
Systems:
Order and chaos is a system in a way, a lot of systems in the world are created to preserve some sort of peace, whether that be government, monarchy or dictatorship to create structure in society (fair or unfair). These systems combat what they believe to be chaos (or are chaos in themselves sometimes).
The chaos (or order in some cases) are often groups of people that wish to go against the status quo put in place by their system. This results in revolution and conflict a lot of the time (resulting in chaos, examples could include the Russian or French revolution). Systems like government and royal families have been (and sometimes still are) corrupt and enforce unfair regimes which are described as order. The idea of unfair governments and systems have always interested me along with the impart and take down of them and what comes after.
The system of heaven and hell is another one that is well known throughout religion, those who have committed sins in their religion go to hell after they die to face punishment, or if the person has followed their religion faithfully they will go to heaven. Loads of people believe in the system and it maintains it’s system with the people that follow it.
Propaganda of certain systems has been shown such as Lenin’s communist Russia, people thought this would bring about change for Russia in a good way but it turned out to be just as bad for Russia. Propaganda could be an interesting way for me to present a system themed project. Of course I would need to look at more propaganda sources for this if I was to go down this route.
Systems and the overall flows of societies are interesting in the sense that they are either about balance or disorder (two concepts that popped up in my mind map), if I was to look into doing a system themed project I would go and do more research on different types of systems like Democracy, monarchy, dictatorship and autocracy. I think there is a lot to be had with these themes for a potential project.
Disorder:
Disorder is a big topic specifically in the theme of “Chaos” itself, disorder is meant to mean “A state of confusion” or a “disruption of systematic functioning and peace”. For disorder to exist there needs to be an idea of peace to begin with or the idea of disorder is just normal. A lot of the examples you may see is artwork with distorted styles and concepts with sculptures, painting and photography.
Escher is an artist that came to my mind then thinking of disorder he is probably one of my favourites due to how he can create illusions on paper traditionally. A lot of his work is very grounded in it’s style but it also included a more blocky and distorted style on top of that to create unique clashing themes which I find really interesting.
In one of Escher’s pieces it shows a collection of black and white figures forming into one, to me this is the two representing two opposites (Balance and disorder maybe?) and how they come together as one being. I think this is also a representation of balance and disorder being one flowing system.
The themes in the piece are disorderly and mess with the mind as to how they work and function since we naturally look for order no matter what, and we find it in these pieces. Disorder in art is something that has really grown over the last few years in sculpture and painting. It’s become more accepted as a form of art among people out there so it is easier for me to look into disorder in art this way. I find the disorder in art really interesting to look at here, it’s unusual, unique and really interesting with the themes of order and chaos.
I think for me this has really made me curious as to how disorder can be shown in art, I’m a lot more keen than I was before about balance and disorder. I can see from this board that there are a range of ways to present disorder visually which interests me, this could be a great starting point for visual reference with disorder in a potential project.
Peaceful environments and systems:
I moved back into the order region with this mood board and looked into peaceful environments and systems, these included environments that are calming, work in a way that is peaceful and isn’t in chaos, and the systems work and function in our society.
Some of the environments included are meadows, buildings, functioning cities, farms and shops. It may seem odd to put cities in here as they can be busy and stressful but they are functioning societies that work and haven’t collapsed so I put them here for that reason.
Farms often have systems and routines in place to help with the running of the, this could include feeding or caring for the animals and live stock, working produce on the fields, getting ready for markets. If the routine and system isn’t in place the farm won’t survive. This is the same for any other work place or society.
The rural and calming environments were included as they are at peace and aren’t being disrupted at all by any chaotic force, honestly I’d love to live in one of these rural houses, the flowers, lighting and colours give it a really tranquil feeling like everything is okay and everything will work out. If I do something about peace I will look into this soft lighting look since I think it works really well in this sense. A lot of the images do have very nice and peaceful lighting which is something I could use in my project for the order side, these images could serve as reference material to see how lighting can be used to make a scene tranquil and to see how it reacts with the objects. While this is only an environments board it’s already given me a lot of ideas and interest in a peaceful, ordely like environment for me to keep coming back to this board for inspiration.
Chaotic environments and systems:
I decided to look into the opposite of peaceful environments, I went and had a look into chaotic environments and systems, both natural and man made.
A natural system that can be considered chaotic is the animal kingdom (along with the food chain), animals are constantly fighting for survival as it is in their DNA. As an advanced civilization and species we look down on this and view it as chaotic, when it is a natural part of the life cycle for many animals. It’s something I don’t think a lot of people consider, a lot of people seem to view it as chaotic even though this food chain maintains animal population and feeds other animals.
