Duality is my final project for my honours degree at University.

Duality is a series of images that tell a story of victory and empowerment in relation to gender. Duality also focuses on bringing the acceptance and strength found in fantasy worlds into reality. The series aims to communicate that fantasy and reality are not that different and that if we can bring ourselves to show acceptance and safety in one world, why not the other? In doing so, Duality prompts the user to question society’s rules regarding gender expression so as to make a better reality for youth outside the norm.

Duality is presented in an interactive book format with fold-out illustrations to engage with. This engagement is to promote a self-reflection in the user, to see that acceptabile conventions in fantasy can be applied to and accepted in reality.

The flaps contain quotes that are positive and encourage that freedom of gender expression is empowering. 

Duality takes the narrative of empowerment found in fantasy battles and juxtaposes it with the rugby game (an icon of strength and commonly used in the promotion of positive change in the context of New Zealand) in order to show that anyone can be powerful, no matter how they present.  

The use of colour is to take the rigid categorisation of masculine and feminine (blue and pink) and to show that they can intertwine and interact peacefully and harmoniously. 

The character designs were made with the intention of having a mix of masculine and feminine traits as well as having a variety of body types showing the audience that anyone can engage with any form of gender expression they want. 

Above:How the folding on one side would look in reality

Above: How the folding would look on a digital platform. Because my target audience engages with digital media a digital output would be another way to expand upon and further the reach of this project as well as addressing different narratives/content.