Context

The first work that inspired the rules of the game comes from the user-made Minecraft mini-game (hosted by "The Hive") called Block party. In each round of the game a color is specified and you must run to that color block before time runs out, then all the blocks except the specified color disappear. This game really helped form the foundation of my idea, but I wanted to extend it in order to ground it as a physical experience and give it more purpose than to just play a game.

During our performance of the first iteration of this work, Almeda mentioned that this game would really go well in children's museum as it was pretty engaging and colorful which is perfect for children. So I looked into some of the Exhibits in the Pittsburgh Children's museum and found the Tough Art museum where artists are tasked with creating interactive experiences for children. The work that stuck out to me was the Bubble Machine #5 by Nicholas Hanna, which is an installation that generates giant bubbles then blows them to the middle of the room where children are free to jump around and have fun with them. This gave me direction for my installation as far as the behavior of children participating in an art installation and what type of things attract their attention. Although this installation is a lot more free and less structured than my game, the insight it gives on keeping children's attention is still applicable. This is important for me to plan around so that I can make the an appropriate game for the children but still have it be engaging enough to keep their attention.

STREETPONG by Sandro Engel and Holger Michel gave me a bit more direction in terms of the competitive nature of my installation. The installation was set at a traffic crosswalk in central Germany and it allowed you to play a game of pong with another person on the other side of the street while waiting to cross. I found this very interesting as in most cases one would be playing with a complete stranger. However, as the video shows, the longer the game goes on the more the sense of competitiveness increases, which I found interesting. I also liked the fact that when the game is over you have to cross the street and see the person you just played and it's hard not to want to interact with that person directly as you cross because you guys both shared that experience together. I would like for my installation to have a somewhat similar effect, so that participants can enjoy playing the game as well as learning about music with other people regardless of if they are friends or strangers.