The end of March passed under the sign of the noise parties.
On the 29th, very occasionally (as all the good things happen), I found myself at the concert of Feedtime, Vaz & Maggoted in the grafitti-painted Death by Audio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
There, around the bar I ran into DJ Kunal & Dan Alongi, clicking something on their laptops. We started talking and they informed me that after two days in Secret Project Robot – gallery/club/bar/alternative events space – which you’ll find difficult if you don’t know the exact adress, will happen something that may interest me.
Do I like noise? Well, a good one I guess… That’s why I was here.
Do I like vide0 games? Definitely.
Well, then it was just for me.
What did I knew in advance about the event. Frankly, not too much. I knew that there would be video games, created by people like you & me, not by big “evil” corporations. Games, which express a position and exist as an art form. I knew the curator of the event will be Anna Antrophy, who has just issued her new book “Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-Outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You are Taking Back an Artform”, an autobiography and DIY manual, explaining how everyone can express their ideas, creating video-games and also about its queer life as a transsexual woman. I knew also, that several noise DJ’s & performers will present their music and it will be colourful, fun, alternative. At least I was hoping so and as usual my intuition didn’t mislead me.
In this windy Saturday evening, around 10 pm, I was riding the subway and here I was, a little bit after, tramping the streets of Bushwick. Among the former factories now converted into lofts, the bodegas and the warehouses, Secret Project Robot is cuddled, without a sign outside (I didn’t noticed it at first). Definitely secret enough. I was just in time.
The first thing that I noticed entering, were the walls on which in real time was projected the game created especially by Anna for this event – Duck Duck Poison. You can view parts of it here. Duck Duck Poison is a modification of the popular children’s game Duck Duck Goose, in which a group of players sit in a circle, facing inward, while another player, the “picker”walks around tapping or pointing to each player in turn, calling each a “duck” until finally picking one to be a “goose” The “goose” then rises and chases and tries to tag the “picker”, while the “picker” tries to return to and sit where the “goose” had been sitting. If the picker succeeds, the “goose” is now the new picker and the process begins again.
However, Anna, who sincerelly has passion for violence (& sex in combination)modified the game – four players sit side by side with bras buttons built into them. One of them is a vampire and likewise choose one player to “goose”, hovering over them. You should decide if you’re gonna be chosen as goose and decide whether to drink the cyanide pill or risk to be eaten. You play the whole game with the nipple controler. Sick! I definitely liked the whole concept, even if I wasn’t the best in the game.
More about Anna Antrophy can be found on her blog: auntiepixelante.com, on which you can play some of her games.
Here is a visual picture of the event, including interviews with Anna Antrophy and Sto.