Cast-offs from the Golden Age
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Cast-offs from the Golden Age

by Melanie Swalwell
Design and Programming by Erik Loyer
2006

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This project uses the Flash plug-in, which is no longer supported by Adobe. As an alternative, view the project's video documentation below.

Cast-offs from the Golden Age invites the user to adopt the position of the researcher, unearthing the local histories of videogaming in New Zealand by exploring a 3D space in which inquiries, interviews, dead ends and historical artifacts are enacted and explored.  A collaboration with scholar Melanie Swalwell.

Electrofringe, This is Not Art Festival, Newcastle, Australia

Video Traversal

A high quality recording of the project as a user might experience it.


Images

Image 1 from Cast-offs from the Golden Age

Users find themselves in a 3D environment in which they can lay down “avenues of inquiry” retracing Swalwell’s investigations into the history of gaming in New Zealand.

Image 2 from Cast-offs from the Golden Age

Intersections between avenues of inquiry can present unexpected opportunities for insight as characters “speak” to the user about their experiences in the industry.

Image 3 from Cast-offs from the Golden Age

The more the user learns about a particular avenue of inquiry, the higher the sun at its vanishing point rises in the sky.

Image 4 from Cast-offs from the Golden Age

Certain interactions result in bits of ephemera being added to the user’s collection, as with this Atari 2600 advertisement.

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