The Wilderness Downtown

When looking around the interwebs for design inspiration I often come across an idea that isn't really a design idea but is so fresh and clever that I am drawn to it. One such example is The Wilderness Downtown. This isn't really a web site. It is an interactive movie/music clip which you get to really participate in. Don't rush off and try it yet, there's a few things you need to know.

1. It only works in the Google Chrome browser.
2. You need a decent computer/some processing power.
3. You need good fast broadband.

Right! Got all this? Then you can go for it. A few words of warning though. This is an experimental thing and a bit delicate. My advice is to:

1. Let the page load, follow the instructions and wait for the movie to load.
2. When the WildernessDowntown is ready, press play and then take your hand off the mouse.
3. Through the course of the movie several chrome windows will open and you don't want to click on one (until you're offered to do so) and accidentally put them out of order.
4. When you are offered to write something, be patient 'cos it will take a minute or so before it resumes.
5. Oh, and make sure you've got the sound turned up before you start.

Ok, so go and check it out already. Then come back here so we can discuss what is good and bad about this project.

... Dum

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....... Dum

.......... Dum

Right! Good to have you back.

The moody atmosphere of the song and the film are great for evoking perhaps a sense of lost childhood or innocence. That idea that you can't go back in time to find what's been lost as you grew up maybe (I'll get to the maybe in a minute). Or does it? For some people the street where they grew up will be unrecognisable and for others it will be as if nothing has changed. Fantastic idea. What this piece says to me is not necessarily what it says to you.

I hope you were as impressed as I was with this idea. Is there a better way for you to feel the emotion in a short film like this than to actually see the streets you played in and the house you grew up in?

What I found very interesting about this film was the different reactions you can get from people. Genuinely personlised reactions. Let me give you two examples.

Firstly, I grew up in a single parent home and we rented and moved around a lot. I was able to run the Wilderness several times and each time get a different visceral reaction to the locations in the film. There was childhood home A which I loved and felt safe in, next was childhood home B which I didn't like etc. Also, one place we lived had an orange orchard across the road and now has a suburb instead, I haven't been near that place for years and it was actually quite a shock.

Contrast this with the second experience, that of my wife when I showed it to her. She grew up in the house her parents were living in when she was born and when she left it at age 21 she was leaving for the first time. In a sense that one house defined her whole childhood experience of a home.

This is, I think the great strength of the Wilderness. It not only has a different effect on you depending on where you lived but also on how you lived and who you were. I never tire of the Wilderness.

I have considered what might be my criticisms of the Wilderness, must have Chrome, must have decent computer and broadband etc and don't believe you can hold this against the designer. We all have to work with limitations. 

The only criticism I could find, if truth be told was a limitation but it was my limitation. A limitation of my imagination. Y'see, when it got to the part when I was asked to leave a message for my younger self I ended up leaving some lame "trust yourself, choose your friends wisely" statement that just left me thinking I had contributed something bland and formulaic. Like I'd spoiled something that up until that point had been so cool. 

Still, the Wilderness is cool and my own lame contribution didn't spoil it that much. But the weakness here is that this clever tool can be put into the hands of someone not as clever and they won't quite pull it off. Come to think of it, that's not any real criticism either. Let's just say the Wilderness is awesome.