#rosias

Matter of Britain. (2017). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 29 October 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_of_Britain

Prose Merlin: Introduction | Robbins Library Digital Projects. (2017). D.lib.rochester.edu. Retrieved 29 October 2017, from http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/conlee-prose-merlin-introduction

The Sword in the Stone - The Legend of King Arthur. (2017). Heroofcamelot.com. Retrieved 29 October 2017, from http://www.heroofcamelot.com/legend/sword-in-the-stone

(2017). Heroofcamelot.com. Retrieved 29 October 2017, from http://www.heroofcamelot.com/docs/Le-Morte-dArthur.pdf

Klimmt, C., Blake, C., Hefner, D., Vorderer, P., & Roth, C. (2009). Player Performance, Satisfaction, and Video Game Enjoyment. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/41731673/Player_Performance__Satisfaction__and_Video_Game_Enjoyment..pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1504847263&Signature=Iy68JrVGefv%2B%2BSQzpOgxnF%2F9xv0%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DPlayer_Performance_Satisfaction_and_Vide.pdf

Mark Brown. (2016, April 25). Should Dark Souls Have an Easy Mode? | Game Maker’s Toolkit [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5tPJDZv_VE

Videogamedunkey. (2016, August 5). Difficulty in Videogames [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4_auMe1HsY

Clarke's three laws. (2017). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 29 October 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws

Merlin - Arthur pulls Excalibur from the stone 4x13 [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaBmWqQkKYE

The Sword in The Stone - King Arthur HD [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv6pwzIiRKc

My project, Sword in the Stone was based off the classical myths and legends throughout history and has been replicated with a sort of modern twist with the use of technology. The original tale of King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone is of Arthurian legend and encompasses Celtic mythology in its histories. The tale that I derived my project from was one of the most prestigious works from the Arthurian era, “Le Morte d'Arthur” published in 1485, which is a compilation of the tales and legends of French and English stories interpreted by the author Sir Thomas Mallory. The tales depict a magical sword embedded into a stone and only the next king of England was destined to pull the sword out and to claim the throne. I felt if I stuck to the visual themes described in the classic tales, my project would end up becoming more recognisable and intuitive as I also wanted to explore different visual themes for the overall projects aesthetic but still have the same fundamentals of a sword embedded into another object.

The notion that hard work should eventually lead to a satisfactory outcome has been a major idea that I wanted to explore with this project as by nature of the original tale, the sword is nearly impossible to get out of the stone unless you are the heir to the throne. One medium where there is a lot of this going on is the industry of video games. Certain video games such as Dark Souls are known to be incredibly difficult but they are extremely satisfying when you complete certain sections of it. I wanted that to be reflected in my project in ways that it was quite difficult to pull out the sword but if the sword would exit the blade, it would be quite the theatrical event to make it feel more unique and epic.

“An important underlying mechanism that connects satisfaction with one’s performance to game enjoyment is self-esteem. In general, increases in self-esteem go along with positive emotions such as pride and joy, and positive performance feedback or direct experience of competence rise the individual’s self-esteem level. Therefore, successful task resolution is theorized to level up self-esteem, and the increase of self-esteem is experienced as highly enjoyable.”

This feeling of might also can make the player feel heroic and triumphant as Arthur first felt as he drew the sword from the anvil in the famous tale. I want to replicate this feeling and make the whole experience an emotive one for the player to make them feel as if they are the next King Arthur because it will be a powerful feeling. By making the whole experience something you would expect to see in the same low-fantasy setting as you would in the King Arthur universe. The whole theme of the project had to reflect the time when this was set, so using a more classical sword that looks like the Excalibur from the tale would make the whole experience more intuitive and immersive.

The project plays with the idea that modern technology is the equivalent of fantasy magic according to Clarke’s Three Laws which state that:

1.    When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2.    The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3.    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The Sword in the Stone was my first attempt at a large-scale interactive physical artefact where there are internal mechanisms which require physical force to change the overall experience. It has been quite intimidating at times as I am not the best with my hands in terms of physical building and circuitry but I felt as if I needed to push myself this semester to make something truly awesome and epic.

