John D Radcliff, Specializing in Interactive Technology & Education!

Transmission

Economic conditions can force people to take extreme measures. In the book called Transmission, by Hari Kunzru, Arjun gets hired on as a virus technician who gets sub contracted out by another company and is getting paid next to nothing. He tells his family that he is the head of his department and this is were the trouble starts. When Arjun made this decision, it then affected everyone else around him.

Chris, Guy, Lila and others were affected by Arjun’s choice of trying to make it big in America. Instead of swallowing his pride and going back home, he unleashes a computer virus which causes chaos around the world. This computer virus then has an effect on all of the people Arjun knows or does not know. From this, Arjun is actually the virus spreading his self centered attitude around the world and affecting other people’s lives.

Arjun’s virus Lila version 8, messes up EU’s information databases and confuses Guy swift with a known white colored criminal who gets deported. This is similar to today’s viruses who not only rearrange data but also steal credit card and Social Security numbers which can hurt people’s identity’s. We see the damage that such viruses can cause in a world that is dependent on computers for almost everything.

A computer virus spreads like a virus except we do not see what is really spreading behind such malicious code. When computer viruses are released into the wild, human attitudes and emotions are the real viruses getting released onto these computer systems. Guilt, despair, greed, pleasure, revenge, and pain are a few of these human attitudes that get spread when a computer virus goes viral. Looking at this story, Arjun’s desperation and pain gets unleashed on an unsuspecting world which has an effect on everyone around the world. We should ask ourselves the question of “what outcome or effect will our content have on other people when it is released onto the internet?”

Master Sepuka, The Movie


 

Created this project back in 2005 with Jason Fultz and Mike Brank.  Tremendous thanks goes out to the students at the Martial Arts Center of Plano who were Jay and Jason Autz, and Allisa Davis.  We used Maya 3D, Motion Builder, Sound Forge, Adobe Photoshop and the motion capture lab at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) to create this project.