I included natural disasters here due to how chaotic they are in nature and how they can cause damage to eco systems they collide with. I find this interesting since nature is considered order in itself but these natural disasters cause so much chaos to so many parts of nature but it is infact natural and apart of the flow of the eco system and the order of things.
I find the idea of a natural order really interesting and grand, I don’t know if the food chain idea interests me as a concept (Although it is an interesting idea on it’s own). I think I prefer the idea of a peaceful environment art wise since a chaotic one doesn’t interest me greatly personally.
Good, evil and other causes:
Good and evil are like order and chaos, they go against eachother while simultaneously going with eachother at the same time. Good and evil often have causes and goals they are interested in achieving while the opposition of the cause plans to stop it. Good and evil is really about the perspective of the viewer and how they view life and scenarios around them.
Good and evil are often used in narrative pieces to give the plot a focus and a driving point, writing for heroes and villains has become a lot more complex in recent times, some argue that this takes away the intimidation element of evil as it is a lot more grounded.
Order and chaos is caused from both of the sides wanting to win and be in control, I normally find these themes in books, films and games really exciting due to the contrast in the two causes both visually and morally. I’ve brought up contrast a lot in my research but I feel like it’s a really interesting concept in order and chaos.
There are many causes being protested in real life at the moment such as gun violence, women’s rights, climate change and democracy. People want these causes to be apart of the order we live under, whoever order doesn’t listen a lot of the time so protesters have to cause chaos for a portion of the time to be heard.
I feel like causes goes with systems in a way, along with protesting and ways of leadership, they connect together in that unique ying and yang way. I feel that what ever I pick project wise loads of other things will connect and will allow me to go down unique routes with interesting ways of balance being shown in these concepts. This board would be good to understand what protests are like and how they function from a starting point of view project wise.
Chaotic characters and creatures:
After doing environments I thought it would only be fair to look into characters as well. I looked into both creature and characters, many of the creatures I looked into are either extinct or mythical. Dinosaurs are extinct now and are remembered as fierce and terrifying beings that ruled the planet. They were ontop of the food chain and people are still fearful of them. They actually get a lot of positive representation in media and products like children’s clothes, toys and shows due to how distinctive the colours and shapes are in the creatures. I think it’s really interesting how they are used despite their chaotic nature and how they were on top of the system and order for so long.
Creatures of the sea are often seen as scary and chaotic as they are from an unexplored part of the earth (the sea). Sharks are feared by loads of creatures both on land and in the sea, they are known predators that are used as threats in lots of different media (films and tv). Personally I think sharks are really cute, they just eat fish and are apart of the food chain like any animal and are apart of the natural order.
A lot of villains in tv, films and games are chaotic in nature, characters like the joker, Spinel, Pennywise and Dimentio are all chaotic in nature and how they present themselves both with their abilities and designs. All of their designs are dynamic and give some sort of chaotic and clashing energy off. Dimentio has a yellow and purple palette, these two colours are opposite on the colour wheel and give off clashing and chaotic vibes. I find this use of colour really nice and it establishes the characters chaotic nature in the game “Super paper Mario) If I was to do character design. I can look back at this mood board for character ideas.
Creature and animal design however is something I haven’t touched upon before, seeing unique creatures like dinosaurs and dragons really interests me from a design and chaos point of view. They are portrayed as chaotic in nature and often rule over as some sort of order (whether that’s food chain, leadership etc.) In recent years they have been given cuter representation (Baby clothes, how to train your dragon, children’s books), I find the idea of taking a creature that is seemingly evil and chaotic and turning it into something peaceful very interesting. If I look into creatures I have a lot to start myself off with here shape, species and colour wise.
Peaceful (order) characters and creatures:
To balance out my character folders I looked into characters that are peaceful and could represent order in systems, many of the creatures are based on nature or are supernatural or mythical creatures. A lot of the creatures are based of real creatures but have characteristics added or altered to create a mythical effect, like the dear with the branch antlers, I think simple ideas like that work really well and can create something very whimsical and magical. A lot of the creatures look soft and gentle but at the same time they carry a protective strength with them through their design. It could be because nature is a powerful thing and a lot of the characteristics of these creatures have been kept or exaggerated with the nature add ons to create powerful looks.
I think the way this has been done in a lot of the character designs is really impressive and interesting to look at, it shows that you can give nature strength in art and design.
I love the idea of characters or magical creatures being the protectors of something bigger and making sure chaos doesn’t harm it. I think that has a lot of potential design wise and that really interests me.
