“Code Annihilation” is an interactive narrative merging history, fiction and conspiracy theories, a collision of nostalgia and futuristic themes.
The piece focuses on user experience and experiments with alternative storytelling methods. It was created aiming to provide a non-linear personal practice allowing the user to explore through the different parts of the story in order to reveal a conspiracy. In fact, one interacts with a switchboard and a mouse to uncover the plot – like a spy retrieving clues.
The first version of the project was actually made for the 3rd year's module of my BA (i-media in LJMU)"Novel Interaction". It was a prototype where the switchboard was made in a shoebox.
During the summer of 2009, I found out that Code Annihilation would be a part of the AND festival, which was organized by FACT in the end of September 2009. It would represent LJMU along with two more graduate students' works. For that reason, with the help of my teachers, the installation was redesigned so it was appropriate to be exhibited in a public space. Aiming to capture the essence of the story, add to the experience and make it user friendly, a custom plynth was made and vintage headphones were bought. And here we were with the final version of the piece.
But the journey didn't stop in FACT from 23 to 27 September 2009; the word needed to be spread.
Next stop: Bluecoat. Code Annihilation was a part of the "Views from the Grassy Knoll" event day where truth and fantasy divided and collided through talks, screenings and performances.
Now what? Code Annihilation stands at the corridors of Liverpool Screen School (LJMU, Edge Lane) waiting to be explored by students and anticipating for its next stop.
The aim remains the same: People need to know!
