1. The Human Tracking System
The Human Tracking System can be understood using the analogy of the Mechanical Turk. You think you are playing with Artificial Intelligence but it is really a human posing as 'A.I.'. After several calibrations of the actual existing tracking system, it was understood that it would not be ideal for adapting to unknown players impromptu. The best tracking system that would see, recognise and sufficiently evaluate spatial locations of the players was us - the humans. Therefore, much along the lines of the Mechanical Turk, the tracking system and its cameras were left in place and the performance platform was demarcated into a perfect 9 square grid with grey tape in order to simulate an environment that looked like a space that a computer's vision would understand. The actual tracking however was done by Meike - one of the Humans. She input her own visual observations of the players' movements into her laptop using the motion she transcribed on her laptop's trackpad. The processing script she had written linked this motion (read as a graphic) to the code written by Marcel (another Human) that actually effected the running of the game.
2. Role during event
i. Provided speech to the Human Tracker - File:14 July - Performing Ecologies - Script (as performed).pdf The Tracker speaking to the player aids further in the simulation of a computer pretending to be a human. It personifies the 'tracking system' and helps the player presume that they have real impact on the outcome of the game.
ii. Conceptualised rule-sets.
3. Rule-sets used File:rule-sets.xlsx
4. Screenshots/Photos
5. Observations
[a] The rule-sets don't matter if the interface doesn't work. If it is not immediately palpable to the visitors as to how their actions are translated into the game on-screen, the rule-sets do not play any major role in the progress of the game. The feedback, i.e. the impact of how their running direction and speed compounded with inputs from the Speech were often insufficient in guiding the player to play for a considerable amount of time.
[b] The game due to its intensely physical nature can be discouraging to some participants.
[c] Running in circles is not the best way to interact in a game that involves paying attention to the screen where it is being played out. A game-of-life like concept is complex enough and needed an interactive motion that was more intuitive.
[d] The sounds of the sheep and wolves added a good subtle touch towards creating the right Minecraft-like environment. There is much potential for sound design in a project like this.