In the first session of the Physical Studio we were set the task of selecting a few articles and using these articles along with incidents and experiences from our own lives, we then created an article of our own. The idea of this task was to help us understand copyright, it is acceptable to use other work as an influence in your own, but not to copy it directly.
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| A photo of my research page |
Here you can see the two articles that I found interesting, I highlighted areas of the article that would most influence my own article. I decided to use the idea of a honeymoon trip with the destination as Russia. I also wanted to use some sort of ruin that the incident could take place so I researched for tourist destinations in Russia that were nearby historic ruins and discovered a city called Kaliningrad. This particular city was nearby an Old Prussian
fortress called Honeda. I researched a little into Prussian mythologies and discovered that they worshipped a god nicknamed the 'Corn Dolly' and decided that I would base my ghost (from the second article) on this mythology, hoping that it would make it more realistic. This was the skeleton of my work which I then expanded on whilst writing the story and here is what I came up with.
Little Corn
Dolly
We began our
honeymoon as any newly married couple would; joy and excitement filled my mind
as I jammed every last accessory I own into my already overcrowded luggage bag.
Meanwhile Alex neatly folded his small pile of garments and neatly slotted them
into his.
Between us, we
had decided on a particularly unique honeymoon destination, or adventure should
I say, however it wasn’t intended to be quite the adventure it turned out to
be! Off we set on the most beautiful road trip you could imagine, through
twisting winding roads that were completely surrounded by striking mountains
rolling out upon the landscape further than the eye could possibly see. It felt
as if we were at one with the nature as the bike weaved us through the vast landscape
that towered over us and, although the mountains were all coated in the whitest
snow I have ever seen, the frosty breeze was completely overpowered by the sun,
beaming down upon us.
Our
destination Kaliningrad, Russia was again a spontaneous decision on my part to
the extent that we decided upon it by me spilling tea all over the map and it
landing on Kaliningrad. Romantic... On arrival however, I was completely
overwhelmed by the huge city and the culture that surrounded us. It was,
according to the travel guide, essential that we “Trek into the forests”
although I hadn’t exactly brought my walking boots, I had however purchased a
particular Russian looking coat, or at least what I thought Russians wore
however that wasn’t so much the case. Despite this I was glad of the faux fur
collar as it was particularly chilly on our ‘trek’.
Soon enough I
became bored of following the worn out footpath and decided to take an
alternate route, through what I thought to be, unexplored greenery. Soon enough
the trees started to thin out and I caught a glimpse of eroded red brick in the
distance. “Balga!” I roared, to which Alex looked particularly shocked and
wittingly said “Pardon you?” but I was way too excited for sarcasm! “No, it’s
Balga!” I screeched once more and set off on an enthusiastic sprint towards the
ruins. Despite my excitement, there was a strange aura about the place. Given,
the castle was in complete ruins and therefore deserted, however I felt a
presence that I just couldn’t put my finger on.
It was hard to
imagine that the worn out brickwork and empty
structure was once an Old Prussian
fortress called Honeda. The “Prussians aren’t the only things that’re old!” I
had shouted. That’s when I must have hit a nerve... A small corn dolly fell in
front of my feet. It just lay there, I had no idea where it had come from and I
certainly didn’t make any links to the Prussian Mythology when it happened, if
only I had read up a little I would not have picked that “cute” little dolly
up!
“It’s like a little voodoo doll!” Alex said as he imitated the doll into
a little plod-like run along one of the crumbling windows. I couldn’t help
myself, I was in stitches! It creased me up, but little did I know the amount
of disrespect I was causing to the ‘God of Evil Spirit’. Suddenly the doll
burst into flames and I felt a cold hand on my shoulder to which I swiftly
turned around only to see a trail of dust settle back to the ground. I
panicked, oblivious to where Alex was and began to run very quickly through the
ruins, the whole place began to drop in temperature and flashes of what
appeared to be a person or shadow of would dart across the battered windows.
“Alex stop it, you’re not funny!” I shouted as I stumbled on broken pottery and
pieces of broken history.
Then I heard him, Alex that is, howling from the complete opposite
direction to which I was running. “Leila, that’s not me!” I turned to face his
voice and there stood, dead in front of me was this creature. It had the body
of a human only thinner and undeterminably masked. Its head twitched back and
forth as it observed me head to toe, never blinking once. I stood there
completely statuesque, I couldn’t move, even if I wanted to. The creature
reached out, impulsively I did too, but this to daze the creature as it paused
for a second then continued to reach for my trembling hand. As it touched my
hand the creature let out a screech of piercing laughter and burst into flames,
leaving behind only a pile of singed corn and in the centre that same little
Corn Dolly...