world! With the directive to create a unique alien scene, a setting no one has seen before, Chris Koutroulos' challenge entry Mnemonia won an Honorable Mention illustrating this theme.
Mnemonia appears, at first, to be just a beautiful yet desolate alien landscape. Then the curve of a nearby planet emerges from the mist and there is the sense that there is something alive and twisting in the distorted foreground forms. Careful consideration of how to create something completely outside human experience, but still seeming alive, was the true challenge of this competition. In describing the making of his alien scene, Koutroulos reveals how he turned to organic forms, as did many of the successful Alienware challengers, to create this stunning visual concept. — Lisa Thurston
ALIENWARE Challenge 2004 The Making of “Mnemonia“
Chris Koutroulos, 26 May 2004
The Idea
When I first considered the theme of the Alienware Challenge an image surfaced in my mind: a sad and mysterious sunset with the edge of an enormous planet dome faintly visible behind a cloudy sky and fading into the horizon. I thought of depicting a secluded landscape that would bring out feelings of loneliness and abandonment, diverting the viewers' attention towards something that would suggest the former existence of some unknown presence.
Then another idea sprang into my mind: what if the landscape was made of organic matter? I had organic tissue and images by Serpieri for reference, but I didn't want something quite so fleshy. Instead I started making drafts of various shapes, and visually experimented with the form and complexity of brain neurons. The concept of a landscape made up of a complex system of half-damaged, non-symmetrical neurons, resembling branches of a psychedelic forest, inspired me. This gave a totally new dynamic to my initial idea.
However, I still wanted to take it a bit further. What if instead of creating something that once contained life, I created a landscape that was actually alive itself? This made me think of the shapes of Dali's and da Vinci's paranoid-critical methods.
I started a new draft of shapes that formed a profile view of an alien face. I wanted to create it in such a way that it wouldn't be obvious at first glance, but by preserving the basic human facial characteristics, it would be ambiguously recognizable.
The Alienware Challenge 2004 saw a collection
