Game Proposal

I didn’t really want my game to be overtly political because I didn’t want to lean one way or another when making it. I thought the best thing to do then would be to use a bipartisan topic such as poverty and the unwillingness of people to help others in tough situations. My idea for a game would be to constantly walk down a street to work with homeless people on the side and you have to button mash to try to avoid giving them money. For every homeless person you don’t stop you have a bar at the top that shows progress toward the dangerzone or something like it equivalent to death in the game, where it flashes to a picture of your player willingly helping out people and not being afraid of them.

Final Characters and Modifiers

Characters

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)

An American social reformer and feminist; she founded numerous civil societies including the American Equal Rights Association which sought equal rights for women and African Americans. She presented what would be the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. She duel-wields the mighty Sword of Justice and the Scale of Equality.

Richard Nixon (1913-1994)

"I am not a crook!" The infamous impetus for the Watergate Scandal who helped cover up a break-in to the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters. The former president also begrudgingly created the E.P.A. and formally resolved tensions with the Soviet Union via nuclear arms control agreements. His resignation is marked by a red-hot temper.

Grigori Rasputin (1869-1916)

A mysterious healer and powerful adviser to the Russian Orthodox tsar and tsarista. A lustful addict of women with a volatile temperament who survived being poisoned, shot, and bludgeoned, finally perishing in a frozen river having been weighed down. The Siberian sorcerer still wanders those very banks with his staff of power guiding him to exact his revenge. 

Modifiers

The Reformation (+3 Attack, -1 W.H.)

The 16th Century break from the Catholic Church sparked by Martin Luther and his 95 Theses. This splintering resulted in structures that would define the continent in the modern era and includes Lutheranism, Calvinism, and the Church of England. The intellectual, political, and religious split also spurred the Counter-Reformation and inspired lasting changes worldwide.

The 19th Amendment (+4 defense, -2 W.H.)

The 19^th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote and was finally ratified in 1920. It was considered radical when it was first proposed as legislation. Several generations of women lobbied, marched, and protested to achieve the ratification of this Amendment including *Susan B. Anthony.

*Susan B. Anthony no wormhole cost to use this modifier.

Logo

Lin Emery and Kinetic Art

Kinetic art:

Art from any medium that contains movement as perceived by the viewer or depends on motion for its effect. In more recent times kinetic art typically refers to 3D sculptures and figures that move by natural means or are machine operated. However, kinetic arts definition has been blurred with typically 2D mediums suggesting "apparent movement" as in op art (optical art) and other movements. 1800s impressionists also employed the term such as Monet, Manet, and Degas suggesting movement in 3 dimensional space through motion suggesting stylistic qualities.

Emery's sculpture is powered by the wind and she states her inspiration is directly derived from nature. Most of her forms however are fractal and composed of highly polished and manufactured pieces of metal juxtaposing an otherwise objective perception of nature as flawed and organic. No doubt Calder is also an influence in the dangling rhythmic patterns of her sculptures.

“My sculpture is kinetic, meaning that it moves. The elements are derived from nature, and I borrow natural elements — wind, water, magnets — to set them in motion. The rhythms are influenced by infinite variables: the points of balance, the normal frequency of each form, the interruption of the counterpoise. I juggle, juxtapose, and adjust to achieve the dance or pantomime that I want. Then the sculpture takes over and invents a fillip of its own.”
-Lin Emery

Exhibit #1 Small Prophecies: A Discussion

            It was difficult for me to discern the meaning behind the Small Prophecies exhibition at the Holland Project on the 30^th of January by Tim Condor at first glance. He is introduced as a mixed media artist and “master maker” with deeply personal installations drawing from a deeply personal past. This made it difficult to discern the message behind some pieces. A few installations seemed so personal to Condor that the viewer was left only with relics left over from something equating to an intricate inside-joke. However, this method of art has a subtle message in and of itself. Aiding this notion of purposefully difficult art was the lack of placards next to pieces indicating their meaning or materials as in typical gallery settings. This exhibit, however, was anything but. The viewer was freely able to take a poorly constructed booklet about 5”x5” indicating the pieces with a title, comment, and poorly drawn symbol of its matching piece. Among the most notable was “Contraband,” “Soccer Pelts,” and “My Friend Julius King.” The strangeness of the presentation of the pieces and installations combined with a self-navigatory booklet appeared to be a critique of the gallery scene itself. The exhibit itself did not take itself seriously despite the very personal inside-referencing pieces shown within the walls of this gallery. In a self-reflective institutional critique Condor joins the list of artists alike in such exploits that includes Damien Hirst. Hirst’s own work employs the macabre and extravagant in a gallery setting, commenting on the traditional gallery aesthetic standards. Condor takes this notion further by excelling in a ‘cheap’ look. This is evident in “Contraband” where multiple replicated pieces of bisque fired models of items such as candy bars and hustler magazines lay on a table. Through this piece there is an unfinished ‘cheap’ look that is achieved aesthetically; contradicting an art gallery setting in all except conceptual significance. A summation of this gallery can be presented in the phrase that confronts the gallery viewer printed on the first page of the self-navigatory book that reads, “If you want to buy something, hit me up on Tinder.” Evidently this is an unsatisfactory place to conduct a business typically seen as rather posh; the purchasing of ‘fine’ art. The colloquial expression “hit me up” also serves to undermine this formality. However the reference to the internet dating site “Tinder” perhaps serves to reveal or foreshadow the intimate nature of his pieces best understood by Condor himself. 

Card Characters

Richard Nixon

Rasputin

Susan B. Anthony