Detours & Deviations
Detours & Deviations is a dynamic world perpetually reshaped by memories. Players traverse a landscape, where their actions give birth to "memories" that, in turn, influence the evolving environment. Different experiences converge and intertwine, creating a collective journey that never ends. The project's ambition is to manifest the evolution of memories through AI-driven, procedural spatial reconstructions, and to allow players the freedom to explore an ever-evolving narrative woven with their own and others' memories.
The perpetual transformation of the space is closely tied to the presence of agents, referred to as "actors," who serve as custodians of various scenes, encapsulating and gathering memories imbued with subconscious behaviors. These actors possess distinctive personalities and methods for shaping their surroundings. Each begins their journey within a designated region but may venture into other territories, either to spark events or influence the inclinations of fellow actors.
The man with three names
As players venture into the ruins of the man with three names, their movements initiate the mirroring of paths, each one rescaled and transformed uniquely. This mirroring effect is orchestrated by three distinct yet interconnected entities, each displaying a unique movement behavior and transformation method. Together, these entities render the surroundings simultaneously recognizable and unfamiliar.
Drawings & Diagrams
The man with three names always lives in memories. When they recall their past they are like looking through a rearview mirror. They only see one side of things and they try to fill in the side not seen with their assumptions and imaginations. We built a model and scanned the model with mirrors. Photogrammetry has a tendency to read mirrored images as an actual space and they construct the space using what they can “see” in the mirror and what they believe may look like on the other side.
Portraits of Ahmed, m23, & the Man with Three Names
200 × 124.5 × 10.5 cm (78.5 × 49 × 4 in)
Graphite, charcoal, acrylic, colored pencil, paper, spray paint, mylar
In terms of Actor behavior, we implement a primitive form of swarm intelligence derived from collective movement found in nature, such as a school of fish. movements such as swarm, polarize(directional) movement, and milling. All three agents are aware of the other agent’s location and pass relevant information about the player to each other. The spaces become increasingly fragmented through their manipulation of location, rotation, and scale.
Flowchart of the man with 3 names
Swarm behavior types
