Joan Ikonomi

XXXIV Cycle - (A.A. 2018-2019)

IDAUP
Home Institution: University of Ferrara
Scholarship
Curriculum: Architecture
Research Topic: Videogames, VR and creative spaces
Tutor DA-UNIFE: Federica Maietti
Tutor Polis University: Dorina Papa
External Expert: Steven Rost (LTU)
Nationality: Albanian, Greek
Email: joan.ikonomi@unife.it

Profile

Biography
Joan Ikonomi is an international PhD candidate in Architecture and Urban Planning (XXXIV cycle) at Ferrara University. He earned a bachelor of Art Honours Degree, in 3D Animation and Multimedia Production at Middlesex University, in Athens with a dissertation on video game design and a Master degree in Applied Design at POLIS University with a thesis on TV commercials. He has large experience as visual artist, image editor, video artist and producer working since 2002 at TNT in Athens, cooperating and participating in numerous visual projects of advertising agency Ashley & Holmes and in the production company Le Spot in Athens and in Tirana. In 2011 he worked also as production manager in television. Since 2008, he taught Digital Post-Production at the Academy of Film & Multimedia Marubi and actually he is teaching Advanced 3d Modeling and Multimedia Design at Polis University

Research skills
Narration | Video Game Design | Virtual Space and AI | Animation | Motion Capture

Scientific activities

ORCID ID:
0000-0002-7024-4567

IRIS UNIFE ID:
rp43149

Doctoral research

Creative space in virtual reality. Spatial environment and interactivity in video game design

In the last decades, the new digital state of mind has affected almost every industry starting from commerce, engineering, media, etc. Architecture as well, although has been traditionally trapped in its physical container, is being oriented towards the new frontiers of virtual reality. According to Marie-Laure Ryan (2001) virtual reality can expands the process of creation, open up the future and can inject a core of meaning beneath the platitude of immediate physical presence. Actually, this potential has been explored through different mediums such as films, animation, videogames, multimedia, software’s and applications. However, interactive media based on real time rendering, has not been developed to their fully potential, because of computer limitations. Technological progress and the increase of the computer capacities will expand the possibilities to create complex and sophisticated spatial environments and to be accessible and useful for professionals and users. Herein, virtual space, in contrast to our reality which is limited by cultural, geographical and economic factors, can offer multiple form of expression to create a hybrid and complex realities. This research will focus on video game design to understand and explore the spatiality on virtual environment. I choose video games, as they represent the most popular medium based on virtual reality and interactivity. The spatiality of video games will be explored by considering a series of behavior patterns along the narrative structure such as experience, discover, interaction and manipulation in order to discover and define a set of processes of storing and manipulating patterns to design complex creative spaces, similar to the human creative process. This can unlock imagination and push to the extreme our understanding of real architecture by exploring the frontier of spatial perception in virtual reality through stimulation and game challenge, creating new forms of architecture, the new spaces of our time.

Keywords
Video game design | Game spatiality| | Virtual simulation | Interactivity | Artificial intelligence