IOL Week 1 - Design a Project

By Emmett Redding

In our first week of Illusion of Life we each paired up and interviewed each other to then design a project for the other person.

This was very fun! I enjoyed the interview format as it made me reflect on myself while asking Carlo each question. It also illuminated things that I did not know about Carlo.

I knew his practice was previously based in music and VJing, but I never put two and two together to think about the fact that a great soundtrack is one of his favourite elements of any project. He also told me that he likes animé and appreciates some of the more gruesome details that are shown in it. Carlo also told me about how he is fascinated by extreme detail in things, such as the Mighty Max toys he played with as a child. Carlo talked about how this might be why he is interested in games that have an isometric or top down view. Carlo told me that one of the most important things for him in a project is for it to involve real human interaction.

For Carlo I designed a VR project that represents one-to-one the room that the player is in. The player is encouraged to hold another players hand that appears in the game, hug another, and punch another. The idea with this would be that for the first two other players, behind the digital interaction in the real world is a real person, so the main player is more sold on the immersion of this world, and hopefully then feels guilt or hesitation before punching the final character, who is not really there.

Carlo liked this project and how it would make the player question what is and what is not a real human interaction. This would be a fun project to make however neither of us know enough about how to actually do that yet.

How did engaging with a real person change your direction?

I really enjoyed this aspect as it allowed us both to sit down and chat when we haven’t really done that before. As I mentioned I also really enjoyed the fact that it made me think about how I would answer each question also.

What was it like showing unfinished work to each other?

I felt nervous about it as I feel quite stressed when I don’t think I can quite get my point across, and presenting a play-doh version of an experience that is meant for VR was probably the epitome of “not being able to get my point across” - it was good fun though.

How did the pace of the rapid iterations feel?

The pace was at points too fast and at others too slow. When it came to actually designing the project I felt that I wanted to spend more time on one of them than others and so didn’t give myself enough time to make enough, but then during the interview process Carlo and I were talking quite fast.

What stage would you revisit/do next?

I would like to revisit the rapid idea generation stage. I didn’t focus enough on music and when looking back can think of other ways to incorporate that element.

What is one thing you want to try tomorrow? Is there one thing you can take forward with something?

I’d like to take the idea of making something in VR that is one-to-one with the room the player is in further, I think there are a lot of fun and wacky things you could do with that idea.