Giant Joystick - Mary Flanagan

Another resource introduced to use during the week 1 lecture, Mary Flanagan's "Giant Joystick"

Multiplayer Atari, using a giant joystick from artist Mary Flanagan... "Inviting users to play classic arcade games by collaboratively moving on and controlling a 9-foothigh joystick (modelled after the 1980 Atari 2600 one), Mary Flanagan highlights the spatial and social role of the interface. The joystick itself becomes a social sculpture and territory for inter-personal communication."

I found this interesting in a similar fashion as the "safety pin", as the exaggeration of size makes an ordinary object (or in the joysticks case outdated) a lot more interesting than it really is. The joystick can be used to play original Atari games, and i think the fact that the size changes the experience makes it that more exciting. You need 2 people to operate the machine, and no doubt, movement will be a lot more restrictive and will require a lot more energy to perform.

In relation to this, I saw some works by photographer Vincent Bousserez in the local newspaper and he photographs minature figures doing everyday "chores", but what makes them interesting is his innovation to these figure doing their chores on life size objects, such as sunglases, pie, toilet tissue and so on

Safety Pin - Claes Oldenberg

We were also introduce to this work entitled Safetuy pin which is from the De Young Museum.
I felt that this piece was quite interesting, the fact that they have taken an everyday, unnoticed item and turned it into an intersting piece of art. Questions arised instantly in my head abourt this piece:

• can the piece bend just like an ordinary pin?
• if possible, is there any pactical uses for the pin?

in relation to games, the theme of growth comes to mind. The game mario is probably the clearest example, where Mario is able to grow by a substancial amount in the Super mario series, when he powers up for a limited amount of time.

Stelarc

We was also introduced to another resource in the form of Stelarc.

Stelarc (born Stelios Arcadiou on June 19, 1946 in Limassol, Cyprus, to Greek Cypriot parents) is an Australian performance artist whose works focus heavily on futurism and extending the capabilities of the human body. As such, most of his pieces are centered around his concept that the human body is obsolete. Until 2007 he held the position of Principal Research Fellow in the Performance Arts Digital Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, England. He is currently a visiting Professor in the School of Arts at Brunel University, West London. He has two daughters, one of whom (Astra Stelarc) has continued in his footsteps as an artist. - Taken from Wikipedia

After viewing this artsist's work, it reminds me of the Terminator movie series, where natural human characteristics have been combined with technology to advance humans. Removing the disadvantages of being a human (i.e feeling pain)in a war like environment, but it also raised up other disadvantages being a robot. It also reminded me about a character in the Tekken game series, his name was Yoshimitsu.

1st and 3rd Person Shooters

We were also shown about the difference between a 1st person shooter and a 3rd person shooter.
Here are two examples of games that are based on a 1st person and 3r person format.

KILLZONE:
Killzone is a first-person shooter exclusive to the PlayStation 2 game console, developed by Netherlands-based Guerrilla Games and released on November 2, 2004 in North America. A sequel, Killzone: Liberation was released on the PlayStation Portable and another followup, Killzone 2 was released for the PlayStation 3 on February 27, 2009. The game is the first of the Killzone series.

GEARS OF WAR:
Gears of War is a 2006 third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was initially released as an exclusive title for the Xbox 360 in November in North America, Australia, and most of Europe and included a "Limited Collector's Edition" with added content and an art book titled Destroyed Beauty that detailed much of the game's back-story. Despite the initial statements of Xbox 360 exclusivity, a Microsoft Windows version of the game was developed in conjunction with People Can Fly and released a year later, featuring new content including additional campaign levels and a new multiplayer game mode.

The Slaughter of the holy innocents

This painting was also presented to us during the week 1 lecture. Initial thoughts of this image were of slight confusion. All I can see is soldiers taking the lives of babies despite the desperate attempts from their mothers. Some are wrestling with the soldiers, and others are already morning over their dead babies.
I had to do some further research in order to find out what it was really about, and found...
"The Holy Innocents are the children executed at Herod's order in Matthew 2:16-18 (cached). Some images of the Holy Innocents depict the slaughter alone (example), but often Herod is prominently featured giving the order, as at left. Indeed, one panel in Burgos puts him in the center, occupying a good half of the image. The Golden Legend's account also spends a good deal less time on the innocents than on Herod, his family, and his subsequent troubles."