Just like with the chaotic board creature design is something that seeming interesting (While I haven’t done it before). This board has a lot of softer and calmer creatures to start me up with a creature project, the general colours seem to soft along with the shapes and general concepts, another contrast that can be found in these boards and fr potential ideas.
Overall I think after doing this research a few concepts have stuck out for me. The idea of contrasts is one that can be used in many ways, it can be shown visually like in Escher’s work showing order and chaos coming together as one whole being. I first became interested in contrasts when balance and discord popped up in for the first time. Some concepts and words stuck through while some got lost like the idea of it all being a game or having a goal, the idea of order being something boring has changed more so into peace and tranquility by the end of it.
Systems and some sort of natural order have come out a lot to possibly show the runnings of something bigger in a society or environment. While I don’t have plans to consider using the food chain in a project idea the concept of a group of living being all living together as one and being either at peace at war with one another seems like a really interesting idea for me to look into.
Creature design is the other big thing that interests me with what can be done in the order and chaos field with the shapes, the colours and the overall themes and ideals the creatures could be representing.
I am really pleased and surprised with how well some of these concepts have come together like contrast of balance, peace, disorder and chaos along with systems and causes. It’s come together in a very natural way and I now have a good amount of initial research to help me with ideas for my project and for any future reference.
Book research:
To gain a better understanding of order and chaos in design and narrative, I looked into concept art and character books for design work and artist notes so I could understand what I could do and see how it can link into order and chaos. The two books I looked into was “The art of How to train your Dragon 2” and “The art of Brave”.
The art of how to train your dragon 2:
Harvard reference:
I looked at was the art book for the 2014 film “How to train your dragon 2” (Dreamworks), it offered a lot of really good examples of creature, character and environment designs that represent order and chaos through their narrative.
I first had a look at the environments, How to train your dragon is set in a time where all environments are rural, the artists had to create moods and feelings that go with the scene and story through natural scenes and lighting. The scenes you see in this slideshow are chaotic in nature, the ice is made to be very aggressive and chaotic, the bare trees in the forest are gloomy and the branches are chaotic as they are everywhere. While chaotic environments don’t interest me huge amounts I feel like this art book could really show me how to portray emotion and themes through environment design. If I do an environment I can consider shape and lighting similar to how the artists did on this film and lookback through this book.
Meanwhile the nest of dragons represents order with the dragons, it flows nicely and everything works together to create something bigger in the system. The environment has a calming and harmonic colour palettes which consists of blues, greens and all of the colours in the dragon designs. The lighting itself is very soft here, it isn’t as striking as the chaotic environments, this page reminds me of some of the lighting in my peaceful environments mood board due to how soft and tranquil it is. I would be interested in doing a peaceful environment so I can go back to both the board and this page for tranquil environments in particular.
Creature wise there are of course dragons, which have represented both order and chaos in the series. For the majority of the first film, dragons represented chaos and were something to be feared, in the second film they are apart of the order and are something to be protected. The designs had to consider something can fit both into order and chaos visually, the dragons are very cute but can be seen from a chaotic point of view. I talked about creature design a little bit in my creatures mood board, like I said it’s not something I have done before but looking at the shape language I feel like I could break it all down to create something that matches whatever theme I go to. Because the film series’ biggest focus is on dragons and creature design I could look into the films and more into this book if I do into creature design.
The art of Brave:
Harvard reference:
The order and chaos in brave comes specifically from the characters. Merida represents chaos in the plot, she wants to go against the status quo of being a princess and is the reason for the chaos in the plot (her Mother turning into a bear), this is seen in her crazy and unconventional hair design for a Disney princess. As well as her unique hair design Merida’s face has been designed with the intention of also not sticking to the typical princess face. Something I do tend to struggle with is something known as “same face syndrome” in my art. It’s something that can really hold back character design and can really restrict it. If I do character design for my project I want to look into different types of faces to create designs that are a lot more interesting. This book would be a great example and source to look back on if I choose character design along with my boards.
Merida’s Mother represents order, she is the conventional Queen and wants her Daughter to follow in her footsteps, she is the order, she follows the system she is apart of and her design shows this, she is elegant and is a conventional Queen here.
Something I find really interesting in the two character designs is the two colour palettes at use, Merida’s signature dress in the film is green, to create a chaotic contrast the designers gave her bright red hair to create that contrast. Merida’s mother however has dark brown hair with a singular streak of white hair, something I found interesting was how she also has a green dress, just like her chaotic daughter Merida. To me this reminds me of Ying and Yang in a way, the two may seem completely different and on opposite end of the spectrum (Order and chaos) but they still go hand in hand with each other. I have no idea whether this was intentional or not in the character designs but I think it’s really interesting how they create contrast and similarities using just colour. This is something I would like to look into for my own work when I get around to it.
