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ARTIST’S STATEMENT: In creating Score for Public Posting, I decided to explore the power of language to act upon itself. The score, a simple sheet of paper reading (boldly), “When you read this, please obscure one letter with paper, ink, hole, etc.,” contains its own destruction within itself. When left for long enough in a public place, the score grows gradually less and less legible, until its original meaning is impossible to discern.

Now, it is surprisingly easy to create a self-destructive public posting. Were I to print any number of curse words in bold and tape them up, they would surely come down quick. The essence of this piece, then, is not only to self-destruct, but to self-destruct slowly, and in a way that interacts with its audience.

The art object itself is a simple 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of printer paper, printed in bold 64pt Copperplate font. I chose a simple presentation because I wanted a viewer’s attention to be focussed on the words themselves, not their medium. The paper and ink serve only a tangential role in the score’s self-destruction. The power is in the words. Copperplate font is a simple, legible font with enough spacing between letters to allow for precise elimination of a single character.

I believe that this piece fits well within the framework of Fluxus for several reasons. First, it is playful: the piece invites interaction from its audience. Second, it possesses musicality: the “art” eventually produced is the mangled sentence that results after a dozen or so observers have acted upon the piece.  Finally, it is easily mass-producible and distributable: anyone with access to a printer could perform this piece; it does not involve an elitist barrier to entry.

In creating this piece, I was particularly inspired by the self-destructive machines of Fluxus and Yoko Ono’s ability to harness the power of language and words to enact change upon a reader.

In the future, I am interested in exploring the opposite of this piece: works of language that theoretically self-propagate. Consider, for instance, a score consisting of the words: “Repeat this sentence to the next friend you see.”

DOCUMENTATION:

Piece 1: Curry Cafeteria:

Original materials: printed paper, hole

Final materials: printed paper, hole

This piece has acquired a few extra holes in the days since I posted it, but no other modifications. Coincidentally, this is the only piece still posted.

Piece 2: Ryder Common Space

Original materials: printed paper, fire

Transitional materials: printed paper, fire, hole, ink, graphite, paper

Final materials: hole

I consider this piece to be my most successful. It stayed posted for almost two days and acquired a good half-dozen modifications of various types. It vanished last night, unfortunately.

Piece 3: Park Drive

Original materials: printed paper, ink

Unfortunately, this piece disappeared overnight before I was able to document any changes.

Piece 4: Centennial Common

Original materials: printed paper, leaf, tape

Transitional materials: printed paper, leaf, tape, hole, graphite, fire

Final materials: printed paper, leaf, tape, hole, graphite, fire, wind

This piece acquired a few traditional modifications, as well as one unorthodox one: the lower left corner appears to have been set on fire! Perhaps someone meant to burn away a letter and missed horrendously.

On a windy morning, I found the piece gone. I like to think that it’s still blowing from place to place and gathering modifications.

The Bush Troll

Overview:

Throughout this course, I’ve consistently started with concepts far too difficult to realize without the ability to code or create digital games or art forms. For this final project, I sought the simplest realization of the idea in terms of experience. I started with an IRL survival game, inspired by games like Fortnite Battle Royale, PUBG and Town of Salem, but also non-video games like Avalon (board game) and variations of Mafia (as played in grade schools) and Assassin (as played in boarding school and college).

Focused on simplicity, I declined any necessary artifacts for this game beyond the set of rules. My initial concept seemed fun, but as soon as I started trying to play different variations, it grew increasingly more awkward and felt more pervasive as I kept trying to deliver candy unnoticed, which took away too much from the conceptual experience in mind. Therefore, I destroyed the intervention involved in the original idea, and replaced it with a conceptual game based on the utility offered by elementary school versions of Mafia.

I tried to recall as many instances of the game as possible, each offering relief from the academic and social pressures, the experience enhanced by our knowledge of each other and our personalities. This game follows a similar schema, in which the player experience would be enhanced by playing with friends, and the game itself can be played anywhere. I couldn’t recall if we used the different roles across elementary school variations, like a doctor/medic or more mystical roles like a vampire or witch, but, as Fortnite Battle Royale was the original inspiration, I based all roles and the conceptual atmosphere entirely on their map and player base.

