Statement

I will be constructing three unique virtual interactive installation pieces using a digital workflow to build assets, then subverting traditional game design to build these  ‘liminal spaces’ in a game engine. I want to explore how computers, generally used as production tools, can instead become partners in conceptual art through procedural and generative means in the construction and manipulation of assets. I will build monumental virtual spaces that venerate the unique aesthetic of digital conveyance of ‘the image’, and how this then changes it to a unique digital artifact. I also look to examine how digitization influences how we see our ‘autonomous self’, and how the bounds of the virtual inform our sense of space, shared experience, and the sublime; themes similarly explored in modernism, posthumanism, and postmodernism.

Abstract

This interactive design and 3D environmental design thesis will seek to explore the use of computers in a conceptual artistic process. Structured around Reconstructivism and postmodernist art critique, this thesis will document the use of a digital creative workflow, initially designed to facilitate representational work for videogames and films, as a way to construct art installation work. These three pieces will be interactive experiences with similar humanistic goals as works done by Olafur Eliasson and Walter De Maria, leaning more toward shared experience than the traditional level design approach of progression. This thesis will first define the traditional role of computers as design and production tools, then it will look to explore new artistic opportunities by using procedural means, neural networks, and algorithms to deconstruct digital assemblage, make generative assets, and conceptualize and construct unique digital artifacts. These artifacts will then become foundational elements for virtual spaces made for ritual, simulacrum, and hyperreality. Each step will be further documented in separate process books and will utilize found online imagery, 3D modeling and texturing pipeline, UI/UX methodology, modular level design, and sound design. Finally, each installation will be available for download on my website and/or online gaming sites to experience remotely.