Yuzhuo Wang
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Beyond the Hurricane: 
A Virtual Tale

UPenn 702 Studio, Spring 2024
with Ada Hu
Instructor: Robert Gerard PietruskoIn 2017, Hurricane Irma struck the small Caribbean Island of Barbuda. The massive destruction displaced over 1500 people from their homes.
While citizens were displaced, the government of Barbuda made deals to sell destroyed public properties to wealthy investors without the permission or oversight of the populace.

The second part of the movie focuses on a conspiratory narrative, imagining how the “natural disaster” was conceived. Inspired by Wargames, the new Barbuda story highlighted that the world is a simulation. Humans are using a well-developed system to test how AI will react to random events. Accordingly, real humans will be able to live the best lives possible based on the simulation results.

Afterward, the narrative flipped, as it discussed how AI will replace its traditional role. People are using AI to collect data, and gain feedback from AI simulations, then it influences the real world. But what if AI forces people to collect data in the real world, and enhances the simulation world’s environment?



Conspiracy/Disater capitalism/Hurricane/Simulation

Yuzhuo Wanglandscape designer/digital artist
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Yuzhuo has always enjoyed presenting her work in a more creative way, both in terms of the style of the drawings and the inner logic of the layout. In her future path, she hopes to find more interesting ways to reconcile the connections between different roles within the landscape field and to maintain the stability of a diverse and equitable system.

In her spare time, Yuzhuo loves sketching, cooking and playing video games. She is also working on her own gaming podcast called Pixel Picnic.