Read Me

So how can we design a game that explores our relationship with written information, with our environment to which we delegate referential power?
A game that questions the obsolete technologies of a culture seeking of its own homogenization?
A game that integrates a form of communication (social networks) developing as a new form of storytelling, while leaving room for multiple micro-histories?
A game that questions its relationship to the machine – how does it ask us to react, to communicate, to integrate the medium it explores – Internet?
Often, a questioning is reflected itself by confrontation, by positioning.

How to think a research process?
How does it build itself between two researchers who do not know each other?
It seems that the starting point is to link one’s own research interests, and then the contextualization allows to bond links between the content and the container. Thus, if the prime interests of Anita Bacic and Justine Batteux are related to Langage in DigitalNormalizationStorytelling focus on interaction, then the integration of these questions to a work methodology is raising a consciousness linked to the reality of a research. Therefore, this reflection on Language in Digital influences the way in which the subject is approached. In this case, the interface between two researchers appears in a written process – only via the “Telegram” application – with the aim of questioning the medium within a meta-research.

Written archives question the production of a language and the model by which it is proposed – in short: the importance of the interface (as a reading mode) on the proposed content. Here a crucial reflection emerges – does the way of communication tend to be more important than the content? What about obsolete technologies dedicated solely to developing contemplation or entertainment, in order to conceal another problem (iPad in the school environment). On this point, the neologism skeuomorphism echoes to this way of interfacing elements in a similar way to the original object, while the form has changed – for example, analogical elements transferred to a computer interface while keeping the same visual properties, when it is not necessary – this is a simple aesthetic that does not interfere at all with the function of the element in question. So how can we break free from this hegemony of aestheticized information by an oriented interface?
To regain control – of the word, of our reading, of our position, of our proposals?
How can we…?
Reading is a considerable power, but words remain in the same position, revealing different symbols depending on the reader. Then, the key decisional aspect comes from the multiple choice, not – again – in a given choice, but in a possibility clear from any orientation, an access as plural as the number of protagonists.
Then how can we think of a change to the multiple?

The research of Anita Bacic and Justine Batteux opened up the question of appropriation through the game. If, from a sociological point of view, playing is an undeniable point in the construction of our different cultures, since it is a possibility to create a context, rules and goals, this activity allows us to invent, upset, interact, reverse, confront, decipher or understand the implementation of a predefined system.
To play is to create, to appropriate a data/fact through choice and decision.
A game, in order to allow the creation of a new story – is to give the possibility to participate in the change, to move within a written and confined possibility. Reflection on the game has thus developed – a puzzle allowing to play with words, to recover the meaning of a sentence, a word and not an image… indeed as if our daily life is inhabited with images, written information also undergoes a considerable change in the way of diffusion and the weight of its meaning. This paradigm shift is strongly shaped by social networks, since they forge a more direct diffusion, which do not pass by recognized media or information professionals, but opening up to another way of approaching it – thus the “radical” subjectivity becomes commonplace, while moving away from the facts. And if the functioning itself of this game is to reappropriate a sentence that was expressed as “a truth” on social networks, it gives the players the opportunity to reflect on the process – how the game was developed, what are the inherent rules, what are my game possibilities, how my action is conditioned by the predefined framework? Therefore it allows everyone to understand how a methodology, a process influences the result – an important artistic reflection in the artwork of Justine Batteux.

The premises of the game:

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con(s)t(r)aining creative content
Composition of game :
Two dies and one 3d sli- ding puzzle (empty at the beginning)
First die (square : six faces) : six propositions of theme (which chose from a ranking of the most popular terms (algorithm) )
Second die : four sentence type ( declarative – interrogative – imperative -exclamative )

Instruction :
Roll the square die
one theme appears and generate words (nouns adjective) in the gird

Roll the triangular die > verbs, subject, pronoun etc appears in relation to the type of sentence
Now grid is full. You can move inside with these keyboard ( left, right, dow, up) for change a proposition in a square you have to press enter key, for moving it’s the same keyboard ( left, right, dow, up ) when it’s done press enter key.
In certain square you have some color indication (which are connected to orders of rank or weetsup)

And if a game can give the feeling of having recovered, or of playing with the meaning of a “truth” rendered by a public person / who integrates this position as a referential power / the question of the hegemony of written language over other modes of writing emerged an interesting reflection – is it possible to grasp information other than through traditional reading?

Meaning is intuitive to us, even if we “play” with words, it seems that we tend to always look for meaning in what we do, what is said, what is written. Therefore should we move away from a « normative” communication? On this point, the research of Anita Bacic and Justine Batteux has led to a link between a AI that integrates a position of truth, and a protagonist (the player) who reinterpreting the given sentence. Can we “believe” a AI more than a public figure? If error is one of the unceasing cited aspect around the AI issues, can this new technology make us aware of our relationship of belief in information? This is an important reflection on our informational environment – how errors and information apprehension are artistic keys to questioning our relationship with our environment? – and especially with the web as a preferred platform for globalizing narratives – an important artistic aspect in Anita Bacic’s artwork.

So how can we design a game that explores our relationship with written information, with our environment to which we delegate referential power?
A game that questions the obsolete technologies of a culture seeking of its own homogenization?
A game that integrates a form of communication (social networks) developing as a new form of storytelling, while leaving room for multiple micro-histories?
A game that questions its relationship to the machine – how does it ask us to react, to communicate, to integrate the medium it explores – Internet?
Often, a questioning is reflected itself by confrontation, by positioning.

Thus, questioning Internet in its very state means highlighting its possibility of sharing, but also of control – since Internet is a platform open to all, the body of the internet user (virtual through his ip address and physical embodied by acts and habits) becomes also a carrier of advertising possibilities, thus once again brought under control. This is a confrontation that must be highlight through the dialogue we have with our digital environment, with algorithms that integrate our identity(ies), while choosing for us what is the reference. 

Gradually, Con(s)t(r)aining became an interactive way of reflection, in which we are all confronted with an environment which evolves while being infinitely modifiable. A dialogue mixing roles of dominant and dominated.


Should this be a performance between France and Australia ?
1.
One person throws the die.
This throw and the result from the die is witnessed via live video stream (periscope or vimeo, or other online live video feed alternative)
2.
The other participant witnesses this move.
At the next hour this participant does as the die instructs.
This instructed move is also witnessed via live feed (as above).
This process happens on the hour like a clock. Wherever these participants are at those times, they stop, pull out their die or their puzzle and pieces, and participate via live feed – a mechanism could be created to make this interaction simple in the physical world.

This can be ongoing with no foreseen end. Other people can participate when other people are asleep (due to time differences). Or it is offline with the last image visible as a photo until the next day and interaction begins.
It’s a game that is the opposite of the instantaneous interaction of our online worlds in social media. It slows down the time between action and response. It plays with the accessibility of the Internet, but slows it down. Much like how chess was played between people in different parts of the world vial snail mail – correspondence chess.

“con(s)t(r)aining” focused on exploring communication devices, their influence on content and how they structure our interactions. With instant messaging, our way of approaching exchanges between instantaneity and splitting or choppy flows of communication, questions the construction of our discussions. This we decided to address with “con(s)t(r)aining”. For example, what if time and history of our data are reintroduced, and determines the way language is generated and produced? This posed a question: What can be said about the role of interface in our approach of different languages and culture?

Original Researches by Anita Bacic and Justine Batteux
Text and research-development by Valérie Félix

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