One of the most important aspects of this project is holding the sword in the stone. I have had many suggestions about how I am going to do this such as using clamps or magnets. I have had suggestions for making it so the sword cannot be pulled out of the stone but I think that ruins the purpose of the whole project as I want the experience to be fulfilling and satisfying when you unsheathe the sword. So, I had to find a way to make the sword sit in there without being easily pulled out yet still being able to be pulled out with a mechanism. I resorted to using electromagnets for the locking device as they can be manipulated the quickest and most discreetly with just a flick of a switch to turn them on and off. The overall mechanism was simple with just having an infrared switch connected to the electromagnets initially. The circuit then developed into switching between powering the electromagnets and powering a LED lamp with the use of a relay mechanism. The LED lamp was essential as it creates a more magical feel to the overall event of pulling the sword out of the stone when it illuminates the whole and the blade of the sword.

The sword that I purchased was titled the ‘Templar Knight Sword’. It is made of carbon steel which is a magnetic material as opposed to stainless steel which a large majority of swords especially in New Zealand are made of. This sword had the look that fitted the whole aesthetic of the project and theme as it looks somewhat Celtic which is where the original King Arthur’s mythology and tales were based upon. One of the major problems with this sword is that the blade was sharp which could lead to a lot of health and safety problems, so I had to blunt the blade and tip of the sword. This was accomplished with a fine file and some good old-fashioned elbow grease. The process of blunting the sword took approximately two hours for both sides of the blade to be blunted.

I wanted all the circuitry and electronics to be held inside the rock to make it more seamless and mobile. This also meant that the overall circuit had to run on batteries and not through a wall plug. With all of this considered, the rock turned out to be a lot larger than anticipated but it still looks like a realistic rock and the locking mechanism works with the wireless infrared switch so there is no problem. There had to be an access door at the back of the rock to be able to change and charge the batteries and make any changes to the circuitry. Although it makes the whole rock less rock-like, I think it is essential and a very important aspect especially for health and safety reasons.

I feel as if overall the project was successful as it is intuitive and instantly recognisable as people see it and know exactly what it is and that was especially important for this project because without this, the effect wouldn’t be the same. The whole notion in some of the references is that the sword in the stone is a legendary landmark and if people don’t recognise what it is, then it’s not a landmark.

The final task for my project is to create the actul stone part. Firstly I made some initial modifications to the skelton from the feedback that I got from the crit session. I raised the bottom of the platform by around 100mm and then built a box for the batteries to sit in.

The stone is going to be completed by covering the skeleton in polystyrene and then shaping it then covering it in cement to make the rocky texture. I did quite a bit of research in how to go about making the rock and this video was the most helpful.

The first step for me was to create the general shape and size for the rock to be. I cut the polystyrene into blocks and then fitted them to the best of my ability to the skeleton. i wasnt worried about this shape as I was intending on going back over it and carving it into more smooth and round shapes. I wanted the rock to look as realisti as possible to keep the immerisive feel to the whole project.

The pieces were glued together with Gorilla Grip glue. Overall it took two large tubes to glue all the polystyrene onto the skelton. The glue took around an hour to set and it was strong enough which was a relief. 

After gluing all of the polystyrene onto the skeleton, I god a handsaw and shaped the outside of it to make the roundish shape for the cement to be put on. It didnt really matter about the overall shape as the cement would have more room to shape it into the desired shape. On the other side of the rock there is a door which leads to the batteries and the circuitry of the skeleton.

It was surpirising that the overall weight of the stone was not very heavy and it could be quite easily carried around by two people, which is releaving as it might be a mission to carry it into studio for the final exhibition.... I hope it fits through the door.

The aftermath of the smoothing:

For the final studio session, there was a critique assesment where we had to present our work for studio. This meant that I had to have a working prototype to present. for the whole class. I worked on getting the skeleton of my project to work. The skeleton isnt actaully the whole project, its just whats essentailly going to be iniside the rock that I am yet to create, but will be the very next thing to conjoure up to finish the project.

Heres a quick video of my mum testing the project at home.

After modifying the circuit to for the electromagnet, there had to be a few other changes to make the whole thing work as intended. This included adding another magnet and therefore scrapping the previous section of wood where the first magnet was located. I decided to bring the magnets out from the wood so they are bolted onto them instead of being slotted inside the wood. This was to ensure that the blade would be against the magnet and not against the wood where as that was a problem that was happening before hand.

I added screws to the sides of the magnets to guide the blade down the magnet and so it gets the most contact. One of the screws was shorter than the other to skew the blade of the sword so the flat part of the blade has more surface area for the electromagnet to be in contact with.