This research does not aim to provide a comprehensive historical overview of cinema, gaming, or digital media in their entirety. Instead, it focuses on specific intersections and convergences between cinematic illusion, gaming technologies, and data visualization—particularly as they relate to the development of hybrid digital media works within the design field.

The project is delimited in the following ways:

• Discursive Research: Responsible Design, Critical Making, Art-Science collaborations, and Transdisciplinary approaches will help to conceptualize, develop and research alternatives to the yet dominant systems in the design industry; to shape and disseminate the new narratives that are called for; to explore and experiment with alternative (hybrid) formats and materials; with the aim to explore innovative paths in creating and making to further develop the Crossdiciplinary domain of Animation and Interactivity.
• Technological Scope: The investigation emphasizes select tools and devices; such as game engines, analog video synthesizers, and early optical toys, that have had a significant influence on hybrid design practices. It does not cover the full technical evolution of these media but highlights key examples that illustrate conceptual and aesthetic
• Temporal Scope: The research focuses on developments from the early 20th century to the present, with a specific emphasis on late 20th to early 21st-century movements, including net art, machinima, glitch aesthetics, and the resurgence of analog
• Cultural Context: While drawing from global examples, the project primarily examines Western and internet-based digital media cultures, especially where design practices intersect with independent creative production and subcultural aesthetics (e.g., the demoscene, net.art communities).
• Design Focus: The project is situated within the design discourse, with particular attention to interaction design, visual aesthetics, and participatory media. It does not attempt to make claims about broader film theory, game studies, or data science in isolation, but rather their overlap as they inform design innovation and media
• Creative Practices over Commercial Industry: The emphasis is on experimental, self-directed, and subversive practices rather than mainstream commercial media production.

While industry tools and techniques are discussed, the focus is on how designers repurpose these for independent or offbeat creative outcomes.