virtual worlds

wanted:Guild is a new take on interactive documentary that uses spatial exploration to fuel story. Through audience interaction with audio nodes a narrative is revealed about the intersection of the real and virtual lives of hardcore World of Warcraft gamers. wanted: Guild offers a peek behind the screen for the casual and non-gamer, revealing to them a world of complexity that is often overlooked.

(Source: Elo conference: First encounters 2014)

Published in 2001 by Bluescreen, the pseudonym of the program’s creator, ExtraPhysicalWorld is a program found on the CD alire12, the twelfth installation of a review inspired by a cooperative of authors, including Phillipe Bootz. This collective that inspired Bluescreen was called L.A.I.R.E. (Lecture Art Innovation Recherche Écriture) and was created in October 1988. However, Bluescreen was part of another collective called Transitoire Observable, created in 2003. It is by means of the folders of the CD-ROM that the « site » ExtraPhysicalWorld is accessed. Normally, the sight could be opened via the internet. Yet as of September 2014, the site of ExtraPhysicalWorld no longer works. Thus, the program had to be accessed through the files of alire12. In any case, the program is characterized by several menus that provide information and various animations. The entry Écrits.txt in the menu includes an article written by Bluescreen in 2001 over the conceptualization of the extra-physical world. Écrits.txt also includes a glossary with numerous definitions such as those for the words univers, blobs and algorithme. It is in the menu Univers.exe where the « worlds » of the program are found. For example, in « Univers 01 : Blob unique au monde » the first « universe » can be seen inhabited by a blob that is in the form of a red cube. In this world, according to Bluescreen, the blobs are living beings and inhabitants. This blob appears to enlarge or approach the screen until it appears to fill it entirely. In « Univers 02 : Couple de Blobs (sic) Rouge » two blobs that behave similarly to the blob of univers 01 can be found, except they do not fill out the screen. With « Univers 03 : Couple partagé », three of these blobs enlarge or approach the screen, just as the blobs of univers 02, but one of the three blobs is larger than the other two. « Univers 04 : 5 Blobs Rouges » shows five blobs that are similar to the blobs in other universes. It is in « ETUDE 1 : Reproduction de Blob Rouge(1) » et « ETUDE 2 : Reproduction du Blob Rouge(2) » that one finds the first two universes but with changes to the behavior of the blobs. These blobs also appear and disappear, stretch and shrink. In truth, the reader does not know if these universes represent the text, or the literary side of the site, or if the paratext, i.e. the articles and the glossary in the menu under Écrits.txt, figures as the true text of the site. Moreover, one can suppose that Bluescreen was inspired by the notions of artificial life when he created his programs, and it is probable that this inspiration gave him the idea of representing this aspect of computing in a literary as well as numeric and electronic fashion. According to Bluescreem, the extra-physical world is “its own spatio-temporal dimension” that exists outside of the physical universe. Yet, the fact that the “universes” of the program are driven by a code that Bluescreen created himself complicates its comprehension since, if this code comes from the physical world, the artificial world is therefore rooted in the physical one.

#PRISOM is a Synthetic Reality Game where a player is set loose in a Glass City under infinite surveillance. It is designed to encourage players to ponder the increasing global adoption of PRISM-like surveillance technology. Every one of the “#WhatDoYouDo” scenarios that you’ll encounter when playing the game stem from real-life scenarios, including the ongoing unconstitutional treatment and [in some cases] incarceration of those keen to expose the nature of heavily surveilled and overtly monitored societies

Within an enclosed darkened room, the image of Beyond Manzanar's 3-dimensional space is projected onto a large, wall-sized screen. The life-sized image fills your field of view and gives you a feeling of immersion within the virtual space. A joystick mounted on a pedestal in the middle of the room allows you to move your viewpoint at will through the virtual space. Speakers mounted on either side of the screen provide stereo sound. Although only one person at a time can control movement in the space, others can watch and share the experience. We have combined techniques of computer games and theater design to create a highly symbolic, often surreal environment with a poetic reality stronger than photorealism. The mountain panorama that defines the Manzanar site forms a constant backdrop for shifting layers of superimposed context. Open doors lead viewers through spaces that react to their presence, shifting between home and prison, between paradise and wasteland, to investigate Manzanar as a layering of contradictory and complementary images and emotions for two groups of immigrants. Archival photographs of Manzanar Internment Camp alternate with paradise gardens constructed from ancient Japanese scrolls and Persian miniature paintings; images of the immigrant American Dream alternate with media images of betrayal and hatred. Sound is also an important mechanism to set the emotional and cultural context: The constant moan of the desert wind or the cool burbling of water from a fountain; the scream of war jets or a woman singing a love song. The virtual space is sensitive to your presence, shifting context around you to change your emotional relationship to the space. If you follow an open road, barbed wire appears to block your path. If you enter a dark barrack you may find yourself in a pavilion overlooking a paradise garden - that disappears when you try to enter it, as if you suddenly awake from a dream.