Oh_no/Oh_yes

A virtual reality “Neo-city” that combines both nostalgia and futurism, integrating the characteristics and elements of the early Internet era in America and Japan, and its popular imagination of the future. The city inspired by an ambivalence towards the modern culture controlled by emotionality. The colors are contrasting and high-saturation gradients, used to create a fluorescent dream effect. Those are matched with retro elements, combining them to create a magical-style visual effect. The overall scene gives people a strong visual impact. To the audience, who lives in the future, this city can serve as a mirror, allowing them to examine the past, which will stimulate a rethinking and comprehensive review of the emotion-controlled post-modern era we live in today.

As people living with Internet 2.0, we find it difficult to give a comprehensive and in-depth assessment of our times, because our perspective is limited by our surroundings. Like many of our ancestors, we try to predict the future, but often find that our predictions are proven wrong by the actual development of the times. But when people in the future are reminiscing about the era and social culture we are in now, they may be able to evaluate our lives with a higher perspective and thinking level that we cannot imagine. Compared to people who lived in the early Internet period, late 1980s to early 2000s, we are living in the future. We can now re-evaluate their imagination of the future, from the perspective of the real future. This method can help us go beyond simple or superficial analysis and try to capture the thinking and feeling across the time. By showing the past era and people’s imaginary aesthetics about the future, this design project creates a connection, a thin line through time and space, that ties the attitude of the future towards today’s era to our attitudes towards the past.

Oh_no/Oh_yes is a “Neo-City” in another parallel universe based on the imagination of the future from the past, showing the characteristics of the early Internet era and people’s future fantasy aesthetics at that time. By integrating and displaying the elements and characteristics of people’s imagination of the future era, the project can help the audience using a higher perspective from the future to judge the early Internet era decades ago and people’s imagination of the future at that time. It also leads the audience to explore a rethinking of our emotionally manipulated age now.

At last, this “Neo-City” will be built into a city in a parallel world that can be visited and observed in virtual reality, leading people to think about the development of the times and the evolution of culture.