Experimental Game Design

Art

Take Your F**king Meds

by | Oct 25, 2022 | ,

the original inspiration for this was a day when I was feeling kind of awful and when I sat down to try and figure out why I realized it was I had missed my meds not only that morning but also for the past two days! I got so angry that I picked up one of my pill bottles and threw it at the wall it bounced and rattled and hit my bed, It was an utterly unhelpful action. but throwing the bottle was rather satisfying. This may have been similar to the feeling the New York dada mush have had in their obsession with capturing motion. the soundness of the New York dada feels so satisfying because there are objects that are not art but by their combination and designation, they become art that is supposed to be played with. The kinetic sculptures are so interesting to me because if nobody touches them then it is not kinetic anymore. whether I was the sound or watching the bottle bounce I dont know but it made sense. It was very kinetically satisfying how the pill bottle bounced. In the spirit of experimentation, I threw it again, less satisfying due to the fact that the cap popped off and my medication went all over my bed (not my finest moment) however that did give me the idea to launch the cap at the bottle like a slingshot. this was not successful. On a table perhaps?  it was like bowling. in all this time I still hadn’t taken my meds. so I paused, took my various medications, and tried to figure out how to gamify this.

the rules are simple;

take your medications every day, on time until none remain in the bottle.

at your leisure separate the cap from the bottle and set the bottle up at the end of the table

place the cap in the launcher and attempt to knock over your empty pill bottle (preferably into a recycling bin).

 

 

Artwork #3: Intervene (Public Artwork)

by | Nov 13, 2021 | ,

Project Description and Setup:

For my intervention, I left a prompt on a canvas in a public space, which allowed for people to interrupt their daily routine to draw whatever they would like.

  1. Find a public space to display a whiteboard or surface to draw on
  2. Write a prompt which invites people to draw or create whatever they please
  3. Return to the board in 24hrs to see what has been created

At first, my idea was to sit on the centennial common with a whiteboard and ask people to come and draw whatever they’d like to. This idea posed a few problems though. Firstly, I had discovered that allowing people to draw without others observing produced much more creative and interesting results than if there had been others around. Secondly, I do not own a whiteboard large enough to get peoples attention without asking them if they would like to participate. Since this is an intervention piece, I did not want to have as much of a role in the users’ experience as I would have had if I were to camp out on centennial. Therefore I modified my original idea so that I could use a larger canvas in a less public and crowded space. Thus, I chose to setup my intervention in a study room in my dorm building (West Village F). This allowed for participants to take a break from studying to draw whatever was on their mind. The results from this were unique to say the least.

Canvas before:

Canvas 24 hours later:

Upon first observing the changes, I noticed that there were not nearly as many drawings as i’d hoped there would be. All though this was saddening, I was still able to appreciate kirby, a volleyball, bubble tea, and a very awful drawing of spongebob dubbed “spong”.

The results were pretty indicative of the current mental state of those residing in my building. Although stressed by workload around midterms and nearing finals, students were still able to have fun in expressing themselves and displaying their work to others.

The Movies (Final)

by | Mar 21, 2016 |

For my intervention I plan on going to the movie theater.  I will pay for a random movie (the movie doesn’t matter). Once the movie starts I will bring out a book and read it throughout the film. Watch how the other movie goers and theater staff react to you reading a book instead watching the movie, which everyone expects.

Documentation: I went to see the 12:35PM show of the Young Messiah at the AMC Loews Theater because I expected there to be a fair number of people at the theater at noon time. I sat in the front row of the theater so that everyone in the theater could see me. I pulled out my book as the movie started and began reading. It was dark so I assumed that it would take other people in the theater some time to notice that I was reading a book. However, it seemed like the other movie goers were far more interested in the movie. I only observed three people who actually seemed to notice that I wasn’t watching the movie, but reading a book. There was a man who was sitting next to me that was the first to notice. He glanced over but did not seem surprised or seem to care at all. A few moments later he went back to enjoying the movie. Half way into the movie two old ladies left the theater. As they walked towards the exit they saw me reading.  They gave me funny looks, but did not question me about it. No one at the theater seemed to really care or notice, which was a little disappointing. I was expecting people to ask questions, but they did not.

 

Young messiah

 

Artist Statement:

The original concept for this intervention was to watch a Netflix movie at the movie theater. However, I realized that that would not be possible as the theater I was in did not have wi-fi. I wanted to do this because I thought it was interesting to see how people reacted to me interacting with a media at a setting created for the specific consumption of a different type of media. In any given social setting people have a certain idea of what is acceptable or the “norm.” I wanted to do the complete opposite of the “norm” and see how people reacted.

I was inspired primarily by the Dada artist who created art out of pre-existing things. I created something new out of a pre-existing process which is similar to what the Dadaist did. I was particularly influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s piece The Fountain. The Fountain was essentially a bathroom urinal that Duchamp sent to an art society contest. The society believed that the urinal was a joke and not really art so they rejected the urinal. The society was expecting more conventional forms of art such as painting or sculptures. However, Duchamp decided to do something unconventional and surprising. It inspired me to do something that was unexpected and unconventional. It inspired me to go against what the expected norms were and do something completely unexpected. In this case the expectation was to watch the movie, but by reading instead I went against the established norms like Duchamp.

Arthur Ganson Video Links

by | Feb 3, 2015 |

Arthur Ganson’s machines are on special display at the MIT Museum in Cambridge (in their “Gestural Engineering” exhibit). He hand-makes the machine aspects of these kinetic sculptures (even the gears are hand-made with welded wire), and they’re fascinating to watch in motion. Brilliant pieces of engineering as art.

Below are a few of my favorites that utilize found objects and create whimsical scenarios with common materials. There are many more, and I highly recommend going to see them at the museum in person.

Machine with Wishbone

Machine with Oil

Machine with Roller Chain

 

 

White Stuff

by | Jan 28, 2015 | ,

Make a freshly-packed snowball.
Throw it at a red brick wall from 10 paces.
Trace the outline of the snow that sticks using colored chalk.
Repeat, using different colors of chalk for each snowball, until the chalk begins to run or you run out of colors.
Leave your art for the world to admire.