Grand Text Auto

Tiltfactor has been awarded a new National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Hear it from Peter Carini, Dartmouth College Archivist:

Dartmouth College, Metadata Games — An Open Source Electronic Game for Archival Data Systems

Mary Flanagan, the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor in Digital Humanities at Dartmouth College, in collaboration with Rauner Special Collections Library, has received an National Endowment for the Humanities grant to develop an open source computer game for the Internet that would supplement library metadata on holdings in collections with descriptions provided by the public.

Does Bejeweled calm the savage beast? In a recent study funded by the game makers Popcap Games reported in the Washington Post, researchers found improved moods and heart rhythms in players– coherent, equally spaced rhythms. The researchers note that mental health benefits for many could lie in the zone between stressful arousal and boredom.

the PLAYCUBE is home to a performative sweatshop today as students trace where all of their ‘free campus t-shirts’ come from; taking place on the Dartmouth College campus, 1-3pm today. Next week, on the 26th of August, we will host a locally produced Machinima show in the PLAYCUBE at 8pm in Hanover NH.

Mary just returned from showing the new work [perfect.city] at the Incheon Digital Art Festival. The work is a two channel video installation, projected on a double sided screen. One side features a Sims 3 slowed machinima of everyday life in New Songdo, the new economic freezone city of the east owned by the multinational Gale International. In the future perfect city, it’s, well, a bit boring. The reverse projection features a live action performance of Mary engaged as a member of Gale, dreaming of her own virtual utopian city and hacking the game in ’speed programming’ style. Thanks to Jennifer Jacobs, Peter Ciardelli, Thomas Garbelotti, and Steve Toole for their assistance with the project!

It looks like we have a bound book date for Critical Play, Mary Flanagan’s new book! The time is now! watch for it.

Eric Zimmerman says, “In Critical Play, Flanagan uncovers a secret history of games buried deep inside folk culture, experimental media, and the world of art. Critical Play should be required reading for anyone who cares about the cultural importance and future potential of games.”

Tiltfactor says, “HURRAY!” and is exited to launch the book.

Look what we’ve done to Hanover!  <the mobile unit PLAYCUBE in action>

The PLAYCUBE, our unique mobile exhibition space, has been home to two events since its arrival on campus last week– and these have been entirely unusual + much fun! We’ve attracted an interesting cross section of students, faculty, staff, and community members; the most compelling aspect of the project thus far for me is the way in which the mobile unit attracts curious passersby to engage with creative ideas– and especially those who might not frequent arts events or a museum.

Poetry and Slashdot collide via XKCD

Slashdot is “News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters”, and one of the most influential news sites in computing circles. Yesterday, appearing in an article titled “Games That Design Themselves” a certain “University of California” professor is named.

Who could this shadowy persona be? With so many campuses to choose from, who could possibly be elevated to such an illustrious status? Why, it’s none other than EIS’s very own Michael Mateas! h+ magazine takes a look at Mateas and Stern’s Façade, and have a look over friend-of-Grand Text Auto’s Jeff Orkin and his Restaurant Game.

The ironic debacle this week –  Amazon.com confiscating the mistakenly sold electronic books by none other than George Orwell from user’s Kindle machines across the country — stokes the already hot debate about technological devices and the rights of privacy, ownership, security, and autonomy of a user to his or her  own devices.

Yesterday’s New York Times article describes how Amazon became aware they mistakenly sold the works 1984 and Animal Farm without the proper rights, then remotely deleted them on user’s kindles without warning with the same technology used to synchronize separate electronic devices. “I never imagined that Amazon actually had the right, the authority or even the ability to delete something that I had already purchased,” says one of those customers affected.

[xyz], a set of interactive poems about space, opened at the Strauss Gallery at Dartmouth College.

Consisting of Four computers / game engine / hardware / sound / custom code / text, the work presents as individual pieces the spatial metaphors inherent within virtual systems and on the grammatical and lexical notions in language itself.

In [xyz], the rules of game playing and the rules for language reside in the same location. Player-readers participate in the dynamic combination of new texts using the fundamental metaphoric system that governs the development of computerized spaces—namely, the 16th Century three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, with axis lines x, y, and z.

E McNeill, a friend to Tiltfactor and one of Dartmouth’s own, constitutes the only one-person game making ‘team’ at this year’s Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition!
He’s a finalist in the Game and Development competition. He is showcasing his game ALTERNEX in Egypt! Follow the proceedings here and follow on twitter at #ImagineCup.

Games are a global medium, and to theorists such as Lisa Nakamura at the Games, Learning, and Society Conference 2009, one cannot separate the construction of digital games into particular cultures and practices. Having one national “essense” or sensibility is entirely fictional, Nakamura notes, because games are very global in their production practices and marketing practices. Nakamura brings up theorist Martin Lister (New Media: A Critical Introduction, 2003 ) to support her position, as Lister notes that “the videogame is the most thoroughly transnational form of popular culture, both as an industry” and “content” such as characters and stories.

massively multiplayer mushu by Tiltfactor

June 12-14, 2009 join us to play two Tiltfactor urban games at the Come Out & Play Festival! The festival will transform New York City once again into an urban playground!

Opening on Saturday June 13 at 4 PM at the Festival HQ at the The Tank (354 W 45th St. between 8th/9th Aves)– Photopolis! Team up with players from New York, Beijing, and Shanghai for a cross-continental photography challenge.

On Sunday June 14 at 11 AM, start playing Massively Multiplayer Mushu! Talk to strangers, find clues, and fetch ingredients for a secret collective food festival!