Priya Bandodkar Priya Bandodkar

Balloons

‘Balloons’ is a fantastic response to the to the influence of humans on the atmosphere of planet earth. A speculative world, a possible future situated in the future Anthropocene, when pure air has been commodified.

Developed in Virtual Reality (VR) that can be experienced by participants in real-time: when one wears the headset, they’re a part of the world, and have your own balloon floating overhead. Snippets of this virtual world have also been knitted together to create a compelling short film outcome. The idea came about before the COVID-19 pandemic, but felt so timely in the context of safe air that emerged in this time.

My Contribution: Concept | UX Design | Creative Direction | Art Direction | 3D Design | Editing
Unity3D Development: Nick Alexander

Concept

While brainstorming for a speculative future design project, I was intrigued by the overlap between utopian and dystopian futures. I pictured the possibility of a middle-ground between the two Topias and started to imagine what this would be like: possibly, a Utopia with an unsettling social decay, or a Dystopia with technological advancements that has enabled people to survive, rather happily. This idea got me interested in depicting utopian ideals in dystopian worlds, leading to the concept I called ‘Balloons’: a fictional design for a wearable consisting of a mask connected by a hose to an overhead-floating balloon.

Development Process

The initial concept was visualised in the form of a physical exhibition at TMAC. Due to the pandemic lockdown, the outcome was realised digitally in VR. The risk of switching to a less-anticipated VR version was that it could likely impact the affect of the design. As I progressed through the making, I realised the digital approach allowed much more control over nuances of the project. The focus changed from building a wearable device to creating a visual/film experience, as the outcome now inclined less towards the physical design of the device and more about the feeling of watching this uncanny, hyperreal world. The journey of the making process has been summarised below:

  • 3D art creation (modeling, texturing of assets) in Autodesk Maya
  • Testing of balloon dynamics in Unity3D and attaching it to the headset
  • Look development of the scene (lighting, rendering) in Autodesk Maya
  • Importing animated characters from Adobe’s Mixamo
  • Attaching masks to the faces of these character in Autodesk Maya
  • Importing all assets into Unity3D and attaching the hose to the mask
  • Populating the scene and testing

Final Outcome

A short film as well as a a fascinating real-time Virtual Reality experience for multiple participants. Wearing a VR headset allows them to become a part of this speculative world and view their own overhead balloon. The short film on the other hand is a compelling glimpse of this hyperreal world.

Design Process

Slides summarising the design exploration process for this project.