Exploring a collaborative nature of all things, an interconnectedness that compromises successful claiming of some ownership of anything in a meeting of Technology & The Humanities
So over the last week I have been thinking about the world of publishing as a sort of game as Professor Moss suggested last class. I have determined that because of the state of flux of the industry as of right now, there are multiple scenarios that could potentially play out and thus the game can have multiple winners and losers according to what the chain of events is. Below, I composed one possible scenario for the chain of events that could potentially occur:
The exercise is extremely instructive in that it organizes the chaos that is the industry right now. I will continue to work on other scenarios that could possibly occur as my research evolves.
[Image at left of Jeff Bezos taken from Time Magazine, 6/22/09] I also found 3 extremely enlightening articles from Time Magazine today. They are, Are Libraries the Next Napster? , Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Literature, and Is Amazon Taking Over the Book Business?. Each of the articles was extremely thought provoking in terms of their vision for the industry. Particularly the article concerning Amazon, in which the authors Lev Grossman and Andrea Sachs discussed the business practices of Jeff Bezos, President of Amazon books, and the future of the publishing industry. Grossman and Sachs imagine the future of the industry as "a world where publishing has two centers rather than one: a conventional literary center, governed by mainstream publishing — with its big names and fancy prizes and high-end art direction — and a new one where books rise to fame and prominence YouTube-style, in the rough and tumble of the great Web 2.0 mosh pit." I thought that the two-center model could potentially be extremely accurate in portraying the future of publishing. I would really like to explore the possibilities of an industry that takes on this two center framework.
So today, Prof. Moss's lecture about Limited Fork reminded me of an essay written by Carl Gustav Jung called Seven Sermons of the Dead. The text explains Gnostic ideals fused with Jung's own psychoanalytic observations of his patients as well as himself to explain the universe as we know it. Prof. Moss's idea about the "root" of the bifurcating forks of Limited Fork, the intimate place where all things are truly one bears relation both to the Om of Eastern philosophy as well as Jung's "Pleroma". The Seven Sermons of the Dead explains the pleroma like this:
Harken: I begin with nothingness. Nothingness is the same as fullness. In infinity full is no better than empty. Nothingness is both empty and full. As well might ye say anything else of nothingness, as for instance, white is it, or black, or again, it is not, or it is. A thing that is infinite and eternal hath no qualities, since it hath all qualities.
This nothingness or fullness we name the PLEROMA. Therein both thinking and being cease, since the eternal and infinite possess no qualities. In it no being is, for he then would be distinct from the pleroma, and would possess qualities which would distinguish him as something distinct from the pleroma.
In the pleroma there is nothing and everything. It is quite fruitless to think about the pleroma, for this would mean self-dissolution.
From here Jung proceeds to explain all things through basic and further bifurcations of the PLEROMA . The logical step from the synthesis of these ideas in my mind is to draw my idea of Media into the mix. I tried to integrate these systems and concepts in the following flowchart:
Hey everyone, sorry for not posting more often. I mostly use my tumblr, which can be found here. I frequently reblog things I find online, and post weekly updates on my Senior Thesis (which is due next tuesday!! YIKES). This whole semester, I've been thinking a lot about trees and forests as intersecting systems, and places where all different forms of life and information can connect. My thread tree forest is almost finished, and will soon have an animation integrated within it.
It is interesting to see how everything is coming together. It is also to think about how everything in the world comes together too. My goal for this project is to use what some inmates have said to inspire a style and feeling in a piece of music. Then I will combine these pieces together with semi-abrupt transitions. Eventually, if everything works out as planned, other people will use this music to shoot a silent film. The challenge is that it is hard to get multiple feelings happening at the same time in the music. This is what I'm trying to accomplish in my head and soon it will be put into sound.
As I was thinking about systems of interaction, I couldn't help but see multiple ways of looking at how things relate. In the simplest of terms we can think of an interaction having at least two participants. In the example of an art space, we can think of the creator being one participant, agreeing to a set of rules from the moment the idea is first conceived. The idea in physical form, whether through spatial, linguistic, mathematical, or otherwise; it is never constant and the participant observer, or receiver, plays a vital role in its existence. I keep recalling the term feedback loop as one way of thinking of the relationship. Each interaction repeats back onto itself and the experience is novel yet still an accumulation of all past experiences, it is a circuit of interaction that is constantly changing, constantly new, yet still determined by all past actions, or inaction. The creator is also a participant, the participant is also a creator, and through their shared interaction, the space (or creation) can change. Indeed, the created space itself is its own participant, not merely a set object in space but open to change as our understanding, interaction, and manipulation of it can change. While it may be a given created environment, it is not static, it is dynamic. As we talked about ripples before, things happening, either known or unknown, interacted with or not, still influence and penetrate every interaction. This is the peripheral that is another participant. Indeed, while we can't directly affect what happens in the peripheral, it still permeates our interaction.
