On 10th October 2017, The Queensland Writers’ Centre opened submissions for a special story competition. Called “8 Word Story”, the competition invited writers to submit a story in 8 words maximum. If selected, it would be displayed on digital billboards around Brisbane. Mine was selected, and broadcast on 24th October to multiple locations. There were over 10,000 entries.
Category Archives: > Installations
‘Magister Ludi’ for Experimenta’s International Biennial of Media Art
Magister
Magister Ludi is now available in the iTunes App store, and currently touring around Australia for the Experimenta tour:
- It opened at the RMIT Gallery in Melbourne
- and I did an artist talk
- Part of White Night Melbourne
- Arts Mildura 5 MARCH – 12 APRIL 2015
- THE LOCK UP, NEWCASTLE, NSW 10 JULY – 9 AUGUST 2015
- QUT CREATIVE INDUSTRIES PRECINCT, BRISBANE 25 AUGUST – 26 SEPTEMBER 2015
- I did an artist talk at The Glasshouse on Thursday 27 August for a panel discussion with Jonathan Parsons, Artistic Director of Experimenta, and artists featured in Experimenta Recharge; Svenja Kratz, Christy Dena and Cake Industries.
- It was part of The Brisbane Festival – 5-26th September
- Cairns regional gallery, qld 10 october – 22 november 2015
- Featured in Cara Ellison’s ‘Embed with Games’ book launch at Babycastles in New York on 23rd Nov. The book includes interviews with myself and the artist Marigold Bartlett about the game.
- warnambool art gallery, vic 5 december 2015 – 7 february 2016
- albury regional gallery and librarymuseum, vic 27 February – 17 april 2016
- latrobe regional gallery, vic 7 May – 10 july 2016
- anne & gordon stamstag museum of art, adelaide 19 august – 23 september 2016
- Contours Exhibition, curated by Chad Toprak, Gallery, Level 1, Library at the Dock, Melbourne, 10 October – 10 November, 2016
Experimenta Trailer:
Freeplay Parallels Trailer:
Experimenta interview:
Credits
Christy Dena – writer, designer, director
Marigold Bartlett – visual artist
Trevor Dikes – sound designer & composer
Cameron Owen – programmer
Iain McManus – app port programmer
Design
Drawing on the escape-the-room phenomenon, I created a space that is about escape. However, since I wanted the emphasis to be on our role in needing to escape I changed the mechanics. Instead of solving puzzles through opening objects and moving them around to unlock puzzles, the player places objects in the room. The movement of objects is further complicated by what they mean. So the player needs to see whether adding to the room (or taking away) actually helps them or not. Indeed they’re not really escaping a room, instead they’re constructing their world in a manner that either denies their needs or places them on the path to self-sufficiency.
The full writing and interactions spreadsheets are available here (spoilers):
Room 1: MagisterLudiGame_WritingandInteractions_SchoolRoomData
Room 2: MagisterLudiGame_WritingandInteractions_BedroomData
Room 3: MagisterLudiGame_WritingandInteractions_EmptyRoomData
Press
- White Night Melbourne, ‘Experimenta Recharge‘ – Feb, 2015
- Embed With…, ‘Embed With…Marigold Bartlett and Christy Dena‘ – Cara Ellison, 31 Jan, 2015
- Aphra Magazine, ‘Experimenta: International Heartbreak‘ – India Rose, 19 Jan, 2015
- RealTime Arts Magazine, ‘Experimentation with Added Spark‘ – Darren Tofts, Dec-Jan 2014-15
- SimonStaffans.com, ‘One Year In: Now Media Vol IV‘ – Simon Staffans, 1 January, 2015
- Blouin Art Info, ‘INTERVIEW: Jonathan Parsons on Experimenta “Recharge” and Media Art‘ – Nicholas Forrest, 5 December 2014
- Spook Magazine, ‘Future Now: Experimental Media takes over RMIT‘ – Spook, 12 November 2014
- Crikey, ‘Freeplay Celebrates with 12 New Home-Grown Games‘ – Peter Green, 22 October 2014
- Time Out Magazine, ‘Experimenta Recharge‘ – Finn Houlihan, 1 October 2014
- Fluoro, ‘Recharge: Experimenta’s 6th International Biennial of Media Art‘ – 30 Sept, 2014
- Game Cloud, ‘Designing Deep Games with Christy Dena‘ – Kirk William, 28 Sept, 2014
‘Robot University’ for QUT & Australia Council for the Arts
Robot
The project, “Robot University,” aims to transform negative attitudes towards robots. Western entertainment often paints robots as killing machines bent on our demise. It’s important that we consider the cultural impact of robots and how we interact with them now, so that we can better prepare ourselves for our ever-growing community of robots…a new species we’ve created.
Timeline: Residency ran from mid-July to mid-December, 2013. The project launched to the public on Feb 25th, 2014.
Team
Christy Dena – writer, designer, producer, director
Adam Single – programmer
Jacek Tuschewski – sound designer
Paul Stapelberg – 3d modeller, animator
Simon Boxer – visual artist
Oscar Guillen – user interface artist
Lubi Thomas – senior curator, The Cube
Rachael Parsons – project manager, The Cube
Press
- if:book Australia – “My Robot’s Jam” – Simon Groth and Emily Craven, 17 Feb, 2014.
- QUT Media, ‘Radio plus App equals cutting-edge storytelling‘ – Amanda Horswill, 3 Dec 2013
- QUT News, ‘They’re almost here – robots are coming for robotronica‘ – Niki Widdowson, 12 Aug 2013
- ABC Radio National – Future Tense, ‘Robots: Their rights and legal status‘ – Antony Funnell, 11 Aug 2013
- Australia Council for the Arts, ‘July Newsletter‘ – Tony Grybowski, July 2013
- Artery, ‘Christy Dena’s digital writing residency will make you rethink robots‘ – Elliott Bledsoe, 10 July 2013 [reposted on ElliottBledsoe.com]
- Buziaulane, ‘Robot Ethics‘ – Jak Boumans, 9 June 2013
- Arts Hub, ‘Christy Dena takes up Australia’s First Digital Writing Residency‘ – Paul Isber, 6 June 2013
- Screenplay (The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times, etc), ‘Tuesday Newsday: Digging up the turkeys of the past, and solving problems of the future‘ – James Dominguez, 5 June 2013
- The Australian, ‘Writers’ grant goes to digital writer‘ – Bridget Cormack, 3 June 2013 (Print scan)
- QUT, ‘Digital writing residency explores robot ethics‘ – Kate Haggman, 3 June 2013