Abstract

Commissioned by Folly as part of its Portable Pixel Playground (PPP) project, Cubed is a networked set of gaming objects that enable the exploration of diverse physical spaces and helps to develop relationship-building skills. The project was launched at the Abandon Normal Devices (AND) Arts Festival held at Grizedale Forest Park, Cumbria, 2nd April 2010.

Cubed makes use of recent advances in embedded technology to deliver a unique platform for kinaesthetic engagement and creative play. A set of eight programmable plastic blocks – wirelessly interconnected to form a meshed system – Cubed enables a range of different individual and teambased games and offers the capacity for further game developments utilising feedback and input from participants.

Conceived as a system of Cellular Automata, Von Neumann (1966), Cubed enables populations to work as open systems of communication. In such systems programs can exist across individual components or nodes. Rather than standing independently, each cube benefits from its changing relationship with others in the system. Such organising principles can be extended further, by taking into account each player and their relationships with other players, as well as the associations between players and cubes. Taken as a whole, these interactions form a complex web of reflexive relationships, heterogeneous assemblages of playful engagement.

• Giles Askham (UK) is a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University. An artist and curator he previously founded peterborough digital arts. He now works independently and was the lead curator of the exhibition Game/Play produced in collaboration with Furtherfield. He has written and exhibited widely.
• Luke Hastilow (UK) is a Lecturer in Music Technology Audio Systems at London Metropolitan University. His research focusses on electronics and computing technology for the arts. He has worked internationally on installation and interactive media projects and is a software author and publisher.

Full text (PDF) p.  353-355