A Dichotomy Result for Cyclic-Order Traversing Games

Traversing game is a two-person game played on a connected undirected simple graph with a source node and a destination node. A pebble is placed on the source node initially and then moves autonomously according to some rules. Alice is the player who wants to set up rules for each node to determine where to forward the pebble while the pebble reaches the node, so that the pebble can reach the destination node. Bob is the second player who tries to deter Alice\u27s effort by removing edges. Given access to Alice\u27s rules, Bob can remove as many edges as he likes, while retaining the source and destination nodes connected. Under the guide of Alice\u27s rules, if the pebble arrives at the destination node, then we say Alice wins the traversing game; otherwise the pebble enters an endless loop without passing through the destination node, then Bob wins. We assume that Alice and Bob both play optimally. We study the problem: When will Alice have a winning strategy? This actually models a routing recovery problem in Software Defined Networking in which some links may be broken. In this paper, we prove a dichotomy result for certain traversing games, called cyclic-order traversing games. We also give a linear-time algorithm to find the corresponding winning strategy, if one exists

On the ontological status of musical actions in digital games

This paper aims to discuss the ontological status of digital game players’ musical activities. Although in specific cases digital game play appears to be comparable to other musical forms of actions, for instance in the case of so-called music games, its complexities make for a variety of challenging cases. In fact, digital games engage with musical content in widely different ways, often affording players the possibility to interact with music. Popular examples of that are music games such as the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, in which players act in musical performances that have been defined as schizophonic (Miller, 2009, 2012). In these cases, original compositions and ad-hoc peripherals are provided to mimic emblematic musical actions of rock performers. However, digital games that are arguably not primarily focused on music seem to involve degrees of musical action, too. For example, player’s activities affect the playback of music compositions in the cases of dynamic and adaptive music (Collins, 2008), commonly present in very different digital game genres. Moreover, it has been observed that procedural music “evolves in real time according to specific sets of rules” (Collins, 2009) in reaction to player’s inputs, further complicating the musical status of player’s actions. A similar occurrence has been noted in relation to the notion of diegesis. Imported from film studies, diegesis has been adapted in different ways to digital games. This has brought to analyses of players’ action in relation to their diegetic placement (Collins, 2008; Grimshaw & Schott, 2007; Jørgensen, 2007). For instance, a player can act within the diegetic space following extradiegetic musical cues such as “background music”, short-circuiting the clear cut distinction of diegetic space (Jørgensen, 2007). According to these diverse examples, player’s actions have often meaning in a musical sense. Players, willingly or less so, control parts of musical content, juxtaposing them during gameplay. What are the musical actions of players? What is the ontological status of such interactions? In other words, what is the relationship in between digital game players musical activities and those of instrumentalists, conductors, listeners, or any other kind of musical performer? To answer these questions, this paper will look into resources ranging from philosophy of music, to musicology and ethnomusicology. In fact, the analysis of musical action is already well debated within these fields. Several key references in this regard consider musical actions, such as improvisation, as an under-researched kind of musical activities, with the bulk of attention mostly devoted to analyses of musical works. As such, the dichotomy in between musical work and music-as-action assumes central role. According to Alperson, “Anglophone philosophy of music [...] has seen music as an aesthetic practice centered on the creation of objects - musical works of art” (2018). His concern is clearly shared by Small, who criticise musicology for its tendency to equal “music” with “musical work” (1998). Instead, he argues that music should be understood as a range of activities: "to music is to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practicing, by providing material for performance (composing), or by dancing" (Small, 1998). These actions, and more, are to be considered “musicking”. This paper therefore argues that digital game players often act in ways that are musically meaningful, whether the musical action in question is more or less self-standing (such as in music games) or it is connected to other in-game actions. The concept of “playing” - ideally, the quintessential action of the game player - has already been considered as a broad umbrella term, which cannot accurately describe the diverse actions players perform, such as labor-like activities (Calleja, 2011). This paper explores the musical side of the spectrum of actions afforded by digital games, by providing an initial overview of the musical facets of game playing. To do that, the paper inscribes the ontological status of digital game playing within the ongoing research on musicking and musical performancespeer-reviewe