Here is one visual of how it could work:
The only constant would be existence itself, I guess the experience of time. Around this is the multitude of variables that affect experience, all dependent on each piece of the puzzle. If you think of it like a video game, you can see that no interaction is constant. I kept thinking of Original Super Mario Brothers for Original Nintendo. Thinking solely about the environment of the game, there is a set of rules and a seemingly constant way to play but these rules can change with varying constants. Maybe I will take all the pipes in the game to save time, or maybe I will warp to a different world or discover a new hidden path I didn't know about. Maybe it will be two player, maybe I will lose lives and have to restart over, with the interaction beginning anew again. Maybe there will be an error half way through the game. The point is that it is always variable, no matter how constant the environment can be, our perspective and experience of it is constantly changing. You can even "hack" the system and disregard its rules completely.
This past week I have been working on listening to a publishing series on the Stanford University Itunes channel. There were some extremely interesting segments discussing electronic publishing and the incorporation of new forms of media. One speaker in the video was invited to attend the course because of his expertise in digital technology. He discussed how the publishing industry needs to remain more open to change and embrace new forms of technology and new methods of distribution such as ipads, iphones, kindles, etc. Another speaker discussed the use of videos. He asserted that publication companies should embrace the technology of the video and use it to expand the industry's purpose of "storytelling." He suggested embedding youtube videos on the websites of publications, broadcasting live events relating to the publication on their website, and bringing in bloggers who have interesting insight into topics relating to the publication. Yet another speaker discussed making use of the brand-name. She asserted that publishers need to incorporate tactics used by Starbucks and Apple in generating customer loyalty. As books and publications are becoming commoditized, they too need to adopt the strategy of cultivating brand-names for themselves. I found out from the course website that it has since become the Yale Professional Publishing Course. It was an extremely interesting series of videos and I am definitely going to include some clips my website.
So I spent this class session putting together a short video in iMovie, meant to be a multimedia discussion on the US/UN intervention in Libya. I intend to work on this video a bit more, hopefully integrating images other than nuclear explosions to further emphasize my ideas. I selected the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton's speech since it represents the US government's official stance on our intervention in Libya. Professor Chomsky offers a less mainstream viewpoint and brings decades of political science and history expertise. He is currently Professor Emeritus in Linguistics at MIT. Find out more here.
I've been thinking about how to expand my original idea of studying media in its various forms, outside of manipulating sound. In order to widen my scope I'm thinking about creating a brief newsmedia compilation in iMovie, although I think it would be difficult to clear rights for most of the things I want to use. Here is an update from a webseries called Rap News. The political and current events related rapping delivered in a news report format parodies and critiques the current method of television "news" transmission, interviewing a hate-spewing Glenn Beck as well as an early motivator and symbol of the Egyptian Revolution Asmaa Mahfouz . The general outlook of Rap News is rooted in a stern distrust of US Foreign Policy as well as domestic manipulations of news media, politics, and the economy by a small group of moneyed corporate elites. The final message of this particular episode is one of striving as a people towards real civilization, meaning a society that truly values and consistently upholds civil responsibility and basic human rights for things like health care, clean water and air, as well as the right to organize labor and protest peacefully.
One reason that you should consider your projects as environments involves some of the nature of interactions.
An assumption is that interaction occurs between at least two entities. These entities may be subsystems of the same systems, parts that may function as wholes that then also (likely simultaneously) function together within a larger subsystem that in turn may function as part of an even larger system. Consider parts of the human body and human families and human communities that of course interact with non-human subsystems and systems. Such consideration establishes or helps enable awareness of an environment underway. A dynamic set of behaviors and circumstances in an environment host, shape, and are shaped by interactions of environmental membership, including temporary memberships such as visitors or intruders or those evicted (in various ways on various scales).
