Nathaniel

Requirements:

1.Maps app (Google or Apple Maps)

2.Money to buy food

3.Discord

Rules:

1.A player selects a location nearby to get food for, the player must not buy a drink

2.All players enter the food they bought into the discord on server

3/One of the other players enters a drink that they would like to combine with the food on the discord server

4.The player must then try and find said drink, buy it and enjoy their meal with it

5.Pictures of the full meal are then posted on a separate channel on the server for full meals

6.Players then share their reviews of the meal combo on that channel

Artist Statement:

  One of my main inspirations for this piece was the game Uncle Roy All Around You. The premise of Uncle Roy All Around you is that the city in which the player is in serves as the arena in which the game takes place. They are then instructed online to complete a number of tasks to help find Uncle Roy. This puts forward the question “Would you be there for a stranger in need?”, to which most players would answer “Yes”. Although I drew inspiration from this game, I decided to go for a generally lower stakes premise which is allowing your meal to be completed by a stranger. In my game, players allow other players to select the beverage to be drunk together with their meal. In response to the question asked of the players in Uncle Roy All Around You, “Would you let a stranger select the beverage for your next meal”. The answers to this question were less straightforward with players in my playtests asking to what extent is the other player a “stranger” etc. Although I chose food and beverage  to lower the stakes, it creates a paradox in the sense that  lending help in some cases is something people are more willing to do for strangers than allowing to choose what they consume, because of course you wouldn’t eat a random meal or drink a random glass of unknown liquid lying in the subway simply because it could contain all manner of harmful substances. To this end I created the balance between reducing the high pressure environment of a seemingly life and death situation to a more lighthearted one which still bore some weight.

  Another source of inspiration for this game is the plethora of online arcade cooking games in which players are meant to put together different meals when given multiple ingredients and are then scored based on the coherence between the meal they made and the standards that were being requested in the game. However, I took out the scoring aspect as a objective element whereas if certain ingredients or combos don’t match in particular meals then a certain number is given as a score and rather opted for the more subjective route where players write their own reviews based on how they feel after they tasted the meal.

As you can see, all sorts of interesting combinations arise from the game, with some players aiming more for humor while others are genuinely suggesting a combination that they like. Either way, it is great fun and everyone is a winner.

Quick Sample

Required Items:

A Smart phone

2-5 People

Rules:

1. Recording begins (The recording is done by the host)
2. The first player is asked to make a sound
3. All other players are asked to make a sound that they feel would come after the sound from the previous person
4. If it is 2 people playing then they go back to back for 3 rounds, 3 people go for 2 rounds and for 4+ people only one round is required
5. All sounds are played back in the exact order that they were made in

Additional/Optional rules

1. Players choose 1 of 5 words and the theme of the music would be interpreted by the producer for this
2. The sounds are sampled in an instrumental that is created based on the theme

Artist’s Statement:

My main and original source of influence was from the producers RiotUsa and Marc Anthony who use otherwise unconventional samples when producing beats for some of the biggest names in the rap industry. In the course of making this artwork we learnt about Dadaism in class and once again I drew inspiration from the whole movement and slightly reworked the game. Rather than completely focusing on sampling the sounds and incorporating them in a beat or some form of music I thought about how it would work out if just the sounds arranged in order would work out. Thus, my decision to make the last two rules optional. Giving the participants the freedom to decide the length and nature of the sounds they make allows for a rather more interesting spectacle and in the end gives an idea on what the participants view as a cohesive piece since they are aiming to try and make sounds that follow up on those made by the previous person.

An interesting thing that happened in my third playtest was the choice of sounds from my participants. They decided to keep repeating the same sound and this made a final sound that was more music like. This brought up an unplanned situation which displayed the various results that could come up as a result of the game. Coincidentally these participants chose the theme of afro and I thought that the genre of afrobeats would fit this theme perfectly.

Here is the original sound:

Original Sound

And the sound after being sampled into the afrobeat:

Sampled Sound

Score:

1. Play checkers
2. Pieces can be of any shape, they just have to be somewhat Identical and of the same color
3. Pieces can be stacked on top of each other regardless of whose they are
4. Pieces that are stacks cannot be captured
5. The game ends when there are 7 (Stacked and/or unstacked) pieces left on the board

Preparation:

1. A classic 8×8 chessboard or any 8×8 square grid is used
2. Each player uses 12 pieces
3. All pieces must be of the same color
4. All pieces must be placed at the default positions as used in regular checkers
5. 2 players are needed

Artist’s Statement:

The score for Cheesy Checkers was inspired by Yoko Ono and Ludo which is a derivative of the Indian game Pachisi. As the name implies, most of the rules and mechanics are derived from the standard version of checkers. However, in this case rather than following the standard practice of two players going against each other as opponents with the aim of winning the the game of checkers, players are instead working together in tandem to make a piece of art. Persons who follow the score and participate in the activity are in the end more of an artist as compared to being competitors. I feel like although this takes a slightly different route, we can still seem to explore the intentions of Yoko Ono when she was creating white chess. Although in her case there was a bit more freedom for participators in my case, a few more rigid rules purposefully steer the game in a particular direction. For instance, stating that pieces can be stacked regardless of which player claims them and also the instruction that stacked pieces cannot be captured add a completely new element to the game. This in turn focuses more on the collaborative aspect of this score necessitating the communication between players.

The stacking aspect of the game was gleaned from Ludo. In the case of Ludo stacking ones pieces ensures safety and is used as a defensive measure. In this case not only does it do that but once again it leads to cooperation because of the nature of the other rules.

Pre-game Board

Players proceed to move pieces as thought it were normal checkers

Pieces can be stacked

Game ends when there are 7 pieces left

It is interesting to see how different players interpreted the rules and intended to collaborate with each other. One playtest resulted in a case where one player was still adamantly trying to win, hence keeping track of which pieces were “his” and going about the game as though it were a regular game of checkers. This ultimately failed because his “opponent” forcefully collaborated with him by stacking some of her pieces on top of his stacks.

The patterns created by both participators are also interesting, from 3 play tests no 2 patterns were remotely similar which came as a surprise to me. The potential art created from this game is fascinating and hopefully I can find more intriguing interpretations of my score