Reality vs Fantasy

Whilst focusing on writing my design research report, I've had time to um think, namely about the current situation we find ourselves in. I know I already mentioned this in an earlier post but living in lockdown has made me question certain things. As my degree focuses on fantasy games, I thought about how we define fantasy in context of our reality. That is to say, a couple of months ago, our current lifestyle would be deemed a 'fantasy' in the sense that we had not experienced having travel restrictions placed on us with businesses closed and queuing up to shop at the supermarket standing 2 metres apart. What once sounded like a dystopian fantasy has now become our reality. As a consequence I feel compelled to question what we deem as fantasy, is it simply that which differs from reality, or is it that which is deemed 'impossible' to exist in our reality? Or are they both just 2 extremes on a sliding scale where fantasy can be anywhere in between? Once fantasy becomes reality it ceases to exist as fantasy, so what we define as 'fantasy' and 'reality' is constantly shifting with every new experience each day brings. I still think fantasy is pushing outside the limits of reality, but of course as reality shifts so do the 'limits'.

...I may be overcomplicating things but like I said I've had time to (over)think. Due to the over-frying of my brain thinking has caused, I'd say I'm pretty much done with critical analysis for a good year anyways. Here's some lockdown art I did today (it's a self portrait omg) and also posted on my twitter with the following caption:

Inspired by recent shopping trips to Aldi for my grandma. I guess it's okay to wear a niqab now or no?

I guess I'm supposed to write a bit about this? So I just wanted to do something quickish so I went for a flat style and tried out a brighter colour palette as my recent work was looking a bit muddy and dark so thought it would be a nice change and make me feel optimistic. I even tried out some methods I'd learnt from the concept artists I interviewed and tried blobbing out my own silhouettes to make the pose look right. I would say this pose is more interesting as well as I'm basically sitting on top of an Aldi sign?? And I even aligned the background concentric circles to intersect where the main focus - the person - is. The real question is if the background has some deeper meaning to it or if it was created to avoid actually drawing in a background (definitely the latter). But I think there's something to take away from it - going back to what I said about us living in a dystopian reality, the background could be my interpretation of feeling stuck in an alternative reality where nothing seems real. Who knows. That's all for today.