Oral reference: Krzysztof Wodiczko

1. 1.http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/wodiczko/index.html
2. 2.http://architecture.mit.edu/people/profiles/prwodicz.html
3. 3.http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_4_39/ai_68697138
4. 4.http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2003/2003-December/030550.html
5. 5.http://art-history.concordia.ca/eea/artists/wodiczko.html
6. 6.http://www.artstechsymposium.utah.edu/wodiczko.html
7. 7.http://artandcommitment.umn.edu/wodiczko.html
8. 8.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzysztof_Wodiczko
9. 9.http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Krzysztof/krzy.htm
10. 10.http://agglutinations.com/archives/000035.html
11. 11.http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/wodiczko/clip1.html

Project demo

Demo

I will base the system for the game on a cellular automata build for DFAR 398c:

Code base

Lecture 8 – Virtual reality / gaming

In the first text, the author Olivier Grau introduce the concept of virtual reality from the beginning of the 20th century to present. From the simple starting idea of artistic immersion in a piece, he explain how the idea of creating a ‘’virtual reality’’ evolved through different medium. While the basic conceptual idea was cherished by artist trying to create immersion for there piece, with time, it interwoven with different disciplines and become centre of interest to peoples from different circles. As technology is often a solution to produce better immersion, creating a ‘’virtual reality’’ became with time of interest to scientist. Military have also developed an interest in virtual reality for different military application with times and also pushed it further. Later, development of ‘’virtual reality’’ also caught attention of the economic circle. The interest and investment from all these different circle helped push research and development in the field of virtual reality in different directions. In the final part of the text present the important and recent impact of computer on the development of better virtual reality. With popularity of computer the next step in development of better virtual reality appears to be the symbiosis of machine and man, a concept cherished by major early computer scientist. All in all, Olivier Grau present virtual reality as a concept of great popularity and interest.

In the second reading of the week, Celia Pearse present and introduce the recent field of video game theories. The author explain some basic misunderstanding of the field and present some of it basic concepts. In the text, videogames seems to impose themselves as a new medium because of there original narrative. Later in the text, the author introduce this new narrative through the example of two popular games (‘’everquest’’ and ‘’the sims’’). After reading the second text, we realize how many concept of videogame are close to some goal of virtual reality initial concept. Videogames impose themselves as one the best contemporary virtual reality.

In conclusion, I would like to lightly give my disapproval of Celia Pearse inappropriate mocking of Harrison Ford (the male model of my youth) actor skills. (very good reading the one on videogames)

Project Proposal - Technical Outline

Intro:

My goal for the project is to create a highly immersive game based on simple game design concepts. To try and reach the body attention in all possible ways, the gameplay will be centred on the use of visual, sound and stimulation of player kinetic movement. The visual will be simple in form without narrative connotation but still rich in contrast and colour to stimulate player attention. Sound will also be very rich and will be used as the central "control" structure to stimulate player addiction. The gameplay will also stimulate movement. Since I want to focus on design and not on learning a new programming language, the game will be developed using Macromedia flash, a software I already know well. My main work will be in designing an addictive and immersive gameplay.

Software:

Macromedia Flash - main structure
Photoshop - graphic
Sound Forge - sound

Project Proposal - "Reach Korean addiction!"

"REACH KOREAN ADDICTION!"

Since my entrance in the computational art program my main interest as been game design. To this time, I can say my main interest in game design was the exploration of narrative (see references) as I consider myself first and foremost a storyteller. However, recently and in part because of some topic explored in this class, I have become interested in the basic concept of game design and the exploration of a simple physical immersion and interaction. Also, for this class final project, I would like to develop a game with a very light narrative and a emphasis on basic physical immersion from the user.

My first reason of interest for basic game design concept is the lasting popularity of early videogames. While many of these early videogames cannot compare with current industry standard in term of technology, general public still agree that in term of gameplay and game design they are often better. While there is certainly a nostalgia factor to this phenomenon, it is clear that gameplay dynamic was much more important and diversified in early game. As a result, these early game gameplay dynamic will serve as a basic inspiration for my project.

Secondly, despite this general lack of understanding of the medium from the current industry, the study of games theory is not recent. The study of game theory is popular in the field of mathematic and biology since many years and there is a solid theoretical foundation for the study of game dynamic. While early literature try to analyse the different dynamic of a game, my challenge will be to apply them to make something “fun”. To help me reach my goal, I will inspire myself from more contemporary book like Ralph Koster Theory of fun, for game design who try to apply some game theory concept specifically for videogames. All in all, trying to apply theoretical game theory concept to my game is one of my main interest for the project.

