Collapsus

Collapsus.com

As technology progresses, forms of media have been woven and combined together to create truly unique experiences for their users. In other words, trans-media is becoming a more prevalent form of media. Today, we can combine plots, storylines, interaction, animation, fictional, and non-fictional elements to create new forms of media. By doing this, involvement in the story and how applicable it is creates something an audience or user can connect to on another level. Media is no longer limited to single forms, or single outlets. They are combining and intertwining, and Collapsus is doing just these things.

Collapsus is an interactive transmedia piece developed by Tommy Pallota. Its design's purpose was to allow the user an interactive look into the future, particularly the near future and what will become of the energy crisis. The user sees the possibility of how the energy crisis may cause mankind to look to alternative energy sources for energy rather than fossil fuels. What's interesting is through the interaction of the user and the piece, the story line goes between fact and fiction. And yet, the fictional characters in the piece can be applied/mimic people in real life experiencing the current energy crisis. The fictional aspects of the piece, however, are realistic examples of what could be the world to come. I believe this is what makes the piece more powerful to whoever is experiencing it.

At the beginning of the quarter, I never took a step back and looked at what exactly we were doing. We aren't simply making an animation, a song, a video. Now, an animation can be combined with music and audio; the same goes for videos. I think we have built up how we began to combine types of media into more complex forms of media. Beginning with our soundscape, we then created songs, video jokescripts, then videos with audio and music, then animations. Finally we've created a video game, and even though we simply came up with the concept, the video game combined all of these elements. It's interesting how Palotta has combined forms of media outlets that are out of the ordinary, such as animating what is already captured on film, and then combining that with interaction such as in a video game. The more individual elements of media, the more creativity comes out, and the more the content hits closer to home.