ROBERT WHAT

RND/ to consider connor sherlock’s virtual worldspaces

Part of the Hypertography One Exhibit

/ sunken citadel – varied

—

/ simulation failure – imaginative

—

/ as fog burns – facets

—

/ grave apologies – display cryptic

—

/ krypton comet – astral potentialities

—

/ marginalia technical review

to consider marginalia as horror play by connor sherlock developer of amazing atmospheric experience sanctuary

technical review of marginalia / says little about atmosphere of play – which feels kinda interesting / aesthetically engaging – less so than connors previous research – but not really scary

– voice over sounds muffled – at one point n mentions packs of wild dogs roaming streets but n sounds like packs of wild ducks which actually / unfortunately sounds better

– good accompanying soundtrack would sound better if more intermittent allowing for more environmental noise / silence/ more wind in trees / footsteps through tall grass seems needed

– perhaps disembodied voice of narrator should somehow feel more embedded in landscape – perhaps as loose pages resarcs can collect / then quote listen to – actually no x bit too slenderman

– mildly corny writing/ in particular bit about dark quote seeds growing – somehow sounds unnecessarily noirish

– what resarc does not know – disembodied walkers relationship to mysterious eric ey seeks – therefore any motivational sense – why ir seeking ir out equally mysterious

– twenty seconds before end of play narrator suddenly goes off on emotional tangent rambling wildly about quote machines – x well out of tone with rest of ir delivery up to x point / sounds awkward

– if music had actually stopped at moment walker reaches quote machines n would of made far more impact

– n did not seem possible to change fov in menu in current build

– consider general disconnect between what resarc as able to do in such narrative space – just walk – potential for quote researching meanings of play through environmental interaction

– tone set up by mixture of environment / narration needs to be more narrow / specific

as x horrible memory dream with terrifying punchline or just generally meant to feel creepy from beginning to end

– what ey would do different/ tweak writing / delivery to feel more matter of fact – in same way one readily goes along with dream logic – simply strolling through well lit woods at night – until n starts feeling distinctly nightmarish

—

/ sanctuary – some virtual tourism

one of more compellingly atmospheric research spaces of 2015/ consider sanctuary by connor sherlock as excellent example of what theorist robert what calls abstract encounter

—

/ birthplace of ossian

to consider virtual scottish landscapes signified in walking sims by digital space auteur connor sherlock

impressionistic remix via theorist robert what

autumn in highlands would be brief – glorious riot of colour blazing red across moors gleaming every shade of gold in forests of sheltered glens
those achingly beautiful images would be painted again / again across hills in shivering waters of mountain tarns until harsh winds of winter sent last quaking leaf to x exit on frozen ground
– elizabeth stuart/ heartstorm

garrison sleeps in citadel
with ghosts ancient stones
high up on parapet
scottish piper stands alone
high on wind
highland drums begin to roll
something from past just comes
stares into ey soul
– mark knopfler/ sailing to philadelphia

for so long as one hundred men remain alive/
ir shall never under any conditions submit to
domination of english
x not for glory or riches
or hon ey ir fight/ but only for liberty/ which
no good man will consent to lose but with ir life
– declaration of arbroath 1320

—

/ prelude to irrelevance – another limitless night under alien stars on sum impossibly distant planetoid

to stare up at megastructural architecture over billion eons old in silent awe struck wonderment

—

/ stepped reckoner – in which resarc henry swanson says/ if ey travel into heart of structure ey may jump up – eventually scramble onto roof beams

from there ey may carefully make ey way to outside – jump up between cubes/ feel ey virtual nuts tighten from height/ falling down from three thirds of way up sucks

—

/ last visit to shard – some virtual tourism

while researching yearn for option to stop piano music – wish to scale highest cubes – also for cubes to be loose respond to mild earthquakes resulting in sudden potential crushing of disembodied resarc / ghost

one also imagined distant lightening fog arising from unplumbed depths wind noise at altitude

also at nodal point feel desire to cross vast wonderfully deadly chasm by skill / grappling hook

again – if only such play spaces / systems were more fully procedural architecturally emergent literally infinite ever evolving/ images brightened colour adjusted

—

/ simulation sphere – oddly cyberpunk/ as if pleasantly caught in slow animation loop within sum long lost vhs tv series

—

/ steelspill – in which after repeatedly falling resarcs soon forget trying to make n to surface of crates just stare in head aching semi mystery at ir immediate surroundings

—

/ suzugy 7016 – welcome to milliways two point zero

—

/ voice of vamana – parmenidean architecture of doom

in which connor sherlock play designer of marginalia – amazingly atmospheric sanctuary

annoyingly voiced strains of announcer in ey ear as easily ignored

n could even be ey own inner voice idly chatting to elf in order to delay inevitable feelings of deep ontological paralysis mute temperature less terror

what as ostensibly cheap sci fi narrative in setting quickly devolves back towards what was there all along – silently crushing feeling of blank violently inanimate doom – infinitely oppressive weightless burden on existential chest

architecture of vamana as blandly terrifying futility made structurally manifest

in which ey now always were mummified undead fly permanently stuck in infinite colourless nonreal spacetime amber

despite several large white blocks changing state within x floating mindless vessel of dereliction x always nonthing but nonthing whatsoever happening here so will there ever be – profoundly unprofund uselessness of infinitely solid yet completely hollow space bulk – eternal fatalist block universe unmoving purposeless quote infunctional – utterly deterministic – parmenidean nightmare sum random lifeless annihilation existing forever whose only meaning equals none

darkly resonant cry of organless organs as empty virtual cathedral dedicated to nonthing but elf for no reason/ to consider voice of vamana one big silent open throat unable to scream leading nowhere – forever

—

// how to play big science