Altering the context and the effect- Jumbie Wood Carving

Testing and Analysis

I wanted to experiment with manipulating the context in which my character designs are placed by putting them into related and unrelated environments and noting the effect that this has. I decided to use my wood sculpture first as it was a physical object that I could move around easily. At first, I took it outside of the house and into natural environments such as the garden plants, and holding it up to the sky which reminded me of the looming effect the Jumbie had in my illustrations. These more natural environments were in line with how I interpret the setting of the game and the characters that live in these settings.

However, I then turned this around completely by placing them into more domestic environments, such as on the windowsill of my bedroom, placing it onto the mantle piece like a piece of collected art, and finally in an altar-style environment. The mantlepiece setting seemed to entirely reject the meaning of the Jumbie and removing it from it's original context completely. When the Jumbie once meant a reminder of slavery and lingering spirits, it now becomes an insensitive decoration for a house. However, when I placed the Jumbie on the altar arrangement, it seemed to be more connected with the spiritual context of the folklore. It reminded me of the Yoruba woodcarvings used for spiritual rituals. When I placed the Jumbie on the bookshelf, in the shadows it did appear a slightly more ominous and scary, but it was easy enough to dismiss this and have it resemble a functional book end, which takes away from it's context. The windowsill setting reminded me of a spiritual ward that would be placed in the home to ward off spirits, which is ironic as I perceive the Jumbie character as a malevolent spirit itself.

Evaluation

This experiment made me think about how easily something can be removed from a context and how the emotional response can be changed and manipulated due to this. Although I am only using a wood carving rather than a whole concept of the Jumbie, I was still able to find ways that the Wood craving fits with the folklore context and how it can be removed from that, like in everyday life when we see the work of different cultures placed in the home or in buildings. It reminds me of the importance of knowing different cultures, and how exposing different cultural folklores and practices can change how people perceive certain symbols and images in a context.