Category: Spring 2021

Hamlet on the Holodeck Chapter 3

Taking one of Murray’s four principle properties of digital environments, how do you see VR representing that property?

Looking at the property of digital environments being spatial, I think VR represents it perfectly. The very point of Virtual Reality is to present a digital space in the real world, and make us feel as though we are in that space. Murray uses the term “navigable space”, which I think is accurate for VR. The quality of being spatial is determined by our interactions with the space, of navigating it. VR puts you in a space rather than simply telling you about it. There’s a level of objectivity to it, as put by Murray, since everyone would experience the same space, as opposed to if it were being described and would then be open to interpretation.

Murray also mentions “experiential drama” which I think encapsulates the VR experience very well. The point is to be there rather than imagine being there or hearing about it. It’s a direct, active interaction with the environment.

World Idea

My world is inspired by the animation of the movie Into the Spiderverse. It’s an urban landscape but in a comic-ish style, with some colours sometimes shifting in and out of focus. The effects will be like those in the movie, but I think I would like the environment to look less realistic. The Netflix movie The Liberator is a good example of how I would like the environment of my world to look (almost like it’s handpainted), though with the Into the Spiderverse effects.

I also want to effects such as sound effects and halftone to emphasise the comic feel of the environment. There’s a sort of breaking-the-fourth-wall feel to comics with their use of onomatopoeia and I want to use that as well, along with some text panels for the main character (the user) I want it to feel as though you’re the main character of a comic book.

It is different from our world in the way it looks, and of course the comic sound effects, etc (as seen in the pictures) but mainly because of the story of the main character. People go about their daily lives in the city but I’m thinking of having a quest-based story line for users such as something you’d see in a superhero comic.

Les plateformes de streaming favorisent une nouvelle ère de séries d'animation | Télévision | Marseille News .net
The Liberator Netflix : La série est elle basée sur une Histoire Vraie ?
The Liberator Saison 1 : Explication de la fin de la série Netflix ! | Ayther
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse': Breaking the Rules of Animation | IndieWire

I want the characters to look more like the Liberator as well.

P1: World Idea

Although I am still not entirely sure about my idea for the first project, I was inspired by different media that helped me narrow down my choices to a world that includes elements of adventure, apocalypse and an alternate planet.

The main pieces of media that inspired me in terms of concept and aesthetic, are The 100 (season 6), and the animation movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Both the series and the movie follow fictional and adventurous plotlines, that take place either on a different planet or lost societies.

In The 100 (season 6), the characters wake up after 125 years of cryosleep in a post-apocalyptic world, and land on the alternate planet Alpha. Although the new planet is habitable, there is a mysterious anomaly that happens at certain points during the day; which drives people mad and affects the environment. I really loved all the fictional and aesthetic elements in this series, and wanted to create a similar world. The world I want to build will also be set on a completely different planet, with a diverse terrain. I want the color palette to also be similar; with warm tones, fog, as well as forest greens and browns.

Image courtesy: The CW

Atlantis: The Lost Empire, is one of my favorite movies from my childhood and has a completely different color palette than The 100.

Image courtesy: Disney

Although this movie has a completely different narrative and aesthetic, I was inspired by the character and elements design. It would be easier to build something more simple in terms of characters and environment more similar to this movie, rather than the series above. I also wanted to the appearance, in characters to be similar to the ones in Atlantis!

Despite not being a 100% set on the idea for project 1, I’m leaning towards making it a post-apocalyptic world.

P1 Idea:

What is the world?
My preliminary idea (which is subject to change) is to create a world/environment of an abandoned water park. Conceptually, it would allude to the global water crisis and envision a post-apocalyptic future where such an artifact of short-sighted human entertainment becomes a habitat for new life forms of the future (but I don’t know what those could be).

How is it different from the one we live in?
It is deserted, quiet and human-less. The massive structures of the waterpark are stripped of their original purpose and become strange and absurd.

What do you do in this world?
*I am struggling to answer this question because I am not committed to this idea at all, because it mostly appeals to me visually rather than conceptually. I am not sure what kind of narrative I could create there to fill it with content and opportunities to actually do something on this world.

I will definitely keep looking for other ideas and will need to let my imagination go more crazy! 🙂

The pictures below belong to Aziz Jamal, a Saudi multidisciplinary artist. This work is a series of 3 videos called 1056% (commissioned by the Saudi Art Council, 2019).

And here are some images of creepy abandoned amusement parks.