Time is Taxation

     Well it's done. I'm not going to lie, quality took a dip simply because the time investment was getting out of hand.

    I was going to do a full detail cover page. However, that would take north of 10 hours and frankly I ran out of time/steam.

    I really enjoyed learning to apply drawing to a new medium, as well as trying to apply a research topic to it. I also got a lot of practice drawing cat faces, not sure that's a positive, but I see them when I close my eyes now.

    If I were to do something like this again, I would definitely allot more time for myself. I think if I choose to pursue this as a hobby that I will take the time to do full detail pages that I can be more proud of. I like some of the linework I did on this project, but other parts are sloppy. So more time in the future.

    I'll sign off with a couple frames from my pages.

Dewar, J. © 2023

Man'o'war and Peace

 I am stuck in the grind.

I might have bitten off more than I could chew with my end-product but I'm committed to it.

This week I illustrated 3 new pages, none of which were in order. The story is starting to come together through illustration, but I will still have to pen the script.

I'm probably a little over halfway done. So this next week is going to be a rough one.

I have included the illustration of one of the pages I worked on. I don't think it will make much sense without the speech bubbles, but it is largely regarding post-nationalism.

Dewar, J. © 2023

Grayscale and Cat Tales

 

Well this was a humbling experience.

I decided that the final product would be a (very) short comic book, which I have never tried before. I thought that if I simplified my drawing style and cut out shading that I could crank these out fast.

Boy was I wrong.

Many hours and several YouTube videos on how to compose frames later, I produced this one page.

(to view in full size: right-click -> open link in new tab)

Dewar, J. © 2023

Not my best work, but I'm hoping as I work on other pages I will improve (and get faster). This also won't be page one so it's missing some context, but I had a fairly clear vision of how I wanted this page to play out.

While writing the script, I reflected on my research on happiness in hunter-gatherer tribes while also considering isolationism and territorialism.

If I'm going to finish this thing I need to start working on my other pages now.

Your Grandfather says "Be Afraid"

 It's fear of the unknown or misunderstood that makes us hostile.

What if other cultures, including uncontacted tribes, wanted to integrate with others? Why don't they? According to Kim Hill, that is exactly what they want. Hill states that when tribes come out of isolation, it is common that they state that they wanted to make contact earlier, but were afraid to do so (1). Hill goes on to state "There is no such thing as a group that remains in isolation because they think it's cool to not have contact with anyone else on the planet.".

So it this fear warranted? In most cases these tribes are afraid of their more advanced neighbours due to past atrocities committed against them. This information is passed down and so too is fear. In addition to that, every time a modern society comes into contact with an uncontacted tribe, sickness and death spreads among the tribe via viruses and bacteria (2). When these tribes finally do make lasting and meaningful contact with the outside world, it's at the cost of their culture. Modern society and its comforts will swallow a long history of culture passed down within these tribes.

So if we avoid interacting with these tribes in order to protect their health and culture, what would a more advanced society do for us? Could contact with more advanced society without the proper safeguards result in sickness, cultural loss, or even advancement at a rate that we are not prepared for?

This week's research provided some interesting insight on communications between uncontacted tribes and modern society. There is still plenty to research going forward including comparison of animal societal evolution against humans', cultural identification theory and communication accommodation theory, as well as researching scientific experts and their theories about communication with a more advanced society.

Some progress was made on the visual part of the final Genius Hour project. I have included a concept sketch below that might make more sense at the point of the final submission.

Dewar, J. © 2023

Welcome to The Graphite Bite

Welcome to my slice of the internet. 

My Genius Hour Question is: How would and alien civilization view human society? 

At first this might sound like science fiction, but an outsider's view is a great way to take a critical look at norms our society considers, well, normal. While you could consider an extraterrestrial's view, you could also look to the perspective of uncontacted tribes. 

 

Why do we hold the imaginary lines that form a country's borders sacred? 

Why do we form societal heirarchies? 

Are any of these behaviours natural to life in the universe, or are they learned? 

 I chose this topic because challenging our perceptions of normalcy in our modern tribal culture can only lead to growth. If we understood how an alien culture might conduct itself, perhaps we could learn to conduct ourselves better as well.

Dewar, J. © 2023