Mark Papoulias: June 2008

Overview of Experiment

Jobs' office, interior view

Jobs' office, exterior view

Jobs' Elevator outside the meeting room

The Table

The Meeting Space

View of Yin's office in motion

The stairs leading to Yin's office

The Hallway

The two offices are built for Zhang Yin and Steve Jobs. The environment revolves around the concept of compressional and tensional forces keeping masses in harmony with each other.

Jobs' space, as seen in the above images, is balanced at the top - his office is trying to break free, grow, continue to evolve. But if it weren't for Yin's office and the meeting space below the bridge, it would simply collapse. This is a metaphor for our technological world, that while it is excelling at such a high rate it is still dependent on many other factors, especially old ideas (Yin's office) and those factors in between (the neutral meeting space) to grow. At the front of Jobs' office there are 3 objects symbolising the notion of technological speed, and the flowing static mesh above it represents growth and evolution of his technological empire. The space is illuminated by a cool blue light, a common representative of technology. His space dominates the bridge, and Jobs is free to show the 'world' of his enormous power.

Yin's office is in deep contrast to that of Jobs'. Hers is hidden away, deep inside the bridge for she is modest and old fashioned. It is illuminated in contrast to Jobs, with bright red lights representative of old, of tradition and of the earth. Her office itself is a piece of paper that is actually her elevator to the meeting space. On the office is thousands of tiny images of herself, a further representation of her modesty (one must look close to notice her). When her office is in motion, it floats down like a piece of paper until it is directly under the meeting room and, as if a gust of wind collects the paper, is thrust directly upwards so her office forms the base of the room.

The meeting space itself is a combination of both offices - it is not totally old fashioned yet not advanced with technology. While Yin's office forms the base of the space, this is only for a short period of time. It drops away, showing that we need to sometimes let go of old ways and move on. The table centered in it is constructed like the overall environment itself - built based on the relationship between compressional and tensional forces. In the space, the cool blue and bright red lights meet directly where the table is placed, to create a neutral purple space where the clients can meet to exchange ideas etc. One can then exit to Jobs' elevator which takes oneself to his office on the sky.

It must be noted the travel of the player in this world. Although one begins facing Jobs' office, facing the future and possibilities, one must first turn around and travel through Yin's office and old traditions in order to reach the meeting space which in turn allows oneself to travel to Jobs' office. It demonstrates a sense of chronological order in the environment and also shows how technology can only advance, not retreat.