Miner 75
Autonomous Mining Cart and BIR Design
2019 - 2020
Through text and images the design and considerations of Miner 75 is detailed as follows. Special thanks to Colter Wehmeier for design consultation.
Some film/narrative set up
In 1896, as the US Government was surveying new land aquisitions it stumbled upon a mysterious Resource thriving in the desert. It was noted that the Resource had begun to consume local homesteads and flora. Immenently the US Government established the Bureau of Intangible Resources to manage and contain the affected land. Once the BIR realized the resource was alive and curious about the world, it took preventative measures to impose control over it. In the early 20th century, a technician with a degaussing gun realized electrical field charges would stifle the resource, preventing its vining and corruption behaviors. With further experimentation the BIR found that through a carefully governed degaussing process they were able to refine the Resource into various types of matter. In order to safely transport and refine the Resource the BIR developed a series of tools that can assist in the extraction and refining processes, one of these tools is the AMC (Autonomous Mining Cart). Eventually, the BIR’s experiments led to the creation of the atomic bomb. For decades the BIR continued this process to develop numerous military technologies maintaining the US’s position as a world superpower.
To see how this was made check out the
Miner 75 Prop Fabrication Page
Autonomous Mining Cart and BIR Design
2019 - 2020
Through text and images the design and considerations of Miner 75 is detailed as follows. Special thanks to Colter Wehmeier for design consultation.
Some film/narrative set up
In 1896, as the US Government was surveying new land aquisitions it stumbled upon a mysterious Resource thriving in the desert. It was noted that the Resource had begun to consume local homesteads and flora. Immenently the US Government established the Bureau of Intangible Resources to manage and contain the affected land. Once the BIR realized the resource was alive and curious about the world, it took preventative measures to impose control over it. In the early 20th century, a technician with a degaussing gun realized electrical field charges would stifle the resource, preventing its vining and corruption behaviors. With further experimentation the BIR found that through a carefully governed degaussing process they were able to refine the Resource into various types of matter. In order to safely transport and refine the Resource the BIR developed a series of tools that can assist in the extraction and refining processes, one of these tools is the AMC (Autonomous Mining Cart). Eventually, the BIR’s experiments led to the creation of the atomic bomb. For decades the BIR continued this process to develop numerous military technologies maintaining the US’s position as a world superpower.
To see how this was made check out the
Miner 75 Prop Fabrication Page
Cart and BIR Design Film Stills
VFX work by Christian Pepper and Colter Wehmeier
Cart and BIR Design Concept Art
All concept art by Christian Pepper, unless otherwise noted.
The BIR’s facility and equipment design draws from corporate modernism and plays heavily into modularity and mid century Cold War aesthetics. The BIR exerts control through its continued refinement of the Resource. Although the Resoure posseses many potentials beyond just military technology, the BIR is blind to these opportunities and continues along its set path. The design of BIR equipment is drawn from the same modularity and obsessive control that the BIR exerts as each module of the Cart is labeled explicitely (power drive, null field generator, and resource containment module), organized, and catalogued. In the same way employees of the BIR are dealt with in the same reductionist manner (Miner, Refiner, Proofer, etc.). It is this reduction in individual human qualities that the Miner response to. He forms a relationship with his tools, projecting some of his displeasure with his position onto them as human characters.
Cart and BIR Design References
All reference images downloaded from Google
The BIR evokes a sense of unknowability and oddity by rooting its design in the high strangeness of the US Southwest. Numerous sources from the Cold War ear, US Black Projects, Corporate modern era of architecture, and US Land Management fit neatly into the realms of atomic anxiety and Area 51-esque that the film tries to evoke. Finally, the language of mining, extraction, and land management (US Department of the Interior) is often used by the BIR in addressing the work at the Zone. The BIR draws from all these elements to create a aura that is even stranger than that of Area 51.
