Animation & Interactive Media RMIT
PROJECT BRIEF: Space + Environments
Home, Idealism, Spatiality, Safety, Power, Politics, Relationships, Community, Solitude, Crime, Art, Empires, Enterprise, Charity, Network, Simulation.
What is home? What constitutes our ideal of our own space? The environments that we live in, were they chosen for us or did we choose them? Is the country we live in our own? Would we have chosen our birth place if given the opportunity? Do you envisage a different life or are you contented? The world in which we live has certain boundaries and parameters that are defined and set in place. We accept them and may take comfort in the fact that they are there and act as a safety net. We have political systems and laws that bind our society to rules. Conformity within means is expected and these principles are what make a community function.
To explore the possibility of creating your own ideal place or space in a simulated society. Do you aspire to Plato’s ‘Republic’ as a framework for your contentions where it’s proposed citizens be categorised into a class structure of ‘golden,’ ‘silver,’ ‘bronze’ and ‘iron’ socioeconomic groupings or Nietzsche’s works in existentialism and nihilism for inspiration?
You are to take the idea of what you would do if given the opportunity to create your ideal place in the world. This could mean a humble abode in a rural setting or the Lord of a manor with a serfdom to rule over. It could mean you desire to reside in a commune and abide by principles of ‘Lebensreform’ or create a philanthropic venture. You may wish to take an anthropomorphic form and explore the animal kingdom for inspiration or be more abstract and lateral in your thinking. The choice is yours.
Represent your ideal in an interactive work. The contents of your work can be set in text, animation, sound/music but be clear of your intentions to the participant. The work is then to be placed on a LAN that will be set up exclusively for you and your fellow students. The network will be the parameter of your world. After the environments are placed on the network each of you will be able to interact or explore one another’s space. The environment that engages the user in terms of the most time spent exploring their world will be deemed the most ideal space.
Consider when building or conceiving your environment that you try and make it as engaging as possible. Visitors need to be enticed to your space and once there spend as much time as possible in interactivity. The participant might be coaxed by intrigue to your space and not necessarily by comfort.
The chosen media is up to you but make the submission interactive in whatever format or technology you are using. If possible 1280×720 and sound at 44.1 kHz.