From reading this vital piece of information, "The Holy Innocents" made a lot more sense to me, because being a Christian myself I read the context of this biblical story, which reads:
(Matthew 2:13-18)13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: 15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

This is the story of baby Jesus escaping death, because of his earthly father Joseph's obedience to a word from God, instructing him to flee to Egypt. King Herod knew of Jesus' power and wanted him killed, so to ensure this ordered all baby boys aged 2 and under to be killed who were in bethlehem. The bible as many prophecies that have yet to come to pass and many others that have come to pass especially regarding Jesus Christ. verse 18 shows us a prophecy fulfilled about great mourning for mothers morning for their children - which is portrayed in the image.
To relate this to games, there are themes that come to my mind

1. A theme of escape. (Baby Jesus escaping death). The game Abes Oddysee comes to mind, this is because the objective of the game is to escape death and rescue others of his kind.
   
2. Knowing the end from the beginning (the prophecy of Prophet Jeremiah). The Star Wars series comes to mind, as we experienced the movies at the end of the story, then many years later experienced the beginning of the whole story with the films and also the game series. So when playing the game simulation of the movie, we already knew the ending of the story from the beginning.

Ideal City - Piero Della Francesca(1420-92)

This image entitled "Ideal City" painted by Piero Della Francesca(1420-92), was presented to us during the lecture of week 1.
"Piero della Francesca’s Ideal City (c. 1470), in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino, Italy Piero della Francesca was one of the first painters to apply the perspective techniques of the architects Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti. Early perspective paintings often included a patterned pavement, as seen in this"

My instant thought of the image was that it is a very neat piece of work, especially in terms of its symmetry, which looks very accurate, but at the same time quite a polished look...

In relation to gaming, this sets the scene for an environment that can easily be used for a game. A first person shooter/adventure game comes to mind. The area looks mysterious in terms of its emptyness, but you could picture enemies (such as soldiers or zombies)hiding and lurking inbetween the buildings trying to kill you, whilst you also attempt to kill them in order to advance in the game.

Personal Thoughts

When i think about games, the first thing that comes to mind is Mario. For me Mario represents gaming and is by far the most popular and recognised gaming character of all time.
My first experience of Mario was on the Nintendo Entertainmen System (NES) many years ago, jumping into pipes and saving the princess.

heres a brief bio of the gaming legend...

Mario (マリオ) is a fictional character in his eponymous video game series, created by video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation. Though originally only appearing in platform games, starting with Donkey Kong, Mario currently appears in many video game genres, such as racing, puzzle, role-playing, fighting and sports games, and others.

Mario is depicted as a short, pudgy, Italian-American plumber who lives in the Mushroom Kingdom. He repeatedly stops Bowser's numerous plans to kidnap Princess Peach and subjugate the Mushroom Kingdom. He also has other enemies and rivals, including Donkey Kong and Wario. Since 1995, Mario has been voiced by Charles Martinet.^[1]

As Nintendo's mascot, Mario is one of the most famous characters in video game history,^[2] and his image is commonly associated with video games. Mario games, as a whole, have sold more than 201 million units, making the Mario series the best-selling video game series of all time.^[3] Outside platform games, he has appeared in video games of other genres, including the Mario Kart racing series, sports games, such as the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, and role-playing games. Outside the original games, television shows, film and comics, he spawned a line of licensed merchandise. - TAKEN FROM WIKIPEDIA

Experimental Gaming 2 - Level 6 - Week 1

Going into the final year of postgraduate study, and Experimental Gaming is one of the required modules.

The first week's lecture was an introduction to the module, which consisted of a breakdown of what was required in order to pass the module...
Assessment 1 - Research Portfolio - 40% - due in Week 5
Assessment 2 - Games Mod - 60% - due in Week 14
We were told that in level 6, we have an increased freedom to specify our own programme of study.

Many resources were provided in relation to the module such as:

• "Ideal City" - Piero Della Francesca
• "The slaughter of the holy innocents" - Duccio Di Buoninsega
• "Safety Pin" - Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Brugen
• "Giant Joystic" - Mary Flanagan

... And many more!