UC Berkeley new media professor creates balance art game at AUC
Walking into the American University in Cairo’s Falaki Gallery may be confusing at first. Large, colorful beach balls are strewn on the fall all the way into the heart of the gallery. This unusual display is part of a new, unorthodox interactive art exhibition “Return to Balance and Bounce.
A high wall divides one room, and – on both sides – people are engaged in a bizarre sort of volleyball match. They are throwing colorful balls back and forth over the opaque wall, unable to see what’s happening on the other side.
The key attraction, however, is a large computer screen featuring a computer game, OK Donuts. The game is played by standing on an 18-inch square platform, and shifting your weight to tilt a virtual platform on the screen. If you bounce the falling balls off the platform into colored hoops, you win. As you succeed, the game becomes more difficult. The targets change location and even begin to circle the platform.
The pseudo-volleyball and computer games appear unconnected at first, until you realize that the balls being thrown over the wall in one room are being detected by a censor and are the same balls that enter the virtual game. If the players in the first room are throwing many balls at once, then it will be harder for the player in the other room to get them all in the hoops.
Brian Curling, director of the Falaki Gallery said, “I think the game is about understanding cause and effect. It’s great when you start understanding that you have great relationship, through your actions, to the other game.
The game was put together by Gregory Niemeyer, assistant professor of new media at UC Berkeley, in the US, along with two of his students Joe McKay and Nik Hanselmann.
Niemeyer and Egyptian arts manager Aida Eltorie, who had worked together on a previous project, decided to create a game to showcase in Cairo. He sat with his students and came up with this project.
Sponsors of the “The Return of Balance and Bounce include Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, Cairo, University of California, Berkeley and the Townhouse Gallery.
The game has been well received at AUC, and people have been participating excitedly.
“It is very important to remember to play. Many times when people become adults, they don’t think they need to play any more. Playing is when we learn new things, says Niemeyer.
Born in Switzerland, Niemeyer received his MFA from Stanford University in New Media where he founded the Stanford University Digital Art Center. He is currently a professor at UC Berkeley and is now involved in the development of a major Center for New Media there, focusing on the critical analysis of the impact of new media on human experience.
According to Curling, the exhibition makes people scratch their head in confusion over how this falls under art. He explained that contemporary art today is conceptual so bringing in works like this is a great education for the students.
Although not clear from first glance, Niemeyer elucidates the deeper meaning: “We do a lot of things although we don’t know what happens on the other side. We do a lot of things even if we are not aware of the consequences.
“That’s a little political. Trying to get people to become more aware of their actions, he explained.
The Return of BalanceThe Falaki GalleryThe American University in CairoFalaki St., Bab El Louk. (02) 797 637312-9 pm daily except FridaysUntil May 10
