Vapor Play

Modeled some stuff in Mudbox for a class I'm taking this semester. Here's my artist's statement about the project - 

For this project I developed an environment indicative of a Vaporwave-inspired child’s playroom.

Vaporwave is, in my interpretation, the bastardization of pop culture, so to construct a

Vaporwave playroom is to convey how I feel about my youth.

I modeled a bean bag, vintage Little tikes chair, old chunky computer, and a Microsoft EasyBall,

a trackball made for kids that I used when I was a child. A window is represented by a Windows

98 window. A poster on the wall is a vaporwave-inspired image of the old Windows logo.

My childhood was bastardized by parental alcoholism and abuse. I escaped into the media I

could access to block out what was going on, starting at a very young age. The images flashing

on the computer indicate computer games, television shows and music that I used to distract

myself. As a result, it’s kind of all I can remember from certain ages since I tried so hard to block

it all out. I developed a very strong bond with these characters, sounds, and images, that still

exists currently.

The color scheme and imagery in the artwork is heavily influenced by Vaporwave, something

that I relate to and identify with very strongly since I am so attached to things that are often

referenced in its culture. Vaporwave aesthetic involves a lot of gradients, marble, checkerboard,

smooth surfaces/low detail renderings, neon, and 90s digital imagery.

The error message is not supposed to be a part of the room.. It’s presents the idea that my

brain, like a computer, tries to load this relatable, friendly, idealized playroom, but the memory

doesn’t exist. The room is only just rendered, and it can’t render further, because it never

existed. In reality, that room had beer-smelly, stained carpets, too many computers from my

dad’s failed IT company, toys littered everywhere and walls covered in crayon markings.

The option to not quit is greyed out. I developed suicidal thoughts at an alarmingly early age due

to my circumstances. (I don’t feel that way anymore, and I haven’t in a long time.) I caught on

pretty early with what was going on in my house, and being the oldest by 2 and 4 years to my

sister and brother, I had no one to tell, no one to talk to about what was going on. So I just

played those games, listened to that music, delved into those cartoons. This work represents all

of that in a way I struggle to put into words.