Game epiphanies:Ghost games in Čakovec

Before you ask, as my companion travelers did, NO, it wasn't me. But I was pleasantly surprised to find “X”s and “O”s shapes almost identical to the shapes I use in my CHAlleNGED Tic-tac-toes, high on a building in the center of the mundane city of Čakovec in Croatia.

“X”s and “O”s on a building in the city center of “X”s and “O”s

The logic behind the placement of the “X”s and “O”s I couldn't find, neither more information who, when and why placed these on the building. (almost) Only one 3x3 grid has a properly standing unfinished game, but nobody wins with this combination, as far as I could see.

Game epiphanies: game terminology, physics and metaphysics.

Game epiphanies: game terminology, physics and metaphysics.

Two copies of the same edition of a book were lying on the carpet on the floor. "Les jeux sont faits".

"Les jeux sont faits" is the title of a screenplay by Jean-Paul Sartre and translates literally as "The Plays are Made", an idiomatic French expression used mainly in casino gambling meaning the bets have been placed. The English translation made in 1948 was published as "The Chips are Down". Title and plot both sound quite deterministic.

"Das Spiel ist aus", the German translation of the title means literally "The Game is Over". Thus the short time span between ending of the bets and the ball loosing it momentum and falling into the pocket of the wheel, saturated with expectations, hope, fear, desire, doubts, stress, greed, anxiety, adrenalin, sweat and prayers, as our whole life itself, is cast out. If we accept the parallel existence of the both translations and let them complement each other, the game is over before the final outcome of the game, at ending of the bets. Not only one has no influence on the future,  but also on the present because it is now, but a subset of the past.

“Life is a game” is a common verbal discharge taken for granted. It is, as far as we engage in conflicts, follow rules, make decisions and choices, manage resources, pursuit goals, and often gamble. That sounds more like existentialism. But if life is a game, and the game is over, is life over when the bets are placed? What is the time span between the bets being placed and defining the outcome of the game, a non-game, a non-life? A moment saturated with expectations, hope, fear, desire, doubts, stress, greed, anxiety, adrenalin, sweat and prayers. And who is placing the bets?

"Les jeux sont faits" can also be translated as the “the die is cast”. And to partially quote Albert Einstein's letter to Max Born from 1926: “The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the "old one." I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.” Does the same act, throwing dice, serve to describe exactly the opposite notion or somebody is throwing the dice for Him?

Alea iacta est (Latin "The die is cast") is a phrase attributed to Julius Caesar and still used to mean that events have passed a point of no return, that something, whatever it is, will inevitably happen, says Wikipedia.

Something, whatever it is, is inevitable, life is a game and the plays are made. 

On the multiplicity in the simplicity, and the graphic appeal of the simplest strategy game

On the multiplicity in the simplicity,  and the graphic appeal of the simplest strategy game

Isolating symbols and trying to decipher the abnormal tic-tac-toes from Yerevan, reminded me that I had encountered symbiosis between stylised hearts and tic-tac-toe games before. Since I first came to Graz in 2012, I keep coming upon a graffiti “LOVE WINS” accompanied with a tic-tac-toe game where “O” is replaced by a stylised heart and wins.

I guess the main reason that I am so attracted to tic-tac-toe is the multiplicity in the simplicity of its symbols and graphics. The “X” and the “O” carry symbolical meanings as well. For example, “kisses and hugs” (XOXO) acronym. Cross in a circle, or the sun cross: ⴲ, is the astronomical symbol of the planet Earth. Cross and circle also form the sign of Venus: ♀ , etc.

The “X” also also can derive from “O”, marking two perpendicular diameters, as we see in the symbol of the Earth where it represents the equator and a meridian.

The “X” can be also constructed from two semi-circles or semi-ellipses. Actually that’s how I was thaught in school to write the letter “X”:

I also used this method in the design of some of my tic-tac-toe games made of leftover cardboard tubes.

Veronika Tzekova, KOMPLEMENT Tic-tac-toe, 2013

Veronika Tzekova, 5 in One, Design submitted for REDESIGN+ AWARD 2014

And what more simple, clear and immediate way to visualise „a win“ than sketch of a win in tic-tac-toe game?

Evolution of GAME

Evolution of GAME/animals

From landscape to cityscape. From two players to a single player, from 3x3 to 1x5 and 2x4, from a human to an animal.

Once humans depicted game animals, now game animals depict CHAlleNGED GAMES.

Rock art is placed on natural rock surfaces and can be considered a form of landscape art. Common subject in rock art is depiction of game and hunting scenes. In the course of time our evolution replaced the natural surroundings and rock surfaces with cityscapes and building walls. Game evolved as well. From game animal to a game, from a game to a CHAlleNGED GAME. So did human being, to a game animal.

On the documentary photos below are some evidences. These are some peculiar versions of the popular tic-tac-toe game I encountered in 2012 in the city of Yerevan, Armenia, that offer food for though to ludologists and game connoisseurs what kind of game animal expressed itself and what is the game played.

