Grand Text Auto

This morning at AAAI ’06 in Boston I heard the king of the Web speak about what he sees as the next step in this system’s evolution: the Semantic Web. The non-semantic Web has plenty of good introductory material on the topic, so I won’t try to paraphrase Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee — but I will mention what I remember of the brief, interesting question-and-answer period.

The first question (or first three questions, as Berners-Lee called them) were from Google’s director of research and search quality Peter Norvig (also a palindromist). Specifically, he identified three problems that were difficult to overcome in the Web (and which Google had spent a lot of effort working on) and which he saw as causing problems for the more general data-sharing system that Berners-Lee was working on.

Speaking of new digital art shows, it seems GTxA’s Mary Flanagan has joyfully erected a sturdy piece of interactive art at a new UK game art show called Game/Play. Pictured to the right, it’s sort of an Iwo Jima meets Asteroids with Lilliputians, don’t you think? (To follow up Noah’s “Sticker St. Petersburg” post, maybe I should have called post this “Sticking London”)

With a dozen or so pieces in total, the show has four installations alongside Mary’s, including “Fluffy Tamagotchi (teddy bear material, Chicco toy TV set, 25 year old BBC microcomputer and some sensors), which can sing, wave its arms around and shit blue turds.” There are seven screen-based works — three online and four in the gallery, including recently blogged The Endless Forest from Tale of Tales, a funky second-person shooter by Julian Oliver, and your and my favorite digital marital arts game.

Accompanying the show is a catalog (pdf) of 20 specially commissioned texts on art / games / culture, including one by Mary. Mary is at the show, so expect a post with more details in the near future.

In a recent blog post, the wraps were taken off the initial plans for MediaCommons, an exciting forthcoming project of The Institute for the Future of the Book. They plan

a wide-ranging scholarly network — an ecosystem, if you can bear that metaphor — in which folks working in media studies can write, publish, review, and discuss, in forms ranging from the blog to the monograph, from the purely textual to the multi-mediated, with all manner of degrees inbetween.

Notes from today’s workshop are by Nick and Michael. We’ve tried to takes notes as best as we can to advertise what work is going on, but please consult the actual academic publications of these individuals for the official word about their projects!

Memex Music and Gambling Games: EVE’s Take on Lucky Number 13

Kevin Burns (MITRE Corporation)
Shlomo Dubnov (University of California at San Diego, US)

Bayesian mathematics + information theory, games + music. EVE is a computational theory of aesthethics – a tradeoff between being able to predict and being surprised: Expectations (E), Violations (V), and E’xplanations (E’).

Slot machines could be set to almost any P (probability of payout) and the payout amount varies. They are empirically set to P=0.13, a value that may represent “peak fun.” Enjoyment can be computed in terms of marginal entropies: A “Goldilocks” function showing pleasure at different values of surprise, peaks around 0.13.

Memex music: each note is linked to the next one in a piece (e.g., first note in Beethoven’s Fifth to second note) and is also linked forward to other notes with similar history. Independently, they were set to branch away with probability 13%. Changing the pleasure function to a product rather than sum of terms (surprise * resolve), an S-shaped function arises.

If a player’s/listener’s P and Q vary from the real ones, there is a difference in pleasure. May lead to a theory of aesthetic utility.

With my early-summer plans completed, I’ve just posted a copy of my dissertation — Expressive Processing: On Process-Intensive Literature and Digital Media — at my revamped personal website. As I write on that page:

This work represents my initial take on a set of topics that I currently wrap up under the heading “expressive processing.” There are two things I particularly mean to get at with this phrase:

The Digital Arts and Culture conferences are, for me, the best in the field. Now the deadline for the next DAC is nearing… As mentioned previously, the deadline for 500-word abstracts for DAC 2007 is August 14, 2006. Full papers will be due December 4, 2006. The conference will be September 15-18th 2007 in Perth, Australia. Don’t miss it.

