Examples and references mentioned in Celia Pearce’s text “the Aesthetics of Play”

Dada/Dadaism

A cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual , literature—poetry, manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design It is an example of art as counter-movement and favored anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. In response to the terrible events and the tragedy of WW1 favored nonsensical, outrageous and sometimes anarchist actions as responses to the speechlessness and shock of a whole generation.

Example: Kurt Schitters, Uronate, 1922-32 (excerpt)

http://costis.org/x/schwitters/ursonate.htm

Highly influential to the Surrealist, and Punk Rock movements

Readymades

Marchel Duchamp – readymade: "an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist."

Most radical form of art at the time - in contrast to "retinal art" — art that was only visual.

Art creating controversy: Porcelain urinal inscribed "R. Mutt 1917." , 1917.

Other Duchamp readymades include for example 50 cc of Paris Air (50 cc air de Paris, Paris Air or Air de Paris) (1919): A glass ampoule containing air from Paris, and L.H.O.O.Q. the objet trouvé ("found object") which is a cheap postcard reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa onto which Duchamp drew a moustache and beard in pencil and appended the title. When pronounced in French form the sentence "Elle a chaud au cul", which can be translated as "She has a hot ass"

This work can be seen not only to critique established art conventions, but to also force the audience to put aside what they had thought before and look at something with a completely different perspective.

Robert Nideffer, Nude Raider Patched, 1999. Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919

Nideffer’s work can be seen in the Duchampian tradition of “looking at something with a completely different perspective.” In this case addressing critical issues of gender and representation in computer games.

Fluxus that further element of audience participation, the audience is needed to complete a work of art. Fluxus works had a deliberate do-it-yourself aesthetic and elements of play and can be seen in the tradition of Dada performance. Fluxus was a response to the conventional market-driven art world in favor of an artist-centered creative practice.

Some of the main Fluxus artists include: • , founding member of Fluxus • • • Yoko Ono • John Cage

Fluxus dealt with instruction-based artworks, the process became more important than a static object that can be hung on a wall. Fluxus used audience participation as a strategy, giving up complete control over the final shape of a work of art – creating more open systems based on set of rules, constraints, chance operations.

Inversion and subversion as artistic strategy

George Maciunas, ping-pong table and rakets, dysfunctional play mechanics

George Brecht, Incidental Music, 1961.

Nam June Paik, Exposition of Music – Electronic Television, 1963

See also contemporary examples:

Gameboyzz Orchestra/Micro Orchestra: http://mikroorchestra.com/ Bubblyfish: http://www.bubblyfish.com/

Yoko Ono Instruction Pieces Gathered in a book of instructions called Grapefruit. This book, first produced in 1964, includes surreal, Zen-like instructions that are to be completed in the mind of the reader – see Painting to be Constructed in Your Head on next page

PAINTING TO BE CONSTRUCTED IN YOUR HEAD

Go on transforming a square canvas in your head until it becomes a circle. Pick out any shape in the process and pin up or place on the canvas an object, a smell, a sound or a colour that came to your mind in association with the shape.

1962 Spring Sogetsu

instructions = scores score: needs player.

Games as virtual Instruments

Julian Oliver, Quilted Thought Organ ('QTHOTH'), 1998 (ongoing)

QTHOTH sought to explore the possibilities that first person shooter engines offered live experimental music performance. Its primary engine was Half Life 1, though the project initially involved exploration of the QuakeII engine. http://selectparks.net/~julian/qthoth/

MODs

Anne-Marie Schleiner, Brody Condon und Joan Leandre: Velvet Strike

Two of the many spray paint patches for Velvet Strike, http://www.opensorcery.net/velvet-strike/about.html

Velvet-Strike is a collection of spray paints to use as graffiti on the walls, ceiling, and floor of the popular network shooter terrorism game "Counter-Strike". Velvet-Strike was conceptualized during the beginning of Bush’s "War on Terrorism." We invite others to submit their own "spray-paints" relating to this theme.

Lonnie Flickinger, Pencil Whipped, Online-Computergame (2000)

From http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/business/interviews/chiselbrain- software-r1787:

What tools did you use to develop Pencil Whipped?

The game engine I'm using is called the GCS (Game Creation System) by Pie In The Sky Software. www.pieskysoft.org This engine is unique in that it requires no coding. All aspects of the engine and its abilities are in place. You control the features of the game engine with txt files, which in most cases are controlled by wizards. These txt files contain handle numbers that act as variables for whatever feature your controlling. FPS is the only type of game you can create with this engine. However it's so open, you can create any first person adventure you can dream up. With it being just me doing Pencil Whipped, this was perfect. With the GCS being so easy to construct the game world, I could focus on character design, artwork, sound and music. The tool I use for Artwork is Corel and my scanner. For 3D character modeling and animation I use Hash's Animation Master. I export my animation actions as individual frames and re-construct them in a program called Quake Model Editor. My characters are MD2 models. This is the format the GCS accepts for 3D objects. For the new non-midi based music I'm incorporating, I use Sonic Foundry's ACID and I record Loop samples and re-construct them at the pitches I need. ACID is such a versatile sound manipulation tool I also use this to create sound effects and enemy voices. It allows you to really control and time your wave effects nicely.

Extensive archive for contemporary art projects that make use of computer games: http://www.selectparks.net/