fileDriver is an arcade game without images, a video game reduced to its simplest elements: data. Using a joystick, the viewer moves through a stream of light and sound, in an atmosphere reminiscent of 80s racing games. By bathing in the light and sound sequences it generates, viewers create their own mental images of the game, which they refine as they get used to its controls.
Rather than playing a videogame, FileDrive is about playing with the videogame. Much like the movie Tron but without special effects, the player moves within the game’s data, its sequences of bits, 0s and 1s, that arranged in groups of eight: the bytes. Here, these bytes are arranged in the form of a two-dimensional map in which we move around in a fashion similar to Link in the classic videogame Zelda.
Since everything can be reduced to raw data, whether game mechanics, images or music, it is possible to reinterpret this data as sound and light. Some of this data is read as if it was sound and sent directly to the speakers. Or as data to control the custom LED light display.
FileDriver doesn’t project images as such, only light. The pulsating light created by moving through the map of bytes allows the player to see abstract shapes forming, an effect strangely reinforced when they close their eyes. Depending on who plays the game, the lived sensations can be quite different and shapes appears such as lines, triangles, fractals… Some people can even see colors of every hues or feel tactile sensations.
Presentation:
Eniarof Tourcoing 2014
Techniques:
Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Pure Data, LED, custom electronics
Video & Photo:
Marion Pouliquen