The first example was teasing me daily as it was on my way from the school I was living in to the bus stop in a suburb in Yerevan called (unofficially, but nobody knew any other name for it) Bangladesh. Simple chalk drawing on a building wall, extremely resembling a tic-tac-toe game but only with one player, the player “X”. “X” always starts in tic-tac-toe, so in general has bigger chances to win. But this one stopped and didn't win. Win against oneself? Is this losing?

To my regret I was unable to decipher the mysterious constellations and the message from the free thinker on the second picture. It reminded me a bit to my One-row-Tic-tac-toe ( http://challengedgames.blogspot.co.at/2014/01/one-row-tic-tac-toe.html ), but this didn't take me further. Two intersecting stylised hearts can be isolated between the two games... this just leads me to the next post.

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game  

• something you play, usually a competitive activity
• an animal that is hunted 

animal

• a living organism that feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli.
• a person with a particular interest or aptitude

CDoupbles :: sWING and sWAY

 THE WINGS from sWINGing and THE WAY from sWAYing.

I love logic and combinatorics. And I am more keen on the analysing the puzzle solving with logic and stratagem than using random-move methods, rather process and detail orientated than winning orientated. And Sudoku is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid contains all of the digits from 1 to 9. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid, which for a well-posed puzzle has a unique solution. I do the difficult ones. With the last one, I reached a point that I had two optional locations for considerable amount of numbers but not their precise whereabouts and couldn't move further. My logic was holding me to continue as it was not able to provide me with concrete answers. But I wanted to continue. So I just followed the multiple logic paths at random. „and it went on about how the quality of randomness, spontaneity, surprise, unexpectedness and irrationality in our lives is a very precious thing. And if you suppress that to have a nice orderly life, you kill off what's most important.“ Simon Jeffes, Penguin Cafe Orchestra. I finished it very quickly. For someone like me, conscious of rules and logic, was really a CHAlleNGING experience. sWINGing and sWAYing with my little magnetic numbers on my 9x9 grid with 3x3 sub-grids was so relieving. It felt like there is somebody else inside of me doing it, someone who knew what s/he is doing. I wished I could do things like this in real life.

Veronika Tzekova, CDoupbles, 2013- ongoing

iGRAZ: Game Epiphanies :: Is knowing how to play the game = keeping to the game rules?

The Small Newspaper (Die Kleine Zeitung) and its language crash-kurs raised a BIG philosophical and practical question: 

Is knowing how to play the game = keeping to the game rules?

Morning coffee, morning Kleine Zeitung, where Du musst dich auch an die Spielregeln halten= You must learn to play the game. I would rather translate it as: You have to keep to the rules of the game. But may be in German speaking realm these two mean the same?...

iGRAZ: GAMe ≡ GAMbling Epiphanies :: Spielsucht :: Spielverbot :: Spielraum

In my parallel universe where words are subject to multiple contextualisations resulting in different connotation, “Spielsucht”¹ sets free butterflies in my stomach, 

where “Spielverbot ” ² gives me goosebumps. 

Though being fully aware of the dictionary meaning of the both words and the reason for their circulation in the local social and urban environment, I fail to comprehend why Spiel (=game)+verbot (=ban) is surrounded with visually dominating chessboard pattern. 

A game board with a game ban gives some Spielraum ...

¹ “Spielverbot ” means “gambling ban”

² “Spielsucht” stand for “gambling addiction”

iGRAZ: Game Epiphanies :: Das Spiel ... zwischen Freude und Sex

superhydrophobic, a game in the rain :: 0:00-0:17

A Game in the rain

Superhydrophobic Hopscotch by Rainworks

!!! 0:00-0:17 !!!

Spending quality time with a bottle of wine

Some days ago a wine bottle flashed at me from a shop window. 

This encounter really deserves my blog label “Game Epiphanies”. It brings together my fascination with wine, patterns, games, and hidden messages.

Thanks to Mrs. Regina Triebaumer from Weingut Günter u. Regina Triebaumer, the missing threes were found:

TRIE is a nickname for Triebaumer, if to be translated, means THREE TREES.

TRIE ROT consists of THREE WINE VARIETIES. Mainly Zweigelt and additionally Cabernet Sauvignon and St. Laurent.

And tic-tac-toe was also in mind, when the label was designed. Though the the Xs and Os are some kind of placeholders, the tic-tac-toe is involved as it ends up with THREE again. In German it is even called DREI gewinnt (EN: THREE wins).

3X3 (but also 3x4) game grid is to be recognized in the label design, perfect prerequisite for tic-tac-toe (or THREE in a row).

I shifted the original roles and turned the letters into placeholders, apart of the O in ROT. THREE game situations are to be recognized in the label design, X wins in two of them and one the games ends in a draw. Bellow are the original label configuration and the game situations I discovered in the THREE ROT label.

