Spray Diagrams and Systems

Emergent Behavior in "Telephone Pictionary"

The game "Telephone Pictionary"  is dependent upon emergent behavior for its humor. Based upon a combination of two childhood games, the game combines the interpretive natures of recognizing elements in a drawn figure and representing abstract concepts visually. Like the original "Telephone" game before it, "Telephone Pictionary" relies on errors/misinterpretations— an emerging behavior as slight deviations from the original, intended phrase are incorporated out of the hand-drawn representations— to trace a path from what the intended phrase was in the beginning to what it evolved into in the end.
To play Telephone Pictionary, each player is passed a stack of blank cards (one card per participating player, including themselves), and they start by writing a phrase of some sort ("London Bridge is Falling Down", "A Three-Toed Sloth", "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right", etc.). Then the stack is passed to the next player, and play cycles between drawing what the previous phrase suggested or interpreting the previous drawing into recognizable phrases or objects. A time limit is imposed on writing/drawing rounds, keeping artists from becoming too detailed in their visuals or writers from extracting excessive details. When the stack reaches the player it started with, the result is often a humorous distortion wildly different from the intended phrase.

Our team has noticed two varieties of emergent behavior in this game, dependent upon the results:

1. ICONOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION: If an iconic object or phrase is represented (or interpreted), this tends to remain consistent throughout. For instance, one of our instances began with the phrase "Singing in the Rain" and remained consistent throughout the entire game. This is because "Singing in the Rain" is an icon in society, and the unusual combination of a person vocalizing in precipitation is easily recognizable.
2. OBJECTIVE REPRESENTATION: If a specific icon was not identifiable in the original phrase or drawing, we've found that most people will break it down into recognizable objects. Because of the time limit imposed by the game, most people find it difficult to link all the objects together into a coherent system or group, so more often than not the participant will reduce it to recognizable objects. Thus, the context of their use together is lost as the cards are passed around, but the "gist" is retained. This is compounded with each following card until it is reduced to a very simple concept.

The following includes pictures and video of prior games played. In addition to being an excellent documentation of emergent behavior, the game also serves an excellent purpose as a self-documenting game as a whole.

EXAMPLE GAMES:

Introductory Post: Analysis of Existing Systems

For the first assignment of the semester, our team members were asked to conjure up 5 diagrams and examples of existing systems, of which one must not exist tangibly, one must be living, one must have 100+ parts, one must have 5 or less, and one must consist of how we individually create art. With these in tow, we were then assigned to explain the properties and types of systems we'd found using the newfound vocabulary of our categories. The findings as such for Travis Stebbins are below:

MANATEE (Living System): Open and Gestalt System
    A Manatee is an Open system because much of the system depends on system-external input (food, mates, etc). A manatee would cease to function without basic external conditions, or external input to the system.
Additionally, a manatee is capable of many more things than a pile of skin, blubber, organs and bodily fluids when separated.

PEACEMAKING PROCESS (Intangible System): Balance System
    By default, the system required to make peace checks for a balance of both parties. The resolution of a conflict into peace is often completed by a return from imbalance (be it of power, resources or actions) to stasis. [Will attach document later]

EUROBEAT PROCESS (Personal Art System): Hierarchical Procedural System
    The Eurobeat-creation process involves steps that contain several sub-steps (for instance, the "Creativity" step involves a combination of Eurobeat genre conventions, Red Bull/Caffeine, and ideas from Other Songs, and "Logic Pro 9" involves a collection of three major pools of sound creation.) [Will attach document later]

TREE-ROOTS (≤ 5 Part System): Interchanges with Environment
    Tree roots are only capable of fulfilling their part of the system by seeking out nutrition from their environment (soil). Additionally, the canopy drip line usually extends to about the same length as some of its roots, allowing the soil itself, along with its contents, to benefit from the rain it displaces.

CAR (1969 Ford Torino) (100+ Part System): Interdependent (and, thusly, Indecomposable), Interfaced and Gestalt System
    Regarding either their existence as a set of systems (each containing several parts to themselves) or as one massive system, automobiles are extremely dependent on the existence and function of other parts and facets to consistently work as necessary. The engine requires all of its parts to be fully functional to run, and the car itself requires the engine to run. Additionally, without seats or an interface, the individual necessary to operate the car would be unable to do so. Every part must be in synchronized harmony.