UNDERWATER

Elijah Xia

Elijah Xia is an interaction and multimedia designer. Through his study and design process, he believes that empathy is the cornerstone and always reminds himself to attach the importance to the concept of empathic design in his projects.

Additionally, he is a fictionist and freelance writer. He have published his book and many articles in literature journal. Therefore, he is always looking for a balance point, which is the balance among art, design and literature.

Thesis Faculty

• Thesis Studio II:
John Roach & Barbara Morris

• Thesis Studio I:
Sven Travis & Loretta Wolozin

Portfolio

Project Details

Underwater is a speculative and immersive narrative that envisions its participants experiencing a totalitarian society driven by artificial intelligence. In the story, the scariness of this totalitarian vision is represented through multimedia such as dramatic storytelling strategies, futuristic visualizations, and sound design. In this dystopian world, AI is created and misused by the authoritarian party in order to rule the public, persecute individuality, violate freedom and conduct mass surveillance. The theme reflects political issues in real life and offers a prophecy of a near future in which we see the full negative impacts of technological monopoly. This project aims to trigger speculation and debate about the dark side, as well as the relationship between politics, power, and technology.