Overview
EOTW (End of the World) is an experimental website exploring the theme of existential risk.
EOTW It is more of an art project than a website and if you haven't already I highly suggest you visit the site before reading ahead as the experience is intended to be gone into blind.
Experience
There is a lot of talk about user experience but much of it amounts to nothing more than removing frustration.
I wanted to explore experiences other than the standard and see if I could evoke different emotions such as intrigue, shock, or even fear. There is an underlying ‘narrative’ around an AI that gets out of control. I wanted the first interaction to be from the user in an act that seems so innocuous that nothing could go wrong but things quickly get out of control.
On the web the user usually feels they can control what is happening on the page but in this case the sense of losing control is the emotion I wanted to convey so there is nothing the user can do after the first click.
The images is random each time the page is loaded so the sense of progression and overall takeaway for each person will be slightly different creating an emerging narrative that is put together in your head rather than on the page.
Aesthetic
The aesthetic takes heavy inspiration from Japanese fiction, animation, and sci-fi.
One thing I really like about a lot of japanese media is their ability to create what is basically nonsense that seems like it has some kind of deeper meaning. This is often achieved through the appropriation of historical or religious imagery and the use of obscure, deep sounding words.
Design & Development
For the design I tried to keep it very simple using only pure black and white and combining and contrasting elements of shape, line, and text. All the animations were done using CSS and the audio on the site is generated in the browser using the JS Audio API.
Outcome
In terms of results the project was a complete failure with almost nobody visiting the site.
I intended for the website to be viewed blind as to keep the sense of surprise but it was a lesson in online marketing that if people don’t know what it is they won’t click on it!
I did however enjoy submitting my wife to the experience and hearing her reaction of getting goosebumps made it all worth it. The project was also very fun for me to explore something more artistic in nature without any commercial goal.