WRT: Writer Response Theory

Yet another variation on the TextQuake concept.

untitled game by jodi (2002) is an artistic exxperiment with Quake 1 source code and text output. It has the following category entry from the Selectparks Archive:

12 quake 1 mods. untitled-game mutates the semiotics of navigational perception, abstracting original game ontology. controls for mobility, enemy identification, narrative cognition, reward systems, landscape and gravity are reduced to symbolic fragments

The work follows jodi’s normal net.art aesthetic of breakdown, malfunction, frustration, and just a little bit of @#$% you. The website for “untitled game” is a series of oddly nested document menus that look like directory listings, and presents zipped archives, Mac and PC binaries, source code, system files, etc.

Visitors may be deceived by the html links next to each file, and assume they lead to some sort of preview or description. Clicking any of them dumps the same binary into your browser as a torrent of text. What, you didn’t want to read megabytes of binary code? @#$% you.

I haven’t yet played the mods themselves - but if the sample on Selectparks is any indication, shield your eyes:

Tags: code, games

[via Selectparks]