The DVD magazine Aspect is a great source for high quality documentation of, and commentary on, new media art. They’ve recently released a diverse and intriguing issue on the theme “Personas & Personalities” and here’s their new call, with the theme “Performance”:

Aspect is currently welcoming submissions for our
ninth volume, Performance. This issue will focus on
the broad spectrum of performance art — from the most
traditional interpretations to those integrating
advanced technologies, inanimate objects, passersby,
sites, and beyond.

All submissions must include the following, and must
be postmarked before September 30, 2006.

What a nice way to start my week — an article over at Water Cooler Games called “A paean to Dogz, at whose heels Nintendogs nips“.

A little history lesson is always a good thing, I have to say. Thanks, Ian!

Next month’s ISEA will be showcasing quite an array of electronic artwork. While San Jose ain’t quite the Baltic Sea (gang + 1 2 3 4 5 6 7), it’s much easier for North Americans like us to get to. Scanning the list, here’s a few previews that stood out to me, that may be of particular interest to GTxA readers. Text and images excerpted from the site.

Wildlife, Karolina Sobecka
At nighttime projections from moving cars are shone on the buildings in the industrial/abandoned part of town. Each car projects a video of a wild animal. The animal’s movements are programmed to correspond to the speed of the car: as the car moves, the animal runs along it, as the car stops, the animal stops also. Aggressive driving is reflected in the aggressive behavior of the animal. The animals are avatars of the drivers, who, enclosed in their bubble of safety, are separated from the stark and dangerous world of urban reality, as being in a different universe. Several vehicles can be taking part in the performance, creating interactions between the various animals, as the vehicles pass or get closer and further away from each other.

Amy and Klara (also see full project page), Marc Böhlen
Amy and Klara are robot characters capable of synthetic text to speech generation and automated speech recognition, for which the charged world of foul language is under investigation. Swearing offers several interesting conduits into a critique of the under-exposed normative tendencies in automated language representation and social robotics. Why are most smart gadgets and toys friendly and playful, why are they usually modelled as pets or servants? Machines that curse and pick a fight might offer a more realistic preparation for a shared future between machines and humans.

Feral Robotic Dogs (alse see full project page), Natalie Jeremijenko
OUT THERE, in happy family homes, in the offices of corporate executives, in toy stores throughout the globe, is an army of robotic dogs. These semi-autonomous robotic creatures, though currently programmed to perform inane or entertaining tasks: begging for plastic bones; barking to the tune of national anthems; walking in circles; are actually fully motile and AWAITING FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.

Our Madrid correspondent José Manuel sends word of two games: LocoRoco, a fun-looking, joy-filled PSP game that seems to merge the physics of the noir Gish with the slap-happiness of Quest for the Rest. Additionally, there’s Green, Eggs, and Pan! 2006 winner of the UIUC G4G competition. Strong enough for a man, it’s made for girls, and for Windows, the latter of which keeps me from saying anything more about it. It’s good to see both girl-oriented and PSP-oriented innovation, though, since I usually get word of almost nothing at all in the former category and of little beyond tedious side-fighters and licensed dreck in the latter.

“My Beating Blog” is an attempt to take the journaling aspect of blogging into a surrealistic future in which the author literally and metaphorically bares his heart. For three weeks, a series of posts contextualizing heart-rate visualizations, GPS-maps, and personal journal entries will give online users a rare entrance into personal medical-grade statistics, stalker-level location tracking, and the private thoughts of the blogger. Inevitably, issues regarding privacy, exhibitionism, and voyeurism playfully emerge as the blogosphere is infused with biofeedback and location technology. Rather than play into a dystopian or Orwellian future, blogs and biofeedback are given poetic license, reframing our awareness of our own and each others’ beating hearts.

Saint Petersburg is a beautiful city, and so when the Summer Literary Seminars invited me to teach a workshop for students interested in hypertext (considered broadly) I wanted to propose projects that would get us out into the streets. Our first project — Sticker Saint Petersburg — was inspired by work like Implementation, Logozoa, and The Bubble Project. Though no one tried to use the opportunity to establish the truth of Nick’s earlier comments on Russian stickers, four of the students (Mike Alber, Ben Stark, Bill Stobb, and Guy Tiphane) have given me permission to put their work online.

