Today is the official start date of my Artists Residency at iShed Pervasive Media Studio. I've been a resident here for two years already but I'm excited to have been awarded R&D funding to day dream about a new platform for interactive narrative I'm calling Daemon.

 

My initial tag line is that Daemon is your inner self made visible; as life is a quest, together you will go on an adventure. As your most private companion it gets to know you, how you feel, your dreams and fears, your day to day emotional states. Daemon will carry a story, which you and it will embark on together. Daemon is connected to any digital information you want via the internet. What this means most importantly is that it can download a narrative, which you will experience with Daemon as your side-kick.

 

My concept for Daemon is that you will be able to experience something of the immersion and drama of a rich story universe, its complex themes and relationships, whilst having the personal control and interaction of gaming ie you are the main character.

 

At the moment I'm imagining the main theme to be about control, decisions, fate, authorship, the handing of our own lives and the idea of destiny, hope, death and redemption. The Daemon name comes from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, in which each person's soul or inner self appears in animal form as a constant companion. I'm inspired by the epic literary quests such as Frodo's journey to Mordor; is it about the goal or the journey or the way you do it? Is there a pay off? Is there a right and wrong way? As an atheist I ask, without religion how to we answer these questions?

Psychologically I'm inspired by the conversations one has with ones own inner voice, the constant battle of life as a journey.

 

Technically I'd love it if ones Daemon could actually be a fluid, living creature capable of hovering, scampering or flying, jumping in ones pocket or perching on one's shoulder. Since this technology doesn't exist yet, I'm proposing a combination of the nearest technology we have plus the greatest thing we have, our imaginations.

 

You can see more details in my March blog post on this:  hazelgrian.blogspot.com

You can also follow me on Twitter: @LicoriceHazel