Event 3 Blog -- DMA Exhibition -- Phoebe Nguyen

    On May 18th, I attended the Design Media Arts Exhibition and was able to chat with Wiley Wiggins, whose project combined his genealogy research with video game programming. He bridged the “real”, physical world by building a stand that acted as the control console for the game. The console had a 100 year old doorknob given to him at a family function. To reflect the doorknob console, the game consisted of various levels of a building with various doors of different colors. 

Image of one of the many colored doors seen in Wiggins’ video game

Each door represented a different family member of his, and as you use the console to navigate through the maze of doors, you dive deeper into his family lineage. After entering each door, you find a given color such as “Sagegreen Room” along with a cenotaph code that aligns with the pages of a book Wiggins had on display. This codebook has hundreds of pages; a page dedicated to each family member of his. Each page had facts he learned about these family members throughout his research (if he was able to obtain any information on them). 

Image of the codebook Wiggins created to help individuals learn more about a specific family member of his

I found it very interesting that he incorporated “locked” doors into the game to represent those who had passed away. I had also never seen any representation of genealogy like this before and found it interesting that you could immerse yourself into someone else’s family lineage thanks to Da Vinci’s concept of the “golden ratio” to create optical illusions that made the game more realistic (Vesna 20:12). 

Furthermore, Wiggins’ work paralleled that of Steven Pinker, as Pinker discussed how the combination of art and technology is a great way to expand one’s perspective of the world in a more holistic manner (Seed Magazine 1:48). As genealogy is often represented in branch-like figures, it can be difficult to learn about a specific member of the family lineage due to the limited space on the figures. However, Wiggins found a creative way to display the expansive level of knowledge he was able to discover in the codebook he made. As John Maeda, innovator in tech and design described, “design isn’t just about beauty; it’s about…meaningful results” (Maeda 2018). By being able to create this video game, Wiggins was able to combine his love for video game programming with his love for learning about his familial history. He was able to share their stories and keep their memory alive!

A classmate, Sydney, and I with artist Wiley Wiggins

References

Maeda, John. “John Maeda: Design in Tech Report.” John Maeda | Design in Tech Report, 2018, https://designintech.report/. 

Seed Magazine. “Seedmagazine.com Two Cultures Steven Pinker.” YouTube, Seed Magazine, 18 May 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BUbVc7qVpg. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Youtube, UC Online, 9 Apr. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&t=1216s.