The Gallery ~ by Bjorn Ottesen

The Gallery is a place for lost ideas; ideas which pass in and out of consciousness before they are recognized. To create this scene all I did was close my eyes and let my mind wander through imaginary places. Whenever I managed to focus on something concrete, I would write the idea down, or rather note it in the back of my mind. I would then set off to create this object or place. Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulties with animation and morphing, no fault of my own, certain aspects of this scene are missing, ideas which would have completed the scene. There is the wall with the eyes which open upon approach, the guts-transporter-tube, the penetrating polyps, the moving walls. All of these are sadly missing - but this is not to say my Gallery is ruined. On the contrary, my gallery is still able to fulfill its true purpose - to let people take a walk in my mind.

The Gallery is a place of juxtaposition between the organic and the geometric, the mechanical and the biological. You have a room which, by the look of the walls, could be the interior of someone's organ. Yet you are inside, freely able to ride elevators hung by chains operated by God knows what. And morbid looking playing cards are stacked in such a way that a two-sided tongue can use them as support, and serve as a path for you to mound an elevator which leads to the true upstairs gallery. This Gallery has an inner room and an outer room. In the outer room you can find obscure paintings which represent different aspects of my persona and in a way define who I am today. Many have only deeper meaning which only I am aware of - and I'm okay with this fact.

There is a huge, seemingly bottomless hall which you can enter by either satisfying curiosity on the second floor, or penetrating the tongue-tube on the first. In this hall there is really nowhere to go but out, and up. Once up you can dwell in obscurity, enjoy the view, or take the optical illusion door back to the inner Gallery.

I believe this Cave scene is successfull because it begs for questions. It is so obscure that people will perhaps relentlessly seek meaning when in fact there is none. It doesn't have to make sense, its aim is simply to spark curiosity and spark a reaction, what ever it may be. People may be turned off by all the 'gory' looking walls and textures. Why? For all they know the textures could be pictures of icing on sugary cakes, the interior of a freshly baked cherry pie, or the surface of a half eaten candy apple. The weird tentacle-sponge monster wriggling about could in fact be some harmless sea creature. Why is it here? Is it creepy, or does it soothe you?

I believe you have to have a certain kind of mentality to find this scene appealing. Aesthetically it is pleasing to my eye because of its randomness, as well as its similarity to my original ideas. Others, however, my find it extremely unappealing due to reasons discussed above. I created this scene the way it is because I wanted to see the organic mixed with the geometric, the mechanical... I love the idea of riding a series of mechanical, systematic elevators, without error, up to a gigantic tongue, which you then must follow through a slimy throat out to a bottomless hall.

I believe my layout of the scene is useful in guiding the viewer. At first it is confusing, which was done on purpose. I want the user to explore the gucky hall first, and understand that they cannot leave without taking some kind of elevator. Once the user is out of the main hall there is always somewhere to go; something which draws the eye - the tongue tube, the circular gallery hallway, the peep-show hall, the path in the bottomless hall, the optical-illusion door...

I suppose in the end I want people to approach my CAVE with an open mind, and lay any objections and preconcieved notions that everything has a meaning aside. Just enjoy, and see what you can find...