Guernica 2.016

As a statement on the airstrikes of Aleppo, Syria, and drone warfare, I was moved to develop a provocative and uneasy interactive remake of Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," a painting depicting the first ever large-scale airstrike in modern warfare. I made it contemporary by modeling a predator drone that the user controls. The objective is to simply explore a moody and atmospheric bombed-out city, with figures from the original painting towering eerily around.

In exhibit at Web3D Conference 2017, Powerhouse Arts, Brisbane, Australia

“Guernica 2.016” was developed as a midterm project in game designer Robert Yang's class "Building Worlds" under the MFA Design and Technology Program at Parsons, which introduced students to 3D rendering practices and the software Unity and Maya. Yang's prompt was to design an interactive "toy" based on a work of art.

Using Maya, I made 3D versions of the haunting, twisted figures from the original painting. The user was able to collide with these objects and topple them over, eliciting pained cries and wailing.

Link to play Guernica 2.016 on Itch.io.

Process screenshots

The environment for the game was developed in Unity. The jagged 3D buildings were sculpted in Maya and deliberately evoke Picasso's cubist art. The game was made in grayscale, to match the original painting.

Coding the drone’s movements was beyond my skillset, and I didn’t have time before the deadline, so I got a classmate to code its ability to have pitch and movement.

Through my connections in Parsons School of Design at the time, I was able to submit this work for consideration to be displayed at several international exhibits. It was accepted to be played and displayed at Brisbane and Singapore. Below are screenshots from the Brisbane exhibit.

Below is a cropped version of the exhibit, scaled to fit the massive digital screen wall that was installed in NTU for the exhibit.