We'll start here:
Ice Floe (2011), Wendy Jacob
and end here:
Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism (2007) Josiah McElheny
And, oh, in between . . . . .
DIGITAL NARRATIVE/MFA
EXPERIENCE/Lori Landay
Today we will:
1 1) Think about the museum as a space, and examine the experience of being in 3D space.
2) Consider how digital media and digital narrative
are used in the museum.
3) Play/create some games, or some game elements
(easy on the ilinx!) There are some below
to try out. Then, in your group, come up
with at least one of your own. Take some
pictures (stop if a guard tells you to).
Upload them to the blog, or do some other clever thing with them as part
of your game.
INTRODUCTION:
Contemporary Art, Interactive Experiences, & Wendy Jacobs’s “Ice Floe”
PART 1: APPLYING
CALLOIS’ CATEGORIES
Choose one or two partners.
Agôn: It’s you and your
partner against the other teams. Who
will find the clue under the Edward Hopper painting, A Room in Brooklyn, first?
Follow the clue for the next steps.
Alea: Whose
birthdate is the lowest number? You are
the team leader for the next 5 minutes.
Mimicry: You are a secret agent, under cover, now with
your mission directive from the woman in the room in Brooklyn. Find the man who is watching her. One of your team is an eager, young recruit,
another is an older, jaded more experienced hack. Anyone else is someplace in the middle and
hiding a secret. Go to the next place and
argue about how to proceed for 1-2 minutes.
Ilinx: Oh, it is
so tempting . . . but we are not going to do much with this one. You can spin around outside by the giant
baby heads on your way home if you feel this is too much of a copout. Spin and look a giant baby head in the eye.
Think about what is paidia, free-form open play, and what is
ludus, rule-based play. How does one
shift between the two?
PART 2: Play a game.
Start by 11:45. Choose one of the
following as a starting point and do the game activity.
Heist! There’s
been a heist! Because of the lockdown as
soon as it was discovered, the thief , a master of disguise, wasn’t able to
escape from the museum, and is still hiding , cleverly concealed as a
sculpture. Find the culprit by finding
a sculpture with one of your names on the tag.
Color Match: You
are a collector of rare paintings and if you can find a match for the colors in
your paintings in any gallery, you will donate that painting to the museum. Each person choose five colors by the next
five colors you see by looking to your right (and NOT at a painting!) Then go into a gallery and see who finds a
painting with all 5 colors first.
Art Talk: Pick a
gallery to start, and each player chooses an artist to role play. Discuss the paintings in that gallery, then
move to another gallery.
Find the _______: In the following order, find in the art: a
fish, a red flower, leaves on the ground, a bare shoulder, a horse, a musical
instrument, an abstract with blue and green.
Random tour: Politely ask someone what their favorite
painting is in the museum. It can be
someone who works there. Go to that
painting. Read the note on the wall
until it mentions another painter. Go
and find a painting by that painter. If
that note doesn’t mention another painter, or if the painting doesn’t have a
note, go to the next painting in that room that does. If you can’t find a painting by the mentioned
painter, find one by a painter with the same first letter of the last
name. Now look at the painting directly across from
whatever one you just found.
Movement: Start on
the third floor of the American wing in any gallery. Choose the painting or object with the most
red in it. Walk 15 steps to your right
(or your left if right is not an option).
Find the nearest staircase. Go
down one level. Find the object with the
most blue that you can see. Walk away
from that object, 3 steps forward, 3 steps to the right or left (choose one
direction and stick to it) until you find another interesting object. Look for the most yellow object in the
room. Walk 5 steps forward, 3 left or
right until you find another interesting object.
PART 3: Your own game.
Start by 12:15.
Now, with your partner/s, design your own game that takes
place in the space of the museum. You can stay in the American wing or go to the
Contemporary Gallery back in the Linde Wing.
Think about game objects (including the players), their properties,
behaviors, and the relationships among the objects. Consider the system dynamics (how much
information do the players have about the system? What aspects of the system do
they control? Feedback? How does it affect the game?) Does your game use technology like augmented
reality? What kinds of devices? Is it an alternate reality game?
Meet back at the Linde Wing, 2nd floor,
Contemporary Gallery at the big mirrored cube piece towards the back of that
gallery at 12:30, then we’ll go downstairs to get coats and head out in time
for you to be back on campus at time for your next class.
