Prototyping the World

On Tuesday March 14th  the 5d Flux conference had commenced delivering a such an insightful vision of future technologies and ideation processes. The first night had covered much of the advances and possibilities within our rapidly developing technologies. Questions had remained within my thoughts, what is there to do with this technology and why do we even need it? As way of moving forward and answering that question, the focus was centered on taking ideas and prototyping them to see where they would fit within a narrative space. Within recent years, the process of prototyping had broken the linearity of the production pipeline allowing for more fluidity between different departments.

The key terms that were repeatedly iterated were narrative, real-time, and play, all of which makes for the core of prototyping. Within the prototyping phase there are prominent realms that ideas are passed through. They are the analysis of core elements, the production, the motif, the stylization, and the research. Before committing to such an extensive process it is important understand the functions of the proposed idea. Form follows function, as they say. Next is to consider the limitations that encircle the pipeline, whether it be money, time or resources. The motif is what gives context to the idea. It could be either fictional or historical but ties the audience back to the story. The stylization is the fun part in which certain aspects or proportions are pushed to fit within the narrative space. The research is what drives the development and the evolution of the places and characters involved within the story. Process is the teaching and learning that revolves around prototyping. The design is what infects and empowers its holders. Though this scaling of this process has the potential to vary phenomenally, it is always the story that we must always be tied to.

No matter how massive the scale of the sandbox, ideas fluidly transfer from one end to another. It was amazing to see how rapid visualization enacted itself as a catalyst in evolving the production pipeline. These technologies enable us to bring our story driven imaginations to the forefront of our physical reality.

A Night of Inception and Worldbuilding

I must admit it has been a while since my last post. So much has taken place over the course of these last few but short weeks. To start things of, I would like to recap on this night's event, the 5d Flux Conference. It was truly an amazing night showcasing the melting pot of ideas and the future of interactive design. Nearly decades ago it was mere magic to have objects materialize out of thin air. However, within recent years we have witnessed a large influx of technology within a personable sector. Hardware capable of out-computing the NASA JPL supercomputers of the 60s or the 80s are now available at our fingertips with smartphones and tablet machines. Software used to conceive and composite the high end special effects of 90s blockbusters are now within the reach of the public. We are granted the access to a digitized reality, high fidelity simulation and rapid fabrication. Here's a crazy fact, there were millions more transitors produced than individual grains of rice globally within just this past year.

With the shortening of our attention spans as one of the trade offs, we have witnessed this change within less than 10 years. In short what it means is that things on the technology sector are exponentially skyrocketing and will never cease. The industry and our creativity run concurrently with technology at different wavelengths, but always forward. Much like a double edged sword, it can be argued that while technology serves to compensate some of the short comings of our human abilities at the same time it limits our creativity, and vice versa. Same thing can be argued with the "industry" being called VUCA. However, one of the most extraordinary examples showcased was 3D printing.

I recall during the Spring of 2009, I had purchased a copy of Exodessey from the Steambot Studios. I came across a page that featured a 1/3 scale model of the Main character Harry Vicard. I had the opportunity to meet with one of the concept artists behind the book, and I asked him how they created this model. Basically the character was visuallized within Zbrush and then printed through a 3D printer. The process sounded simple, yet I never imagined how far many deviously talented individuals would take the technology. It covered everything, complex sustainable architecture, extremely fuel efficient vehicle chassis,  Nike shoes, bone replacements, even human tissue. It is such a wierd thought to ponder around a liver being printed out of a machine. The printer isn't intimidated by such daunting complexity, it only reads complexity as a binary command.

What was learnt from today was that these issues aren't such a hindrance in our ability for world-building and Inception. The process in which the ideas come to be realized within the space of our reality has met the age of rapid fabrication. Although we may be telling the same story repeatedly throughout the course of our history, we learn to build better metaphors and meanings for ourselves. The connect we bear is constructed by the same metaphors we share and tell amongst ourselves.