First Person is a digital artwork created using the Torque 3D computer game engine. The work presents a simple, monochrome digital world housing a large drawn civic building, inhabited by a solitary 3Dcharacter. Here, there is no next level, no objective, no achievement or exit. The character is lost in digital loneliness, a hollow, melancholy world.

Year: 2006
Exhibitions: ‘First Person’ Threshold Stage, Perth Concert Hall, Perth, Scotland (2006/2011); ‘XII Canarias Mediafest’ Centro Gran Canaria Espacio Digital, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (2006); ‘First Person’ The Art Gallery, Willamette University, Oregon, USA (2007).

Video documentation: First Person - screen capture
Duration: 04:57mins

First Person is a digital art project commissioned by Horsecross, Perth for the Threshold Artspace digital collection. The work presents the viewer with a white digital expanse housing one building, a line drawn version of the Perth Concert Hall. The lone occupant of this monochrome digital world is a distinctive digital character clad in vibrant red; a digital portrait of the artist. Here, the portrait comes to life as a controllable gaming-like character that the viewer steers around the stripped down digital world. The character's negotiation of the space in a game-like way, walking, jumping, and strafing, with discrete extensions to real human prowess, remains a purposeless endeavour. There is no next level, no objective, no achievement or exit (except to Quit). The character is lost in digital loneliness, a hollow, melancholy world.

The project was developed for presentation on PC (Windows XP Home or Pro/10) with X-model wireless gamepad, or keyboard and mouse, using the Torque open-source 3D computer game engine. Programming and 3D animation by Beverley Hood, 3D character design by Kenny Lam, 3D architectural model by 3D Interactive Limited.

First Person is part of the Threshold Artspace digital art collection at Horsecross, Perth, Scotland.

Funded by: First Person was commissioned in 2006 by Horsecross for the Threshold Artspace, at the Perth Concert Hall, Scotland. Additional funding was provided by the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund and Edinburgh College of Art

Credits: Programming, 3D animation and drawings by Beverley Hood, 3D character design by Kenny Lam, 3D architectural model by 3D Interactive Limited.