Thesis Proposal Updated

Thesis Proposal (Updated)

Title:  Liminal (working title)

Keywords: Transitional, Evocative, Transcendental

Central question: I am fascinated with the idea of liminality in all its shapes and forms. I view ITP as an emotional liminal space for me because it demarcates a space and time in my life where I am making a significant transition both career and life wise. 

How can I manifest those feelings of liminality, uncertainty, and out-of-placeness through physical and digital mediums?

Motivation: My initial inspiration for thesis was the Party/After-Party project by Carl Craig but I couldn’t quite put my fingers on why I liked the exhibit so much. After going down a rabbit hole of liminal spaces on the internet, I realized that there is a whole world of studies around the idea of the liminal. Then I dug deeper into the etymology of the word liminal and ran into tangential phrases such as liminal experience and liminal design, which uncovered another sector of research that I also found fascinating. But the connection that made me personally invested in this topic was when I compared ITP to an emotional liminal space for me because I’m in the phase of changing my career and there’s just a lot of uncertainties in my life. Thus, I want to explore the idea of liminal space and liminality as they relate to my current emotional state. However, I have intentions of making multiple projects under the umbrella theme of the liminal to fully explore various sub-ideas across different mediums.

Intended audience: I want this project to resonate with those who have gone through or going through such a liminal state in their lives. My intended audience is anyone who is facing uncertainty in their professional or personal life. If I ended up continuing with my Liminal ITP VR experience, those who have spent time at 370 Jay st will be my more selected audience while the broader audience will be anyone who has gone through times of considerable transition and personal growth.

Context: 

1. CARSTEN HÖLLER >SYNCHRO SYSTEM< 
   1. More of an inspiration for my initial sound installation idea, but still relevant to liminal space. The pitch black hallway that leads into a room of mushrooms presents the audience with a sense of out-of-place-ness. 
2. Carl Craig: Party/After-Party
   1. The absence of people in a typically busy nightclub context really evokes those feelings of emptiness and loneliness. The grandioseness of the architecture coupled with the juxtaposition of activeness vs inactiveness speaks to the artist’s portrayal of what it’s like as a DJ. 
3. Liminoid 
   1. An VR experience visualizing the different stages of a liminal experience. 
4. Liminal design: A conceptual framework and three-step approach for developing technology that delivers transcendence and deeper experiences
   1. Very good paper on liminal design and how to augment/improve digital experiences to evoke deeper emotions and self-discoveries.
5. Giorgio de Chirico
   1. One of my favorite surrealists who depicts architectural elements in dreamlike landscapes.
6. Jeffery Smart
   1. Another artist who reduced urban architecture to its barebone forms. 
7. Edward Hopper
   1. A more realist approach to depicting everyday settings with liminal and poetic undertones.
8. Anemoiapolis: Chapter 1
   1. Liminal space adventure game that combines minimal storytelling with exploration and puzzle-solving. 
9. The Caretaker – Everywhere At The End Of Time – Stages 1-6
   1. Soundtrack that gradually degrades over the course of the album to illustrate a dementia patient’s mental and psychological deterioration. 

Form: Current VR Prototype for Hedonomic VR: Liminal ITP

Production plan: Now that I have completed the prototype of the VR experience for one of my class finals this semester, I am having second thoughts about continuing with the medium of VR or pivoting towards something new entirely. My plan is to use the winter break to really solidify the story I want to tell and the scope of what I want to achieve in the spring.

If my thesis ends up being a VR experience, I will work in either Unity or Unreal to continue developing more story, atmosphere, and interactions. However, if I were to pivot to a UX project for example, I will need to start the research process during winter break in order to allocate enough time for ideation and development during the spring. 

I think the most important thing for me right now is figuring out my takeaways from this VR prototype and deciding what story I want to tell now that I have told it one way and in what medium I want to tell it in. Only then can I even envision my production plan for the spring.