chromsan-viewing04

Spectacle: things made with the intention to 'wow' the audience through technical means or particularly beautiful aesthetics.

Speculation: things made with the intention to critique, either something else or itself- usually very self aware.

This is a demo for Unreal Engine's upcoming support for Ray Tracing capabilities with new Nvidia RTX graphics cards. It was developed by Epic Games and Industrial Light and Magic. Defined in Warburton's terms, it is pure spectacle. It's meant to showcase a new technical feature while serving as advertising for both Unreal Engine and Disney. Technically, it is really quite impressive; it could have been lifted from the next Star Wars movie. It has a little narrative, and the characters are familiar, but there's nothing critical or self-aware about it. It's meant to accelerate technology and real time rendering, and it is meant to be very visible considering it is essentially an advertisement, and it has around 1.5 million views on YouTube. The demo is commerce, it is really quite distinct from the world of critical art. I would say it errs on the side of surplus, it's beautiful and clean and new, but probably unnecessary. Finally, it is functional in that it has a clear purpose and has excelled at fulfilling that purpose.