Eastern Mind

One of the most startling multimedia exercises in surrealism and abstract expressionism, Peter Gabriel’s EVE appositely conjoins the work of several contemporary art references as is the singular case of Yayoi Kusama. Born in Japan at the height of the 30’s economical depression, the artist has skillfully adopted the conceptual trends of the WWII aftermath: a self-confessed period of struggle against childhood traumas which have, nonetheless, fueled much creativity throughout her entire career.

In addition to the bubbling cocoa sculptures from Helen Chadwick and the music of Peter Gabriel, Kusama’s recurrent thesis and patterns, as is the case of the iconic Polka Dot, are ubiquitous during the initial moments of this 1997 award-winning modern art exposition made interactive CD-ROM. Her likeness can be spotted in the form of the docile Geisha during the exploration and music interaction phases, alongside with Gabriel in a contrasting gentlemanly attire.

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Long before the coming of the glamorous 3D graphics, videogame creators were required to use a very specific approach to spatial construction in order to express a degree of minutiae which, inarguably, no real-time engine could possibly display. While use of pre-rendered graphics continues to be a much sought-after resource in several of the lower budget productions of late, it was the adopted method for the most ostentatious aesthetic delights of years past. In fact, the degree of intricacies in such representations was often synonymous with the genre of the game proper: whereas the fast action of an ID type fire gun discharging game couldn’t do without the fluidity, an adventure game would hardly suffice without the precision.

The evolution of the iconic Cyan Worlds’ creations bears witness to this evolution from the origins of the fragmented spaces in Cosmic Osmo to the perfected methods evident in Myst or Riven, the creation of virtual locations by means of chained stills was soon replaced by a more than proficient real-time 3D portrayal of the Ages. And yet, is it not true that in spite of the added mobility, there was consistent loss in aesthetic unity and artistic endowment in these concluding installments of the series?

Original and highly inventive derivatives of these pioneering titles - in essence, perfected versions of the old interactive fiction modus operandi and the latter semi-graphical IF - became abundant during the last two decades and still represent a substantial piece of the market at present. However, only a selected few have ranked as high as this most singular 1995 adventure entitled QIN: Tomb of the Middle Kingdom, whose insight into Chinese culture outweighs most any of the posterior attempts to reproduce its unending complexities, and it achieves precisely that by means of cleverly designed puzzles silently covering a wide array of intellectual legacy of the great East: from religion to myth, arts and science. All these themes are not only found within, but quite aptly captured by the small team at Learn Technologies Interactive whose members, led by Luyen Chou, are amusingly exposed in this hidden feature.