Category: Flog

I spent a little time researching how wordpress works. I was trying to get a nicer looking page for my site, and then I needed to delete the post from the Theme I had chosen. My previous experiences of using Wordprss is only limited to publish content withought much exploring its other features. Still I’m not quite sure what it’ll look like after I post this but I’ll figure it out. The two readings of this week are both long essays on the philosophical and cultural significance of games, which are informative and require close reading. Caillois’s taxonomy, for example, describes not only games but also the cultural phenomena behind them, making it difficult to relate. Both articles are very long and may make it difficult to find the point or stay focused. However, fortunately, the overall structure of reading is fair and the logic is clear, especially the one by caillois. I’m actually caught by the idea of the first Hack as well. I’m trying to brainstorm something that is different and also has a profound philosophy meaning that could combine media and human life. I’ll watch some videos to search for inspiration. Also I feel I only get one week for that project and the time limit worries me a lot. It seems like I need a well-organized schedule immediately.

The thing I struggled with the most this week was the differences between agon, alea, mimicry, and ilinx. While I was reading I found it difficult to categorize the examples of play in these four categories since I felt like an argument could be made for all the categories (like how there may be a coin toss, alea, in sports and some element of disorientation, ilinx, but it’s still primarily agon), but after the in-class activity I feel like I’m a little better at doing that. I also didn’t realize that the point of the categories was that all games fall into almost all of them in some form, and after realizing this I found it a lot easier to understand. I think it’s more of a terminology then a hard ruleset used to differentiate parts of a game, but maybe that’s also incorrect in some way. I had a similar struggle with paidea and ludus, but since there’s only two of them categorizing feels a bit easier.

The Makey Makey was also a little confusing to set up, especially when I tried rebinding some of the keys, but I’ve figured it out so far and I’m a bit more confident with that now. The white wires also fall off very easily (even though I tried to kind of wrap them around the alligator clamp) and I’m experimenting with using a piece of tape to hold it on there better, maybe I won’t even need the slots on the back but they were easier to use than rebinding the keys.

Another problem I’ve run into is the limited number of controls we can use, since we only have seven alligator clamp cords for controls (and one is for grounding) it has put a limit of what kind of games we could use for our hack. I tried to play Minecraft with the setup pictured above and without mouse movement it’s basically impossible. There is a way to do mouse movement with the Makey Makey, but unless we can find more cords I don’t think it’s a great idea to use 4 of our control slots on just the mouse movement. My partner and I haven’t picked a game yet, but I’m personally leaning towards a rhythm game since those are fixed camera with more limited controls needed. We could also do some fun theming with fake instruments, though I fear that will be too similar to controllers like the one used in Guitar Hero. I looked into games with a physical drumkit used as the controller, and it seems like there was an attempt to make one but it was never mass produced so it could be interesting to try making one of those.

The final struggle I encountered this week was this flog. I don’t know how long this is supposed to be, and I also don’t know if EOD means midnight or like 5 PM… I’m going to ask that in the email I send with the link to this website, but I figured I’d put it here too.

As this is my first FLOG and I haven’t had much to talk about since the start of class, I have decided to focus on my fails trying to set my WordPress site up. At first, I knew what I was doing because I had to use Davidson Domains to create a webpage for my Intro to Digital Art course. However, once I had the actual page set created, I struggled with customizing because I had forgotten how to use WordPress. It was a little difficult to get started because I was too shy to ask for help because everyone seemed to know what they were doing. After finally asking someone else in class how to get to the customization portion of the website, I started looking through the themes and was having trouble choosing one because I am indecisive, so originally I had a different theme than the current one you are viewing. I haven’t had any other issues, but I’m sure I’ll have some more when trying to think and form an idea for Hack #1.

Reflecting on Failure and Play

This week, I have realized that I do not fully understand what hacking, remixing, or designing truly mean in the context of our class. These concepts seem straightforward at first glance, but I struggle to define their boundaries upon further thought. Similarly, I had not anticipated how challenging it would be to define play and fun. Initially, it felt almost counterintuitive to discuss play so seriously.

The most fun failure I experienced this week was during our Makey Makey demonstration. I was not expecting to be the last participant, and honestly, I was disappointed in Tetris performance. I promise I know how to play Tetris, and I would like to think I am pretty decent at it. However, my skills clearly did not translate well when the keys were replaced by humans. Even though I understood which person was assigned to each button, it felt completely unnatural. Typically, I play Tetris in a very controlled way within my keyboard’s reach and personal space, but in this situation, I randomly tapped my “human controls” just to get a sense of how it worked.

I believe I would have performed better with a second attempt, but not by much. This experience has sparked ideas about what I want to do with my own Makey Makey project. I want to create something that challenges people physically and makes them more aware of how technology can be embodied differently. It is fascinating to consider how our interactions and enjoyment with technology can shift when our bodies become part of the interface. Understanding play, fun, and technology in new ways—even through failure—is all part of the process.

LF

This week, we looked at two readings by Huizinga and Caillois on the definitions and cultural significance of play. I particularly enjoyed these readings as talking about play and fun on an academic level proved to be more provocative than in casual, every-day life settings. We don’t often think about fun and playing unless it actually happens, so thinking about the larger implications of these humanistic impulses was quite interesting for me. I do feel like, however, that the readings were outdated in their categorizations of fun / play and what some examples of fun / play looked like. Granted, the readings were from the 50s, which continues to prove how fun and play are subjective for everyone.