Interaction assumes occurrence, event; something happens in an interaction. There is some form of exchange in interaction, any possible form of exchange which can include domination, subjugation, extermination. There have been incredibly brutal exchanges in Japan, Libya, Syria, Egypt; forms of occurrence persist as reconfigurations happen again and again. These interacting systems are also interacting with other systems around the world. There are global ripples of impact that vary in intensity; geological, psychological, meteorological, emotional, political, economic, sociological, motivational, religious, galvanizing, etc. ripples and shock waves. The intensity with which you feel yourself hit with any of these ripples help configure some of the nature of your response, of your participation in the interaction with the shock wave; some of the nature of your role in a transaction with systems and subsystems of ripples, some of which continue from out of Haiti, and some of which mingle to dilution in the recency and comparative (ouch) enormity of current (the breaking) news events.
This is to say that there is still hunger in the world in locations not specifically mentioned in this post. Still people and communities without proper access to proper water and proper toilets (including some First Nation reserves in Canada). (image from CoteGauche)
Constituents of interaction play (configurable and reconfigurable)roles in interaction. There are variables that help determine the nature of these roles from moment to moment. Some of these variables include your own choices. Though there is marking by interaction on participants in interaction, the configuration (including intensity and duration of marking) varies according to determinable (to a certain extent) factors. Prior interactions help to prime responses of participants in a moment of initial participation in emerging interactions that do further shaping, marking, priming for subsequent interactions.
Denial and indifference are possible responses, possible (in)actions within a temporary system of interaction. Intensity of denial, apathy, hostility, indifference, compassion, etc. are variable, fluctuate, according to what is marking, how marking happens, etc. in emerging interactions.
Listen to Exploding Angels (music & lyrics by Ansted Moss, arranged and sung by forkergirl, 2006; also available from the Limited Fork Music podcast):
To participate in interaction is to risk a possibility of being marked in the exchange in a way that can reconfigure perception on some scale for some duration of time.
Context and interpretation are two of many variables that operate as a factor in shaping response. Context is highly variable, in a range from the subtle to the profound. Anything may form a center of context through which an allness or everything may be (temporarily) accessed, the movement outward or inward from that center as ripples and shock waves that eventually, with some form of distance (usually), dissipates to where marking and effects, though still diminishing (perhaps infinitely diminishing) becomes apparently immeasurable, apparently inconsequential.
Please watch again or the first time the ripples of Powers of Ten from the Eames Office:
Involvement in interaction is a form of collaboration. You and the subject(s) of your project system are co-participants in a system of interaction in which the roles vary and are reconfigurable, according to rules that are also variable and temporarily in place from moment to moment, each configured according to interactions with information that arrives and departs with varying intensities. Participants in your project environment may be transient. Status may fluctuate. Alliances may form and disband. Etc.
Please try to determine what the roles are, in moments (at least three) of interaction within your collaboration with your project system, for at least three participants in the collaboration. Do also try to identify as many of the participants as your can. As many as all. This determination of roles in the transaction and identification of participants in the transaction may take on any form, including written list, paper model, map, flow chart, clay, video, sound work, game, etc.
If you configure your project system as an interactive game, for instance, what might be an objective of this game? What would be the role of the project participants/players? What might be the rules of this game? How does one play it? How does one win it —if it may be won at all. How many levels? What happens on each? Perhaps a purpose is not to win, and if not, why play this game? Etc. Maximum number of players? Minimum? Remember that in most video games, the environment is not static. A dynamic environment where anything there is potentially active —Myst anyone? The environment participates in the action, moves the game along, sometimes determines outcomes, presents consequences, alternatives, dead ends, delays, traps, rewards, etc. Anything at all like Jumanji?
Feel Free to make a board game, if you like or set up some kind of (crude approximations are fine) online community experience of (some of) the game elements.
