World Building: Island Infinity
AT-A-GLANCE:
This is a real-world fantasy that happens in our predicted future. The main story sets on the Island Infinity, where this heterotopia is discovered in A.D. 2212 (after 190 years from now). Here the story starts after the Great Nuclear War in A.D.2160. It is, therefore, a lot of war destruction and damage, either caused by the countries or during the time they repel the enemy. The world begins at a time when mankind is faced with the threat of extinction.
Geography, as one of the practices in world-building, provides the fundamental knowledge to articulate our world. As the geographer of the team, I created the spacial parameters and crafts to articulate the space in our world, serving as a setting background in the plot.
Note that all materials show on this page are in my section, which created individually; yet with these settings, we are able to build the world together with dilemma.
TOOLS USED
iPad Procreate
Adobe PS, AI
Crafts(below)
TIMELINE
~3 months
Oct-Dec 2022
MY ROLE
Geographer
Art (physical)
Map
Spacial Settings
Background and Settings
This is a real-world fantasy that happens in our predicted future. The main story sets on the Island Infinity, where this heterotopia is discovered in A.D. 2212 (after 190 years from now). Here the story starts after the Great Nuclear War in A.D.2160. It is, therefore, a lot of war destruction and damage, either caused by the countries or during the time they repel the enemy. The world begins at a time when mankind is faced with the threat of extinction. While our story is a heterotopia in the real world, it seems necessary to understand the basic information of our current earth's geographical issues to build a reference for our world.
By 2100, in the absence of climate policies, global warming will reach 4.8°C above. Sea Level exceeds 100 centimeters, and the flooding of coastal cities disappears the territories. There is increased intensity of tropical cyclones and irreversible loss of biological diversity. The average ocean depth is 3800 meters, covering 84% of the planet. The lack of natural resources in developing countries has become serious. Thus, resource monopoly amongst ambitious nations causes uneven distribution of resources, including oil, coal, and natural gas.
World Situation
In 2160, the Great Nuclear War starts and ended within two months. Led by the United States, Russia, China, North Korea, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and the European Union, over 180 countries joined the war (195 in total). The war is ever the greatest in land scope. Powerful weapons such as nuclear, hydrogen bombs, and thermonuclear are widely used. The war's after-effects are far-reaching. Not only are all the ice in Antarctica and Greenland melting, but most lands are also polluted and cannot be used with chemical weapons. There are only 74,000,000 (approximately 50% of current) lands left, and ocean depth increases to 4020 meters, covering 89.3% of the land. Overall, the lands on earth are divided into multiple islands (uncounted). Scientists and geographers estimate there are 1,051,000 islands, and only 10% are unpolluted lands.The story begins in 2160 after the Great Nuclear War. The devastating war fights with ultra-magnetic and nuclear weapons far greater than anything seen earlier brings about a post-apocalyptic world, resulting in several earthquakes and tsunamis. Massive movements rock the Earth's crust; Antarctica melts due to severe global warming and war attacks; the continents are torn apart and sink deep below the sea.
Lands Distributions and Differences
Over time, even though the lands are divided into small islands due to rising sea levels. There are over 1,051,000 islands. Since the lands are badly polluted by the extreme climate situation and war, there are only three main pure continents left on Earth. Figures below demonstrate the map of lands in 2022 and 2160. Obviously, the land size reduces and separates. In 2160, the boundaries between countries were broken. The world officially entered the federation era, in which a single government manages global affairs. The comparison is drawn. Among all, only the North and South Atlantic Ocean remains the same. Lands and spaces are given new names under the federation government. Overall, there are three major continents and four oceans left in 2160, 11.7% of Earth in total.
Diorama
In reference to the historical events (WWI and WWII) and post-war/ anti-war animation (Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Future Boy Conan (1978)), there is large urban warfare infrastructure, such as broken buildings and remaining military weapons left after wars. Inspired by these facts, I created a sculpture-like diorama to portray the living environment of these ‘floating islands’ and untitled lands
Please refer to YouTube Short for details.
3D Map
I first created a bird-view photo of Island Infinity, on a scale of 1:400,000.
Island Infinity is built by researchers and scientists who discover the land. As they have diverse backgrounds, the infrastructures are diversified with different styles, symbolizing the imaginative heterotopia. As shown, there is only one path to travel from the entrance to the research hub. Even though the island looks similar to the game path, we design such heterotopia for demonstrating our story theme: “YOLO”.
For example, the Hive Research Hub assembles characteristics of cathedrals; Asgard resembles the Leaning Tower of Pisa as a symbol of cathedral design with monitoring purpose; Bifrost adopts the Chinese-style bridge, symbolizing the Bifrost in ancient Chinese legend； Ω Research Hub uses the Japan building styles Minka, indicates the understanding of the natural world as a source of spiritual insight and an instructive mirror of human emotion.
Although the 3D map is not perfect in scale, we could not hide Ω Research Hub as we originally planned, we tried our best to simulate the environment of the buildings. In our plan, the Ω Research Hub is hidden by the poisonous forest, where people outside would not be able to see the hub at the center of the rind-shaped island.
