Singh, Aakarsh

Selected work

Week 1

I know of the cultural importance Halo holds in the gaming community but I wasn't aware of the impact they have had in Alternate Realities. Learning about the iLoveBees campaign was really fascinating as ARG are something I am very interested in it. Everything from the initial roll out by sending people honey to the final reveal using the Axons was very well thought. What surprised me was how people from all over the United States ( and later United Kingdom) actually ended up coming together and working on a sort of trivial common goal. Hearing about the man who braved a hurricane in Florida to activate the Axon for example went on to show how much of a hold this campaign had on the people. Even the storytelling aspect of the campaign struck me with how in-depth the lore went and how they were able to show all these different fragments of Mellissa using just "Artificial Intelligence" on the website. Something that really intrigues me is how the campaign would take place if it had to take place now. They had to simulate Artificial Intelligence on the website in 2004 but it would be interesting to see an actual AI talk and reveal this plot. Especially with vocal synthesizers the Axon phone booth aspect of the project could be modernized too.

I have been curious about how one could use Alternate Realities to highlight important social issues and Blackout seems to tackle the very same question. Showing the past, present and future experiences of Black people I feel is a great way to understand the situation they are in right now, how they ended up there and what is going to happen if steps aren't taken to tackle important social issues like these.

Changing Same is my favorite project out of all 3 because of how experimental it is. It is an interesting blend of how filmmakers and technologist could come together in this modern world to push the boundaries of what art can be now. Changing same is a feat of both story telling and technology. I feel like this coming together of film and technology is still in a very primitive state right now. To borrow Janet Murray's terminology, it is in an additive state right now as opposed to an expressive one. I feel like once access and understanding of this technology becomes ubiquitous is when we will actually enter the expressive state.

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