Round Robin: Benjamin Thevenin, Jess Baird, Jase Van Meeteren, & Graham Walker







The various narratives created in our project do well at preserving the initial topics

addressed but vary widely in the thematic approach applied to the story. These themes or

emotional perspectives morph from playful, to sorrowful, to serious, and right back to playful

again. Each writer and illustrator took his own reading of the tale and redirected the narrative

according to his personality, preference, and initial impressions. No single writer approached

every work the same way. There wasn’t one of us who always made a story funny or always

made it moody and dark, each and everyone us took a fresh approach to each piece and added or

emphasized the emotional ideas we found most compelling or appropriate.

Writer Paul D. Miller commented upon these characteristics of collaborations by stating

that such practices make “the creative act a symbolic exchange between players.” A game of will

and control only to be exercised in specific parameters according to the provided material. The

Exquisite Corpse, or practice of finishing one another’s work to create a greater whole, is the

artistic example of human interaction. The piecemeal amalgam of ideas and inspirations show

both artist and viewer the lens by which they perceive and create. The fruit of our project is not

always the actual pieces, but the personal realization every artist comes to concerning their own

habits of synthesis and adaptation.

It was interesting to see that even though it was created by several minds. Some of the

stories actually flowed into a complete narrative. Some of the other round robins we saw turned

into something completely different than what they started with, so what is the difference? We

think topic is very heavily related, the more interesting the topic the more interesting it was to

contribute to the initial narrative. What was most surprising to us, was how the overall visual

style changed throughout. We think this comes back to the fact that when a topic for a narrative

becomes broad, it is more open to interpretation, and is altered by the different minds that

contribute.

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Ryan Hinkson is an online graphic designer. He loves to do a simplistic illustrator style

for online graphics. The lack of faces or other details is typical of Hinkson’s work. This distinct

style created an internet phenomenon and reminded us of the round robin. Others would use his

style to create something with a different theme or expression, similar to how the round robin

assignment worked. This created a new development for both the narrative and the drawings in

the assignment. The story and drawing would evolve as it progressed.