Harder than it sounds.
Our idea for a Capstone is solely grounded in the realm of digital media and interaction. This made it hard to imagine our project without the use of typical new media. Our project will ultimately be an interactive installation, so the parameters of this assignment greatly limited any alternative we might have been able to come up with otherwise. Our idea is based around the game Minecraft as well, which would not be a plausible factor if it weren’t for computers. Basically, our idea breaks down to nothing with the removal of the game, the computers and other gadgets to connect everything, and the installation for people to interact with, and leaves us with essentially just a treadmill.
In order to remove the interactive aspect of our idea, we need to create a project that turns users into viewers. They will no longer interact with it, simply observe it. Our original alternative idea was to have person run on a treadmill (a normal one) and have this treadmill be manually attached to a large, circular image on a conveyor. The person running or walking on the treadmill will cause the image to progress, and if the people view from the side, it will look like the person is walking through a forest, or whatever other scene happens to be in the picture.
Apart from this treadmill idea, another art exhibit would allow the viewers to examine objects and structures that appear to be straight from the game of Minecraft. These block structures would be built to scale and have various textures (wood, stone, etc.) all identical to the textures from the game. Viewers can examine these structures from all angles as they walk past the exhibit. Some structures may even permit viewers to walk underneath or through them, but viewers would not be able to move these blocks for they would be fixed objects. An alternative to this concept is for viewers to walk through various structures, as mentioned before, but as they do they will be able to watch as a specific builder place objects around them. The users wouldn’t be able to move these objects once they have been placed.