Reportage: Jonathan Bilski on the UCLA Game Art Festival 2012
Not to me missed: Jonathan Bilski's coverage of the UCLA Game Art Festival 2012 @ Things to Do in LA. The event, as you know, took place May 9-10 @ UCLA and included an ambitious selection of Experimental Games, Game Art, Tournaments, Performances, Music, and Presentations organized by UCLA's Games Lab. The event was curated by Game Lab director and associate professor of Design Media Arts-cum-living legend Eddo Stern (by the way, don't miss his new solo show!).
After suggesting that a different location (namely, USC) could have been better (heresy!), Jonathan discussed some of the most interesting games on display, e.g. Timothy Sherman's Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth which uses playdoh as an interface (genius). This blows away 95% of the commercial games on the market right now - inter nos, if there's a dead artform currently floating in the mediascape like a rotten fish is the videogame medium. These creative kids give us hope for a better future. Maybe.
Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth by Timothy Sherman, photo credit: Jonathan Bilski (Things to Do in LA)
What I really like about Jonathan's scathing comments is that he's not afraid to say that most of these productions do not work. At all. They are great ideas in search of gameplay while waiting for Godot. Actually, most of them are not that great either. But it does not matter. After all, what matters is the process, not the product. Processes not products!is the mantra. Check out this arcade game and forget about 3D games!
And what about the Evil Egg Game? J. writes: "You ask the egg your questions and it might not give you a straightforward answer. You have to set what the questions about on the left with a knob, talk into the egg and press the button on the right to activate. Then the bird skull spins to reveal an answer." I'm there.
"I just hated it," writes Jonathan. "It", in this case, is Flatland ARG!!! by the UCLA Game Lab. On the opposite side of the spectrum there are things like Add Adipose Pose by Joanna Cheung: aside from the Oulipo-like pun (what's not to like?), the concept of blowing up the opponent's body is so absurd it could actually work. And for more than 10-15 minutes. Personally,I find Chris DeLeon' Relativity Runner quite charming, mostly because it reinvents the idea of "interactive books" without falling into the trap of either Myst or enhanced e-books (and I could not tell you which one is worse). The book, in this case, is a collection of M.C. Escher's mind-fucking illustrations which everybody read as a kid, myself included.
Lea Schönfelder's Ute was also on display. You may remember Mathias Jansson's interview with Lea. If not, click this link and happiness will ensue. More lovely/vitriolic comments from the mighty J. can be found here.
LINKrelated: Charles Pratt's "Keep the Games Weird" @ Games Design Advance
Submitted by Matteo Bittanti