Joust Assemblage #612 (In Black)

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Interactive video game installation

 

Refuse wood, computer parts, broken cell phones, assorted trash, conductive paints, Bare Conductive touchboard, Joust

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2016

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A work of game art in which controls have been hacked and modified, Joust Assemblage #612 (In Black)  considers the emergence of affective topologies of play among bodies through sculptural interfaces. This interactive installation consists of two sculptures that function as the controls to the classic arcade game Joust. It utilizes a microcontroller programmed for capacitive touch that is wired directly to appropriated readymade objects—old computer parts, legs of an old chair, string, wood fragments, pipes, metal wires—fused into two sculptural assemblages. The surface of each sculpture has been coated in conductive paint so that when players interact with the textures of these objects they can battle in a game of Joust projected onto the gallery wall. Control schemes have been mapped onto the sculptures so as to be intentionally unintuitive and “non-ergonomic” in
design. Thus players are forced to explore the surfaces of the sculptures, prompting a re-conditioning of the body towards new perceptual experiences of play.

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Exhibited at:

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Visual Art Exchange, Tactile, Raleigh, NC,April-May 2016.

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Fish Market Gallery, Past Due, Raleigh, NC, April 2016.