When Katie walks, this simple pair accompany her side,
When Katie runs unwearied they follow on the road,
When Katie kneels, their loving hands still clasp her pious knee —
Ah! Katie! Smile at Fortune, with two so knit to thee!

Something to puzzle over during your long (or short, for those not in the USA) weekend. To read the answer I propose for this Emily Dickinson riddle (J222), highlight the text in the followng region by dragging over it with your mouse. Of course, feel free to comment and to let me know if you think I’m wrong.

The Games for Change Conference in NYC, June 27 and 28th, is not only covered here by the NY GTxA offices, but in popular news venues such as cnn as well. That’s great for the budding movement! Last night there was a fab party at Rockstar games. Wednesday June 28th featured again a great line up of speakers discussing games for social engagement and social change.

Tim O’Reilly explains in this famous article (which, I swear, actually crashes Firefox on OS X) that “In our initial brainstorming, we formulated our sense of Web 2.0 by example:

Now, the article goes on, but let’s stop at this first brainstorm. I didn’t bring my brain anorak and I don’t want to get brain drenched.

Aren’t there newly-evolved forms of some of the other famous “Web 1.0” ideas?

Word came to me on ifMUD of la Pâte à Son, a fascinating tile-based contraption for music-making by LaCielEstBlue. If you’re interested in the aesthetics of elaborate machinery in the digital age, or just would like to play with a fun music-producing toy, check it out. There’s a longer write-up of the piece on Jay is Games.

Two quick notes – I’d like to review these more fully, but since I don’t want to let the URLs languish unposted forever:

Jimmy Maher, the current editor of SPAG (Society for the Promotion of Adventure Games) Newsletter, has book about interactive fiction online: Let’s Tell a Story Together: A History of Interactive Fiction. This looks to provide an easy introduction to IF, tracking through the form’s history and for the most part following the same trail that Twisty Little Passages did.

For quite some time now I’ve been waiting for some astute game scholar somewhere to analyze Piers Anthony’s most excellent Apprentice Adept sci-fi/fantasy series from the early 1980’s, the first book being Split Infinity. From what I can tell via Google, in the context of game studies and game design, no one has yet written about The Game from the Apprentice Adept novels. Maybe I’m the first; perhaps there are few game scholars old enough to have read Anthony? :-0

I read these books as a 10 or 11-year old kid (as well as Xanth, etc.), and I still think about them once in a while, particularly The Game. Anthony offers what I think is a fascinating vision of the future of game competition, and game generation; I could imagine attempting to create a video game version of this.

First, some backstory: the Apprentice Adept series takes place in two worlds, the technology-based planet of Proton, and the parallel universe of Phaze, a land based on magic and fantasy. The series focuses on the character Stile, a Citizen of Proton who discovers Phaze and travels back and forth between the two worlds / realities, has adventures, etc.

Anyhow, on Proton, societal status is based on your ranking in The Game, sort of a cross between the Holodeck and a Gameboy.

We’ve neglected to point out that the second Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE) conference is about to happen, this week in LA. I don’t think any of us from GTxA will be there this year unfortunately, although I believe one or two of Michael’s grad students will have posters there. Here’s the list of presentations, which includes a talk by a Sims 2 developer, “The Power of Projection and Mass Hallucination: Practical AI in The Sims 2 and Beyond”, as well as “Emotions in Human-Agent Interactions” by Jonathan Gratch, a leading researcher at the Institute for Creative Technologies, USC.

Last week, also in LA, was Advances in Computing Entertainment (ACE), an pretty pricey conference with an interesting line-up of presentations, including Michael presenting an experimental Alternative Reality version of Façade, work with his colleague Blair MacIntyre and others. Maybe Michael can add a comment describing ACE a bit for us?

Also, a reminder that Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) will be taking place August 21-23 in LA. This one both Michael and I plan to attend, to give a talk on developing Façade, and demo at the Gathering of Animated Lifelike Agents (GALA). Hope to see you there.