Have you played Darfur is Dying? PlaySeptember 12here & now Then play Madrid. Read about the Global Conflicts computer games —imagine content for history, economics, political science, and other subjects experienced with decision-making and other forms of active participation instead of a textbook. Here are some examples:
I've been thinking about the simultaneity studies and one thing keeps on popping into my head that relates in a round about way to my project. One of my high school teachers/voluntary boatman at the boathouse got into the rowing equipment business several years ago. He owns H2Row, a company that now supplies the vast majority of rowing shoes that go in the racing shells. So basically he's a millionaire, but that's besides the point. He's a really funny guy, always cracking jokes, but you can never tell if he's being serious or not...so when he tells us that he owns a sweatshop in some third world country that makes these shoes, idk what to think. But I'm pretty sure he's not kidding about that. Anyways, my point here is every time I think about those shoes now, the first thing that pops into my mind is sweatshops. Now, the simultaneity seen through the eyes of rower...every time I strapped my feet into those shoes I thought about little kids in Taiwan or some country laboring to make them at the same time I was using them to compete in a race. Well here I am thinking these shoes need to be made more sustainably now.
I was looking at the Prada Spring/Summer 2011 line and I came across this video. Fashion or rather clothing has been something totally utilitarian. We use it to keep ourselves warm to provide us with something to protect our bodies from the external environment. Within Limit Fork discussions, we have looked at the manor in which the digital world-namely the internet- has complicated or challenged the world that we occupy. I found it interesting to see an advertisement for clothing on Youtube. It totally rids the clothing items of their utilitarian value- pushing them towards the idea of art objects. I like how their are many systems at play in this idea- the model, the music, the clothes- all comping together to articulate a specific idea.
Simultaneity makes sense. Nothing can be the same for every single person, but how do you incorporate that music. That is the challenge this week. I hear a lot of music and almost all of it keeps basically the same tone throughout the entire song. Now, i must figure out how to break that. How to get the listener to feel two opposite feelings at once. I would even settle for different people to think opposing thoughts or for the same person to hear different themes with every listening. This seems tough, but possible.
Simultaneity, oh simultaneity
The work of Hélio Oiticica is applicable to our discussion of marks as he is working in Brazil in the 60s during an extreme authoritarian government. He is marked as a white individual in this highly- racially divided environment- not to mention the class divide that is present. This government is containing art through censorship, so for Oiticica he must "bend" mediums-using everyday materials. Instead of showcasing his work in the gallery, Oiticica brings it to the slums- to shanty towns around Brazil; the same times that he chooses to live in. In this regard, one could say that Oiticica is trying to create an egalitarian approach to artistic display- one that does not contain a sense of institutional privileged.
Furthermore, Oiticica's work is less about the art object and more about the social interaction that occurs from walking through his pieces. This notion of social interaction- brings time to the forefront of his work. Their is a sense of time that becomes a collaborator that parallels Limited Fork Theory.
This video is an example of how anything can be posted or uploaded online- we have gotten to a point in society where anything can be presented as fact. The issue now is that with a bombardment of information, how can we distinguish what is good from what is bad? Or rather who is informed and credible and who is not. A metaphor, I think about is the idea that culture (currently) has started to throw trash where they eat-- we can no longer distinguish the difference, so we eat both.
This video seems to satirize the nature of sensationalizing political events. One can tell that this individual is not even taking himself seriously, through the slight smirks. I don't evaluate this video as "actual" information. I do not take it seriously. Rather, the only productive way for me to evaluate this video is to consider it as a performance art piece.
I have not posted in much too long, so I have a lot to share in this post. First of all, I am planning on setting up an interview with one of the librarians in the library in the coming couple of weeks in order to find out more about the HathiTrust project, which is U of M's study of the possibilities of electronic publishing. I was told by another professor that Aaron McCullogh would be particularly of use in exploring digital media, as he is involved in the library's study of digital media. I am also interested in perhaps seeking out the director of U of M's Journal of Electronic Publishing. I think an interview with her would also bring to light a lot of interesting information regarding the emerging possibilities of e-publishing and the future of the publishing industry.
Last week, in my research I came upon one extremely interesting article in The New York Times Magazine regarding Stephanie Clifford and Julie Bosman entitled "Publishers Look Beyond Bookstores." The article discusses how many major publishing companies are marketing their books to retail stores, such as Urban Outfitters, Sam's Club, or Kitson. Publishers are using such stores as opportunities for the sale of lesser-known books or novelty books that might not necessarily be popular sellers in an e-publishing context. The article also brings to light the idea that certain books are apparently being left out of the transition to ebooks. The article names cookbooks and children's books as two types excluded from the digital world. I feel as though these are two books that might benefit very much from becoming digitized, however. The question of what books are being left out in the transition from paper to electronic publishing is yet another issue that deserves exploration.
