Virtual Landscapes
Completing my journey for my BFA degree at San Jose State University required my to create and present a final art piece that encapsulated my practice, skills, and interest as and artist and what I learned during my college venture.
Virtual Landscapes is the entity born from the mind of myself which centered around but not limited to the topics of games as art, creation, and education. This work was heavily influenced by other artists whom center around the idea of digital and game art, Avedon LaTurbo, Cory Archangel, and Krystal South. I wanted to create an art piece in the form of video games, as my passion for gaming culture and art has fascinated my as an artist since my youth. I wanted to create an interactive and immersive experience that all could enjoy, gamer or non-gamer, and showcase that games require the same care and attention as other mediums and facets of art do and should gather the same recognition as high fine art.
Using Unity alongside the HTV Vive, and a limited skill set in game development outside the art side, I dedicated three months to understand and master VR development using the game engine. In the beginning I learned how to create simple virtual environments which could tailor to anything my mind imagined. After I got the hang of it, I then created several more new worlds, quicker, larger, and more diverse than the last by constantly adding new details and ways to create the landscape.
I wanted to do more than create a scene with trees and rocks, I wanted to create something which would engage whimsy, curiosity, and exploration, be it in the world itself or the process of how the world was created. During this time I would happily explain the process of development and showcasing that anyone with the determination can create their own virtual escapes.
Creating this work gave me a sense of enlightenment and peace as placing everything single object, from pebble, rock, and blade a grass for a reason be it conscious or subconscious. This create a certain mediation like experience which gave me a reminder that this is the thing that I love to do, make art, explain how it's done, and watch others enjoy my work.
Virtual Landscapes is the entity born from the mind of myself which centered around but not limited to the topics of games as art, creation, and education. This work was heavily influenced by other artists whom center around the idea of digital and game art, Avedon LaTurbo, Cory Archangel, and Krystal South. I wanted to create an art piece in the form of video games, as my passion for gaming culture and art has fascinated my as an artist since my youth. I wanted to create an interactive and immersive experience that all could enjoy, gamer or non-gamer, and showcase that games require the same care and attention as other mediums and facets of art do and should gather the same recognition as high fine art.
Using Unity alongside the HTV Vive, and a limited skill set in game development outside the art side, I dedicated three months to understand and master VR development using the game engine. In the beginning I learned how to create simple virtual environments which could tailor to anything my mind imagined. After I got the hang of it, I then created several more new worlds, quicker, larger, and more diverse than the last by constantly adding new details and ways to create the landscape.
I wanted to do more than create a scene with trees and rocks, I wanted to create something which would engage whimsy, curiosity, and exploration, be it in the world itself or the process of how the world was created. During this time I would happily explain the process of development and showcasing that anyone with the determination can create their own virtual escapes.
Creating this work gave me a sense of enlightenment and peace as placing everything single object, from pebble, rock, and blade a grass for a reason be it conscious or subconscious. This create a certain mediation like experience which gave me a reminder that this is the thing that I love to do, make art, explain how it's done, and watch others enjoy my work.