How do you represent the algorithmic movement of board games in knitting patterns?
a list of too many questions and ideas
sketches for a proposal i no longer like
Board game movement and instructions can be compared to computer programmed algorithms.
Move 4; if ladder go up, if chute go down, else stay.
They share a common set of instructions, execution of movement.
Knitting patterns also compare similarly to algorithmic instructions and construction of digital matters.
Row 1: Knit 12 Row 2: Knit 4, Purl 4, Knit 4, Purl 4 Row 3: Purl 4, Knit 4, Purl 4, Knit 4
So if board games share a relationship with computer programming and if knitting structures also share a relationship with computer programming, then wouldn't board games and knitting also have a relationship to one another? And what would it look like visually?
If a computer, a knitting machine, and a board game all sat down to dinner, what would the conversation consist of?
A list of too many questions and ideas
How do you represent
the algorithm of game board movement in knitting patterns? If there are
multiple ways (which I think there are) which way is the most effective?
How can the structures of non-strategy board games relate to knitting?
How are the algorithmic patterns of board games like computer codes?
How are the algorithmic instructions of these games related to computer programming? To the construction of knitted cloth? To our thought formations from childhood?
Is there a connection between playing such games as a child and the way in which you choose to order your thoughts/ lives/ actions later on in life?
What is the desire to play/ win these games? What is the desire to consume candy? To consume such intangible information that lies within computers?
What is the connection between knitting, computer programming, board games, and candy? All desirable yet highly mathematical, algorithmic, and structured. How can these soft, shiny, entertaining and sweet systems also be encrypted, intangible, programmed, tension creating objects?
How do these objects
of desire (security blankets, candy, winning a board game, watching your
opponenet move back 2 spaces, you getting to advance ahead 5 spaces) program/
arrange/ condition/ organize our thoughts and actions in the world. How
are these systems similar to the actual construction of cloth and code?
Pre determined games: the dice vs. the deck of cards:
What is the purpose of playing Candy Land if potentially the winner is
determined before the game begins?
Similarly, what is the point of playing any non-strategy board game? Games
determined solely on chance?
Why is landing on the pink square all that exciting?
Non linearity potential in board games. What if chutes and ladders had
no numbers?
Candy Land: the game about not having?
What role does candy play? (In relation to desire in board games, in childhood,
in movement.)
What satisfaction do you get out of seeing your opponent go down a chute?
Or yourself up a ladder?
Being aware of space, body, surroundings and opponents. (Knowing you have
moved 5 spaces, you have 22 spaces until the end, not wanting to roll
a 2 because then you'll have to go down a chute, your opponent is 6 spaces
behind you, you hope you pick a double yellow, etc.)
Are these games fascist in any way? (Prescriptive movements and desires.)
Who is telling you that you should be excited to land on the pink square?
Would these games be more interesting if you could do more with in them?
For example, instead of just 'passing through' the peanut brittle house
or peppermint mountain, you would actually be able to do something, eat
something, play with something.
Where is the threshold of fantasy in these games? Is that important? (You
aren't actually eating any candy you are just visualizing playing in it.)
Is the conceptual process of this project more intriguing than the actual
potential experience of the installation? If so, how can that be changed?
|
BOARD
GAMES
|
ALGORITHMS
|
KNITTING
|
|
| candy | candy land, prizes, fantasy fantasy, | manufacturing, repetition, consumption, candy buttons | comfortable, tactile, desire-full |
| desire | winning, location on board | control, technology, non-static | aesthetics, cloth, pattern knitting |
| movement | follow path, move pawns | sequence of actions, execution of instructions, temporal | needles, hands, yarn, aesthetic representation |
| repetition | counting, turn taking, dice, spinner | repeats | knits, purls, patterns, colors, rows |
| comfort | childhood, repetition, game, colorful, fun | safety in numbers, habitual processes, OCD | cloth, soft, security |
| objects | card board, plastic, colorful | mechanic, production of objects | tactile, yarn, needles |
| teaching devices | counting, morals, sportsmanship | parts of a whole, problem solving | counting, construction |
| technological | metaphor | metaphor | metaphor |
(another
chart)
The installation consists of an interactive candy garden that creates automated knitted cloths based on participant interaction with a Willy Wonka like life size board game. The board game resembling the layout and motifs combined of both Candy Land and Chutes & Ladders is constructed out of floor tiles, each space represented by 1 tile. The path in which viewers are supposed to walk though the space (play the game) is marked by a lollipop fence. The lollipop fence is simply a row of lollipops all strung together with knitted yarn. From the outside of the board game to the walls of the gallery is covered with Astroturf and clusters of lollipops and fake flowers to create a Candy Land-like game atmosphere. These clusters are forms of both fake flowers and lollipops that are in the shape of flowers. The smell and look of the sugar/ candy is significant in talking about the themes of desire and how our childhood-like desires play an important role in shaping our thoughts/ behaviors/ conditioning. Viewers walk though the algorithmic board game installation. When you get to the very end, you come to a computerized knitting machine which has been taking the algorithms from the interactive game and knitting it into a cloth which is constructed from the same material as the lollipop fence. This knitting is tying together the documentation of the algorithmic game, the intangible codes of computer programming becoming tangible, in a material that is referential to childhood- a time that is filled with algorithms which shape our thought process and patterning for the rest of our lives.
my fabulous friend brad was so intrigued after playing chutes & ladders with me he wrote this little program... thanks brad... (it does however only work on mac os x)
http://instance.ucsd.edu/mywebapps/shootsAndLadders/
So Brad made this programÖ (If you aren't on a mac and can't see what it does, I'll tell youÖ) The program plays Chutes and Ladders for you. You (the user) are allowed to set the parameters (decide where the chutes and ladders will go). Then the computer automatically plays the game for how ever many times you tell it to (100-5000 times). After playing the game set number of times it generates an image for you showing what squares were landed on or not landed on. The cross word puzzle-esc image shows black for squares landed on and white for squares which were not landed on. It's an interesting phenomenon. However this does not satisfy my desire. I find it more of a record of the game that an actual documentation of the movement. Which I guess is where my problem liesÖ attempting to document an emotive, expressive, time lapse in a graphical knittable interface. Brad gave me some books to read and diagrams to look at. He's stumped. I'm stumped. But I still like his program though.