I also came upon a very interesting issue regarding the relationship between libraries and epublishing. In searching through newspaper articles, I came upon one New York Times blog that led me to a whole slew of information regarding a controversy between libraries and Harper Collins. Apparently, Harper Collins has decided to limit public libraries to 27 uses of the ebooks they purchase per year. Libraries are up in arms regarding this policy, and it is easy to see why. The idea of limiting something that someone owns undoes the whole concept of book ownership. Why should ebooks be any different than print books? I understand possibly limiting the number of users who can access an ebook at one time, but to force libraries to pay extra for electronic books that they could easily find in paper version is ridiculous. I believe that Harper Collins should alter their policy, but that is simply my opinion. There is definitely more information to uncover regarding the issue and I intend to include it in my website. Here are some links regarding the issue:
One (relatively) hopeful note is the presence of technology to help withstand the crisis. According to the AP, anyone can make a $10 donation by texting "Japan" or "Quake" to 80888. And google has set up a person finder with two options: "I'm looking for someone" or "I have information about someone." Anyone can ask or share. It's like putting up missing person fliers, sticking a post-it note at the lost and found, or even scratching a question on a bathroom stall--except this information is easily accessible and all in one place, one database of people trying to find each other.
Tsunami origin:
late 19th century: from Japanese, from tsu "harbor" + nami "wave"
I've been distracted, enthralled and captivated by these haunting images of what's currently going on in Japan. These look like building blocks. The power of sea water.
Well, I've been at a stand still with my ideas for a couple weeks now...
Over spring break I went to one of my high school's rowing practices and got some ideas mainly from the workout called "pedestals" that I had to demonstrate to the novices.
The workout is based on increments of 25 working up to 75 and is done a total of three times. It burns, oh does it burn. The first 25 is up and over head rows with a 20-lb bar. The second is 50 chest rows with that 20-lb bar and the third is squats with this 20-lb bar. I was thinking about how many ways this workout can apply to sustainability...implementing it in steps...having a 5-year plan 10-year plan and 15-year plan. Making large changes at first and working towards a more detailed approach later on. This will definitely work its way into my website, which is a work in progress still, of course.
a new song was created. i was thinking about what the inmates talked about. what they felt passionately about. it was when they would get out of jail. i used this feeling to create a feel in the song. i even in threw in a sean penn distraction. now, i need to work on exactly what said and morph that to fit inside this song. the good thing is that i have not been tired. when im not tired, i dont sleep. when i dont sleep, i seem to be use more creativity. so it shouldnt be too difficult for me to compile what was written and make it my own
we will see what a new day will bring
I didn't realize it, but Sean Penn has been intruding on my mind for a while now. I've been thinking a lot about trees (you've probably all seen me in the corner with my hot glue gun), and working on constructing a forest made of thread trees (this is also part of my thesis for the BFA program, but I think it's ridiculous for projects to not spill over into other classes, don't you? my thoughts all jumble together, especially with art). This movie trailer really made an impression on me a few months ago when I first saw it. This movie is supposed to be mainly about emotions and sensory images, and I think it's interesting to think of how film can invoke strong emotional responses. I'm interested in emotional responses in my own work, but haven't done anything with it in a while. Watching this made me remember all those things I had been thinking about, and how nature is connected to everything (at least, that's how I feel about it).
So if Sean Penn were to intrude on my publishing project....
Needless to say it would be a bit strange, but it could happen in various ways:
For instance, why does Simon & Schuster advertise that Sean Penn read the Bob Dylan book Chronicles? What does this have to do with the book sale industry? How much do celebrity endorsements affect readers' purchases of books?
Or we could look at Sean Penn's biography by Richard T. Kelly entitled Sean Penn: His Life and Times. How much more popular are celebrity biographies than works of literature or fiction? Is society more geared toward "reality," more interested in the lives of real celebrities than they are in works of literary art?
Sean Penn's film Into the Wild is demonstrative of the blockbuster novel, as the movie is based off of the book by Jack Krakauer. It exemplifies the idea of turning a book into a hollywood hit. Because of the great success of movies such as Into the Wild or Harry Pottery, publishers seem to be selecting books to publish depending upon their blockbuster potential, and as a result, authors seem to be catering to their profit-oriented practices in order to get rich quick. I wish to investigate whether this is really true, whether such a system is really in place in today's publishing industry? Was Into the Wild written with the intention of being a blockbuster? Or was it simply admired by a director after it was already written?
