"A state of abnormal consciousness in which dream-like experiences and hallucinations happen while awake." 

Large Scale Projection Video Loop
Original 4:3 Aspect Ratio
and
22" x 34" Print (Still Version)

 

Inspired by that scene at the end of the End of Evangelion anime film (where, SPOILERS, everyone in the world basically dissolves into a singular mass of fluid, becoming one). Abiogenesis is a sort of meditation and conceptualization of the origins of life, connectedness of life and all people, alpha and omega of existence. Thus it features a collection of people a creatures bathing in a collective, chaotic yet tranquil, entropic yet unified, ‘amniotic’ fluid together.
40" x 40" Print

A visual representation of the concept that human beings are more evolutionarily suited for living in tribes than mass society, and will naturally refrom into 'new tribes'.
40" x 44" Print

"A preparatory or transitional state where through overcoming unimaginable adversity comes unparalleled beauty." 

34" x 11' Print

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RHETORICA / DISASTER NO.69 ("Nothing. That is what it says") - VIEW FULL 
video composition with sound (for projection display)  /  2007

Artist Statement: Francisco De Goya endeavoured to convey the brutal reality of war that he bore witness to with as unflinching and intensity as possible. He did not shade the firsthand images he saw of warfare with redeeming or moderating qualities. Some of the disasters of war prints were allegories pointing to the causes of the horror; others represented the first instances of true, graphic depictions of real wartime horror. The disasters were also pioneering in the fact that they were cheaply distributed as prints to as many ports as Goya could get them to. at the very beginnings of mass media, Goya was there, finding new ways to send out truth and awareness. However, it was inevitable that mass media would take a massive right turn as predominating power structures realized their power. this piece is meant to be a video age homage to Goya's disaster of war no. 69 "nothing, that is what it says." Here, I have drawn a parallel between that print, and the often guileful ways that, today, American power structures use the mass media. With their vicious cycle of terrifying threats and placating promises, they aim to put the public into a confused coma in which they can neither see, nor comprehend the real truth, but will accept any placebo they are given to calm their discomfort. 

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SPECTACLE CITY
interactive composition  /  2007
Spectacle City is an interactive Flash composition that allows the user to explore the nervous system of the city. Clicking on one of the floating medical terms will send the view to a mirror view within the city. 

Artist Statement: Artists are always searching for the elusive "real". Especially in this era, the real is hard to find and even harder to recognize. take the city for example. it seems real enough, built of steel girder, solid concrete, and beautiful glass. The city is undeniably there, for the moment, but what is it that makes this city grow, and live? It's the idea of the city, the image of the pinnacle of human evolution and achievement. An image of a living, breathing creature, pumping commerce blood in human cells through concrete arteries.

 

Pen & Paper Party Game Design 

A Dragon Walks into A Bar is an extremely simplified ruleset distilling the core components of D&D into an easily accessible improv-style game. Providing simple but concise character generation and combat encounter frameworks, with room for much potential imagination and silliness, easily understandable enough for a group of sufficiently entertainment starved adults to play at a dinner party. Only equipment required: and printer and some pens! No dice? No problem! ADWB's handy rock-paper-scissors gameplay's got you covered!

My favourite one of three major assignments for Game Design class; the other two being Persona, an intricate board game about deception, and Love, a brutal and cruelly fatalistic card game about self preservation. For this game drew upon one of the formative experiences of my youth, playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends in our mom's basements. What I remembered about these games was that they always led to fun and indiosyncratic bouts of incredibly imaginative, and often hilarious, improvisational interplay between the DM's and the players. I wanted to try and distill the essence of this experience without all the laborious D20 rolls and rulebook tomb indexing that defines D&D.

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Journey to Enlightenment

PLAY THE GAME NOW (Please enable Flash)!

CDM Masters Digital Media Projects

- Game Designer

Greater Vancouver's 'International Buddhist Temple' inspired adventure game!

Our first assignment for the Masters of Digital Media Program, “Building Virtual Worlds” class was to create an interactive experience based upon a Vancouver landmark. Our team pulled 'The International Buddhist Temple', the largest Buddhist temple in the Greater Vancouver area. We decided to make an adventure game based around learning and using the core tenants of Buddhism. It was an amazing learning experience, since, as the team looked to me for instruction, writing, level design and general direction on, I quickly realized how much detailed planning went into even the simplest of games. The extremely tight delivery deadline for the game taught me a thing or four about scoping, as my original design called for six levels representing the Buddhist cosmos which I soon had to tighten and scale down into three. The result was a fun and quirky, nicely illustrated, quest game for young people to become interested in Buddhism.