JMCXYZ- SPECULARIUMSpecularium

UNIVERSITY GRADUATION PROJECT

3D, VR, GAME DESIGN

2025

SPECULARIUM

about.

VR WALKTHROUGH

The mass widespread deployment of new yet invasive surveillance technology, not only in the urban environment, but more extensively in the invisible and ever-evolving digital world, opens the door for inquiries on the ethical nature of its practice.

In Specularium, the user will journey through a series of unique 3D environments, designed to critically engage with a specific ethical dilemma within the overarching theme of surveillance, such as power, control, invasion of privacy, harvesting of data, visibility and its psychological impact. These spaces will translate the often-abstract nature of contemporary surveillance into multi-sensory, interactive encounters, evoking the feelings of being watched, surveilled, controlled and monitored, making the complex reality of surveillance visually and emotionally impactful.

wireframe renders of two different evironments experienced in the VR journey

aims

To create an immersive and engaging virtual reality experience that critically explores the unethical reality of contemporary surveillance.
To shed light on the often-overlooked consequences of invasive surveillance and invite deeper public understanding through immersive storytelling.

This project is thematically and conceptually layered, drawing upon numerous historical, contemporary and theoretical precedents. It was imperative that I develop a solid understanding of the ethical concern that’s at the heart of my design to ensure my project carried a strong sense of purpose and meaning. George Orwell’s “1984”, Jeremey Bentham’s Panopticon Prison, Shin Takamatsu’s postmodern architecture, Ai Weiwei’s conceptual artworks and David Lyon’s “Surveillance Society” are just a few of the many areas of research that not only inform spatial architecture of each space but more so the emotional and psychological responses of each experience.

process.

The project expanded across 10 weeks, begining with the pre-visualisation and planning for each environment, done through various mind mapping exercises, moodboards and simple sketches. I tend to find it easier to explore my ideas in a 3-dimensional space over sketching them out on a 2D plane through low poly blockout modelling, allowing me to gather a quick understanding of the scale, proportion and composition of my scene. This serves a solid foundation to build upon and iterate towards the final design.

To summarise the 3D pipeline: I modelled my environments in Blender, UV unwrapped them in Maya, textured in Substance Painter and assembled my scene in Unity.

3D pipeline

Before and After: Specularium entrance

Before and After: Panopticon

Each space will provide a unique interaction for the player that will heighten the experience of being watched. For example, in the "Observer" a large silent ominous eyeball gazes over the player as they walk across an dark enclosed dome like space.

This depiction of surveillance is fictional and extreme, but the purpose is clear; to evoke fear, discomfort, and paranoia. Feelings that come as a result of our dystopian imaginary, where “all activity becomes visible before a hostile gaze” (Peacock, 2023) by systems we never fully see or trust.

The challenging part for this scene was having to code an interaction where once a player enters the room, the eyeball will immediately detect the player and begin to track their movements as they walk across the space. After continous trial and error the end result was successful and can be seen in the VR walkthrough video above.

Considering there are 7 other rooms I will not touch on them in much detail, however I will like to showcase the "Thermal Room" in the experience.

disciplinary exploration.

Each students project had to embody an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary practice. In the case for myself, I utilised my knowledge of 3D and experience design (people's experience and interaction with space), whilst exploring procedural and realtime interactive multimedia design.

The "Thermal" room is an audiovisual installation created in the real-time node based software TouchDesigner. The LED floor iluminates a moving thermal graphic that reacts to the audio elements of the music being played.

The animated noise is connected to a colour map ranging from black to red to resemble the colours in a thermal map. Each colour was connected to either the kick, snare or rhythm of the music, creating a pulsing effect that slowly builds towards the end of the song, intensifying the climax.

results.

VR WALKTHROUGH

The topic of surveillance ethics is a very abstract and profound subject that requires careful consideration and critical thought. The concept of the ‘Specularium’ was to act as a site for meaningful contemplation and active learning, where dystopian literature and theoretical frameworks are re-imagined into awe-inspiring virtual landscapes.

Uncovering the ethical issues surrounding invasive surveillance has helped me realise the questionable nature of its practice and allowed me to self-reflect on its influence and place in my own life, mindful of the impact it can have on one’s mental wellbeing.

final statement.

Multifaceted contemporary surveillance needs to be guided by an “ethic of care rather than control”, bringing forth sociologist David Lyon’s hopeful solution of re-embodied personhood to inform our being human in postmodern information societies (Lyon, 2001, p. 164). However, with continual advancements in unprecedented technology and the growing person-blind obsession with monitoring and harvesting our data, we look to be heading in a direction that benefit the “malevolent panoptic power of capitalist and bureaucratic organisations” (p. 149) and government bodies, foreshadowing an ominous Orwellian future.

exhibition.

My work was exhibited in the UNSW Annual Art and Design exhibition in late 2025. Visitors were able to play and experience my work in virtual reality as well as view a short showreel that was on display in the main gallery.

Specularium will also be on display at the YODEX Exhibition in Taiwan later this year.