Experiencing Life as Cinematic Fiction: The Marvelous within the Daily Media Landscape

Ogni giorno abitiamo numerosi universi digitali che si sovrappongono dramma-ticamente alla realtà fisica. La nostra identità è costituita da una moltitudine di personaggi creati appositamente per interpretare una personalità frammentata. Tuttavia, fino a che punto ne siamo consapevoli? Applicando il concetto di “meraviglioso” di Torquato Tasso in quanto elemento rivelatore, ovvero, «un processo che dà accesso a una dimensione nascosta oltre la realtà» (Ardissino 2019), il saggio si propone di analizzare Monomyth: gaiden (2018-2020), una serie animata in quattro atti realizzata dall’artista ungherese Petra Széman. Rielaborando il tema del viaggio dell’eroe e una narrazione non lineare tipica di anime e manga, gaiden in giapponese, Széman intercetta le discrepanze che nascono all’intersezione tra schermo e individuo «in una realtà elusiva e multilivello» (Széman 2018). L’artista crea un épos digitale per osservare ciò che accade «tra il sistema percettivo umano e il suo ambiente mediale» (Levitt 2018) in una rete interconnessa composta da regni virtuali e identità non localizzate.Daily, we enter and exit several digital realms which dramatically overlap with our physical reality. Our identity is scattered in a multitude of customized characters, explicitly created to represent the fragments of our personality. However, up to what extent are we aware of all this? By applying Torquato Tasso’s notion of “marvelous” as a revelatory element, that is, «a process that provides access to a hidden dimension beyond reality» (Ardissino 2019), this essay aims at analyzing Monomyth: gaiden (2018-2020), a four parts animated series by Petra Széman, a Hungarian moving image artist. Széman uses the hero’s journey trope and the principles of the gaiden, a nonlinear narrative used in manga and anime, to investigate the discrepancies occurring at the spectator-screen nexus «when journeying through an elusive multiplanar reality» (Széman 2018). Traveling between the fictional and the real world, Széman creates a digital épos which investigates «how the encounter between the human perceptual system and its media environment» (Levitt 2018) interacts in an interwoven network of virtual realms and non-localized identities

Embodied creativity: a process continuum from artistic creation to creative participation

This thesis breaks new ground by attending to two contemporary developments in art and science. In art, computer-mediated interactive artworks comprise creative engagement between collaborating practitioners and a creatively participating audience, erasing all notions of a dividing line between them. The procedural character of this type of communicative real-time interaction replaces the concept of a finished artwork with a ‘field of artistic communication’. In science, the field of creativity research investigates creative thought as mental operations that combine and reorganise extant knowledge structures. A recent paradigm shift in cognition research acknowledges that cognition is embodied. Neither embodiment in cognition nor the ‘field of artistic communication’ in interactive art have been assimilated by creativity research. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the embodied cognitive processes in a ‘field of artistic communication’ using a media artwork called Sim-Suite as a case study research strategy. This interactive installation, created and exhibited in an authentic real-world context, engages three people to play on wobble-boards. The thesis argues that creative processes related to Sim-Suite operate within a continuum, encompassing collaborative artistic creation and cooperative creative participation. This continuum is investigated via mixed methods, conducting studies with qualitative and quantitative analysis. These are interpreted through a theoretical lens of embodied cognition principles, the 4E approaches. The results obtained demonstrate that embodied cognitive processes in Sim-Suite’s ‘field of artistic communication’ function on a continuum. We give an account of the creative process continuum relating our findings to the ‘embedded-extended-enactive lens’, empirical studies in embodied cognition and creativity research. Within this context a number of topics and sub-themes are identified. We discuss embodied communication, aspects of agency, forms of coordination, levels of evaluative processes and empathetic foundation. The thesis makes conceptual, empirical and methodological contributions to creativity research