LiveForm Telekinetics_M Teran and J Mann

Digital networks extend communication across distance and time. How might they influence the forms of our daily social interaction? Sharing a meal, a walk in the park, making music, sports or games – these are the kind of social activities and rituals we use to build meaningful relationships. But the typewriter keyboard and computer screen are artifacts of a business machine that seem out of place here. What if the interface allowed for body language, gesture, and physicality? What if you could go out for dinner and dancing with friends, even though you’re a thousand kilometers away?

levelhead_julian oliver

With the spatial memory game ‘levelHead’ Julian Oliver has combined gaming, art and architecture in a tangible computer game. The game consists of a cube with an image on each of its six sides. By using the technology of Sony eyeToy web camera the images on the cube are captured and generated onto a computer screen. When the cube is placed in front of the web camera you can on the computer screen look into a 3D graphic environment. A room of stairs and hallways appears inside the cub. There are six different rooms in one cube connected to each other by doors. By tilting and rotating the cube you lead the player around in the rooms, walking up and down stairways, around corners and through doors. The ways you tilt the cube decide the walking direction of the player. The aim of the game is to remember which doors connect to the different rooms so you can lead the player quickly to exit and pass on to the next level. There are five levels, which increase in difficulty and there is only 120 seconds available to find the way through each of the levels.