Week 22

Santa Cruuuuuz

a weird wonderful place

Woah woah - we're a week away from installing { wish u were queer } and a reinterpretation of my infinity cabinet at the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery at UC Santa Cruz (never mind all the school work and TA duties I've also got going on - woof). It's been a great experience though, understanding the ins and outs of getting a machine ready for a gallery install and thinking about the best way to leave a game running on its own. Thanks Matthew Ragan, your knowledge and insight is incredibly helpful and greatly appreciated.  

~ * ~ ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ   ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ   ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ ~ * ~

In the middle of the week, I ran into an installation in the forest that was super exciting and curious... 

I was first prompted by this chroma green door frame, which I perceived other-worldly and unnatural. Sure it's green, but how often do we see this vibrant blinding green in wild, wild nature? Maybe I just haven't explored the bright green stock forests of the world, who knows. In any event, I was drawn in and peered closer into the circle of trees in the woods. Because who doesn't like magical realism in the middle of an unknown forest? #PansLabyrinth

Once I was inside the circle of trees, I found a mangled, tangled web of fishing line and hanging shards of mirrors. It was messy, wet and definitely very creepy once I saw the humanoid effigy in falling out of the trees nearby (see bottom left corner of the woodland c/u photo). That weirded me out, especially coupled with the sharp shards of glass that were at eye level. It looked like a site of ritual that maybe was about death, the human experience, and self-reflection. But who knows...

Here's some progress photos on my students' paper prototypes in the Game Design Experience class I'm TAing: