Digital Dreams
Nintendo DS Lite
2086 Narrative
Set in 2086, the UK has become a society driven by control and uniformity. After automation replaced traditional employment, government income schemes began dictating not only how people live, but what they consume. Individuality has vanished beneath mass production and standardisation.
In rebellion, a group of outcasts turns to video games as a form of escape and self-expression, imagining lives beyond the restrictions of reality. By modifying retro technology, they create a taboo “reality-altering” implant that allows users to interact with digital worlds in real time, reshaping both perception and identity. Within these hybrid spaces, people are finally free to redefine themselves and the world around them.
Spatial Concept
My proposal is of a physical location for this virtual society - a space where digital and material realities converge. It facilitates connection, play, and identity formation, enabling users to construct and inhabit alternative versions of themselves, whilst providing a space for those new to the world to experience before installation what their world could be.
Across Nottingham, disused multi-storey car parks are reimagined as “virtual cities,” each themed around a distinct video game genre. The given site has been transformed into a cyberpunk environment, catering to those drawn to the dense, neon-lit aesthetic and layered complexity of the genre. Here, architecture becomes the experience, dissolving the boundary between game and reality and pushing those to choose their own path.
