August 18 Dan Zen Expo Exhibit
Sketches 1
Dedicated to Dave and Teresa Kuruc at Mixed Media
Dan Zen has a dozen plus sketch books filled with drawings and ideas. Many of the early Dan Zen games were hand drawn and we will show some originals in this exhibit. The sketchbooks are generally a combination of ideas for apps and games, environmental and social ideas, and philosophy. Here is a first set of sample sketches from a few of the books - a half dozen or so from each.
▲ The stack of Dan Zen sketch books over the last 20 years. The older ones tend to be on the bottom but they get a little mixed up. The sketches below come from four of the sketch books picked randomly with dates of 2000, 2005, 2006, and 2009.
Opartica Prototype (2000) ▲ Opartica is the world's leading online Op Art making tool. This was the first sketch of the tool (Google). Most of the functionality remained the same but the main op art work area was maximized and the interface was minimized to a thin panel on both sides. A small building to-do list is shown on the bottom of the sketch which is unusual. Zen has hundreds of to-do lists on scrap paper and very rarely are they added to sketches. Opartica Tunnel was later added. VISIT OPARTICA
Kirputnik Cam Sketch (2000) ▲ The Kirputnik Cam is a view of the Dan Zen workshop as if the games and apps were real physical items. Here are two of the half dozen sketches that were stitched together to make a 360 degree wrap around tour. This sketch shows the Lady with Brooch painting from the Moustache Mystery sitting on a table with a Teleporter and a Dan Zen stone. The table is marked with Dan Zen Den markings and the signature coincidence along its middle. Zen used his ties as a hanging like "love beads" - these are actually real and the ties reflect the real patterns. On the bottom right are the cut out boards used to turn Zen's hedge into a dragon (also real). At at top right is the dart board used at Zen's stag party - in the form of a castle (also real). You can find the online games in the Explore Section of the Dan Zen Museum - or use the Kirputnik Cam which has hypertext links to the games. VIEW KIRPUTNIK CAM
Kirputnik Cam Sketch (2000) ▲ The Kirputnik Cam is a view of the Dan Zen workshop as if the games and apps were real physical items. Here are two of the half dozen sketches that were stitched together to make a 360 degree wrap around tour. This sketch shows a periscope and check sheet for the Salamander spy game, names for the blimps in the Blimp Race, a model of Gorgolon - the underwater civilization, the Dan Zen Dens in the great wall of China, Dan Zen stones for the garden with names of prominent Hip Cats, and a couple physical features: the Chant Game, a couple wrist sundials, and the Brass Moustache used for moustache parties. In the final Kirputnik Cam, where it says Fruit face was replaced with Fruit Face from Spy-mail. You can find the online games in the Explore Section of the Dan Zen Museum - or use the Kirputnik Cam which has hypertext links to the games. VIEW KIRPUTNIK CAM
Magnetic Robot Track (2000) ▲ Idea for a physical installation. The top is a race for robots - almost like a pinball or bagatelle game. The main sketch area shows a future land where you can move robots around with magnets beneath the floor - or optionally, with a crank and track. This is still to be made.
Interfaces (2000) ▲ A few Agency Zen interfaces - expanding and collapsing menus and ad banners. Some sort of rating indicator - where people would rate areas on a page and as you slide the interface around, it would indicate ratings. Agency Zen (with Ad Inventor) was a possible direction fof Zen but then he turned to teaching. AGENCY ZEN AD INVENTOR
Pagoda of Games (2000) ▲ a preliminary sketch for the main interface to Dan Zen from 2002 to 2005. A simplified version of the pagoda was used but the sketch was used on the welcome menu. VISIT PAGODA
Hot Water Basket (2000) ▲ A sketch for a physical invention - like a hot water bottle that you can sit in - mmm. Featured built in filling and draining apparatus. This is still to be made.
Rich Deck (2000) ▲ A few original sketches for the Rich Deck game with hundreds of players making Billions of Deck Dollars. Mansion on the moon and a lunar resort, glass car, own private volcano island, orgone chamber, etc. even a shirt that shows video of what is behind you so it looks like you have a hole in your body (Zen did this during Trippy experiments) PLAY RICH DECK
The Masked Map (2000) ▲ Collective Control multiuser game where players collectively guide a boat and embark on challenges. Dan Zen is recreating some of the experiments from this inventive concept (now being used in TimePlay in cinemas). SEE VIDEO
Haiku Sake! (2000) ▲ A real game made for a party at Dan Zen's house. Board was constructed on left over grass cloth wallpaper.