Chris Crawford’s at it again, stirring up trouble with more over-the-top invective for the game industry — and, of course, an offer of salvation, Storytronics. Actually, I saw him speak at the Northwest Games Festival a couple of weeks ago, and he did a good job proselytizing his mission, attempting to make converts among us in the audience. (This is getting a little too L. Ron Hubbard…) More on that when the festival gets written up by organizer Beth A. Dillon. Till then, read reactions from Design Synthesis, The Ludologist, Joystiq, Gamer Junk. And as a general palliative, check out this essay on fanaticism among game opinionators at Only a Game.

Just when you thought it was safe to turn to page 49, Choose Your Own Adventure books are back! (From our archive, here’s an analysis of how one of these are structured.)

The topic this month on the excellent empyre listserv is “liquid narrative“, although the discussion so far seems a bit parched. Maybe you can juice it up!

To those of you who speak Beghilos, the practice of constrained writing using a calculator may come as no surprise – and I do recall it being mentioned during the recent E-Fest 2006 at Brown. To some, though, this concept could seem odd. Calculators can be art objects, yes, but tools for digital writing?

The major project in this category seems to be Amos Latteier’s Calculator Haikus, exhibited in 2000. (Note his use of the 6 for the lowercase “g” as opposed to the 9 for the capital “G” seen in the photo here.) From these texts, it seems that the calculator is predisposed to describe things like sludge underfoot and accidentally discharged petroleum.

One potentially interesting turn for blog narratives: there seems to be a trend towards television characters with their own blogs as a way for the networks to cross-market their offerings on the Web. While most of the TV character blogs I’ve run across are fairly lame in-character rehashings of plot events from the show, it is interesting to see the different approaches that production companies are taking to using character blogs in their crossmedia marketing efforts.

The uptight “dork” character from NBC’s The Office, Dwight K Schrute‘s blog is infrequently updated, though his posts, such as his detailed report of his morning itinerary, including what he had for breakfast, the radio show he listened to, and a progress report on his beet farm and throwing star practice, are in character with the nature of his TV persona. The many commenters seem comfortable with addressing Dwight as if he was a real person. NBC seems to have just as as big a problem with blog spam as GTxA. In addition to his blog on the NBC site, Dwight set up a MySpace profile, which immediately blasts the viewer with his favorite tune, the Scorpions’ “Rock Me Like a Hurricane.”

Well, admittedly, this is the beardless GNOME developer that we spotted – not exactly what we’re looking for. But at least the GNOME foundation’s new Women’s Summer Outreach Program 2006 now provides a better incentive for women to get involved!

The famous-among-the-geeky Summer of Code, which is thought to be named so as to allude to this summer, would have been a bit off-kilter this year if you were to look at it from a GNOME perspective. The GNOME project (they’re the ones who provide the Linux desktop used on, for instance, Ubuntu) got 181 applications for Summer of Code project, none of them from women. While we know that free software projects aren’t generally gender-balanced, this seems like a letdown.

To “like it” there must be intensity leading to activation. There must be a curl at the cusp.
—JT, part 8

Jen Tynes and Erika Howsare of Horse Less Press continue their multi-part, collaborative, espitolary “traveling essay” Don’t you have a map? Each installment of the project (we’re now on eight of at least ten) is posted on a different blog, while I would guess provides an interesting entree to the project for the regular readers of its points of publication. It’s not quite alternate reality literature, but it seems a much more interesting idea than, say the more prosaic blog carnival. And the writing, I find, has a cuspy curl.

There’s a nice piece by Karen Collins in Soundscapes, discussing Commodore 64 game music: “Loops and bloops.” The article delves into the SID (Sound Interface Device) in some technical detail, but the thing I found most interesting was the discussion of the influence of another contemporary platform later in the C64’s retail life. The tendency of the Nintendo Entertainment System to have music during gameplay (as opposed to just during the introduction or upon completing a level) is seen to influence the way music was used on the C64. Ben Daglish and Martin Galway (famous C64 composers) are quoted in the piece, looping is discussed at length (as the article’s title suggests), and the freewheeling use of cover songs is described. Thanks to Jesper for mentioning this one.