Moving Forward by Looking Back: Interactive Documentary Illuminated by Persian Miniatures
The Cat and the Coup tells a dramatic story of the 1953, CIA-engineered coup to overthrow Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran who nationalized the oil industry just 2 years earlier.
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Persian miniatures elegantly lend them self to telling this story. This form of book illustration compliments works of prose and poetry which are often about historical events. The most valued Persian miniatures accompany Ferdowsi’s national epic of Iran, the ShahNameh which tells the story of the Persian people, from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest in the 7th century. The Cat and the Coup strives to be a new page in the ShahNameh.
In the game you play the role of Mossadegh’s cat. Your shared story is told in reverse as Mossadegh lies in bed on the night of his death, recounting his life. You use your cat charm (and mischief!) to coax him back through time until you arrive at the revelation that you, yes you, played a significant role in toppling a democracy.
The game is written as a tragedy, evoking sadness, and sometimes guilt, while guiding the player to a catharsis. Like any good documentary it attempts to stay objective, noting milestones in Mossadegh’s life with headlines pulled from The New York Times. But like a good story it layers opinion and mood.
The general aesthetic principal of Persian miniatures, whereby all the empty spaces are filled, provides opportunity for story embellishment. For example, the bedroom where Mossadegh dies is framed with angels. And the Persian calligraphy used as wall-paper in his study is a quote for which he is known; “Since Iran does not exist, neither can I.”
In-game screen capture
Persian miniatures became a significant art form in the 13th century before artists understood the rules of perspective. The impossible architecture they illustrate is similar to orthographic and isometric projections that are typically used in scrolling computer games. Since objects in the game do not diminish in size as they recede in space, scrolling up and down can also translates into back and forth movement within the game space. This gives players the illusion of seamless movement through the entire space of the game and timeline of the history.
Because of their intricate detail, Persian miniatures are sometimes explored with a magnifying glass. The game encourages similar investigation. The player may chose to put-off solving the physical puzzles, to ponder the meaning of the suggestive graphics. For example, during the street riot the player can trace the roots of the coup in the tracks of the tank. Some of the playfulness of this game is in reading between the lines to decode the narrative.
Character design:World Police
Like illuminated manuscripts of Western traditions, Persian miniatures used precious metals. The contrast of the reflective colors next to the matte water-colors and inks is a striking visual characteristic. A future research and development effort for this project is to represent the reflective quality of gold on computer monitors. Since reflection is dependent on point of view, this feature may be faked by calculating reflection coefficients using the location of the cat. On hand-held devices like the iPad, an electronic bobble-head may be useful. And a webcam with face-tracking software may also prove effective. This technology can be applied to all illuminated manuscripts, allowing their reproductions to behave more like the original when viewed through digital delivery devices.
After centuries the vivid palette of Persian miniatures fades and some colors shift hue; for example green turns to yellow. The digital medium of computer games presents an opportunity to easily revitalize the color and erase weathering. Therefore, a byproduct of this game is discovering ways technology can be employed to create more faithful reproductions of Persian miniatures than are currently available in printed books.
Persian miniatures are fascinating in their ability to represent spatial complexities. They also allow bigger questions to emerge about the perception of history. Making a game about a chapter of history that is not known by young Americans – and may indeed conflict with the information they immediately have access to – necessitates an alternative aesthetic grounding. The Cat and the Coup capitalizes on the many affordances of Persian miniatures from within their cultural context, and hopes to give back to the art form by developing technologies that may once again engender wide appreciation for this graphic narrative device.
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The Cat and the Coup, by Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad, is a work-in-progress at the Game Innovation Lab of the Interactive Media Division of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.
It is funded in part by a seedling grant by the USC Advancing Scholarship for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Kurosh ValaNejad proudly acknowledges the influence of Iranian political satirist Ardeshir Mohasses on his art-direction for the character designs.
An earlier version of this article was commission by and published in ARTillery Magazine in 2009.
Special thanks to Carrie Paterson and Peter Brinson for their contributions to this article.