EtherAxis
28th November & 5th December 2021. Sickhouse, Enschede. The Overkill Festival
About
EtherAxis is an interactive game installation and reflection tool aiming to challenge the inner paradigms that shape our perception of realities. The physical relic that forms the base for this game shape-shifts in different contexts. The structure of the gameboard emphasises four main axes, each connected to multiple ancient symbols of alchemy, hacked to uncover their original meanings. In this constellation of four interlaced geographic grids, the dreamer wanders through bridging fields on a spatiotemporal axis. Throughout the Overkill, EtherAxis lures you into the streets to find its messages hidden in plain sight, stepping over to the worlds floating in the ether.
EtherAxis is the result of an ongoing collaboration between Camilo García A., Emilia Tapprest, Erik Peters, Federico Poni, Louisa Teichmann & Victor Evink, as part of the Hamburger Community of Live & Art trajectory of Roodkapje, with performances by Queer Arcana.
Introduction
Game Narrative
Chapter 1: Arrival
Gameplay in stages: 1 1/2 h
Sickhouse: 25 mins Character building based on the players digital possession. Players show their phones in order to receive character card and matching props. characters get assigned 1 of 4 character types.
Chapter 2: Take a Leap in the Dark
City: 45 mins They go into the city in order to find the bridgepoints and learn about the different worlds. The training space is the main space with a performance hinting on the crossover of mulitple spaces in the same building.
4 Locations, 4 Lessons, 4 numbers. Smart Shop + Trader Lesson Training Station + Mover Lesson Bike Parking + Navigator Lesson Mushroom + Scientist Lesson
Chapter 3: Return
Sickhouse: 20 mins They come back with collected code which unlocks modular poem in the end. Collective world reading based on poem.
pre-game
Visual Language and Communication Methods
Play Tests
in-game
Documentation of actual Gameplay.
post-game
Analysis
Bibliography
Books
This is not a Game ~ Dave Szulborski
The Case Against Reality ~ Donald Hoffman
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism ~ Shoshana Zuboff
Space Time Play http://www.spacetimeplay.org/
Tactical Tech https://ourdataourselves.tacticaltech.org/posts/inside-the-influence-industry/
Articles
http://aaaan.net/blast-theory-2/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location-based_game
https://www.playtoearn.online/category/blockchain-gaming/
https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/geofencing
Games
Blast Theory: Can you see me now? 2001. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_You_See_Me_Now%3F
Tomo Kihara: Escape the Smart City, 2018.
Roos Groothuizen: I want to delete it all, but not now. 2021.
Collaborators
Further Reading
Mazes & Monsters by Rona Jaffe