This particular conceptualization was inspired by Fortnite’s unfortunately high graphical demand that hinders many players from playing on PC. I never had a lot of gamer friends, so as I pitched the game to friend group after friend group, I started to realize how limited the player base could be simply based on graphic intensity. In Fortnite’s case, they actually offer cross-platform gaming, but I’ve transcribed this practice in the form of a conceptual game that requires no artifacts, only knowledge of the rules.

Rules:

* = team

• 6 Players
• 1 Narrator (Moderator/Game Master)
  • 7 total
• 1 Sniper
  • Attacks every day
• 1 Bush
  • Sees everything that happens at night
  • The all-knowing troll
• 1 Medic*
  • Protects one player every day
  • Can protect yourself
• 1 Protector*
  • Armored unit that must suffer two shots to be killed
  • Medic only affects the lethal shot (second shot)
• 2 Fraggers*
  • The average competitor

The game begins with players sitting in a roughly circular orientation, eyes closed, and one fist held out. The narrator must select a player to represent the Sniper, the Bush, and the Medic, with the remaining players as Fraggers, aka regular players. The narrator will place her hand on the shoulder of each selected player; then, the medic will raise their thumb (thumbs up sign), the sniper will point a thumb down (thumbs down sign), the protector will open the fist, and the bush opens her eyes to see all roles

The Scene:

Welcome to The Bush Troll! You six are the only remaining players in the Battle Royale. One meticulous team has managed to survive without any casualties and constructed a small base, hindered only by their average gear and position on low ground. Hidden in the mountains rests a lonely sniper, hoping to pick off remaining survivors, but can only afford to shoot once per day to avoid being caught. Finally, there remains another survivor, hidden in one of infinitely possible bushes across the map. Armed with mediocre equipment, and stranded alone on the island, the Bush has no hopes for victory, but sees everything that happens around the map, and uses this knowledge to deter players from reaching their goals as much as possible.

Narrator Script Schema/Example:

1. Everybody close your eyes and stick out a fist. If I touch your shoulder, you are the Sniper; please point your thumb down as if doing a thumbs down sign. If I touch your shoulder, you are the medic; please point your thumb up. If I touch your shoulder, you are the Protector; please open your fist. If I touch your shoulder, you are the Bush Troll; please open your eyes and see the map. As the first not of the Top 6 has begun, medic please point at the player you wish to protect. Sniper please select your target. Bush, close your eyes. Everyone lower your fists, the night is over.
2. Last night… player was killed/player was shot but recovered thanks to immediate treatment from the medic/He shot a bush!
   • The game is played on a day/night cycle. At night, the medic protects a player, the sniper shoots a player, and the bush watches it all unfold, hoping to delay the game as much as possible. During the day, the democratic group of survivors vote on who to shoot down, and must have a majority vote among players (>50%)
   • The Sniper wins by eliminating all players
   • The Fraggers/Medic/Protector win by eliminating the Sniper, and win as a team (dead players still earn a victory if their teammates later succeed)
   • The Bush does not win, but can create a stalemate if the last one alive with a non-Sniper
3. Day cycle begins: Voting for the firing squad
   1. Voting players to death revolves around information, and information is tied directly to the medic and protector; the first version of this game lacked both of these special roles, added due to a serious lack of direction during the day (voting period). By adding the medic and protector, players can find guaranteed good guys, and offer a lot more information geared towards identification of the sniper
4. Night cycle begins again: Everyone please close your eyes; bush open your eyes and see the map, medic please point at the player you wish to protect; sniper please point at your target; please lower your fingers, bush close your eyes; everyone, the night is over.
5. Repeat

Author’s Note:

Much of the difficulty in creating this game revolved around creating unique roles that can search for information while sticking to the same themes and concepts that surround survival games. To that end, I appropriated many of the game mechanics involved in the games Mafia, Avalon (board game), and Town of Salem. Specifically, in Avalon players hold out a fist with either thumb up or no thumb up to indicate to the all-knowing player to which team each member belongs. From Mafia, I specifically wanted the sense of relief it brought during grade school, and focused on the social aspects of the game; how personal interactions and relationships enhanced the experience, especially with regard to playstyles, friend groups, and the idea of tells. Town of Salem is probably my favourite variation of the game, consisting of myriad roles and game modes; I played a lot of ToS to understand the dynamic between special roles and information.

Moreover, I wanted this game to conceptually and thematically reference Fortnite’s Battle Royale. Throughout the creation of this game, I held snapshot images in my head of every relatable interaction I had in the game. I conclude this final iteration with a selection of images that represent many of the thematic concepts I attempted to transcribe into The Bush Troll.

