As we continue on to the entertainment sector we come across the spectacular event arena. In this scene spectators enjoy a parasitic vine pitted against a hazardous sandbox tree. Here the reoccurring fountain antagonist watches over the event. The glow from the arena illuminates an insatiable grin that is suggested in it’s architecture. The walls that curl up around the space are constructed to take on a pixelated form. These stone-pixel walls act as blinders, keeping thee attention towards the match and away from the sublime void that lay beyond. In this piece I used flat color for the sky to balance out the complexity. I also used the flat mint green sky as a way to make the scene more claustrophobic. The pixel architecture connotes illusion and simulation, as if to hide what exists in the mysterious fog outside.

The vines in the middle that stand poised for attack are rendered in a way which makes them appear armed. They both have distinctive colors to illustrate them as representing opposing sides. The yellow/green vine is inspired by the infamous sandbox tree, a monstrosity that is covered in spikes and whose seeds explode at harmful velocities. In the right corner of the foreground, the sandbox vine can be seen entering though an opening in the wall. By showing a glimpse of the backstage pupeteering, it further implies the staged quality of the event. Dramatic lighting in the center also pushes this concept.
I chose the flower, monstera deliciosa, also known as The Fruit Salad Plant as the spectator characters in the foreground. In this instance I chose the flower purely for the quality of its forms. The flower has a large petal that creates a hood-like form around it’s fruit. In this cyber-fuedal setting, I found these hood-like forms to be appropriate in establishing these plants as spectators. It harks to ideas in medieval times of the hooded-peasant. Also since the petals hide the fruit within the flower, it echoes the concept of the walls being blinders to the outside world. Upon close inspection the fruit itself contains the pixel motif.
As I use the dystopian trope of inside and outside of ‘the glass shell’, It is also a crucial concept on a social level. With this and the previous pieces, the citizens are completely cut off from interactions outside of their prescribed space. In this case it is a gladiator syled entertainment form that keeps the hooded plants in the foreground withdrawn into their psychic shell.
In 1975 film Rollerball the world is divided and ruled by massive conglomerates that emphasize conformity at the expense of individual free will. In order to maintain peace and stability, these corporations organize violent tournaments to pacify the population. Teams represent their corresponding conglomerates, whose corporate hymn is sung before every match. This sport in which competitors are maimed or killed is revealed to be a ploy to assert the futility of individual effort.