A Technological Exhibition, World’s Fair 2011

1. Taylor Ancelet A Technological Exhibition, World’s Fair 2011

2. The Face of the Future Video games are steadily rising in popularity, with franchises such as StarCraft and Call of Duty having an impact on entire nations. I, Taylor Ancelet, am a strong proponent of this wave of revolutionary entertainment. However, some video games have fallen into standard clichés, where "shoot the aliens, save the world" no longer holds any intrinsic value in terms of story. As an avid player of role-playing games (of the Western cadre), I aim to bring variety and immersion to video game design through my artwork and conceptual storylines. In short, I want to make video games. I want to create entire worlds that feature something more than your standard “good guys vs. bad guys" scenario. I want to design a digital universe where controversial issues can be discussed, where social equity and issues are paramount, yet still remain a world where people can escape from their troubles. Accomplishing such a feat is no easy task. I am constantly working towards my dream of being a video game concept artist through playing video games and painting digitally. In this cutthroat world, adaptation is necessary for advancement. Technology is becoming increasingly vital to society, especially in the field of digital art- computer modeling software and painting programmes, in conjunction with a graphics tablet, are the new face of artwork. Paintings and models can be finished with a greater range of effects in under a quarter of the time of traditional media, in some cases; a conceptual piece can be created in an hour or less. This is the new media I specialize in, and have devoted myself wholly to. Digital painting is the future, the merger of passion and technology integral to staying relevant in modern art. I use my prowess with digital media to paint in a traditional manner- no photography is used in my concentration pieces. The versatility that can be achieved working in a digital medium is channeled towards my subject matter of, as I call it, a "Cyberpunk Apocalypse" that meshes the film-noir tinged technological dystopia seen in Blade Runner with strong themes of fascism, militarism, social equity, and despair. This is but an example of the issues aforementioned that video games need more of, the sort of story that engrosses the player and takes you on an emotional roller coaster in an imagined land. In a sense, it makes an artificial world seem real. That is my goal- to bring humanity to the artificial, to see man and machine merged in a way that enhances, rather than detracts from, human qualities.

3. The Cyberpunk Apocalypse Concentration

4. Dramatis Personae • Hollin Jacobs • Vivian Crowley • Commander Shipley • INRI-x20

5. The Cyberpunk Apocalypse • War. War never changes. The screams of the dying children haunt me still. My name is Hollin Jacobs, and I am a survivor in this desolate world. These days, I wonder… was surviving the war really worth it?

6. Ruins: Hollin This used to be my city, my home, where I lived and loved. It was vibrant, cosy, an quaint little community where everyone was happy. That was before the bombs dropped, changing everything. The blast from those bombs shattered the buildings from the inside out, leaving nothing but empty husks and corpses of what used to be people’s lives. I remember that day, as clearly as if I were living it over and over in the present. I was out of town, at a political rally held to protest the war… when I returned home, this desolation was what I found. Medium: digital painting

7. Resistance: Hollin They know my face, they know my name. They know where I live, where I used to live, everything about my life. They know the people I lived with, the people I worked with, the people I loved, none of them are safe. If they’re still alive, none of them are safe. They are all dead to the state. I am dead to the state. This is why I hide, this is why I fight. Medium: digital painting

8. Duty: Shipley Commander Shipley. Our dear leader, a liar and a fiend. He claims to want only loyalty, to rebuild humanity to a brighter future. Lies, all of it, lies and taffy. His sickly, honey-laden words offer false promises as his bureaucracy represses the people more and more, to thunderous applause. Those who dared to fight back were put to death or stripped of their humanity. Medium: digital painting

9. Enslaved: Vivian I was not the only survivor in hiding. Small bands of citizens with state bounties coalesced, keeping their heads down and forming a resistance group. I joined one in Capital City, and met Vivian. It was love at first sight. She was beautiful, feisty, slightly arrogant and demanding, but still willing to take orders- everything I’d ever dreamed of and fantasized about. Medium: digital painting

10. Tactics: Shipley Vivian brought us these maps, detailing the state’s plan to halt our imminent rebellion. It seems too… basic, though. I think there’s something more behind this, this plan has to be a decoy. It has to be. Commander Shipley, as much of a ruthless, heartless bastard as he is, is brilliant. There’s something he’s hiding, and I want to know what. Medium: digital painting

11. Innovation: Shipley I was right about the decoy maps. Shipley unveiled the first stage of his true plan soon after. We encountered what were called “medicae” cyborgs… strange hybrids of man and machine, unquestioningly loyal to Shipley, as they were programmed to be. The medicaes tend to carry portable vat units and a caduceus blade… why, I wonder. Why these additions? Medium: digital painting

12. Development: Shipley What exactly Shipley’s medicae units did was unknown to us at the time. It wasn’t until some time after that we discovered they were harvesting parts for other cybernetic creations… both mechanical and organic parts. Shipley’s scientists were taking people who resisted against the state and stripping them of all that made them human, removing emotions and replacing them with the cold logic of a machine. Medium: digital painting

13. Bloodgeld: INRI-x20 Vivian and I had a short, but passionate, affair- that is, until a mission she was sent on went horribly wrong. She was caught by an cybernetic state agent, and dragged off to become one of them. Those bastards took the only woman I ever truly loved. Damn them all… Shipley’s newest creation was a cybernetically enhanced assassin by the name of INRI-x20. She took Vivian from me. I will have her blood, if she even has any left in that mechanized body of hers. Medium: digital painting

