EDDO STERN LECTURE

I attended Eddo Stern’s lecture on Wed., April 14, in the William Raggio Building. He showed many of his artworks while explaining his interpretations along the way. I liked many of his works, and others not as much.

Eddo Stern creates what he calls, “playable artwork which is very interactive.” He is a video game designer/artist and teaches at UCLA.

Eddo Stern works on the disputed borderlands between fantasy and reality, exploring the uneasy and otherwise unconscious connections between physical existence and electronic simulation. His work explores new modes of narrative and documentary, experimental computer game design, fantasies of technology and history, and cross-cultural representation in computer games, film, and online media.

He works in various media including computer software, hardware and game design, kinetic sculpture, performance, and film and video production. He is currently developing the sensory deprivation game Darkgame.

The first piece he showed was video of Tekken Torture Tournament, a video game hack of Tekken Tag Tournament. This hack required that two participants were connected to an EMS Stimulation Machine that would electronically stimulate them each time there characters were injured.

I enjoy the design of Tekken Torture Tournament having a physical interaction. It creates a new dimension to the world of video games. It is one that I imagine could someday be a norm, to create a physical connection between a player and its avatar.

Another of my favorite pieces that Stern showed was his game being currently developed, Darkgame. In this multi-player video game a player is deprived of certain senses in exchange for powering up other senses. For instance, by giving up your vision, you gain greater sensory detail in hearing, or speed. I found this concept interesting, and would like to try the game to grasp a full understanding of how it all works.

Another of Stern’s works that I enjoyed was the series of Kinetic Shadow Puppets. I liked these for different reasons than the others. I liked these simply because they were nice to look at in a gallery setting, and could even be placed in a home. They weren’t anything new or too different from things other people had done, but they were very well done.

All in all, I enjoyed the lecture that Stern put on and found several of his ideas captivating and made me re-think my own processes and ideals when I go about doing my artwork.