(untitled) is a communal play experience involving cooperative puzzle solving and improvisational expression among 3 participants in a physical installation. The experience will attempt to use the power of the "magic circle" and intuitive interfaces to achieve creative and intimate interactions between participants. It will take the form of a large room akin to a surreal garden / playground, within which reside interactive tangible devices, along with some form of display of real-time graphics that are meaningfully connected to the interaction with the physical objects. This may take the form of projection, augmented reality displays, or both. Interfaces will be intuitive largely, and at times gestural. Techniques of sensing capacitance without touch (as in Theremins) and computer vision to detect motion would be employed, with OpenGL used to generate the graphics. The audience would be wide to create connections between strangers. 15 yr olds and up would likely be the best audience for the subject matter. Those inclined to being open, honest and creative would excel in the experience and could be a catalyst for others to.

Motivation / Background

This thesis follows from my interest in the power of play to decrease barriers and establish intimate connections between participants, as well as new forms of communication possible via interactive media. In addition, it involves interaction with tangible devices connected to computers that offer a more direct and visceral interaction. And last but not least, the power and uniqueness of immersive experiences to frame and focus interactions.

I am looking at prior art including: Happenings art movement, New Games Movement, Ludology theorists, Media artists using gestural interface such as Golan Levin and Zachary Booth Simpson. Surrealists/Dadaists, location based entertainment / theme parks: e.g. Disney, Universal, Chuck E. Cheese. Fantasy movie set design, Social / group psychology, adolescence and it's connection to creativity, gameplay, sexual / psychological development, hypnotism, ESP, synchronicity, improvisation, hallucinations, dreams, meditation, magic, etc. Bernie DeKoven, Carl Jung, Aleister Crowley, Marcel Duchamp, Allen Kaprow, Katie Salen/ Eric Zimmerman, Will Wright...

Methodology / Flow

I want to create a cooperative game to increase communication, understanding and expression in groups. Communal goals and play use the power of the magic circle and the lusory attitude to bring people together, now what can we do with this power once they're inside other than repetitive-distinct goal based activity? Where else can that connection be steered while maintaining the magic? What forms of interaction are more intimate than others? How can we seduce participants and lower social barriers with games, environment, and interactive media? How can you create more meaningful play and interactions? Is there a way to provide some individual expression and exploration within the experience? What sort of technology is most appropriate for creating this experience, and what sort of tech could create new content?

I would like to address these questions by creating a series of experiences that get people into a flow of interaction that can build and culminate in a sublime experience. I think that there are certain sequences and cycles that can be designed to build upon one another. For example, having participants engage in a playful and accessible group activity / game at the start of the experience may help to warm people up to one another, lower their guards, and establish a bit of trust. Following this with a simple puzzle can establish more complex intellectual cooperation and interaction. Providing a meaningful payoff and playful reward to solving the puzzle can make people value the amazing things that can be accomplished as a cooperative group, perhaps increasing the participant's value of different people's strengths, as well as increasing trust. Using the energy and state of mind that's been established, it may be easier to persuade participants to become more vulnerable than they normally would by getting them to reveal some personal aspects of themselves in service to the play of the game. The trick would be how to do this while not destroying the lusory attitude and the trust that's established. The payoff may need to be linked to people's level of admission. Psychological and Hypnotic techniques could be employed here.

Design

At the beginning of the experience, participants will enter from 3 separate and symmetrically spaced entrances into a domed tent roughly 12’ in diameter and 8’ high. 3 cushioned seating areas just inside the edge would clearly be designated. Low ambient music / sounds would be played over surround speakers. A physical structure residing in the center (very vague at this point, something between a tree / fire / bubble) would faintly glow (perhaps via an array of embedded LED’s) and come alive when all three participants took their seats. 3 projectors would be mounted outside the dome and project onto the dome’s translucent surface. Cameras inside the device would act as its eyes to observe the participant’s movements, and tangible tendrils jutting from the device would allow them to physically touch and interact with it. Capacitance sensors would provide non-touch interaction. When participants move in a certain manner or hold hands to form a circular link, the projections and sound would react.
Each person will have unique imagery and sound that is generated based on their movement. The manner with which they need to move their body will also be unique, in the hope that their interactions can form a sort of unified gestalt when they act cooperatively.