Sean Penn - The intruder I found a soundboard of Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High here, which I intend to integrate into my sound project. Despite Prof. Moss telling us we thankfully do not have to use Charlie Sheen, the suggestion was made and since sound files of that particular person's ravings are readily available, I think I will use his voice in addition to Spicoli's.
Art as Necessity Art as Luxury
The way I personally define these relationships are as follows: Art is a luxury, but Expression is a necessity. In the way that good food is a luxury and mere sustenance is a necessity.
So I've been continuing to work with the idea of "Media" manipulating sound and text mostly at this point, trying to integrate different sources within a given medium. For instance using found sound--recorded by my friend on his iPhone and trying to integrate it into a Garageband track, as well as integrating the OED into my own Media-related rant. These two little projects have been rather successful insofar as they've allowed me to stretch my creative legs a bit, reaching out into areas formerly foreign to me, but I'm well stretched now, I know how long my legs are, (I can almost touch my toes!), and it's about time to jog a bit. I tend to think that constructing and working within metaphor is one of my strong points, and so in that spirit I've decided to jog. To clarify, stretching- something I'm not so good at, but necessary. Jogging- something I'm a bit better at, and which I'll begin to do now. What I mean by that, is the synthesis of the two media I've worked with so far, text and sound, through the descriptive medium of metaphor, in this case poetry specifically. What I'd planned to do today was to write I poem (I've already started) and then have it read by the computer voice-over thing, while recording it, and ultimately reintegrating it back into a sound, music-type file. The idea of a poem, a deeply human thing, being read in a digitally produced voice, surrounded by digital sound, is a somewhat alienating idea to me, which draws in another feature I've been fascinated by recently, that is, alienation. To be alienated, divorced from the familiar and comfortable, is how I mean to use this word. What is the purpose of alienation in this situation? The purpose of alienation in media? By separating ourselves from that which is near and possibly dear, or at least intelligible to us, we're given an opportunity to examine it more objectively. (I wouldn't dream of attempting true objectivity, I imagine it to be impossible.) And so through alienation I can find what used to be human and familiar, to be alien. Again, why bother? For something to become unfamiliar gives us a chance to demystify our relationship to it without the hazard of that assessment being effected by the very relationship. We are given an opportunity (though not imperatively, we can choose to ignore the chance) to see it for what it is, to see how we feel about something without the shroud of our own prior preconceptions. This is all very abstract and maybe even (a bit) sickeningly philosophical, so to be concrete, I intend to alienate myself from my own creation, to hear it inhumanly, and allow my reaction to that experience to change the creation into something it would not be without the filter of digitalization, alienation. My reaction to the computer-read poem will very likely alter its meaning to me, or at least its mood, leading the final product to be radically different from the original, or a poem/sound product without the alien interference of a computer voice.
[Image at left of Jeff Bezos taken from Time Magazine, 6/22/09] I also found 3 extremely enlightening articles from Time Magazine today. They are, Are Libraries the Next Napster? , Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Literature, and Is Amazon Taking Over the Book Business?. Each of the articles was extremely thought provoking in terms of their vision for the industry. Particularly the article concerning Amazon, in which the authors Lev Grossman and Andrea Sachs discussed the business practices of Jeff Bezos, President of Amazon books, and the future of the publishing industry. Grossman and Sachs imagine the future of the industry as "a world where publishing has two centers rather than one: a conventional literary center, governed by mainstream publishing — with its big names and fancy prizes and high-end art direction — and a new one where books rise to fame and prominence YouTube-style, in the rough and tumble of the great Web 2.0 mosh pit." I thought that the two-center model could potentially be extremely accurate in portraying the future of publishing. I would really like to explore the possibilities of an industry that takes on this two center framework.
This is to say that there is still hunger in the world in locations not specifically mentioned in this post. Still people and communities without proper access to proper water and proper toilets (including some 
If you configure your project system as an interactive game, for instance, what might be an objective of this game? What would be the role of the project participants/players? What might be the rules of this game? How does one play it? How does one win it —if it may be won at all. How many levels? What happens on each? Perhaps a purpose is not to win, and if not, why play this game? Etc. Maximum number of players? Minimum? Remember that in most video games, the environment is not static. A dynamic environment where anything there is potentially active —
