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.