3D/2D
Why, when we confront a media that makes it de facto possible to enter a three-dimensional space, many creators choose to highlight the image’s two-dimensionality, often using drawings or graphic art? This happens to be the case for Brazilian animator Pedro Harres, as well as others. The paradox we mention seems to be quite frequent in VR projects. In From the Main Square, we will have a 180-degree view on space, though this space is made of several animated fragments. We will feel as in the middle of a pop-up book. Using a virtual lens, we will be able to magnify portions of said space, though not move around in it. We will be passive witnesses, stuck in the middle of Main Square.
Around us, civilization flourishes. It grows on deforestation and anthropization. It ‘develops’, it grows violent, all the way to catastrophe. The distance between us and that world theatre, that pop-up stage where we observe indecidable, but very decipherable incidents, is where the magnifier is (the only interactive tool at our disposal), and it shows a sort of ironic, farcical detachment that is peak Harres.
2D-turned-3D has this effect: it highlights detachment, hinders identification with the protagonist, and contrasts the impression of seeing reality. In short, it contradicts the essence of a media that is potentially illusionistic and hallucinatory. The 2D/3D combination leaves room to think hard about what we see. Not bad, for a society in free fall…
FROM THE MAIN SQUARE
COMPETITION
by Pedro Harres
(Germany, 19’)