The experience would possibly begin with a fun and joyful activity such as popping or bouncing around images and sounds. A method of sensing touch and linking between participants would be rewarded with interaction that is more fun than when they act separately (e.g. what were separate musical notes or chords might unite into a song.) This would serve as a way of acquainting and training people to interact with the system.

Puzzle solving or simply a more structured game would follow this to engage participants in a more complex and communal goal driven activity (e.g. building some virtual device via stacking or interlinking of pieces). Upon reaching this goal or solution, this virtual device may come alive and integrate with the physical device, and provide an expressive form of interaction (similar to the beginning playful activity, but in this case more complex and refined, like the difference between clapping and a drum set).

PAGE 1: TITLE
YOUR NAME
IMAGE w/caption (a quote, an explanation - whatever works for your piece)

PAGE 2: ABSTRACT

PAGE 3+
Whatever you feel ready to submit, keeping in mind that the more you give us, the more feedback you'll receive. So, even if the body text, and schedule, budget, etc of your proposal is rough, you can attach this with a "draft" label.

Brief Description:
This is a research about the relationship between different game-play settings and different players reaction. Explore how to give the different players the right amount of rewards in the right time; How to offer hard enough chanllenging for different players before they get bored; How to read the players' needs from their in game interactions.

Motivation
Most of the current video games are very scripted. The design of the video game are fixed once it's released. Normally designers design their games to a stereotype from the target market like teenager hard core gamers or middle age female non-gamers. Good game that fits for everybody is really hard to find.

Each person is an individual, their desire and needs for the expereince is different. Like body building, a good trainer knows to how design a good plan for different people. To design a game, a designer should also consider to adjust the weight and times for his different trainees. Tetris is boring for the hardcore gamer but very addicting to the beginners. RTS is really attracting mature gamer, while the non-gamer can not easily understand what's going on in the games. There are player like chanllenging, there's also players prefer casual play. If a game can ask and adjust the play based on the player's needs, it will be a great step forward from today's game design.

Media:
I'll use multiple prototypes to focus on detailed areas like: difficulty
chanllenging
rewarding
time
stimulation

After that I'll try to combine all these prototypes into one. If the game makes different players feel exsiting and different, I think the grammar and vocabulary will be a great reference to the industry and acadimia.

Week of April 14th
- Continue playtest designs
- Begin making as many tech decisions as possible
- Make a stab at a detailed physical layout
- Continue research

Week of April 21st
- Finalize decision about the flow and as many rules of the experience as possible.
- Work on presentation

Presentation on April 28th

May 5th FINAL SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL

Motion Rapture

This thesis proposes an investigation into game interface and play possiblities when natural human gesture is the guide. A gestural interface game vocabulary would allow for a much wider game playing audience, as well as increase the communicative possibilities of the game medium. By using the natural movements of the human body, I hope to design a game that is enhanced by the computer, instead of being dictated by it.

Absolutley mind blowing; Dr. Diane Voss, my former professor, had me read this for a class I took on "time". It helped me form for much of my current understanding of realitys' structure.

2.
Flat Land; Edwin Abbot; Dover Publications, 1880
This book helped reinforce Plato's "Allegory of a Cave", helping me to understand my condition.

3.
The Mission of Art; Alex Grey; Shambala Press, 2001
Great art and writing?!? Yep. Alex really helped me to understand my purpose, a blessing and a curse, as an artist in this world.

4.
Concerning the Spiritual in Art; Wassily Kandinsky, 1911
I love Wassily. He tried to speak in a language few have the eyes to see.

Sunday April 10
Solidify committee members
Interview Bolas
Research, research, research

Tues April 12
Brainstorm potential game gestures with Peggy's Interactive Writing class

Thurs April 14
Fisher joins class to answer questions

Thurs April 21
Solidify my 'definition' - what is my final product?
Cheer on classmates who are presenting

Sun April 24
Budget completed

Wed April 27 - Thurs April 28
The National Information and Communications Technology of Austrialia (NICTA) hold the Gestural Interaction Workshop 2005
Will follow up with workshop organizers in obtaining documentation of the workshops (already in communication with them)

Thurs April 28
Presentation
Heavy drinking

May 5
Final paper due