NYAB Event - Jesse Fuchs and Drew Kariolic "Mauna Kea, A Fusion of Traditional and Digital Gameplay"

Jesse Fuchs and Drew Kariolic "Mauna Kea, A Fusion of Traditional and Digital Gameplay"

chashama Window Space (266 W 37th St. )

This event has ended.

Mauna Kea is a collaboration between non-digital game designer Jesse Fuchs and digital artist Drew Kariolic, an interactive exhibit which combines the two forms in a synthesis of cerebral abstraction and colorful immersion. Playable, at its core, with nothing other than two traditional 52-card decks, Mauna Kea is an innovative, strategic, and elegant game, but, like many unfamiliar games, one that can initially seem eccentric and forbidding to new players.

This exhibit is about resolving that bottleneck, by using the power of representation to extend an on-ramp to the casual player—an on-ramp they can climb at their own pace, and one they can then use to teach the game to others. This starts with the game's name, terms, and slightly ludicrous premise: two rival mountain climbers who will stop at nothing to reach the top of Mauna Kea first...and before the sun rises. It extends to the game's board—entirely optional, but extremely helpful to players who have not yet internalized its rhythms. And it culminates in Kariolic's digital interface, in which every move in the game is played out in cartoon form—allowing even mystified passersby to follow all the action.

Artist Bios:

Jesse Fuchs (@jessefuchs) is a designer and scholar with an interest in historic and neo-traditional games: some of his games can be found at www.eludication.org and www.tic-tac-totality.net. He is also an SAT/LSAT/GMAT tutor, whose forthcoming interactive video guide, "Fuchsing the LSAT," should be available for the iPhone and iPad by, oh, let's say mid-summer.

Media

• Installation
• Media Arts

ADVERTISE ON NYAB