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Journal  Issue #01 Rethinking Play 2025
Artificial life: One Leg At a Time Huang Yue China Nr. LM_A0007
Release : #2025.1

Artificial Life: One Leg at a Time is a multi-channel screen installation that attempts to present a different impression of successful artificial intelligence from science fiction films and technology industries. The AI in this work may be a failure, but it is cute and comical. The artist attempts to teach AI to walk and run. The clumsy training process shows the huge amount of computing behind the AI, and the cuteness. The work is based on the Unity ML-agent reinforcement learning module.

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is one of the paradigms of machine learning that emphasises how to make agents act based on their environment in order to maximise the expected benefits. In recent years it has also been applied to artificial intelligence systems such as AlphaGo, robotics and autonomous driving. But artificial intelligence does not start out 'smart' and powerful. The behaviour of reinforcement learning agents comes from neural networks observing the behaviour and scores of agents and then making decisions and recursive activities , during which a lot of failures will occur. This complex behaviour that emerges from neural networks is ambiguously linked to biological learning and evolution. The technical history of artificial neural networks (ANNs) can be traced back to the observations of Warren Sturgis McCulloch and Walter Pitts on human neural networks. The creators fictionalise a track and field NPC, embrace the process of failure that arises as the NPC learns to run, and throw open to the audience the question of whether artificial intelligence is smart or fails, whether it is life or a cybernetic machine.
Liminal Beings and Curse of Staged Atavism Shuree Sarantuya Mongolia Nr. LM_A0006
Release : #2025.1

Liminal Beings are those who are in between homes, places, jobs, apartments, dreams, and realities. Beings that cannot easily be placed into a single category and beings that reside in homes that exist between contemporary nomadism and urban houselessness.

For many, camping becomes a temporary departure from the constraints of urban life. It is a curated experience where one can enjoy nature's beauty while still cocooned in the familiar comforts. The act of camping becomes a tangible embodiment of modern atavism. Atavism refers to the re-emergence of traits or characteristics in an individual reminiscent of ancestral traits.

Why do we enjoy bird watching, stargazing, hunting, hiking, horse riding, fishing, or just walking in nature? The romantic concept of the wilderness is a side effect of domestication, taking monumental forms and serving as a stage for those craving a dose of atavism. Such stages, like parks, reservoirs, resorts, and gardens, are used even by nearby animals accustomed to coming there to forage for leftover breadcrumbs or materials for their nests.

2024

3-Channel-Video Installation, game engine content, 16:9 & 9:16, 3x 10 min

70.001, 2019
 Prof. Clemens von Wedemeyer Germany Nr. LM_A0005
Release : #2025.1

The Monday demonstrations in East Germany in 1989 to 1991 were a series of peaceful political protests against the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) that took place every Monday evening. 70.001 is a speculative view of the events of 1989 from today's perspective. A computer animation is used to simulate Leipzig as hundreds of thousands of so-called digital agents move along the inner city ring. The crowd swells continually until the procession of demonstrators faces itself. The animation is accompanied by interviews with contemporary witnesses and discussions on digital culture.

video, colour, sound, 16:9, 16 min


Credits:
CGI: celluloid VfX. VFX supervisor: Holger Hummel. CG supervisor: Simon Richter. CG artists: Paul Janssen, Alex Nietzold, Leon Petersohn. Compositing artist: Matthias Wäsch. Coordination: Sara Sarmien- to. Sound design: Niklas Kammertöns, Neuton Berlin. Studio assistants: Lukas Malte Hoffmann, Alima de Graaf. Production manager: Tina Maria Mersmann.

Funding by:
Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg

Part of the project:
Illusion of a Crowd
Fan fiction as a tool for dissecting ideology in video games Lídia Pereira Portugal Nr. LM_RA0004
Release : #2025.1

Video games create worlds. Often, those worlds mirror our own, reproducing certain ideals and values as norm through their narrative, game play, design, etc. This session begins with an invitation to the participants to critically consider those worlds, identifying the key points and elements through which specific video games circulate political, cultural and social values. How do the games we play every day convey ideologies? Upon analyzing a video game of their choice in this manner, participants are then invited to intervene upon these video game worlds through the writing, drawing, collaging, etc. of fan fictions, using the original video game text to re-construct these worlds or reveal crucial aspects they might be hiding in plain sight. At the end of the session, participants will have begun to create a narrative with their interventions upon these universes and the results may be as diverse as creative writing, the generation of new games in the form of text-based adventures, comics, mini-graphic novels etc.


2022-2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.26017/tda-638
A Digital Ode To Decay Tsingyun Zhang China Nr. LM_A0003
Release : #2025.1

"A digital ode to decay" explores physical and digital decay. I view decay as a transformative process that accelerates reincarnation rather than a mere gradual loss of information. The project is created with the intention of respecting and learning from non-human intelligence, including fungi, plants, and animals. Furthermore, it also aims to embrace the normally undesirable aspects of technology.

Decay of organic matter occurs through the action of bacteria and fungi, leading to rot. Fermentation is rot's cultured twin which produces chemical changes in organic substances through the action of domestic mold. It is a collaboration between humans and microbes. A taste of milk shared by humans and bacteria led to the creation of cheese. Some domestic molds knit the beans into tempeh.

In this delicious collaboration, food gets preserved longer and also allows the birth of something new.

2024
Audio-visual experience

Sound: Dennis Scheiba
Voice: Echo Ho
Film: Tsingyun Zhang

ULTRA ALL INCLUSIVE Ida Kammerloch Russia Nr. LM_A0002
Release : #2025.1

Constructed in 2003, the Kremlin Palace Hotel, located in Antalya, Turkey, is a replica of the Moscow Kremlin. With 875 accommodation units spread across six floors, it mainly attracts Russian tourists who are drawn to its extensive "Ultra All Inclusive" offer, providing everything from international cuisine to entertainment. Situated on the Mediterranean, surrounded by pools and palm trees, this historical simulacrum never sheds its symbolic weight. Instead, the politically charged wellness facility serves as a utopian backdrop for the undercover vacationer. Moving from room to room and pool to pool, she explores the copysite with chlorine-stung eyes. How to fathom this cartoon-like WORLD submerged in turquoise?

2024

video installation
UV direct print on aluminum
(300 x 260 cm)
video essay (15 min)
miniature projection from archive material (1994/1997)
Prof. Dr. Margarete Jahrmann Austria Nr. LM_RA0001
Release : #2025.1

Margarete Jahrmann studied art history, philosophy, and psychology at the University of Vienna, earning a Master of Media Arts degree from the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 1995. She taught at the University of Arts Linz and then at the Zurich University of the Arts, where she has been a professor of media arts and game design since 2000. In 2011, she earned a Ph.D. from Plymouth University in the UK under the supervision of Roy Ascott, with a dissertation titled "The Game of Society: The Art and Politics of Play."

Jahrmann is a pioneer in game art, with her works featured in numerous international exhibitions and conferences. In 2010, she served as an art fellow at MIT's Gambit Lab. From 2010 to 2013, she led the EU HERA subproject PLAY & PROSUME at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and organized a gamification exhibition on "Technology Exchange and Mobility" at Kunsthalle Wien.

She founded the "Ludic Society," a research association focusing on performance and urban intervention through play, and published the "Ludic Society Magazine." In 2015, she co-founded the German-speaking game studies association "DACH," and in 2016, she was a fellow at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research in Berlin. She participated in various art experiments in Vienna and Linz and premiered "Neuroflow Game" at the International Festival for Animated Film Berlin in 2018.

Jahrmann's key publications include the journal article "ShapeShifter Games" and book chapters like "War Games and Cognitive Maps."

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