THE FUTURE OF PLAY We met our tour guide just inside the door and then began the tour. Our tour involved a brief description of all the different art work and video games. We were shown to an area with four sheets of steel hanging from the roof where we were told it was a really big game of connect four. We hadn’t a clue how to play or how you could even play at all with the millions of tiny holes carved out of the sheets of steel. Very few found this interesting as we were mesmerised by a game that we were about to be shown. The game that we were all staring at attracted us due to its piercing green lights on the floor with a man in a funny goggle like mask. The goggles displayed a little screen within them and on the screen was an overview of the maze that they were in. The object of the game was to get around the maze from numbers 1-5 without going out of the lines. |
We briskly moved along the exhibit upstairs to a gaming related piece of art work. The art work was named Angry Birds after the apple designed app. The art work was done by Evan Roth. What Evan did for this piece of work was lay tracing paper over his iPhone and put ink on his hand. He then played the angry birds game and recorded every level win on the screen using the ink and tracing paper. He did this for every level of the game and displayed the small pieces of trace paper in a rectangular formation. | “With over 1 billion downloads, some have argued that Angry Birds will soon trump Mario Brothers and Mickey Mouse in cultural pervasiveness. Beyond visualising the game, the piece also aims to make apparent the amount of time and repetitive gestures required to “win” the game. The resulting visualisations contrast the excitement that happens in the gaming environment with the monotony that actually takes places in the physical world. Ultimately, the piece aims to glorify and critically question this new kind of gaming interaction that never leaves our pockets.” —Evan Roth |
"My favourite game was the relaxation race. This involved holding a small device and trying to be as relaxed as you possibly can be. The race is displayed on a big screen as two dragons (each one representing a player). The more competitive or nervous you are about winning the race, the slower your dragon goes. If you close your eyes, forget about the race and relax your body, your dragon will go faster."
The first game upstairs was five different types of ways of playing virtual ping pong. There was a weighing scales system, a spring system, a voice controlled system, a spirit level system and one where one person controlled it but only the other person could see the screen. There were two computers uploaded with scratch and had paper manuals on how to work the programme. In another room people could upload the games that they made on scratch so that other visitors could play them. |
Overall the trip was very enjoyable and worthwhile. It was go for a once to be an interactive gamer and not a passive gamer. I would recommend others to go to this exceptional exhibition - in the bat of an eyelid!