Thesis Blog - Week 1

This is an overview of my thesis installation project as a Y2K immersive. It is an immersive theatre piece for an audience of up to 4. Participants will engage in a new years party during a countdown to the year 2000. They will walk robotic character through their existential crises as they grapple with their own mortality and potentially the end of the world. This project has been a WIP since the summer of 2023. In my upcoming blog posts I will give an overall background of progress since but for this week just the most recent updates. This week I continued testing on my Y2K thesis. I have to work in parallel for some of the design and fabrication aspects because of the limited timeframe.

I started by testing the functionality of my big mouth Billie bass. Using a 6v transformer to power it I determined that 2 of the three motors are functional. This is less than ideal but presents an opportunity for experimenting. The price of a replacement is about $50 usd so I will try this existing one as a proof of concept for circuits and then get a fully functional version for the final product. One I have the prototype version hacked together I can test my Bluetooth MIDI implementation for wireless puppetry and synchronized audio. I need to test if this is doable in Touchdesigner or better suited for a sore control program like Qlab. Initial tests with an LED prototype indicate QLab is better suited for timing and playback.

In addition to this I started reading Curtis Hickman’s book “hyper reality” who was the founder of “The Void” and has a long history of immersive entertainment and performance.

I also reached out to IDM floor staff regarding securing a space to house my installation and it’s likely a room will be secured. Other logistical steps coming up include moving items and furniture to the school for the installation. There might need to be done confessions due to space limitations but having a prototyping space in my apartment has been very useful. I intend to adapt this by taking a LiDAR room scan of the new space and adopting it to my existing Rhino model.