Links for October 17, 2015
A gamepoem might describe an absurd scenario that’s fun to imagine; it might awkwardly gamify an everyday experience in a way that’s meaningful; it might be a parodic set of instructions; it might give rules to follow that result in revelatory experiences; it might be contained within a moment or a lifetime.... Gamepoems are indeterminate. Gamepoems are about playing with and making poetic interpretations of what we think games and poems are. They’re about writing concise sets of rules that summon impossible worlds. They’re about crafting tiny experiences that mean a lot to people. They’re about laughing at the way we act, and acting in ways that make us laugh.
As part of Now Play This, our September event at Somerset House, we got permission from Gage and the designers of our favourite contributions to print up their games on index cards and show as part of an exhibit of instructional games and artworks. And then we left a little pile of index cards on a table, thinking that a few people might want to add their own. Well, gosh, they definitely did. By the end of the weekend, a trail of 128-character games had stretched out across the whole wall, jumped across a doorway to another wall, and then turned the corner to yet another wall, encircling half the room.
All the poems on this tumbril are intended to be playable (not just conceptually interesting) as either games with rules, interactive activities, or directions for challenges, contests, or sports. This includes gamepoems with explicit rules as well as more freeform playpoems. They are intended to be both PLAYED and READ, but some of them will be aesthetically interesting as poetry as well, I hope. Some of them will require more interpretation to be playable and some will try to match the poetics to the play experience.