14. Extermination: Shipley Vivian’s loss made our resistance weaker, and Shipley stronger. They extracted information from her mind- our names, our plans, our whereabouts… Shipley knew everything. He ordered witch hunts, sending his new cybernetic troopers out to destroy every last member of our resistance. The only one they couldn’t find was me, Vivian’s love protected that information from Shipley’s tortures. So, I hid. Medium: digital painting

15. Defiance: Hollin I hid, I ran, as far as I could from Shipley’s troops. They were everywhere. I was never safe. I began to wonder… should I just give in? They’ll catch me eventually, there’s no point in continuing to fight for a lost cause. I’ll stop running. I’ll face them with dignity, instead of being a reclusive coward for the rest of my life- no matter how short it may be. Medium: digital painting, 3d model

16. Experiment: Shipley The troops came for me. I gave in, willingly. I knew what they were going to do to me, turn me into a heartless machine. I was ready to face my fate. They took me to their laboratory, and began vile experiments of blood and science on my body. The pain was unbearable, but I refused to beg for a quick death. By the time they’re finished with me, I won’t remember ever being human, ever feeling emotion. I will be blank, nothing, a slave to the machine. Medium: digital painting, 3d model

17. Aftermath: Hollin As blessed Fate has it, my body was incompatible with the cybernetic enhancements Shipley’s scientists drilled into my bones, stitched in under my skin. I malfunctioned, turning Capital City into an inferno. Flames raged everywhere as I summoned the last vestiges of humanity repressed in my mind, acting with one purpose- to kill Shipley. He died, the entire city died, as I died for my cause. We were finally free. Medium: digital painting, 3d model

18. Digital World Breadth

19. Storm-Lord Behold, foolish mortals! I am the lord of the sky, the master of your dreams, he who commands the powers of the elements! I am within the world, around the world, I am the world. I am everything, and everything is me. Bow before me and offer me tribute. Medium: digital painting

20. System: Godric Yes, I was watching the Matrix/ Tron/ Ghost in the Shell/ Appleseed Ex Machina/ other when I did this piece. Yes, that is Sarah Kerrigan/ Queen of Blades- inspired hair. I need to cut back on the nerdiness some. : P Medium: digital painting

21. Hell-Light Somehow, fusing jazz, Gregorian chant, and aggrotech together ended up with this. I have no idea how, I lost my ReadMe.txt explaining it all. I liked the pretty orange colour. Orange is very pretty. It also does not rhyme with anything! Why, orange, why! Medium: digital painting

22. Ubermensch Ubermensch is a work in strict Nietschean doctrine. It is about finding the will to power, the internal drive that pushes one to success and victory. The design of this piece was inspired by Destroyx (Amelia Arsenic)’s album cover for Angelspit’sKrankhaus. Medium: digital painting, photography, 3d model, vector design, typography

23. Empire Fall Textures + airbrushing = rice paper effect with a bit of sumi-e painting influence. This piece was emergent from the various shapes my textures and scribbles gave me, and for kicks, the black robed figure/ red robed guardians are a nod to the Emperor’s Royal Guard, and either Emperor Palpatine or Darth Vader. Star Wars is cool. Like sheep, bow ties, and a fez. Medium: digital painting

24. Shut Down I don’t have anything to honestly say about this piece. I had a crazy number of photos to take, and needed to fill a quota in time, so I started taking pictures in Fitz’ room. She likes this one. It bores me to tears, personally, but hey, if it looks good in the portfolio, it looks good. I just could care less about photography. I have too much craziness in my head to let out before I run around taking pictures. Medium: photography

25. Incarnate This is a study from life featuring Donna! Yes, you can do studies from life digitally, just sit down with a laptop and a tablet, and off you go. It’s really fun, clean, and clever. There’s no charcoal on your hands to worry about! That is why I love digital painting, clean and easy. I hate messes. Messy, messy, messy. Medium: digital painting

26. Wired-In This piece is another one of those “I Had to Fill a Quota, So I Slapped Something Together on the Computer and Called It Artwork Because I Can Do Things Like That” pieces. I’m just that awesome… ego aside, this was slapped together. Yay, contrast! Easy peasy. Medium: digital painting

27. Inkscape This is yet ANOTHER quota piece, for the same photography assignment I mentioned earlier. I actually like this one, though, it has pretty subtle colours and fun shadows. Yippee for photography! Medium: photography

28. Supplicant: Godric This is one of my old concentration pieces- third or fourth one, I believe, out of the gods know how many I’ve done, last count was forty or so before I consolidated stuff- and it ended up not making the final cut, but being nice enough for breadth, so it wound up here. The floor and green “waterfall” was inspired by H.R. Giger’s “Cataract”. Amazing piece, that is, have it hanging in my room, wot. Medium: digital painting

29. Myleera ALIEN VAMPIRE NUNS! What could be more fantastically awesome than that? I can think of a few things, of course, but this was a really fun piece for personal giggles. This is also a rework of one of my old sketches from last year, when I couldn’t do art to save my life. I still have trouble with it, to be frank. I just need to keep on working! That, and try a bit of traditional media so I can scrape by foundations classes at college. I’m too digitally dependent, but if I make my case, I could possibly work this way. Again, too messy. Ick. Medium: digital painting

30. Mechanika In retrospect, I should have smoothed this piece out and added that Desert Eagle, after all. Thank you, Combichrist. Thank you, Blizzard Entertainment. You are all pinnacles of brilliance, and inspire me greatly. Fantastic! Medium: digital painting

31. Finite Thank you for reading!