[-empyre-] -M&M&M-

[melinda R]

welcome Margarete & Max & Marguerite
 all high rollers, elegantly swathed in European charm, nonchalant in
your playful entree -slipping in quietly when we were distracted with
the practicalities and potentialities of code...

I am delighted and I must say more than a little excited that
Marguerite Charmante, the metaphorical muse, tagged game figure,
celebrity pin-up chick,  and playful heroine to thinking men and women
globally is joining us this month. I opened my Ludic-Society Issue 5
on a plane a week or so ago to another of Marguerite's missives -
"Resistance is Futile - Futility is Resistance!  Objects of Desire
Repertoire"  and was slavishly anticipating her ludic reflections on
the new disciplines of play and cultures, futility as resistance, toys
and game fashion.

LUDIC SOCIETY/ MARGARETE JAHRMANN/ MAX MOSWITZER
http://www.konsum.net
http://www.ludic-society.net

The co founders of the Ludic Society Jahrmann and Moswitzer are both
artists, active since a decade in games and arts. They live in Vienna
and Zurich, lecture Game Design and Ludology in Zurich university of
Arts and Design and at the Angewandte Vienna. They received Prix Ars
Electronica award of distinction in interactive arts 2003 and 2004 a
transmediale Berlin award. Moswitzer recently gained attention with
the Second Life architecture award. Together they developed game mods
and total conversions of game engines.

The LS constitutes as international association to provoke Ludics as
emerging discipline. The affiliations periodical appears with
international articles on jouissance, joy and jeux. The magazine was
first presented 2005, Neue Galerie Graz, 2006 transmediale Berlin and
Centre Conde Duque Madrid, 2007 Art Centre Plymouth and Tweakfest
Zurich, and Rotterdam DEAF evening of the Ludic Society. Ludic
methodology verbalises as poetic statement in neo-pataphysical text
and games. As it malpractices theory, a series of electromagnetic toys
was launched. LS members developed new bachelor machines,
neo-pataphysist objects and launched Game Fashion in Milano in
December 2007.

Issue #1, 2005. Ludics. New Bachelor Machines. Graz/Madrid.
Issue # 2, 2006. Real Players. Ludic Interfaces. Vienna/Zurich.
Issue # 3, 2007. Tagging the City. Plymouth/ Zurich
Issue # 4, 2007. Metaverse and World3. Zurich/ Vienna
Issue # 5, 2008. Objects of Desire. Bari/ Vienna

Frequent exhibits and papers, as Play Fetish. Ed. Jörg Huber. Über
Spiel-Kontingenz. Zürich 2007. Ich Spiele Leben. In: Kunstforum
International, Nr. 178. 2006. 2007 DIGRA, University of Tokyo, DEAF,
Piksel Bergen, Mediaforum Moscow.2008 Pataphysical Snowball
Association, Valais.

Ludic Society members are self-organized artists, who create a special
T.A.Z. with magazines in print, sites on-line and public interventions
in between different spheres of action (play-game-culture-online-First
Life). This works since its foundation late in 2005. The society's
membership still continues to grow, currently comprising about 50
international socialites. On that point we must express deep gratitude
to all contributing personalities and con-dividualities for their
willingness to play the game, to enter into the constraints of Ludics
for the merits of a scientific play. As introduced, Ludics implies
experiments in playful ways of discourse and reflection on the world
of designated toy objects as Living reality.

// GAME HISTORY
LINX3D
http://linx3d.konsum.net
A neo-luddite game console in retro glitter blue as exhibition
artefact (ZKM) was the first common game artwork of Margarete Jahrmann
and Max Moswitzer. They structurally coupled well known game objects
with surprising computer-game modifications.

LinX3D was an arts circuit bending of a live ASCII video-camera to a
3D shooter game and a science fiction story. The visual result
approached constructivist imagery, art and language text aesthetics,
applied to logfiles and logIn shells and very radical abstraction.
This was achieved by extreme visual feedback algorithms applied to 3D
games.

Nybble Engine
http://www.climax.at
Live gigs with game engines became their specialities from 2001-03.
Sound, Nybble Engine Movies (data-road-movies)and theory dance were
put on the scene. Requisites for these concerts were laser sinthered
print outs of the game´'abs ever-changing architectures, called
objectiles (casino Luxembourg 2003, OK center f. Gegenwartskunst OÖ'85
2002). The stage quality of games was tested. Its elements were the
bodily presence of lecturers playing the modified game engine
Nybble-Engine as a audio-visual instrument, accompanied by a stage
setup of oversized printouts of the "neo constructivist" game imagery.
In 2004 the nybble-engine magazine appeared as glossy full colour
magazine with DVD.

Modular lectures were enacted in the line of european mediafestivals
from ars electronica, DEAF to transmediale.

The so called "anti-war-shooter" Nybble-Engine-ToolZ (developed in
cooperation with the V2 lab Rotterdam, shown at MAMA Gallery Rotterdam
at Deaf03) did send massive amounts of anti war e-mails to
president at whitehouse with each press on the shoot button in the game
arts installation by unblameable arts visitors.

GoApe Chindogus
http://www.ludic-society.net/play/objects.php
Game objects, standing as object for itself and no more as interface
to something else, are the actual project by the formation. They are
now appearing together with guest performers as band (Goape,
cul-de-sac) in clubs or exhibitions. The "cabaret voltaire" styled
game-instruments are playable objects, inbetween toys and new bachelor
machines. The first series of GoApe chindogus was shown at the
postmedial condition exhibtion, at Neue Galerie Graz 2005 and nouveaux
objets cé'8elibataires at Arco Madrid 2006.

LUD/D/ICs
Due to intransparancy in used con-dividualities, alter-egos, names,
labels and arts and game contextualisations by the artists, no
specific theoretician or institution ever constantly included their
work in their body of reference.