OK been a long time since I posted on here and its about time that I tried to reign in a proposal and gain a much more direct focus in terms of how it relates to my practice as well as my own vested interests.
In response to my tutorial with Lorraine, I cannot just use history as a focus, but as a context, which is more than fine, I think it was just because I had do so so much historical research in terms to verify using New Vegas as a basis for my universal mirror study.
She also mentioned that the hyperreality aspect works hand in hand with the interaction element, but it must have another design related element. So an easy and good way to go about this would be to look at semiotics and how it relates to the branding of products in game.
Virtual branding must have an effect on us and our purchasing habits, considering that there are so many real world products that are situated in New Vegas, just with slightly changed graphics and name changes. Nuka Cola is a prime example, the funny thing is most of the food is irradiated which supports the notion that most of our food is GM treated or something similar to a minor poison.
This aside, the amount of in game design that is relative to the propagating of products, be it interactive (food, drink, weapons, armour, clothes) or merely a place or object of high value (space shuttle, minuteman missile, HELIOS ONE, vegas strip) the effect of advertising is the same: it creates a notion of unfulfillment that can only be sated by trying the product, visiting the place or in some cases, picking up a novelty like a t-shirt or snowglobe.
So I suppose this actually holds some amount of weight considering that I could just dissect the entire Fallout inventory and do a largely semiotic grilling of it as well as elaborating on the point by putting it into some form of hyperreal context that is actually a universal mirror for pan-capitalism.
Another idea could be the focus of technology, how technology has shaped and shifted various social factions into evolution or disparity. For the elitist advancement of technology and its preservation, the Brotherhood of Steel would be the focus, whereas on a much further end of the scale would be the tribal people of Zion National Park, UT who rely entirely on their craft skills, survival skills and general know-how of their surroundings.
Although this would be a good focus, and would indeed tie in with the sort of work I am producing in my practice, I am unsure of how it could be directed back to design. Which may lead me to leave this in the ground considering I will only be looking at social theory and technological aspects which probably wont link back into my studio practice.
Once again another focus could be the propaganda that you see in game, which in itself is intrinsic to products/branding anyway as the same methods are applied, just that the imagery and tone of voice is altered slightly when dealing with products, not people.
So I think ideally it would be best to take a semiotic stance in relation to branding in fallout, as well as linking it into the hyperreal cohesion in our world.
Thursday 13 October 2011
Wednesday 5 October 2011
Cold War Modern: Defense
It is common to say that the effects of the cold war were primarily indirect rather than on the immediate environment or the constructed environment, as the results of the cold war is becoming increasingly visible today as more physical heritage sites are being uncovered.
In Tom Vanderbilt's book Survival City: Adventures Amongst the Ruins of the Atomic America, 2002 his terminology of 'black and white spaces' applied to these sites and areas effected by the cold war help to create a better idea of how both public and private sectors coexisted. Black areas are the secret bases, bunkers, storage facilities, silos and test sites, white were the visitable and visible places/areas open to view, Vanderbilt then says that "the existence of one not only presupposes the other, but they inevitably seep into each other, corrupting both in the process." this means that no matter what 'visible' sites appear to hold innocence to the public would undoubtedly have connections to the secret, subside of the cold war, as if the 'visible' world of progress was a sign of unstoppable capitalism and a denial to nuclear threat.
"Psychological effect of the invisible of the anxiety of annihilation in the midst of plenty"
Continuing on with Vanderbilt's terminology, we hit a grey area. (HA) Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA was a place that had a small population and was rife with vast areas of woodland, yet almost overnight in 1942, thanks to all the new construction technologies and resources the 'Atomic City' was constructed. It was kept a secret until the war ended as it played a huge part in the Manhattan Project, as well as being heralded as "the biggest job in quick town building ever attempted in the USA"
Oak Ridge was also home to NORAD, North American Aerospace Defense Command is a United States and Canada bi-national (1954 agreement) organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning and aerospace control for North America. Aerospace warning includes the monitoring of man-made objects in space, and the detection, validation, and warning of attack against North America whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles, through mutual support arrangements with other commands.
Along with NORAD, there was a military demand for an intricate system that allowed members of the US military to communicate and defend against enemy threats. This came about in the form of the positioning of Distant Early Warning Radomes, invented by Buckminster Fuller whose idea of using the newly discovered fibreglass material which could withstand great amounts of weather without causing so much as a scratch to the Radomes.
DEW for short, the line of defense created was a significant initiative of the cold war, the elctronic grid controlled by SAGE (which later contributed to air traffic control and had its roots in a lot of Tesla's inventions and proposals which were turned down by the government not only 20 years ago) was used to relay information all over the continent and soonafter, the domes were modified to create semi-autonomous sites so as to relieve staff to other duties.
The radome became a symbol of cold war corporate and militant America, contributing to the theory that America are out for full spectrum dominance over the planet, as seen when they propagated them as symbols of liberating technological progress in the war.
"The peculiar mixture of do-it-yourself improv and recycling of scrap materials with up-to-date structural systems and advanced electronics (hi-fis, Tv and film) was typical of hedonistic survivalism of the counter-culture of the second half of the 60s"
Mcluhans global village
In Tom Vanderbilt's book Survival City: Adventures Amongst the Ruins of the Atomic America, 2002 his terminology of 'black and white spaces' applied to these sites and areas effected by the cold war help to create a better idea of how both public and private sectors coexisted. Black areas are the secret bases, bunkers, storage facilities, silos and test sites, white were the visitable and visible places/areas open to view, Vanderbilt then says that "the existence of one not only presupposes the other, but they inevitably seep into each other, corrupting both in the process." this means that no matter what 'visible' sites appear to hold innocence to the public would undoubtedly have connections to the secret, subside of the cold war, as if the 'visible' world of progress was a sign of unstoppable capitalism and a denial to nuclear threat.
"Psychological effect of the invisible of the anxiety of annihilation in the midst of plenty"
Continuing on with Vanderbilt's terminology, we hit a grey area. (HA) Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA was a place that had a small population and was rife with vast areas of woodland, yet almost overnight in 1942, thanks to all the new construction technologies and resources the 'Atomic City' was constructed. It was kept a secret until the war ended as it played a huge part in the Manhattan Project, as well as being heralded as "the biggest job in quick town building ever attempted in the USA"
Oak Ridge was also home to NORAD, North American Aerospace Defense Command is a United States and Canada bi-national (1954 agreement) organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning and aerospace control for North America. Aerospace warning includes the monitoring of man-made objects in space, and the detection, validation, and warning of attack against North America whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles, through mutual support arrangements with other commands.
Menwith Hill, Harrogate, UK
DEW for short, the line of defense created was a significant initiative of the cold war, the elctronic grid controlled by SAGE (which later contributed to air traffic control and had its roots in a lot of Tesla's inventions and proposals which were turned down by the government not only 20 years ago) was used to relay information all over the continent and soonafter, the domes were modified to create semi-autonomous sites so as to relieve staff to other duties.
The radome became a symbol of cold war corporate and militant America, contributing to the theory that America are out for full spectrum dominance over the planet, as seen when they propagated them as symbols of liberating technological progress in the war.
"The peculiar mixture of do-it-yourself improv and recycling of scrap materials with up-to-date structural systems and advanced electronics (hi-fis, Tv and film) was typical of hedonistic survivalism of the counter-culture of the second half of the 60s"
Mcluhans global village
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