Digital Memories

[EPQ] Digital Animation comparing the lives of Sadako Sasaki and Anne Frank, and what may have happened to them had they not been affected by war

My inspiration for this project was the legend of the thousand paper cranes. When I was six, my grandmother’s younger sister fell ill. Whenever we visited her at the hospital, my grandmother would sit by her side and fold paper cranes. Out of curiosity, I asked my grandmother why she was folding these origami cranes and stringing them together. She then told me the legend of the thousand paper cranes and I was fascinated by the story since. I always wondered if it was true or was it just a myth. This was my starting point of my EPQ. When I was doing my research on this, I found Sadako Sasaki, the Japanese girl who died of Lukeimia due to the nuclear bombing in Hiroshima. She had an especially touching story linked to the legend of the thousand paper cranes. However, while reading an article about Sadako Sasaki, I accidentally stumbled across a passage about children who were indirectly affected by war. There was where I discovered Anne Frank and was suddenly intrigued by how their stories comapared. It was incredibly interesting to find out how The story of sadako was studied in Europe, whereas the diary of Anne Frank was studied in Japan. It fascinated me that both girls happened to co-existed in the same time World War II happened and died due to different effects of war. They both had unfulfilled aspirations but sadly didn’t live long enough to experience their bright future.

My initial intended product is an Artefact, which is an animation to show how war can affects innocent people’s lives. This will be shown through two children who had aspirations but both lost their lives due to violence. Apart from raising awareness of their stories, an ending will be created to both their stories showing what would have happened if they were still alive, emphasising the sickening effects of war and the brutal reality of the conflict caused due to greed. I would also like to project this animation through an installation that will be displayed through a VR headset. If time allows, a sculpture of an origami will also be made and placed in the middle of my virtual reality installation.