The biggest challenge of this medium is the act of bridging the threshold between the physical and the virtual. How do you elegantly guide a user from a world built upon principles of stubborn reality (biology, physics, culture, etc.) into a world that is purely conceptual and only limited by what we can imagine?

By the next class you are expected to have a pdf treatment containing the following:

• At least 3 rough distinct ideas in written form. They can be just a sentence or two for each.
• Sketches to help explain your written ideas. These can be in the form of hand drawn sketches or using digital tools such as Illustrator, Photoshop and Tilt Brush.
• Visual references for each of your concepts that express the feelings and moods you are interested in exploring. These can be in the form of screenshots, photographs, collages or even sounds. The focus is less on the specifics and more on the overall feeling conveyed by an assembly of space, texture and light.
• Expect to share this document with the rest of the class for feedback.
• Your treatment should answer the following questions:
  • Can you describe briefly what spaces you are interested in creating and how to possibly connect them?
  • How will you travel between them?
  • What references inspire you?
  • Do you have any concerns about your ability to accomplish your goals?

Idea 1: The Night Circus

• based on the book by Erin Morgenstern
• Exploratory like SNM
  • You only have x minutes to explore the space (between sunset and sunrise in the book) until the experience forces you back to the entrance gate to start a new day.
• The main space is the grounds of the circus. Based in reality, paths between tents. Performers scattered around. A huge bonfire in the center powering everything.
• The other spaces are what happen inside the tents. Space and physics might work differently. These worlds are less based in reality. Perhaps the inside of one of the tents looks like The Starless Sea (her other book about wonderful, magical spaces)

A fan illustration of the circus

A fan interpretation of the inside of one of the tents.

Bailey in his tree watching the Circus tents, from the Illustrated Edition of The Night Circus.

A fan illustration of The Starless Sea.

Idea 2: The Sublime

• Exploring the sublime vs the eerie. Where is that line?
  • Maybe its about survival. Maybe its about awe. Maybe its about both?
• Inspiration from: Romantic Period in Art History, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Secret History by Donna Tartt.