Our first iPhone app Vanitas will be launched on February 4 at the opening of the Art History of Games symposium for which it was commissioned. Vanitas will be exhibited in a special installation (including live ladybugs!), next to games commissioned from Jason Rohrer and Nathalie Pozzi & Eric Zimmerman, at the Kai Lin Art gallery in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, from Thursday, February 4 until Tuesday, March 2. The opening reception will take place Friday, February 5 from 8:00 pm until 10:00 pm. More information here.
There’s still some tickets for the symposium and exhibition.Register here!
And don’t forget to check the App Store as of 4 February!
Love it! I can’t wait to get it. 😀
I wish I had an iPhone; this looks interesting.
Zoë Keating! She gets everywhere, doesn’t she? Or maybe just areas that interest me…
We met Zoë at an artists retreat organized by Creative Capital (who co-funded The Path). We liked each other’s presentations. And we’ve always been fans of her music. Hopefully we can work together again in the future. She’s great!
@Mory: Vanitas works on an iPod touch too. That’s what we have. Much cheaper!
“The best way to fill time is to waste it.”
Hahaha, that was honest enough. I’m feeling curious about it.
That’s a quote from Marguerite Duras, one of my favourite authors. It’s a translation of “Ce qui remplit le temps c’est vraiment de le perdre.” There’s lots of quotes like this in Vanitas, about the fleeting nature of life. And by extension about the vanity of playing games, of course.
Oh, I didn’t know it was a quote and I didn’t know the artist either. Will check it out because it is a good one.
And so “the vanity of playing games”… That sounds kind of reivindicative
.
I don’t know. Maybe games are just an illustration of the futility of life. Maybe that’s why we enjoy them. Because they make us feel comfortable with the idea that “all is vanity”?
I wouldn’t say life is futile by itself, but we strive to turn it to be that way. Unfortunately, we love comfort, and so uselessness and futility. Probably the only possible refuge to this is vanity and blindness.
Games are comfortable, so we act like if they weren’t, like if they were something else. I certainly would call this an act of vanity.
Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas!
Well, futility is a necessity isn’t it?
Vanitas looks amazing. I would definitely purchase it if I had the chance…
I didn’t notice the trailer was up on the site already. Congratulations, it seems something utterly unique and filled with meaning – in other words, a cruel form of punishment for those of us who don’t give in to Apple gadget consumerism 😉
When I saw the video I immediately remembered the memorable opening titles that Stephen Frankfurt designed for the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Both seem to focus on the collection of objects as symbols of our natural tendency to find things with which to hasten the slow passage of the (otherwise) dreary and lonely times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5MutuPVxk
“Maybe games are just an illustration of the futility of life.”
I always felt like games had the potential to illustrate my distant dreams. Do you think of dreams as being futile?
Anyway, you’ve stated that Vanitas isn’t a game. But still, the trailer appeared to me as if you’re “playing around” with elements of what seems to be a vanitas still life. And you’ve invented the term “notgames” for your future projects. I wonder: do you just want to abandon the “goal-based loop-concept” of games and focus on entertaining interaction or do you want to go beyond any existing form of interaction with/in the digital medium? What goals do you want to accomplish?
In my point of view the work you’ve shared with us so far is marvelous! The experience-based elements you’ve brought into your “games” seemed very inspiring to me. Excessive gameplay never appealed to me, either.
You’re a lighthouse in the fog!
@dieubussy: Amazing, yes those credits of “To Kill a Mockingbird” are quite similar to Vanitas. We wanted to created a box with objects. But there’s only a small hint that these objects might belong to someone specific. Something we may expand upon later.
@snif: “Do you think of dreams as being futile?”
Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas!
@snif: “I wonder: do you just want to abandon the “goal-based loop-concept” of games and focus on entertaining interaction or do you want to go beyond any existing form of interaction with/in the digital medium? What goals do you want to accomplish?”
We want to use the interactive medium to talk about things we find important, interesting, beautiful, moving. The games format of “goal-based loop-concept” doesn’t allow us to do that because of its limited narrative capacity. We will use any type of interaction that we believe helps express our story. If this requires new forms, then we will invent them.
Thank you for being a ship on the foggy ocean interested in our little light!
Reminds me somewhat of The Tulse Luper trilogy by Greenaway.
Good Work
Vanitas is out now by the way 😉