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Rules/Gameplay: The goal of the game is to rebuild the destroyed city. Each building has a manpower (people) requirement before they can be built, has a predetermined time of construction, and produces a manpower boost upon completion.  There will a list available that describes each building’s req., construction time (in minutes), and payoffs in detail. Any number of players (rec. 2-3) may play.

Documentation:

This is a screenshot of some of the first buildings that would be rebuilt. It lists the manpower requirement, the construction time, and the benefits that come with completion.

I have included images of the game being played. They images depict the game in its early stages,

Artist Statement:

My game is intended to simulate the difficulty of rebuilding after a war. My goal was to show how catastrophic a war can be and that it is significantly harder to rebuild something once it is destroyed. The inspiration for this game comes from a previous antiwar game that I made and also from Yoko Ono’s White Chess Set. My previous game was about destruction from war. I think of this game a successor because it is solely about what comes after war. I also believe White Chess to be a powerful antiwar game that advocates peace. I modeled my game to also be an antiwar game. However, my game uniquely concentrates on the aftermath of a war and the difficulties of rebuilding after such a catastrophe.

My game also uses appropriation as the game itself uses a ready-made puzzle as a playing board. The puzzle was purchased online. As the players rebuild the city, they also build the puzzle at the same time. It is like an art piece within an art piece, which I think is really unique as well.

The idea behind “The Church Of Smart” was to use practice of how church will practice street evangelism by giving out pamphlets to people passing by on the street. Often times people are annoyed by the handouts and will quickly throw them away or not accept them as all as they expect it to be the normal religious information that they are not interested.

I decided to make a pamphlet that would have information that was not religious at all, and would have pieces of information or tips that could interest people, or that they would find funny.

My pamphlet was for The Church Of Smart, or TCoS.

I chose a location on the street to do my “evangelism” near a church and between to trash cans, each within about 50 feet, I also did this on Sunday. I did not have video or photographs because I was by myself and I felt holding a camera could have had a poor impact on what I was trying to do, people seeing a camera would emediate you realize I was not just a normal street evangelist.

Inspiration draws directly from the idea in Dada that the focus of the artists was not about creating visually pleasing objects, but on creating art that conflicted with social norms, and generated questions about how society functioned.

Using handouts is also rooted in the movements heavy use of print, and things that could be mass produced.

Required Materials:

• At least one full Jenga set
• Two rubber bands per player
• People

Rules and Instructions: This game can be played by 2-3 players.

1. Split the number of Jenga pieces evenly among all players.
2. Each player will now construct a fortification out of Jenga pieces. The player will also set one piece aside as the “ammo piece.”[BUILD PHASE]
3. The players will take turns attempting to destroy each other’s Jenga fortification with their “ammo piece.” The “ammo piece” will be fired at the defending fortification by using two rubber bands. (Use the rubber bands to create a slingshot with your index and middle fingers, then proceed to place the ammo piece in the rubber band slingshot and fire). [BATTLE PHASE]
4. Any Jenga piece that falls off of the defender’s fortification during the Battle Phase is now considered the attacker’s war spoil and the attacker takes possession of those piece(s).[PLUNDER PHASE]
5.  If any player loses possession of all their pieces then that player is eliminated.
6. Each player will continue to destroy  each other’s forts and rebuilding their own after it is attacked.  This cycle will continue unless if all the surviving players agree to make peace with one another and share all the pieces or until one player is left standing.

Note: Please do not use Jenga pieces to hit people .

Documentation:

The build phase

The battle phase

The plunder phase

Artist Statement

                        Throughout the Dada art movement there has been a consistent theme of anti-war sentiment that is represented through many of the artists’ work such as John Heartfield and Rudolf Schlichter’s “Prussian Archangel” and Kurt Schwitter’s “The Holy Affliction.” This theme served as my main inspiration of my game “Jenga Warz.” The game’s purpose is to simulate the never ending cycle of war and the destruction war brought.