Thirdly, recent study in psychology on videogame addiction will serve as an influence for the engineering of my game engine. The Norrathian Scroll, a recent study of the massively popular MMORPG Everquest pointed out that many players developed an addiction to the game through the game mechanic which was sometimes comparable to a skinner box. While I don’t believe game addiction is a good thing, for the purpose of this class, I wish to try and reach a very basic and physical immersion from a user. I hope to be able to reproduce the concept of a skinner box and produce an addiction from the player to my game.

From a general interest in videogame design, I wish for this project to explore the basic interaction principle of game. I propose to develop a game with a very light narrative and a emphasis on basic physical interaction with the user. Basing my concept on early videogame, game theory and recent studies in interaction and immersion my ultimate goal is to create major immersion with basic game design concepts. Let’s play!

References

Books

Ralph Koster, "A theory of fun, for game design" , 2003.
http://www.theoryoffun.com/excerpt.shtml

Katherine Isbister, Better game characters by design, a psychological approach, 2005.

Articles

Nicholas Yee, "The Norrathian Scrolls: A Study of EverQuest" (version 2.5) , 2001.
http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/report.html

Sherry Turkle, Videogame and computer holding power, 1984. http://mrl.nyu.edu/~noah/nmr/book_samples/nmr-34-turkle.pdf

Skyler Miller, Milestones in videogame history, http://www.gamespot.com/features/vgs/universal/milestones/index.html

Leonard Herman, Jer Horwitz, Steve Kent, and Skyler Miller, The history of videogames,
http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/hov/

Gamespot editorial team, The greatest games of all time,
http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/greatestgames/index.html

Bob Colayco, So you want to be a: Videogame designer,
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6129276/index.html

Gamespot editorial team, A 20-year old legend (Nintendo),
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6144735/index.html

Works

Different classic videogames: Pong, Pacman, Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, etc.

Interactive dungeon project (multiplayer and interactive oriented game design), Cart 351 Final Project. http://hybrid.concordia.ca/~domin_no/portal/dfar351/html/enter_final.html

In_Human (Prototype for multimedia installation based on a game design), Cart 453 Final Project. http://hybrid.concordia.ca/~domin_no/portal/in_human/

Lecture 4 – Robotics and Kinetics

Everyone seems to love robot. Development in the field of robotic are getting faster and faster and science fiction movies scenarios don’t seems impossible anymore. For this week lecture, the major problem and solution in the field of robotic are presented.

As I have a natural interest for robotic myself, most improvement in the field presented in the text were not new for me. As interesting and important “task oriented” robots are, I strongly believe the bottom-up approach and more biological inspired robots is the best path to follow to build more interesting robots. The author of the text also give much importance to development of robotic based on bottom-up structure. There exist different experiment to try and develop physical system similar to biological model (ex: human-shaped walking robot) and also, most interesting maybe, development of learning systems artificial intelligence closer to biological system (ex: swarm intelligence).

In addition to technical consideration, the text also present the importance of artist participation in some research. Artist are expert in representing anatomy and movement, they might be the best person to develop robots that reproduce natural system. For example, when it come to movement, we can easily say that animator are the expert in understanding it. In the text, with the different example of successful robots, a good part of success seems to be based on actual decision and good understanding of things like walk-cycle and balance. In all case, it seems like artists are and will continue to be important part in the design and development of robots.

Links:

US Army robot: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4199935.stm

Lecture 2 - Cyborg body

In our age, technology as reached a point where manipulation of the human body as become possible in many aspect. At this point, society is posed against different moral issues raised by what seems like the unlimited possibilities of science. In this week lecture, these different possibilities and moral choice are explored.

For myself, I don’t see these technological ‘’enhancement’’ as possible ways of artistic expression. As movie and story does (as referenced many time in the lectures), I believe artist involvement does however raise awareness of the subject. I believe the use of technology by human society will grow increasingly with time but I don’t think it will come to some extreme possibilities presented in the different texts. Also, unless there is a major cultural change, only a few atrocity will see day (ex: Michael Jackson). In fact, I believe society now see natural body as a symbol of power more and more. As glasses are seen as a weakness to little children, I believe the richest people will integrate technology in a subtle way to the body. Also, I believe this integration of technology is a good thing for science and humanity. For example, I see as a good thing the availability of ‘’cyborg’’ pig that produce human blood as was done in an American university.

Despite my enthusiasm, I believe the increasing integration of technology in the human body will lead to some unwanted atrocity. For example, the abuse of third world citizen by a increasing ‘’body part’’ black market is completely unacceptable and first world citizen should take a great care in avoiding it happening. Now please, I don’t have a robotic arm or second brain as of now and I will stop my reflection on the subject for today.

END TRANSMISSION

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