I was so excited to be selected for a residency with ‘Comic Art Europe– Visions of Tomorrow’ and Barcelona-based comic school, Escola Joso. This project was the perfect fit for me since my comics often explore contemporary societal issues. My proposed project involved creating a virtual reality comic that explored the future of the comics artform while simultaneously exploring the theme of ‘Utopias’. I created a virtual reality comic using Open Brush titled ‘Metopia vs Youtopia’ while 9 months pregnant. Here’s a blurb for the concept:
‘Put on your headset and enter Karrie’s head through her ear as we take a tour through Karrie’s personal utopia (her ‘metopia’). This imagined society encompasses both autobiographical and comical elements mixed in with religious, cultural and historical elements borrowed from some of the most famous utopias ever dreamt up (from Eden to Disneyland, Herland to Cockaigne to The Big Rock Candy Mountain). But as we move through Karrie’s utopian world we begin to see it disintegrating revealing the flipside of this vision and asking us to consider who loses out in one person’s utopian dream.’
You can explore the 3D model of it by clicking this link: https://beta.icosa.gallery/view/karriefransman/61jbHA6AsFM