Primary research:
When you get down to it order and chaos can be found in day to day life and surroundings, to notice it you do need to think while you are walking and looking around said location.
An idea that I wrote in my mind map was about job and worker systems, shops are run by managers and workers who work together to perform tasks that keep the shop in order. I work in a retail convinenec store (Co-op) and the jobs include cleaning, date rotation and checking of stock (So none of the customers become ill from eating our products), cleaning, asbestos risk assessments and serving customers and working delivery are also jobs we have to do in store to keep it running and in order, if these jobs weren’t done the store would fall into chaos. The store I took a photo of was Tesco’s express, it’s down the road from the college and I usually go there for meal deals. After looking around the way the store is run is basically the same as my Co-op.
There are many ways that law is put in place in society to keep order, as I went out I looked for a range of ways these are put in place. I am currently learning how to drive, a lot of the learning inludes memorising signs and road laws and what they actually mean. It is illegal to break any of these laws (Breaking one of these road laws can result in chaos on the road which can end up being really dangerous). Another thing I find interesting here is how nature is taking over these man made objects, this wasn’t what I was looking for when I went out for images of road signs but it reminds me of my opposites board. It seems chaotic in the sense that the two forms (the natural and the man made form) are fighting for space here. It seems like a contest which seems like an interesting concept (It’s like how the word “goal” came up in my word association). I think this whole idea of a contest or fighting for something is something I could think about for a possible idea.
As well as this, things like crossings (Both pedestrian and cross roads) to help all road users get across the road and keep order. If there were no traffic lights there would be chaos at cross roads and there would be no order as to how and where pedestrians can cross which would be very dangrous and chaotic both for drivers and pedestrians. In a way they are an aid to help people get to where they need to be. I can’t really think of how I can fit something specifically like traffic lights or a bridge like system into a project if I’m being completely honest but I can see how this puts chaos on hold from a road point of view.
Something I noticed on the way to college was the amount of litter that was in the plants and grass, this made me quite sad due to the negative impacts it could have on wildlife in the areas. All of the nature and wildlife here to me is the order, it is an entire ecosystem that works through photosynthesis and lives in its own way. The chaos here is the litter that has just been dumped, the litter includes cans, bags and other plastic products. Things like this can be seen everything as a system of order and chaos. This reminds me of the road signs that were being taken over by nature, on some of the pieces of litter the flowers were actually growing out of holes in the foreign objects rather than being stopped by the litter. I really liked the idea of a competition between the two forces (Nature and manmade objects), it’s come up a few times and I think it would be really interesting to use this idea.
My tutor actually recommended a scene from a film known as “American Beauty”, I didn’t watch the film itself since it seems really weird but I did look into what is known as the paper bag scene. It featured a paper bag dancing around in the wind to a music score by Thomas Newman. It just shows the bag interacting with the wind and leaves, the bag itself shouldn’t be there to begin with but it flows so naturally with the leaves that in a way it doesn’t feel that out of place in a bizarre way. I’m not too sure about making two opposing bodies come together in a natural way for a project (I think I prefer the idea of there being some kind of conflict) however it was really interesting seeing two different bodies interact in such a natural way.
American Beauty. (1999). [DVD] Directed by S. Mendes. United States.
Following on from the pictures I took of litter which show chaos I took an image of a peer throwing their own rubbish into a bin that was placed on the street. To me the bin is like a form of order for litter (Similar to the traffic lights which create peace). Bins are meant to be used to clear up streets of litter and mess to make sure it doesn’t disrupt natural surroundings.
This bin was right down the road from the litter so it was quite upsetting that it wasn’t actually put into the bin. In a way to me it shows that even with order in place there will still be forms of chaos which I find to be interesting and realistic (Even with laws in place people still break them). I thought this idea was interesting to think about balance wise since they will always go hand in hand and may never achieve what they want completely. I feel like this research has shown me that systems of balance and opposites can exist and be created in many different forms and aren’t just limited to law.
I don’t know if I will use any of these examples as direct inspiration for my ideas, however it has shown me that order and chaos does exist in every day life in different themes and forms. For my specific research I know that I will have loads of places to go to and places for reference when I need it research wise because of how simple yet effective a lot of this research was. Not all of it ade a big impact for me with what I am interested in concept and theme wise however a range of the research has really made some of the themes pop out to me. Opposites, systems and balance are the themes that pop out both in my definition research, mood boards and primary research. I will be taking what I am really interested by in this research and turning them into potential project ideas.
Roxanne's Development Blog (Second year) 