Triangulation.

Specific areas of interest - Question? 

Where in animation can we find examples of conspiracy theory and mystery, and can we argue that audiences enjoy these theories as they are a way of creating a community amongst viewers.

What have I found out so far? 

- Why people believe in them. 

- Finding conspiracies theories in animation

- Lizard people run society according to a large amount of the world.

- Big foot.

- People still think the world is a disk.

What are my core texts?

Suspicious Minds

Tin Tin

Scooby Doo

Gravity Falls.

Case Studies - What images, examples, phenomena.

How does it link together with your proto-question and quotes? 

An image from the film - Suspicion

An image of a persons silhouette in an illusion

An image of Harley Quin shouting about society.

They link as they all base around conspiracies. 

Gravity falls follows the same pattern of theories and mystery's and has a massive base of followers who aimed to solve the puzzle before the end of the show. 

Thoughts on Practical? 

Backgrounds with hidden messages.

An image of the board of suggestions given to me after presenting my work to my classmates.

Sentient Spaces/Living Landscapes

For this task I decided to create a background that includes a TV as my question focuses on the community that's brought together. I used some shapes that represent theories, for example the tringle as a connection to the illuminati. An image of an eye as if someone where watching. There are more subtle nods to other theories in this also.

Study Task 3 - Images and Theory

1. Select and define important terms / concepts you have discovered through your reading. 

• Blame
• Suspicion
• Illusion
• Corruption
• Controversial
• rumour

2.

Suspicion.

This image is actually from the film suspicion. It demonstrates suspicion on the character heavily, by casting a dark shadow over him, hiding his face. It has the long staircase, with the light casting a skewed shadow. And the drink on the tray he carries is highlighted, as if to signify it, as though he might have tampered with the drink. 

But this is all suspicion, it is my mind conspiracizing against this man, due to some shadow, when he might be just carrying a perfectly harmless drink up the stairs.

Illusion

I feel this image could represent more than just illusion, it could also represent the illusion of society that a lot of conspiracies claim to be. This could represent the illusion of people, as the ‘illusion’ in this images focuses on the silhouette of a person. Which you could argue, is the representation of how people and our society has this air of illusion around it, falsities and lies shrouding the truth of our democracy.

Blame

Harley Quinn expressing her belief that society is to blame. I find this is a good example due to one it being an animated character expressing herself. And secondly it shows the need to blame others for the downfall, to find blame in our governmental system, to pass it on to the ‘them’ in our world. Not to hold the problem, and believe that we could be to blame.

3. Theorists.

I've not yet found several underpinning theorist, however image 1 and image 3 already come from films so this already gives them an audience, giving a sense of a community of people out there, who recognise these images. Which helps answer my question. 

People watch the same thing and talk about what might happen this is more than just predicting a plot it’s this will happen because this has happened already and he/she has an agenda and a secret story – things are not as they appear, there’s more to be told, there’s something out there= conspiracy theory. 

I do though have the ability to link Rob Brotherton the author to the book Suspicious Minds.  

Study Task 2 - Reading and understanding texts

What CONCEPTS is the author trying to communicate?

• Why do we believe conspiracies?
• Test in which studies show the effects of different environments, causing people to believe and come up with their own conspiracies.
• Conspiracies past and present.
• The difference between what conspiracies where, and what they are now.  
• Is everyone a conspiracist?

What are the KEY QUOTES - KEY POINTS?

• “Sometimes, it would seam, buying into a conspiracy is the cognitive equivalent of seeing meaning in randomness.” - [P. 14]

• “We do not live in an age of conspiracy theories and have not for some time.” - Uscinski and Parent , [P.21].

What EXAMPLES are used by the author?

• Joe Uscinski and Joseph Parent ~  Political scientists that did research into the peak time of conspiracies.
• The great fire of Rome.
• The illuminati

Can you find real world EXAMPLES that you feel follow this model of thought?

• Lizard people -  A vast majority of our society believe that shape shifting lizard people run the world.
• The assassination of JFK

How can this theory be related to animation or your theme?

The book is something I hope to base my essay around, I feel it will strongly help aide my investigation into how and why conspiracies are so widely believed. It will relate to animation through the plot’s of several animations that focus on mysteries and conspiracies such as Gravity Falls, Scooby Doo...etc. 

Summery :

To Summarize, there is a mass amount of people that believe in conspiracy, and yes some may have ‘evidence’ to back up their thesis, and I am not here to debunked those ideas. I merely wish to endeavour into the question of why these theories come about. Conspiracies have altered with time, as most things do, but how drastically have they changed? And how have they affected our society to date? These are questions I am excited to research into. If you were to ask most people if they felt they were a conspiracy theorist, their answers would most likely be no, but I disagree, everyone has an ounce of conspiracist in theme, everyone has an opinion.

Study Task 1 - Initial Ideas.