DANM 250E: Game Design + Documentary Storytelling + Social Activism

Week 3: Actepedia

Actepedia

Convergence of Art and Politics 

Beautiful Trouble is an inventive cookbook with toolkits for artist t intervene art and politics in innovative ways. It also defines the role of the artist as a hustler, a troublemaker and a conscience-keeper. Also, situating the role of the artist within larger structures:

" In time of Social Stasis: to activate
  In time of germination : to invent fertile new-forms
  In time of revolution : to extend the possibilities of peace and liberty
  In time of Violence : to make peace
  In time of Despair : to give hope
  In time of Silence : to sing out "

Two forms of Tactics that stood out for me are:
TACTIC: Forum Theatre
Commonly used tool from the theater of the oppressed.
Tactic used: The audience become actors and its a "participatory form" where they can yell Freeze and replace the actor. 
#improv with audience for social change/ breaking hierarchies in the system/not confining to the "action-space"
#exercise in democracy

TACTIC: Flash Mob
Commonly used tool for participatory performance art
Tactic used: Unrehearsed, Spontaneous
#Mass action
#Political protest

SYSTEMS
"The system is partly a memory of its past, just as in origami."
 
A system is a set of parts that interrelate to form a complex whole. There are many ways to frame a game as a system: a mathematical system, a social system, a representational system, etc.

There are four elements that all systems share:
♦ Objects are the parts, elements, or variables within the system.
♦ Attributes are the qualities or properties of the system and its objects.
♦ Internal relationships are the relations among the objects.
♦ Environment is the context that surrounds the system.
 
The way these elements are identified in any individual game depends on the way it is framed as a system.
A game as a formal system is always embedded within an experiential system, and a game
as a cultural system contains formal and experiential systems.


 Although all three levels (formal, experiential, and cultural) exist simultaneously, it can be useful to
focus on just one of them when making an analysis or solving a design problem. It is crucial when
designing a game to understand how these three levels interact and interrelate to each other.

 
Systems can be open or closed. An open system has an exchange of some kind with its environment.
A closed system is isolated from its environment. Whether or not you consider a game as a closed or
open system depends on the way you frame it:
♦ Formal systems are closed systems.
♦ Experiential systems can be open or closed systems.
♦ Cultural systems are open systems.
 

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  1. Actipedia Susana Ruiz