Liby Hays | 2019 | Illustration & English
Zak Ziebell | 2019 | Painting & Symbolic Systems
False Scare City
Experiential VR Simulation using AFrame (web framework), Laminated poster
"The eye by long use comes to see even in the darkest cavern; and there is no subject so obscure, but we may discern some glympse of truth by long pouring on it. Truth is the cry of all, but the game of a few."
- George Berkeley
False Scare City is an interactive Web VR experience taking place in a preteen boy's unkempt bedroom. An inquisitive death god pays a visit and brings a number of philosophical dilemmas to light. The boy's abandoned toys are used to instantiate concepts or play through Trolley-Problem-like scenarios. Meanwhile, an anthropomorphic neural net grows hungry for permission slips and sheets of busy work.
Many of the 3-D models will have pre-programmed animations. Others the user will be able to pick up and move, using a (somewhat limited) physics engine. Models were created using Oculus Medium, 3-D Scanning (and other means of photogrammetry), Blender, Zbrush, and Substance Painter, or downloaded from online databases. The narrative will be unpacked via sound, documents and dialog boxes within the game as well as an explanatory poster that exists irl.
False Scare City relates to the theme of reflection on many levels. The claustral bedroom becomes a site of philosophical reflection after Rem the Death God's visit. The objects within it reflect their owner's interests and temperament without him actually being present. And like a mirror, the VR medium transports the viewer into another plane, implicating them within the work.
from Parallels, Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, January 11 - February 16, 2019
Views of the Room (WIP):
Promotional Contest, night of the exhibition opening:
