I first approached the Look Art project with a desire to explore the fundamental process of encoding images as demonstrated by Sol LeWitt. When I considered the nature of the Multi-User Dungeon as a site for art practice I saw an immediate affinity with LeWitt's methodology of pattern, codification, algorithm, and especially instruction sets.
The correspondence to the tradition of the Multiple and the subversion of the Original are two corresponding concepts to the MUD found in the Lewitt wall drawings. In the MUD environment, as in all computing, the idea of the original becomes completely disoriented. The Multiple is the native form because this is the ecology based on communication. Without replication the domain collapses. Lewitt's instruction sets for drawings and the text of the MUD environment figure as the code of architectonics for both.
The 'magic' happens in an interstitial site for the MUD as well as LeWitt's work. This operation in guided and executed as language. In the MUD of course language is the stand-in for our native perception so that a player may react to environment and stimulus. Language especially as exhibited in the wall drawings of LeWitt operates as a similar mediating force. The instruction set for a LeWitt drawing that functions to guide the craftsman to describe the environment which becomes the perceptive stimulus for the gallery game.
As I started encoding the stimuli for the exhibition, I soon grew tired of the pattern images. The MUD environment had encouraged me to confine my designs within a few fundamental variables: that I would confine my images to 80 characters in width (thanks to Mr. Morgan for reminding me of this) and I would also confine my images to be rendered in light colored text on a dark background. Both of these rules were encoded as a respectful nod to the interface of the original MUD's and to try exercise the work in the purest sense of the form.
The patterns gave way to portraits which I discovered was another affirmation of the nature of language and communication. These media are about the community, the participation, and the social. In the gallery, I have chosen to honor members of my community, the CADRE Laboratory for New Media. These images are of the people I deeply respect for the collegiality, high standards, generosity, and even the fights and disagreements from which all colleagues are constructed.
Alejandro Duque - TRUeQUE/M00
The main goal will be to create a space where characters can meet to exchange various types of data and information (by the way of an encapsulated transmition within the MUSH platform). A space that serves as a meeting point but becomes a protocol that allows other kinds of exchanges, say for example interface the text based actions with the physical world via OSC (OpenSoundControl). So if I create an object inside the MOO then it will be possible to hook it to sound synths or micro-controllers outside the virtrual world.
It will be then a 2 parts project:
1. Build a space and a set of objects that conform to some pynchonesque dystopian present where we will operate. (based on MUSH code).
2. hijack the MUSH code snippets to create such a protocol that will allow us to pipe and encapsulated packets from the atomic world into the MUD and viceversa.Part 2, is still in the process, it requires implication from the players for developing the idea, I have invested hours of research and the may different kinds of MUSH tested did not allow my quick and dirty lines of code to work on our current server. Regretfully theres not so much documentation online and when you hit something it dates from the mid 90ties and is not anymore applicable. I had also went and asked in few forums for help, even jumped into the know to be more active mushes to find myself talking to the empty space. Anyhow, I
will continue with this idea cause is part of a bigger project I look forward to develop.TRUeQUE stands for: TranscommRoutes for Un-Expected Queued Events It is an ongoing project expanded after my research at locusonus.org
http://trueque.labsurlab.co/?mud
A precondition for "a game that is successful over a longer period is the player's clear understanding about his own economic existence" #WB
Christopher Poff
The notion behind Art.Meaning is to create a functional, interactive version of an artist manifesto that as originally written as creative prose as if it were the transcript for a text adventure game. It takes the abstract concepts of "art," "artist," "meaning," "purpose" and other qualities of the process of artistic expression and present them philosophically as virtual objects in the MUX environment. The work will essentially function as an essay on art which has been encoded into a virtual "game" environment. The original text of the manifesto can be found at: http://www.uwm.edu/~cmpoff/Art.Meaning.txt