Tools: Unreal Engine, Ableton Live, Maya
The player will start in the water, beside a small house. As the player explore the abandoned house, they will notice the objects around them which also trigger different tones. There is a small hole on the basement floor, if the player choose to jump in, they will be dropped down onto the ground. Then when the player look around, they will notice that they are being surrounded by food leftovers such as nuts, cake and spilled drink. The player can choose to go into each of these little spaces, and if the player gets to the end, they will get a chance to see the whole scene from above, which reveals the journey.
Id, Ego, Superego
According to Sigmund Freud, there are three dissections of our unconsciousness, and they are called the id, ego, and superego. The id is present at birth and represents the animal side of oneself. It controls people’s sexual drive as well as desires to eat and drink. On the contrary, the superego acts like a condescending voice to prevent oneself from having those desires. The ego, being pushed from one side to another, is constantly trying to balance itself.
In "The Swimmer," the id is manifested through Ned’s alcoholism and his illicit lover. In my creative work, I chose to use desserts and wine to represent the id, as they are directly linked to people’s cravings. The superego can be found in "The Swimmer" by observing how Ned reacts to the different treatments he receives from bartenders and his former friends. In my piece, I assigned the spaces within two nuts to represent internalized societal standards. Those two spaces are filled with faceless, identical men and women floating in the air. Players will be overwhelmed by undulating talks and intimidating gazes once they step into the nut. Ned’s journey to conquer the Lucinda River represents his ego in the original story. In my work, it will become players’ choices to navigate the virtual space.
Squares and Circles
One big symbol I used in “Fragments of an Afternoon” is the square and the circle. Players will find themselves encountering these shapes everywhere. In Taoism, the square represents rules, laws, and the strictness of social standards, while the circle represents free spirit, harmony, and the flexibility of the self. According to “The Ruler’s Technique” from the book Huainanzi, one is advised to think like a circle while acting within the square. There is a tension between the constraints of the square and the expansiveness of the circle, and this tension is present throughout "The Swimmer."
Ned is an embodiment of the American middle-class lifestyle, but at the same time, he dreams about escaping all the suffocating standards imposed on him by society, and his journey to swim back home can be seen as his protest. The rigidness of the swimming pools and the curvy and meandering characteristics of the Lucinda River can also be translated into the square and the circle.
Colors in Taoism and Freudian Theory
Colors play an important role in "The Swimmer." Cheever chose the color of the pools deliberately. The water at the Hallorans’ is opaque gold, representing their enormous wealth and experience; the pool at the Westerhazys is a “pale shade of green” (2), a perfect fit for a midsummer day; and the pool at the Grahams’ is a sapphire color. However, the public pool looks like a sink and is described as “this murk” (8).
Sigmund Freud’s study in Hampstead, England, is largely decorated in red and green, and according to Mark Wallinger, “they were loosely based around the unconscious and the conscious,” he said. “The red was holding something at rest for examination, and the green was this constant ebb and flow of things in motion” (Siegal). In Taoism, yellow, cyan, and red are among the five elementary colors. They each represent earth, wood, and fire. These three elements keep synthesizing with each other, creating and limiting each individual power. Can they also be understood as id, ego, and superego? I used red, yellow, and cyan as the three primary colors in “Fragments of an Afternoon,” hoping to create this tension.
Defense Mechanisms
Ned’s actions in "The Swimmer" can be explained using Freudian defense mechanisms. Projection means that one will project one’s own insecurities onto others. In the story, I interpret this as Ned projecting his inner state onto the surrounding natural environment. The weather and the color of the swimming pool’s water mirror Ned’s mental state. He starts confidently in the “clement weather” (Cheever, 2) with the pool in “a pale shade of green” (Cheever, 2). Gradually, as his mental state deteriorates, he starts to notice the thunderstorm coming and sees the first “sign of autumn” (Cheever, 6). In the story, Ned ends up in the dark night of the winter, facing his empty house bewildered.
Reaction formation means that one will strongly criticize certain characteristics of others because deep down they share the same traits. Ned seems to inherit toxic masculinity. He has “a simple contempt for men who did not hurl themselves into pools” (Cheever, 3) and never uses the ladder when leaving the pool. Moreover, he looks down upon the Biswangers for the confinement of their earthly topics such as “market tips” and "dirty stories” (Cheever, 11). Ned’s snobby attitude reveals that unconsciously he shares the same characteristics with the people he dislikes.
Denial can be understood as one’s refusal to believe the truth. At the end of Ned’s adventure, despite being informed by Mrs. Halloran that he has sold his house and his children are miserable, Ned insists that he recalls nothing and says “the girls are at home.”
Regression signals the return to early childhood after facing trauma. Shirley Abbott, Ned’s ex-lover, represents more of a motherly figure to Ned at the end of the story. Ned claims that “If he had suffered any injuries at the Biswangers, they would be cured here” (Cheever, 12). Seeking comfort from his old mistress can be seen as evidence of regression.
Rationalization is the act of trying to find false reasons to justify the unwanted result. Ned rationalizes the rude behavior of the bartender by assuming that the bartender might be “new and uninformed” (Cheever, 12). He also rationalizes his insane act of swimming back home as an adventure, seeing himself as “an explorer, a pilgrim” (Cheever, 8).
This leads to sublimation. Sublimation means that one will redirect the emotions one feels onto activities that are more acceptable. For example, after a breakup, one might start to spend a lot of time painting and listening to music. In the story, Ned’s youthful energy and whimsical ambitions can be seen as an outlet for the intense emotions he faces after going bankrupt overnight.
Finally, it comes to repression. Ned has been struggling to sweep his feelings under the rug throughout the story. He uses drinking as a way to repress the sadness and apprehensions he experiences, and every time he starts to question his memory, he immediately represses it with a drink.
In “Fragments of an Afternoon,” I tried to represent these defense mechanisms abstractly using architecture, sound, and lighting. Each layer in the cake reflects one defense mechanism, and the player will get to immerse themselves in the space, especially with the help of Virtual Reality.