Nodism Relevance (2005) ▲ one of more than 100 sketch book pages exploring Nodism - Dan Zen Philosophy Exhibit. This page exploring nodes in waves and nodes in a hierarchy. One of the key questions in Nodism is that of relevance (explored in many sketches). Relevance acts like a probability cloud that gets stronger near the "truth" and weaker around the edges - perhaps like a gravitational force. Some of this refers to other sketches so would have to be analyzed as a whole. With this sketch and the next we see touch of nodelang which is a system of writing under development by Zen over the last 10 years.
Nodism Nesting (2005) ▲ The obvious physical nestings from quark to universe with life sitting between the chaos of the large universe and the tight patterns of the atomic world. Another of more than 100 sketch book pages exploring Nodism - Dan Zen Philosophy Exhibit. Also shown, a possible isomorphism between physical nesting and boolean if we take ands as the past and ors as the future.
Flower of Falls (2005) ▲ Dan Zen lives in Hamilton and this sketch shows the mapping of waterfalls around Dundas in Hamilton onto a flower. SEE MAP
WannaGet Award (2005) ▲ Original sketch for WannaGet award - in this case, Harry Potter's Glasses. WannaGet was launched at the start of the blogging craze to be a game for the margins of blogs where you could want something once an hour which would increase the points of the item. You could also get the item for a small cost and that would give you all of the item's points. The money would be split between the blog owner, the creator of the item and Dan Zen - all through paypal. Unfortunately, it did not catch on. VISIT WANNAGET
Nodelang (2005) ▲ A system of little tags to help follow the flow if ideas. In general, the notes should follow a linear path (chronolang) but yet refer to other areas and indicate types of ideas with various meta tags - the most common being M for meta thought. This sketch was in general, a meta sketch just to practice or develop some of the tag ideas. There is a sketch in the official Nodism sketch book that summarizes the system. Yay for crazy person writing!
Node Notes (2005) ▲ One of several sketches for the Node Notes interface to read in nodelang and parse the content to a hierarchy - or to just start writing in Node Notes itself. In a sense, it was like a micro internet based on thoughts rather than pages. A prototype was made of this format of Node Globe. It was followed by a full Node Globe interface. Both were abandoned for an upcoming live hierarchy interface. In the old prototype (Flash) you can drag the little round nodes to spin them and double click to advance. None of the little colored interface boxes work. (Flash) SEE PROTOTYPE
META Mystery (2005) ▲ A sketch summary of the Professor Y world - created for Save Earth but then expanded in the Meta Mystery series and on in various story telling environments like Snipisode and Altura. STORY TELLING EXHIBIT
Bathtub Mute (2005) ▲ a technique for quieting the filling of a bathtub. Dan Zen often has late night baths and to quiet the filling uses a shroud on the faucet outlet. This was a whimsical rendition using old rubber gloves to makje a Gorgolonian bath spout alien as Gorgolonians have eyes on their fingers.
Finger Charades (2005) ▲ game to act out charades using your fingers and fingers of others. Dan Zen makes up a game for every New Years - this one, sadly, was not played. The party was just too out of hand!
A Million Clouds (2005) ▲ the raw sketches used for the A Million Clouds feature where you fly around with a jet pack that uses clouds as a fuel source. (Flash) FLY IN CLOUDS
Nanoids (2006) ▲ A few little nanobots - Dan Zen did a number of little games with nanobots without really launching any. One was a facebook group game NanoRace as an exercise. One was Nano 2030 a multiuser game where you moved around in the light to collect energy. Another was DotBot where you collect good things and avoid bad things. Nanora was a game based on a short story by Zen. Zen still plans to make a definitave nano game! Some of these can be seen in the Action Games Exhibit ACTION GAMES
Chess Set (2006) ▲ Dan Zen has designed a few chess sets - this was roughly the set for Flat Chess an online multiuser game. Zen also has made a few real sets. SEE CHESS SET
Ands, Ors and Nots (2006) ▲ proof that ors can be written with ands and nots. This is more a writing pad than a sketch book and often these have stories or thoughts written rather than pictures.
Mobile Mediated Games (2009) ▲ Sketch showing various thoughts on grouping together mobile devices for games. These can be multiuser or timed games like Tilty and Touchy with their Together Button. Other sketches show games that can be played on this type of communal system.
Tilt and Translation Technology (2009) ▲ Dan Zen did a series of tilt experiments as the sensors to capture tilt came to our devices. Penguin was Zen's work to prototype this before the devices were ready. SEE PENGUIN
AVATA (2009) ▲ A plan for an interactive story telling app - like a comic maker but with characters of the Dan Zen universe. Still to be made.
Embedded Devices (2009) ▲ Sketches show devices embedded in a series of different backdrops. Apps could then relate to the environments. Used for toys, stories, etc. This moved on to clothing to revolutionize wearable computing with Hangy and soon to be launched Clingy where current mobile devices are used in wearable computing. VISIT HANGY
