Walden: The Video Game

[zalena]

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/30/thoreaus-walden-the-video-game/

Ian Bogost (creator of a Zen game) has not weighed in yet, but he did have several wonderful posts this week, including one on convincing spambots commenting in his blog:

There's

Comments

[arialas]

With all of the New Aesthetic discussion (and everyone calling its death now that James closed submissions to his Tumblr), I mostly feel bad for James. He spoke on a panel about a year-long series of observations, and this still-fledgling idea sounded sexy, so it was summed up and judged by a whole bunch of people who wanted to make NA a Thing and a Movement. He's thoughtful, and I don't think he had enough time to explore the ideas before NA went viral, so there's a ton of criticism and commentary (some of it excellent like Bogost's and some missing significant pieces like Sterling's) but it was a scrapbook, not a statement. Ah well. James does interesting work and will continue to do so... I just wish he had the chance to do something with these observations beyond simply posting them -- and collection is *not* the same as curation -- before the frenzy.

On a different note, Andrew's doing a PhD in Architecture, and all of last week his group facilitated a student workshop on a modern re-conceptualization of Thoreau's cabin:

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[zalena]

I don't know if I'm up on the rest of the issues to comment, but I will say that this is one potential drawback of technology... some ideas need longer gestation than the news cycle allows.

LOVE 'cabin in the woods' concept and will be interested in seeing how it turns out. HDT has somewhat belatedly become one of my touchstones/heroes.

[arialas]

Absolutely. And everything online is oddly immediate, so a work in progress appears published and an article published five years before receives comments from new readers.

When Andrew described the workshop, at first it felt almost blasphemous, but it makes sense as an exercise, and now I kind of love it -- reminds me of the current fascination with tiny houses and minimalist living.

Simplify, simplify...