TetrisMachine (defect 4)

inter_art
gamescape
pictureTetris
dataform.de
mobileskino.ch

what happens to the bricks in tetris after completing a line? they disappear from the screen. not so in the installation "Tetrismaschine", here they drop out of the machine into reality and bounce all over the gallery floor! what a mess!

TetrisMachine is a simple tetris automation. it defictionalises the tetris game: each time the player finishes a line (on the screen), real bricks drop out of the machine (servo motors push them out of their slots).

the player of TetrisMachine becomes a machinist of this game and plays an important role in the cybernectic game-cycle. any machine needs to be replenished from time to time. if the player wants to play more, it is up to him to collect the bricks from the floor and refill the TetrisMachine.

contrary to other virtual tetris games and gamescape, TetrisMachine produces a lot of real output and waste.

software (installation): win (unity3d)

hardware (installation): modified notebook, plexiglas machine (lasercut) & servo motors/ sensors (via phidgets)

... TetrisMachine in action ... bricks are falling out of the machine ... to the floor ...

... bricks are falling out when a row is completed ...

... the drop outs ...

... one in a while it is refill time or the machine stops ...

... the bricks in their slots ...

... time to refill ...

servo motors pushing out the bricks ...

ideas

Cybernetic machine with real objects

[English] Defictionalising shows, what virtuality and cyberspace is about. Tetrismaschine's topic (as Gamescape's earlier) is games as cybernetic machines in cyberspace. It goes to the limits of Turing's machines of desire.

Usually cybernetic machines (such as games) work infinitely. There are no physical problems such as friction or waste - apart from the power consumption.

While as in Gamescape the game patterns of the played games produced virtual cities, in TetrisMachine dice drop from the machine to the gallery floor when a line is complete. A digital game clears them off the screen and disposes them from the game. But here the dice become a problem when they are cleared from the screen and turn into real objects: they land on the floor and grow into a heap on the gallery floor.

Player becomes sidekick

Or seen from an opposite perspective: The machine stops when there are no dice left in the slots behind the screen. At this point the player turns into a machinist. He has to take care of the machine's needs and find out what exactly happened. The machine may get clogged and it runs out of dice after a few minutes. Quite often the player needs to collect dice from the floor and refill the automaton.

The player becomes part of the machine, he grows into the role of a stooge or sidekick for machine and cubes, cleaning up and refilling the real and virtual order. This means that the player is directly involved into the management of the game mechanism. Thereby he must realize that the better he plays in the virtual, the bigger the mess becomes in reality.

Kybernetische Maschine mit realen Game-Objekten

[German] TetrisMachine thematisiert (wie zuvor schon Gamescape) Spiele als kybernetische Maschinen im Cyberspace und geht gleichzeitig an die Grenzen dieser Turing-Wunschmaschinen.

Normalerweise drehen sich diese kybernetischen (Cyberspace) Maschinchen (wie etwa Spiele) endlos. Physikalische Probleme wie Reibung oder Abfall gibt es konkret nicht - sieht man vom Stromverbrauch ab.

Produzierten die gespielten Spiele in Gamescape nocn virtuelle Städte, so fallen in TetrisMachine nun echte Würfel aus dem Automaten, sobald eine Linie vollständig ist. Die ansonsten gelöschten und im Spiel entsorgten Würfel werden zum Problem, wenn sie auf einmal als Haufen auf dem Galerieboden wahrnehmbar werden.

Der Spieler wird zum Handlanger

Oder aus umgekehrter Perspektive: Die Maschine stoppt, wenn sie keine Würfel mehr im Schacht vorfindet. Der Spieler wird dadurch zum Maschinisten, den es kümmern muss, wie die Maschine läuft und was da genau passiert. Zu oft verstopft die Maschine, zu oft gehen die Würfel aus und zu oft muss sie aufgefüllt werden mit den herumliegenden Würfeln.

Der Spieler wird zum Bestandteil der Maschine, zum realen Aufräumer, zum realen Nachfüller und zum virtuellen Ordner und Handlanger dieser Würfel. Das heisst aber, dass der Spieler mit seinem Spielengagement unmittelbar in die Bewirtschaftung des Gamemechanismus eingespannt wird.

Dabei ist klar: je besser er im Virtuellen spielt, desto grösser wird die reale Sauerei.

Press

• Filmwinter Stuttgart, Tetrismaschine. Einmal Tetris bitte, mit "real output and waste". In Gameculture.ch. 15.02.2012. [german]