The Bush:

The Protector (The one with jelly/shields):

Cover the Medic!

I CAN’T FIND THE SNIPER

Notes on the Process:

The core gaming concept in The Bush Troll is the idea of taking what you get. In competitive games especially, there are often mistakes one simply shouldn’t make, but that does not necessarily mean they don’t occur. I recently made one of those mistakes in a League of Legends scrim, and my teammate said “… in competition we take what we get.” In terms of competitive gaming, this is probably the best advice I’ve ever received; I’m a very emotional player, and it’s especially important (and difficult) for me to keep my composure. Therefore, I landed on the Mafia/Town of Salem style, which epitomizes the concept of taking what you get. Despite all the conversation, all arguments, all the lies and all the facts, ultimately only a few can impact the current situation (who dies and who lives).

Much like Fortnite’s Battle Royale, players tend to simply take what they can get. It is a misconception that everyone is playing to win; more often than not, players drop onto the island without any more direction than to scavenge equipment and/or kill the nearby players. Some of the most popular streamers have developed their appeal around their combat skill, dropping into games with the sole purpose of eliminating as many players as possible. In contrast, one of the most gifted players, I’m the Myth, boasting a dangerously positive win rate, has no more than a few hundred views on YouTube compared to the 20-100 thousand watching the other’s content. In short, players are more interested in watching gifted players kill insurmountable numbers of other players rather than watch the player with a near perfect strategy.

Finally, I want to address the in-between concepts I scrapped while attempting to realize my alternate survival concept. The most prominent was a White Chess inspired variation based on Bobby Fischer’s Chess960 – an alternate game mode that he argued took more skill as opposed to the rote memorization characteristic of standard chess. Drawing on the idea I pitched for Handicapped Chess, in which I wanted a digital version of chess in which only one player knew whose pieces belonged to whom, and various penalties for the other player when she attempted to move the wrong piece. The only non-digital version I could imagine used an all-white chess board with markings on the back of one set of pieces, but the angle of the board and player positions proved too difficult to orient (limited playability).

The survival version had all players start as pawns, capturing scattered bishops, rooks, and knights, each representative of weapons, and in turn using them against your opponents. Ultimately, I failed to find a balanced set up of the board that both mimicked the map in Fortnite Battle Royale and presented a balanced set of move options – I lacked the chess knowledge necessary to devise this sort of game out of standard pieces, although I plan to return to the idea of using chess pieces and tactics to teach game theory and mechanics.

Last, the second variation of the IRL survival game I called Viral Survival (previous post) died because it failed to generate the sensation and emotion that drives the survival games on which this project was based. Version 2 specifically addressed the candy mechanic and win conditions, but playtesting grew increasingly difficult and felt more pervasive as time went on. In short, a Battle Royale is not meant to engender general discomfort, but rather specific sensations related to control (like agency in life) combined with an element of chance comprised of a combination of player interaction and RNG (in The Bush Troll, RNG is represented by the randomness in decision-making behind the Sniper).

This first trailer gives a very brief look at the game but sets up a quick but haunting atmosphere and shows a lot of Senua’s inner thoughts and what she hears. The second trailer is much more in-depth and sets up the atmosphere in a deeper and heavier manner, and explains the reason for her journey.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a cinematic-esque horror adventure/action video game where the main character, Senua, embarks on a personal journey through a  demonic underworld made up of her manifestations of reality and her mind. It is a direct look (for a gamer) into the realm of psychosis and other mental disorders as the biggest part of the game is the visuals and the atmosphere it provides. It gives a very haunting atmosphere as if there are always voices around you, clamoring. There is always something there, you see things that aren’t. It is quite disorienting and can be very brutal, especially when the story is combined with this use of mental illness. The game was actually developed in conjunction with neuroscientists and a few diagnosed as psychotic to generate as real as a world as possible built around it.

This is a very radical style of game as well as a very creative approach. It takes a different approach from the traditional style of game which tends to not go near more concrete science or mental related things. This one embraces it wholeheartedly and builds a world around mental illness. This game is a III game (triple I) and so there has been a lot of effort put into this game to portray that feeling of paranoia and fear, simply into the visuals and the atmosphere. Also, the voices that constantly talk to your head (as surround sound) helps to add more to this frightening experience.

The-Stanley-Parable

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186880524