Design, build, prototype and develop a visual or textual translation game.
The terms “translation” and “game” are deliberately open-ended and subject
to multiple interpretations/readings. It is up to you to consider these laterally; to
interrogate, stretch, question and speculate on the possibilities they present.
“Translation” might be across surfaces, spaces, platforms, mediums, materials, languages, scripts, technologies, actions, etc. Equally, “game” may be interpreted entirely as you
see fit. Below are some brief dictionary definitions to help open out what we
might understand a machine to be and suggest some starting points. First,
definitions of the word, “translation”:
(1) the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. (2) the transfer of meaning between a source language and a target language (3) the transfer of meaning between a source medium and a target medium
Now, definitions of the word “game”:
(1) an episode of period of play, usually with defined results (2) a form of play, competitive or collaborative, played according to a set of rules and beholden to skill, luck, and/or chance
consider...
+ think about your game as something that generates chance encounters and unexpected combinations. + the goal is to produce results and encounters you otherwise wouldn’t on your own
+ what can be found in mess + play that can’t be found otherwise?
+ remember this formula:
input → means of translation → output
(part 1) of the project will culminate with you giving a presentation/demonstration of your game’s principles and rules and an opportunity to play it with peers.
(part 2) you will develop a digital presentation deck that you will turn into me privately with a project summary documenting your process and documenting the finished product of your game. lean into what has come from the open-endedness of engaging with your game as a unique mode of making.
reflect → research → restore/revive → publish → connect
Our first project focused on re-directing material, media, energy, information for a largely visual
outcome. Message—more intrinsically, meaning—and audience was loosely
addressed, unless done so throught to project’s documentation.
The second project, Text in Circulation (R/R/R), is about circulation, dissemination,
audience and designing the means of distribution, environment and point of
access of a particular body of text. This project focuses on the transmission of
a message in the context of potential publics, existing or as yet un-created, that would receive this re-targetting.
You will need to select a text to work with, carefully considering its
form, production and means of dissemination. The text you choose to work with should resonate with you personally as a
contemporary practitioner: an interest that informs your life and your practice.
You will need to consider and justify the re-publishing of this material: How does it relate to or express your interests/practice/research? What does
it mean to publish it now? Does it connect to contemporary/urgent issues
and discourse? How?
This can be any kind of text as long as its word count is around (or more than) 1500 words. Enough to demand typographic distinction, expression, and creativity with your final form! As an editor/designer/publisher, you can reroute the text, excerpt, recontextualize, add citations, add annotations add imagery, publish it in full, and much more.
Your last consideration is “circulation.” You must choose how to circulate your project in a way that reflects and enhances the values and goals of your work in re-drafting and re-routing your text. Think carefully about who is receiving it, where, and in what ways.
consider:
+ how can people relate to this differently?
+ what would revive / re-contextualize / expand this text?
+ how can i make this more approachable? more itself? more appealing?
+ what is the value of this text to me and to potential readers? existing readers?
+ what is the expertise i can add as a reader / editor / designer / fan?
