PopCity: News flash. An explosion at one of the region's newest biotech companies rocked the region this weekend, nearly contaminating thousands of visitors with nanobots. Fortunately, the molecular critters were exterminated and all the visitors survived.
This totally fictional, highly immersive experience comes to you courtesy of The ImininTech Project, part art installation, part funhouse and part Disney experience, all rolled into one. The project showcases some of the coolest innovations from Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center.
4 comments:
ImininTech was an impressive booth - it was the only booth this year to feature a strong narrative that pushed guests through the space. I was especially impressed by the transition from the sterile lab environment into the "NanoBotanical Gardens" where the "stomp out the rioting nanobots" game took place. Of the booths this year, I was also very appreciative of Iminin's efforts to incorporate the game into the narrative of the booth - the other booths simply offered side minigames that were themed properly, but didn't necessarily have much to do with the booth's story (the exception being AEPi's "help the Pirates win the World Series" game). Overall, a very strong showing from Iminin, and especially considering the scope of show they created for the materials that they were afforded, it was a great experience.
I have to agree with Brian, I thought that the Iminin Tech Booth was by far the most thought through and cohesive. I was really excited to see this booth come together, primarily the ETC team, had been in the Purnell shop all of Playground working so hard and diligently. Seeing it come around from the shop phase to load-in was really interesting because being a spoiled school of Drama student, with our shop a stones throw from anywhere it would be installed, it was cool to see how things could potentially be done, or not be done. Overall I thought that their booth was fun and I hope that they bring something just as interesting next year
In a lot of ways, I was disappointed with this booth. The secretive nature, reputation of ETC, and the line of people made me think it was going to be a lot better than it was. However, after a bit more thought, I have reconsidered this. I agree with Brain that this booth did the best job of really taking its visitors on a journey, but more importantly, it was more like a ride that a booth. I could see this being a ride at Disney, and considering the aspirations of the people who go to ETC, it is probably a good thing to see that potential. I think with bigger budgets, and bigger bug stamping screen, and better hydraulics, this could be an awesome ride at an amusement park. It wasn't the thought that was lacking, just the money to bring that thought to life.
This booth was impressive. But they were not as impressive as it appeared the designers wanted it to be. There were pieces of technology and spaces in the booth that were not working, where it appeared that there originally had been a plan. Hopefully, the continue to develop the project. On that note, I am glad to see that the booth has moved on to be used at another event, and hopefully more in the future. It is a major design flaw for them however that the structure they built is not necessarily fabricated in a way that makes constant tear down and set up of the booth possible. It becomes a gargantuan effort to set up and strike this booth every time they are engaged for an event. If they were to do something as high tech and with so much potential in the future, I would like to see it designed such that it travels easily for more audience exposure.
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