Kurt Schwitter’s Merzbau piece “The Holy Infliction” represented his own feelings towards World War One. The piece is a chaotic combination of various objects attached to a human manikin which is reference to the many soldiers who had limbs amputated and got prosthetics limbs. Another striking feature of this piece is the German word for “insanity” written on a portion of the Merzbau sculpture. The violence, suffering, and carnage associated with the war did not make sense to Schwitter. I modeled this idea that war does not make sense into my game. I implemented a system in which the players battle over Jenga pieces (used to simulate resources or land) seemingly for no reason. A player may gain some Jenga pieces from attacking an enemy player, but they quickly lose it as another player will want those new pieces from themselves. The point was to show that the reasoning behind most, and probably all wars, are pointless as the gains are not eternal.

Many Dada artists were known for cutting out bits of newspapers and other texts to use in their art. Kurt Schwitter and Raoul Hausmann are examples of Dada artists who implemented this into their artwork. To me the cutting of newspapers symbolizes the destruction and fragmentation of the world they once knew. To me it represents the fragmentation of everything that once made sense to them in the world. The world was literally torn apart by the war. To model this idea of destruction in my game I literally implemented destruction. The instructions of my game stipulate that each player builds a fort out of Jenga pieces. Each fort takes time to build but an enemy is allowed to attack it and potentially destroy it. It is destroyed much like the world the Dadaist knew before the world was destroyed. My ultimate goal for this game and assignment was to reflect those ideas that I feel like the Dada artists were reacting to at the time.

Materials: Chess Board, Chess Pieces

 
Optional: Paper and pencil to keep track of the movement sets.

 
Key: Basic Piece means a Pawn, Rook, Knight, or Bishop.

Rules
1. Set up the chess board as if you were going to play a standard game of Chess.
2. Black goes first.
3. Follow all the standard rules of chess unless stated otherwise.
4. If you are the first player to move a Basic Piece, then you can choose what Basic Piece rule set it follows. This holds true for both players.
5. Instead of moving a piece on your turn you way change the movement pattern of a Basic Piece to that of another Basic Piece.

Documentation
NOTE: I realize now that my documentations looks like rambling. I should have used proper grid coordinates to talk about the moves.
1. Player A and B sit down. Both A and B understand Chess, but are not experts.
2. Player A opens by moving his Pawn as a Rook to the center of the board.
3. Player B captures the Pawn with his own Pawn.
4. Both players do this back and forth for a bit laughing at the novelty of it.
5. After several turns, B decides to move his Bishop as a Bishop to capture a pawn.
6. A moves a Pawn forward.
7. B says Pawns move like Knights.
8. A uses a Pawn to capture a Bishop.
9. B lowers his head in shame for not seeing the play.
10. B captures a Pawn with his Pawn.
11. A moves his Bishop to the halfway line.
12. B moves a Pawn in to range of capturing a Bishop.
13. A says Pawns move like Pawns.
14. B says Pawns move like Rooks.
15. A captures a Queen with his Pawn.
16. B realizes he is far worse at Chess then he thought.
17. A laughs and says it’s only because hseCs is so different.
18. B realizes he is in Check and says Knights move like Rooks and takes out the Pawn.
19. A takes out a Pawn with his Pawn.
20. B realizes he has had A in check since he made Pawns move like Rooks.
21. Both players realize they are idiots.
22. B wins.

 
Artist Statement
This was an idea I had kicking around in my brain for a while. Not this exact piece, but the core concept behind it. What I really wanted to do with this game was to create a version of a game that throws all preconceived notions on its head. A game in which a master could still find something shocking and novel. I eventually settled on Chess because it is a classical game. Everyone has played it at some point, and most understand how it works. This made it so that I didn’t have to teach the basic mechanics to players. I could strive solely for what I wanted.
During the first iteration of this game I had it so that all pieces could move like any piece. This lead to all pieces becoming Queens or Knights, and this was not the result I wanted. In my second iteration I decided to make it so that a Movement set could only be on one type of piece at a time. When I tested this, players were confused and had trouble keeping track. This was what lead me to compromise between the two and make the current rule set. While it might still need a bit of tweaking, for the most part I think it is quite engaging, and as can be seen in the documentation leads to quite some interesting games.
My biggest inspiration for this project was the concept of the fluxus movement. I liked the idea of constant change and uniqueness. Just like most of the fluxus pieces we looked at, each game of hseCs is novel. I was also inspired by Marcel Duchamp. Not by any of his pieces in particular (though I do love the idea of Portrait of Chess Players), but by his fascination with Chess. His fascination with the game was what made me think of it as a good base for my concept.