Collaboration with Ishy Konney Undre (Dance) and Trista Koehler (Fiction Writing)
This project was conceptualized during the Multidisciplinary Seminar for Artists in 2023. I collaborated with a dancer and a writer to create a virtual space representing an intersection of our three disciplines (Design + Dance + Writing) and providing an interactive way for audiences to engage with our works by exploring this environment. The resulting virtual environment is composed of two spaces facing each other, one for writing and one for dance, intersecting in the small circular passageway that connects the two areas. The entire space is dedicated to devising how to spatially blend movement and words and allow the audience to interact with both. After Trista and Ishy provided the samples of the work they wished to display in this project, I used those materials as an inspiration for the visual design of each space. I drew from impactful and emphasized words in Trista's writing to build furniture for the room that represents her writing. I then used that furniture as a surface to display the text in 3D space. Likewise, with Ishy's videos, I sought to represent them as the most prominent part of the space while also populating it with the objects associated with the embedded videos. Due to these objects that were inspired by their works, the resulting space is reminiscent of a visual blend between a museum and a domestic environment - almost like a living space for our work. This project was a great support for the MFA thesis I was preparing at that time, as the insight I got into the value other creators see in representing their work spatially supported my ideas about how I wanted to share and represent my research in interactive ways.
My contributions: building and lighting the 3D environment in Unity, implementing interactions - player movement and light switches
Initial diagrams outlining possible common themes, and virtual layout ideas:
Gameplay screenshots - space dedicated to Trista's writing also contains some videos of Ishy's dance from the other room:
Gameplay screenshots - space dedicated to Ishy's dance + overlaid with some of Trista's writing:
