The Night Journey (2007-2018)


For the official site, look to http://www.thenightjourney.com/

The Night Journey combines a realtime 3D environment with videos and spiritual themes from Viola’s body of work. We designed the game to function in a gallery setting, to appeal to people typically more familiar with such locales, while using a game controller as a method of input, and easing someone potentially unfamiliar with such conventions into a first-person realtime 3D space.

In “The Night Journey,” an interactive piece produced by Bill Viola, I acted as lead programmer. Along with building the systems for navigation of a 3D space and compositing video, I also designed a post-processing system that emulated the early tube camera effect found in many of Viola’s pieces.

A short series of contextual prompts at the start of the experience simply tell the player how to walk, look, and finally to “reflect.” Players travel through forest, desert, ocean and mountains, reflecting to find images and hermitages. The action of “Reflection” has video juxtapose with landmarks and characters the player encounters, and travel throughout a cycle creates dreams experienced once night falls. Several nights can pass, with a progression of imagery seen either during nightfall or inside specific structures.

The Night Journey has been exhibited at several galleries and events, including SIGGRAPH in 2007 and the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York in 2011.

In 2018 I worked with the Game Innovation Lab to update The Night Journey to modern hardware, including Windows, Macintosh, and the PlayStation 4.