Sorn-Lai: an integrated technology experience in Appalachia
Consisting of 7 large tabletop dioramas, Sorn-Lai is an intricate set of speculative tales made by Fable X Studio.
Interaction with the tablescapes comes through NFC chip integration: when audience members tapscan the characters or tables they uncover more of the world/ narrative.
The production process for this world spanned across an entire year/ was made in the evenings following my day job as a lecturer.
Made via contemporary manufacturing techniques of 3D printing, CNC milling, and hybrid modeling modes the world of Sorn-Lai embraces the notion that the “medium is the message” — presenting a grey future crafted by and through these very technologies.
Many of the models in this world are made mimicking the visual methods that current image generation ai follows; hybridizing subjects/ blurring the traditional boundaries between objects.
A key part of the narrative in this world is the Saturophage virus, a contagion that consumes color pigment and accelerates genetic hybridization. This narrative lead serves both a in-world/ meta purposes: in world it becomes the critical conflict the forest is coping with and changing because of, in the meta it serves as a homogenizing agent that helps contiguize the boundaries between objects that are otherwise distinct.
The production implications of the narrative meant that all of the models needed to be airbrushed white.
Over 200 individual sculptures were 3D printed and painted as part of the installation. More content coming soon!
https://jamesroha.digital/
