Collaborative Play

The Idea of Collaborative Play has become one of the central ideas of my project. What does it mean? When does it happen? How do you create a situation where more than one person must act in order to trigger a reaction?

Below: The project Face Fight done by ITP at their 2009 fall show. Where one person feels another persons presence without actual physical contact; they must co-operate to achieve the task at hand.

Two players sit across the table from each other. They grasp handles. They stare straight at each other through a darkened tunnel, their faces perfectly aligned. The handles are physically coupled: when one player moves his handle left, the other is forced to the left. As the handles move, a line appears in the air between the players' faces, tracking its movement, creating a drawing. Each player tries to trace the face of the other. Where their faces are symmetrical, and therefore aligned, the players agree on the drawing to create and collaborate. Where their faces differ, the players are forced to negotiate a strategy for eliding the differences or to compete for physical control of the drawing point. When they have completed their drawing, the players get a single physical copy of the drawing to share between them.