The Engine Room is a reality show by MTV and HP that is open to digital artists all over the world. Casting is still open at the website until June 30.
16 people will be flown to New York City commencing on or about July 18, 2008 through on or about August 16, 2008 (collectively, the “Filming Dates”). They will compete in teams of 4 participants each for prizes by creating animations, websites, short films, sound mixes and more in the “Engine Room”.
The last reality show I’ve seen that involved website creation was The Next Internet Millionaire, hosted by Joel Comm and shown online. But it was more about marketing, of course.
Here, when Engine Room says “websites”, it’s probably referring to bandwidth-heavy, music-blaring, special effects “skip intro” screens leading into arbitrary interfaces with crazy navigations. Purely made in Flash. No space for web standards, image optimization, or accessibility here.
I’m not too happy whenever web design gets included into the category of motion design. Moving pictures and sound have an entirely different interactivity compared to websites. Do they even understand what user experience is?
And reality shows tend to make the brain rot. Nevertheless, showing off one’s skills under extreme pressure is always interesting, admirable even.