Interplay
Will Freudenheim and William Morgan
Interplay examines five unique experiments in the field of game design –Schema, Vivarium, Biotopy, Interplay and Nephila. In the course of the book, each is explored as a vehicle to apprehend the unconventional configurations of intelligences that are today emerging from innovations occurring within the field of game design.
To ongoing debates about emerging technologies, namely artificial intelligence and biotechnology, this book contributes the novel hypothesis that interaction sites between human and non-human intelligences, be they human, collective, biotic, synthetic or environmental, are already proliferating according to developments in game design. In short, new genera and species of interactions and of intelligences are already present in playful experiments.
This book tracks the evolution of five such intelligence experiments, not unlike a set of petridishes with variant initial conditions. In doing so, what the book offers is not a unified theory of ‘play in the age of AI’, but rather a multifaceted account of how intelligences form and emerge through and across playful interaction surfaces, spaces and dynamics.
Featuring Games and Essays from:
--> Will Freudenheim
--> William Morgan
--> Wendi Yan
--> Sylvan Rackham
--> Doug Stark
--> Flora Weil
--> Christina Lu
--> Dalena Tran
Get a copy here
Animation by Will Freudenheim
Welcome to Grangor wanderer.
The following story is an excerpt and consists of the canon choices made by Whowle.
This is a guide, and the journey will not be so perilous.
‘Whowle, you’ve been wandering too long; we have only now been able to reach you.
Where do you find yourself?
Did you manage to reach Grangor?’
Slowly, from the edges inwards, your vision fades into view. A single thought pierces your veil of slumber.
How long were you in the dream realm for?
Where are you?
You glance up at the screens above.
Grangor greets you back. A vast, unforgiving land once inhabited by the Virtuous Reamers. Their constructs and relics still litter these lands. You are reminded of your quest to travel through the dream realm in search of their lost artifacts.
‘Beware the Looming Shadows still lurk there. Remember your training.
And, Whowle. Please,
Be careful’
The Looming Shadows... their name is too familiar to you. Haunted souls of the Virtuous Reamers, unable to escape their realm. You have trained your mind to guard against their attacks, but you are still vulnerable.
It’s time to get ready.
You gaze upon your equipment cache, pondering what this new world will demand of you. Your mind, still hazy from awakening, allows the room around you to swim into focus. With a slow but purposeful hand, you reach towards your belongings.
Two loadout options rest before you, you consider equipment a defensive option, but you gravitate towards an offensive build, and choose the Glass Canon.
Grangor. This alluring land calls your name. As you step outside, you see it with your own eyes for the first time. Desolate and barren, but you know life hides within its cracks.
Grangor’s call is one you have awaited to
answer through fits of empty dreams. You are anxious to explore these forgotten lands. Grangor is known to be perilous, but you are powerful and need not heed these warnings.
For some time, you walk in total silence.
A light chittering at the back of your mind is the first thing you notice. This is the tell-tale chorus of the Looming Shadows.
You know you have but a moment to react before the Looming Shadow is upon you and begins to ravage your body from your mind outwards.
You look down at your palm. On it rests a small statue of your protector, Gorgina. It sparkles softly in this light, reflecting your surroundings in a twisted dark glass.
For a moment, you hesitate before bringing your hand into a tight fit around the statue. It seems to hold out, then all at once crumbles, shattering into a fine dust.
The particles float upwards and you inhale them. With a gasp your pupils dilate and you enter a state of rage.
A furious battle cry roars through you, pushing out the invaders of your mind in a single wave.
‘i would not have survived that alone’
Following wild paths, only half visible, you tread, hoping the artefact you search for is here. Grangor is home to many of the Virtuous Reamers’ relics, but the one you search for is thought to be the largest of them all.
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You remember the artefact they showed you back home so you could learn its smell.
Distracted by your thoughts, a cross road appears suddenly before you.
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To the left, a barely visible artefact. A medium sized ruin, set into the stone. It has calcified completely into rock itself. This site holds no power any longer.
The right, a winding path of delicate white flowers grow from the unforgiving surface beneath them.You look left, right, at both options, before deciding to follow the flowers. There is something not quite right with the artefact.
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Cresting a hill, suddenly your foot lands with a squelch. Before you lays a swampy place where the flowers grow too upright.
Too healthily.
The air smells like sulphur and opportunity
Following their trail, you continue. Until suddenly, from the mist appears a hulking shape above you. It hangs in the air like a breath. Finally.
The Might From Above.The Artefact of Grangor.
You have no offering for The Might From Above, so you sing to it. It seems like the right thing to do. The words flow out in a language you don’t speak.
It pulses in response.
With a hunger that scares you.
You are sucked within. Both mind and body, captured by its power. Immediately, everything is dark.
You survived, for now
But the image of your imminent death haunts you vastly. For now, you made the right choices.
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ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
In the exhibition WHOWLE HEARTED, Harriet Davey invites the viewer to a follow-along role-playing DnD-style (Dungeons & Dragons) game adventure. Drawing inspiration from the artist's experience in dungeon crawlers and taking on the role of dungeon master, we join the avatar Whowle as they breach the dream world into Grangor in search of powerful artifacts.
Caldo Worldwide shows an excerpt of the canon decisions of Davey's digital alter ego, Whowle, who guides you through this journey. This non-binary avatar is a fluid character from another dimension who gains a new form of plasticity and luminosity, mainly through the shimmering surfaces of their bodies and the cyber fashion the avatar is wearing.
You can experience the game at www.virtual.hek.ch and HEK Basel.
The Sound, a crucial element in this exhibition, is masterfully created by snake_case, a London-based composer/performer duo. Their work, spanning installation, performance, and composition, adds another layer of depth and immersion to the WHOWLE HEARTED experience.
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ABOUT HARRIET DAVEY
Harriet Davey, born 1997 in the UK, is a 3D Artist, based across London and Berlin. She studied graphic design at Kingston University in London. The artist has exhibited at The Wrong Biennale, MMMAD Festival, Maison des Arts Georges et Claude Pompidou, Miami Art Basel, Berlin Art Week and the Nxt Museum in Amsterdam. They has worked with Maison Margiela, Nike, Adidas and many others. Her work has been featured in BBC, Arte, Vogue Italia, British Vogue, It’s Nice That, I-D Magazine, L’Officiel and Hunger Magazin.
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EXHIBITION POSTER
Harriet Davey, Whowle Hearted, exhibition poster, A1
→ Collect![]()
AVAILABLE ARTWORKS
Wake up Whowle- Harriet Davey, 2024, HD video with sound, 0:34 min, loop, edition of 3 plus 2 APs, sound by snake_case > COLLECT
Dream Realm - Destination Grangor - Harriet Davey, 2024, HD video with sound, 0:34 min, loop, edition of 3 plus 2 APs, sound by snake_case > COLLECT
The Glass Cannon - Harriet Davey, 2024, HD video with sound, 0:13 min, loop, edition of 3 plus 2 APs > COLLECT
The Support, Not a Healer - Harriet Davey, 2024, HD video with sound, 0:13 min, loop, edition of 3 plus 2 APs > COLLECT
Might From Above - The Glass Canon, Harriet Davey, 2024, HD video with sound, 0:10 min, loop, edition of 3 plus 2 APs, sound by snake_case > COLLECT
Might From Above -The Support, Not a Healer, Harriet Davey, 2024, HD video with sound, 0:10 min, loop, edition of 3 plus 2 APs, sound by snake_case > COLLECT
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SEE OTHER AVAILABLE ARTWORKS FROM A PREVIOUS EXHIBITION BY HARRIET DAVEY
