THANK YOU

Thank you for participating in The Gallery Affair: A Whodunit Mystery.  I greatly appreciate your time and support. Did you solve the mystery? More importantly, would you want to play again?

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I created this project as my thesis for my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design at Indiana University's Eskenazi School of Art Architecture, and Design. The original plan for this project was a one-week installation in the Grunwald Gallery of Art in Bloomington. The exhibit would have featured a detective guidebook along with various props for viewers to examine closely for clues. When that exhibit was no longer possible, I wanted to create this website, which featured much of the same content in hopes that an audience would still be able to experience the mystery and hopefully think about the whodnit genre as a whole.

 

The whodunit genre has a long history through many forms of media. The genre allows the viewer to test their wits against the author. By solving a murder in a whimsical world, it allows the viewer to feel as though they are working towards something with a moral purpose without being too weighted by the tragedy of death. This story, filled with tropes and unrealistic names and situations, takes away the complications of an actual murder story, allowing the viewer to focus on the game of solving a mystery.

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I chose to tell this story through the use of props because the small details in these everyday objects often hold the key to the mystery in whodunit stories. Props and the small details are the key to world building allow these characters to feel as though they exist in an actual world. While the viewer no longer has the ability to view these props in person, examining their details in pictures still gives insight into how these objects could relate to the case and theworld as a whole.

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This project exemplifies both the creative wit and unifying tropes of the whodunit genre, an ever-evolving game between author and viewer. While this webite is not how I originally imagined this story or this world, I hope that it can reach even  more people than it would have in it's original gallery space. 

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Thanks again for viewing and experiencing this exhibit!