Great Filter

digital exhibit

An interactive website aiming to educate China’s young adults about the Great Filter theory and explaining the gravity of our current situation.
view desktop site

Story

The Great Filter theory says there is one or more barriers in the process from a bare planet to a technologically advanced civilization. If that barrier is behind us, it means we are one of the first civilizations to reach our current level of technology. However, if it is ahead of us, it means a global catastrophic risk is still to come.

I created an interactive website where viewers can investigate two possible futures. It combines the use of photo manipulation and educational hotspots to inform people that we are at a point where Earth’s future lies in our hands.

Because this was made to be displayed at an art gallery, it is only configured for desktop resolutions 1080p and up, full screen mode. Several elements were also added in order to grab the guests’ attention.

Assets

Logo was made from the sci-fi typeface Eurofighter Condensed. Colors throughout the main site follow a space theme, and the interactive pages have their own matching palettes: earthy tones for utopia and grungy shades for dystopia.

logo

main

futures

Intro

A short introductory video plays upon clicking the start button on the idle screen, which automatically appears when no movement has been detected for 3 minutes. The video briefly explains what the Great Filter is and serves as a hook.

Menu

Once the intro video is done playing, viewers are brought to a selection page.

After making a choice, a draggable banner featuring the chosen future is revealed. Individual hotspots are positioned over various sources and clicking on them uncovers information about how it affects us. Viewers are free to switch back and forth between utopia and dystopia using the swap icon on the bottom right.

Process

Utopia’s imagery was heavily inspired by an envision created by architect teams AOA and TETRA. I recreated their proposal with a few new aspects myself, building a preview of a smart, futuristic, green city. Dystopia was a typical apocalyptic setting, hoping to showcase a gruesome reality we aren’t far off from.

gif

Watch the GIF for a general process of how I created the Utopia banner. Used assets are below.

assets

Banners

Full sized banners by themselves. There is also a Chinese version of the site since they’re the target audience.

Gallery

Tada! Enjoy some photos taken at the opening exhibit.

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