MiDAS Alumni Win Societal Impact Award at CHI PLAY
Written by: Layla Dubreucq
Digital Worlds’ MiDAS alumni Juan Lam, Spencer Henry, Kalli Melilli, and Ryan Garrett won the Societal Impact Award at CHI PLAY this October with their project “The Sea is a Sky: Towards a Poetry of Motion.”
The Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY) is an international conference for students, researchers, and professionals across all areas of play, games, and human-computer interaction. CHI PLAY hosts a Student Game Design Competition annually, where students and recent graduates showcase their interactive play systems and designs. The competition has four categories in which participants compete for an award: Audience Choice, Experimental Gameplay, Technical Excellence, and Societal Impact.
Kalli Melilli and Spencer Henry served as the artists for the team, where they were in charge of the modeling, texturing, and animating involved in the project. Ryan Garrett and Juan Lam functioned as the programmers for the project. They collaborated on working on VFX Magic and programming the actual interactive experience. The team was also supported by Digital Arts & Sciences Assistant Professor Hyo Kang and Associate Seung Hyuk Jang.
This year, CHI PLAY received seventeen submissions among their Student Game Design Competition categories. Submissions are judged by a jury panel featuring experts in the game design industry and academia. The Societal Impact Award is then awarded to the finalist team addressing a crucial societal issue the best through game design.
‘The Sea is a Sky’ was inspired by team member Juan Lam’s personal experience as a Cuban immigrant. Lam wanted to create a story capturing the deep emotional elements immigrants face when leaving their home.
“To leave a country you love you must be driven by two emotions: fear of your present situation, and hope for a better future,” Lam said. “You need both to make such a difficult journey, the journey many millions of refugees have taken out of necessity, and we really wanted to explore what that feeling is like. The feeling of setting out on an uncertain, dangerous journey.”
A large component of the project was the incorporation of poetic elements. Lam recalls how the phrase “The Sea is a Sky” originates from a poem written from the point of view of an immigrant mother. The poem reflects on the hardships of transitioning to a new country, and how a family can become affected by this.
“The paper we wrote about our project has the title “The Sea is a Sky: Towards a Poetry in Motion” because in the paper we elaborate on the design ideas behind the project,” said Lam. “Our goal was to use the power of embodiment in virtual reality to put the player in the shoes of a Cuban immigrant and, in so doing, create a poetic experience through physical movement.”
The project was originally created as their final capstone game within the MiDAS program.
With competition from students and graduates of institutions such as Harvard, MIT, Virginia Tech, and Queen’s University, the MiDAS team is incredibly proud of their accomplishment.
“It was exhilarating to find out that our project was accepted to CHI PLAY,” said Lam. “It’s an incredible conference that showcases the most riveting developments in the field of Computer-Human Interaction through the lens of design and the power of play. To be part of that was really special and an absolute honor.”
After being recognized for their work, the team hopes to connect with local museums and galleries to incorporate their project into an exhibition.
Lam offers some advice for current Digital Arts & Science students looking to submit their work into future competitions, “Try your best to simplify your project and focus it by picking one thing that is non-negotiable and letting everything else fall into place. The specifics don’t matter — only the emotional core. If that feels right, then it will all work out. Making games is like making magic — you don’t actually need to pull a rabbit out of a hat. You just need to make it look like you did. The audience won’t know, and the wonder is still real.”
