“Shadowdancer: The Ride” — Masters Thesis
Design Project
...a highly immersive thrill ride experience with narrative
influence from the chapter of Mikhail Bulgakov's "The
Master and Margarita" entitled, ‘The Great Ball at Satan's’.
This loosely adapted narrative follows protagonist,
Ekaterina, around an absurdist party taking place at the
residence of Maxim, the Antichrist.
The ride is a voyeuristic perspective on human morality
and our susceptibility to propaganda and charismatic
leadership. The ball acts as a vehicle for the audience to
encounter the inner world of the Antichrist, Maxim,
beginning with innocent sensuality and charisma and
devolving into pure unadulterated evil.
Although the events of this novel take place in 1930's
Russia, the way power manifests societally
repeats. We find ourselves searching for someone to latch
on to; something to believe in. However, it is often people
with unflinchingly selfish morals that grasp our attention
most easily. The further we fall into them, the further away
we fall from each other.
Much of the novel's literary framework resembles
something of a horse race. The narrative of this book
opens and closes cycles characters are traversing, all of
which are manufactured by the same
charismatic Antichrist figure. In the current political
climate as well as the fictional parodic society in "The
Master and Margarita", we, the audience, are deceived
through bread and circus: a carnival of horrors to
distract us from the horrors of our reality and a downturn
towards fascism.
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