We make sense of the complexity of the world by categorizing it, by organizing its parts into containers, objects, and metaphors. We create tools and machines for the same reason: to bridge the gap between imagination and reality, to act upon the world, explore it, control it, and communicate within it. Ironically, as we create new and more powerful tools, we create more complexity. These elaborate machines are made of simple parts based on simple principles; it is through their combinations that many things are possible, and by examining those fundamental logical mechanisms we make more sense of the complexity about us.

This project is a playful exploration of the theremin as one of the earliest natural motion user interfaces and of the video game as a tool for structuring and controlling music.

The idea is that unlike most digital avatars, which often resemble ourselves or are always at least represented in some sort of physical \”creature\” form, ipse will have its players create avatars that are collections of sounds and energy. Visualized as a sort of amorphous amoeba, each avatar will have an elliptical outline, but this serves only as a container and not to give the avatar form. Within this boundary, waves and particles represent the sounds and energy that represent the player\’s virtual projection of themselves, and these are fully customizable.

While avatar creation is purposely intended to be a large portion of the game, encouraging players to rethink their own identities, for the actual gameplay, players will take their avatars out into a virtual space, while is primarily just an explorative process. They will encounter \”food\”, which can be eaten and a certain amount of food will allow players to \”level up\”, which in this case will consist of gaining a new particle of sound that players must integrate into their identity, simulating human growth over time. They will also encounter barriers and obstacles, which will either prevent their passage or even damage them by taking away a particle, until a player has reaches a certain level or set of properties, at which point they can pass safely on by.

But perhaps the most poignant aspect is interaction with other players. When two avatars meet, they can overlay each other in the virtual space, synchronizing their individual sounds, producing a new and more powerful song. In this synchronous state, each player is given a simple choice: give one of their sound particles to the other player, take a particle from the other player, or do nothing. This simulates human interaction as a process where \”particles\” of information are constantly given and taken. And just like we need to integrate this information into our own worldview, each sound particle that an avatar takes or is given must be integrated into their personal song.

Because it is an art game that is meant to tell a story rather than being achievement-based, the game has no end state. There is some sense of stats and \”levelling up\”, but this is primarily just a way to give the game some structure and the players intermediate goals to work towards. The ultimate goal, however, is to look at the world and life in a new and different way.

This particular piece transforms light energy into motion. It is comprised of anthropomorphic structures filled with ferrofluid, a magnetic liquid that takes on the form of nearby magnetic fields. The ferrofluid’s reaction is driven by electromagnetic pulsations informed by data from the solar panels that power this piece. This technologically-generated motion waxes and wanes along with the environmental light conditions. The light both supports and determines the motion. The animated nature of the synthetic, though morbid landscape and the data-driven fluidity, reveals that the digital world is not necessarily an alienating force but rather a bridge between the human internal world and the natural external world.