A truly CHAlleNGING GAME experience. I guess I can call this

spending quality time

with a bottle of wine

CDoupbles :: Mission with a vision and game epiphanies in Graz

Veronika Tzekova, CDoupbles, 2013- ongoing

P.S. And it happened here:

Veronika Tzekova, CDoupbles, 2013- ongoing

In front of an impressive church with an astonishing priest, St. Andrä Church (st-andrae-graz.at/) in Graz and its priest Hermann Glettler. Eine Kirche als Austragungsort zeitgenössischer Kultur.

P.S.2 The place made me  susceptive obviously. One of the windows of the church is also one of the reason:

pREISE & game epiphanies in o tigre de Lisboa: #10: What the prison (a cadeia) gave me

Selective focusing in Estremoz.

Patterns recognition for metaphorical demonstration of behavioral patterns.

(some verses for political prisoners)

Some examples of

being on top

as a major reason to loose.

“X” always sits on the

bottom,

left,

corner

with its first move.

“O” always

being on top

with its first move,

is the trump for “X”

to win in any of these game situations. 

pREISE & game epiphanies in o tigre de Lisboa: #9: Big in Estremoz

Veronika Tzekova/ Big as one's wishes

A Sunday presque vu (once I have to go back to the central square of Estremoz) and its prequels: 

Tummelplatz,Graz // Sw. Marcin street, Poznan= the hundreds of game fields

pREISE& game epiphanies in o tigre de Lisboa: #2: life in patterns

P.S. After posting this, a thought occurred to me: did I played again in front of a religious building (the Capela Nosso Senhor dos Inocentes)? 
So another Sunday presque vu: Dadissuasori: http://challengedgames.blogspot.co.at/2015/01/cdoupbles-dadissuasori.html

CDoupbles :: Dadissuasori

Veronika Tzekova/ Dadissuasori
Intervention on broken urban furniture / Graffitti

La Pigna, San Remo, Italy, 2010
CDoupbles, 2013- ongoing

Dadissuasori

(in Italian dissuasori=bollards and dadi=dices)

Intervention on broken urban furniture / Graffitti

La Pigna, San Remo, Italy

2010

The bollards were placed in front of St.Giusepe church in La Pigna, San Remo, Italy to prevent cars from passing and parking.

At the moment of the intervention they were randomly displaced (pic.1). 

pic.1: before

Employing their positioning and dice-like shape, I turned them into huge dices thrown on the small square to monument the shifting fortune in the competition between planned urban environment and personalized appropriation of space (pic.2). 

pic.2: making it

Strangely some functionary of the church found it blasphemous and painted over the dots (only) of Dadissuasori, making them even more sad and ugly (pic.3). 

pic.3: censored

How far an institution, and even more religious institution, can and should control public space outside its premises? Dadissuasori were the first permanently installed art piece in public space in La Pigna, with the potential to turn a sad destruction sight into landmark.

pREISE & game epiphanies in o tigre de Lisboa: #8: Adults at wordplay: a CDoupble sequel

 ARTROSE (pt) and ART ROSE (en)


Veronika Tzekova, CDoupbles, 2013 - ongoing

(a cross-lingual CDoupble @  pREISE)

   Kunstlerin und Kulturvermittler. Coast-path. Praia do poça. Estoril. Portugal. Early evening. High tide. October. With the power of repetition, seeing and reading written text had become a value adding and meaning expanding act, creative dyslexia and associative reading, a lasting force to read and misread compulsively and insatiably anything written and signs of all kind. 

 Attracted to an info-board on the coast-path, the artist was discouraged instantaneously to proceed with the intention to read it: “Es ist Arthrose, nicht Art Rose.”, the Kulturvermittler said.

   On the top of the info-board stayed ARTROSE (arthrosis in Portuguese).

   Kunstlerin und Kulturvermittler. Coast-path. Praia do poça. Estoril. Portugal. Early evening. High tide. October. With the power of repetition, seeing and reading written text had become a value adding and meaning expanding act, creative dyslexia and associative reading, a lasting force to read and misread compulsively and insatiably anything written and signs of all kind and apparently contagious as well.

pREISE & game epiphanies in o tigre de Lisboa: #7: Our perceptions are gambles

An ostracon from the "Coptic period" in Egypt; stone technique; archaeological site: upper Egypt: governorate of Luxor?; present location Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, Lisbon.

No further info on what is depicted on it was found.
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Adults at play?

Life in patterns?

I the reality tunnel, the truth is in the eye of the beholder and “our perceptions are gambles”.

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Space Appropriators and CHAlleNGED Tic-tac-toes existed back than, or somebody had a vision:):):)

the onthesunontheSHADOWed Tic-tac-toe, 2013

the Space Appropriators/ KD Go, 2014

the Space Appropriators/ KD QUARTO!, 2013

the Space Appropriators/ Kanaldeckeled Tic-tac-toe, 2013

the HOL Tic-tac-toe, 2013

"...formal systems are based on changeable axioms and that conceptual operations have a game like nature."