Through Grotowski's oeuvre, I'd like to explore the technologies and forms related to virtual space that have been developed over the past few decades. Grotowski created installations which integrated actors and spectators, weaving together their experience in a way that traditional theatre could not. Creators of playable media (software games, interactive stories, etc.) have employed the use of similar techniques. 

The study, published in the journal Child Development, found among the adult participants, 26 percent believed the AIDS could be caused by either biology or witchcraft, while 38 percent split biological and scientific explanations into one theory -- "witchcraft and unprotected sex caused AIDS" -- 57 percent combined both witchcraft and biological explanations -- a "witch can put an HIV-infected person in your path."

"The findings show supernatural explanations for topics of core concern to humans are pervasive across cultures," Legare said in a statement. "If anything, in both industrialized and developing countries, supernatural explanations are frequently endorsed more often among adults than younger children."

A user interacts with these virtual spaces by manipulating various controls, such as a computer mouse, touch screen, or game controller. These physical interfaces are generally considered difficult to learn, unnatural and therefore problematic in terms of crafting a significant experience for the user.

To make up for these limitations, game designers and programmers have developed different genres and conventions, such as the first-person point of view, to make players feel that they are not only participating in the performance as an active agent, but that they are actors themselves, required to perform an integral role.

Through this cross examination, I expect to find some of Grotowski's ideas elegantly codified in existing systems, but also hope to shed light some of the unsolved problems that games have been facing in terms of creating meaningful, interactive, authored experiences. These problems may or may not be fundamental to the structure of the medium, but as Grotowski has shown us, it's possible for existing media to be reinvented in order to suit new intentions.

Along with the books you have assigned for the class - I'll be looking at:

Expressive Processing - Noah Wardrip-Fruin - MIT Press
Pursuasive Games - Ian Bogost - MIT Press

Academic work related to software, specifically AI and the manipulative properties of the medium.


Understanding Media - McLuhan - and various other McLuhan references.
The Well-Played Game - Bernie DeKoven - strange, silly book from the New Games movement.

Perhaps some other books, but definitely I'll be looking at specific works of interaction - multiplayer and single player worlds that were designed in the last twenty years.

numbers station

ramps up / down

'this is how many'
count around

you have a manipulation boner!