The CalArtsIM domain in High Fidelity currently hosts a number of experiments. Among them are a collection of dancing avatars, each one Paola Escobar performing a different style. A short way off is a ramp leading to a sandbox of sorts. Within the sandbox are a number of hug models at various scales. Referencing a children’s ball pit, the sandbox game genre, the nomenclatural Sandbox within High Fidelity, and the pretense of free play within a virtual marketplace, the space offers players a moment of interactivity that is primarily sensorial. The gestural, intimate, and data-driven process is left unexplained, reducing the indexical abstractions to opaque playthings.
Dropping into the sandbox, players unable to walk or climb their way out. To escape eternal play, they need to teleport or fly, once again breaking the simulation of their body.
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