This week, we also spoke about our first hack. Using the Makey Makey, we are tasked with pushing the boundaries of the typical functions of technology. Currently, I am brainstorming some possibilities that can connect music and technology in an ironic, juxtaposed way. I am leaning towards using different musical instruments as the inputs devices to play a drum kit. For instance, I want to map out a piano keyboard or a guitar to play a kick or snare sound, so that you can play the drums by playing everything that’s not a drum. I am still working some ideas out to ensure that this is innovative, exciting, and goes beyond the surface level of what the Makey Makey can offer.

I feel like I am failing a little this week because I am having a problem coming up with a creative idea for the first project. I am super excited about it, but even after looking at examples, I am at such a loss for an idea on what exactly I should create. I keep hoping something will come to me, but I also know that I have to get started soon, which I think is creating a sense of pressure for myself because I have less than a week. I think it may help me to reread the readings about the importance of play and games in order to spark some new ideas. I know in class Dr. Sample had discussed how it would be cool for someone to try and involve inertia in their project, which I think would be super cool, but again I need to figure out exactly how. I have also been telling my roommates about past project with the car turning left and right and it corresponding to Tinder. I want my project to be as cool and creative as this, which is again putting a lot of pressure on my idea.

Not many failures this week, however I did have some complications with this website. I initially used my Davidson domain for my Data Visualization class, where we used the domain to upload our class work. This meant my domain was meant specifically for that class, I hadn’t yet generalized it for any class (I wasn’t expecting to use my domain again). So I had to backtrack. I had to move components of my website around, and add a section for this class, DIG 401. Luckily, I could reuse some components (the folder icon) as well as change a few redirect links I had on the website. Afterwards, the next issue was actually adding the WordPress site…. I hadn’t used WordPress since *I think* middle school — if not high school. There was quite a learning curve to the process, but I think I have figured it out.

I enjoyed the readings from this week quite a bit. I’ve never reflected on the idea of play because I’ve always though play to be natural. It encourages growth, which is productive! When I hear someone think of play to be “unproductive,” it feels counterintuitive. For example, my mother would be upset at times when I would be tinkering with a Rubik’s cube… saying I should be studying/reviewing instead. However, the Rubik’s cube has taken me places I’d never thought of before, play proving to be productive in the space of growth.

This wordpress website is not working out too well for me

This week in class, the part I honestly felt I failed the most on was making my domain and this flog. Before this class, I have never had to use WordPress or any other application like this, so this was a bit of a struggle for me. The editor interface was very confusing to me when I first looked at it. I now feel like I have a much better understanding of how the application works, but there is still a lot that I need to learn. Thankfully, Dr. Sample and some classmates helped me learn the basics of WordPress. The other difficult task I encountered this week was trying to determine a clear definition of play. There are so many different sub-fields of play according to Roger Caillois. These sub-fields are Agon, Alea, Mimicry, and Ilinx. At times, these categories contradict one another, making the concept of play difficult to grasp. One of the points made is that play is not serious, but I do not think that is true. I think many games that are played are very serious. I think a lot of the definition of play is very subjective, which is the main reason why it is a tough idea to play with.

I felt like both readings “worked” for me since I understood them easily. However, I would point out something that I didn’t remember in class about Huizinga’s piece. On page 100, he says “Or finally, let us take ritual. Primitive society performs its sacred rites, its sacrifices, consecrations and mysteries, all of which serve to guarantee the well being of the world, in a spirit of pure play truly understood.” Defining ritual as “play” in this way doesn’t work for me. I’m not even a deeply religious person. In fact, I’m not religious whatsoever. Still, even I understand how seriously people take rituals, and many people would probably be deeply offended by the label play. I think ritual is the most interesting concept he raises in the article. On the one hand, there is a kind of magic circle in a lot of rituals. For example, everyone who is a neophyte (whether it be a sorority or admission to adulthood in some cultures) understands that they must act a certain way within the ritual that doesn’t apply in the real world. On the other hand, some people might consider that ritual part of their real life. My point is that it feels infantilizing to write ritual off as play, especially when he mentions “primitive society.” However, the piece is over 100 years old, so that is not surprising rhetoric. I think ritual needs its own special category. Something that allows for seriousness but also the reality of rituals while factoring in the magic circle that I think exists in ritual.

By Julia Siqueira

My first week in this class has been met with excitement yet a lot of challenges. To begin, this site has been difficult to navigate and design. Although I worked with WordPress last semester in my digital art class, I used pages rather than posts. This new format and theme that I have chosen has been quite a process to get used to. I did a weekly journal in one of my classes sophomore year, and I found that it helped me be more aware of my successes and failures. This allowed me to feel more accomplished and comfortable at the end of the semester because I was constantly checking in on myself; I am super excited to see the progression of this Flog throughout the year.

Additionally, my partner and I are still struggling to come up with a concept for the first Hack project. I have a grasp on the four types of play outlined by Caillos: Agon, Alea, Mimicry, and Ilinx. It has been hard to find a game that can be played with the arrow keys or a simple click that fits these categories while remaining fun and unexpected. Reading the texts from last week allowed me to have some revelations about play that I had never considered before. The idea that the rules and standards that surround play are only applicable in that one scenario is wild to think about. The way individuals act when they play golf is completely outside “normal life.” I am super excited to take a deeper dive into everyday concepts that I have not had the chance to think about from an academic and deeper perspective!