susipong2006 / Game for Java Compatible Mobile Telephonessusigames  Two white bars between which there is a small square, the black screen as a playing field. susipong transmits the popular table tennis video game Pong to mobile telephones and extends the classical Pong match to a game transmitted worldwide with up to three contestants. Each device covers one side of the playing field. Here, once running off its own playing field, the ball is then packed into an SMS and sent to the corresponding opponent of the respective exit side. The utilization of the net and routing are here unpredictable and thus make what happens in the game unforeseeable. Pong not only stands for the beginning of more than a 30 year history of commercial computer game development but also marks the beginnings of the digitalization of our social habitat. Computer games have often been the first application by which the average user became familiar with computer technology and that made him into an artistic user and no longer a mere user of devices. Whereas the simple computer-pingpong game thus stands in direct connection with the development of our digital information society, susigames not only brings together the virtual worlds of the game and the real world but implies an ongoing, mutual feedback. (Barbara Kirschner) ยท www.susipong.com/ susigames is an independent game art label founded in 2003, and is currently working as a group of associated artists at the ZKM, Germany. susigames consists of five people from different disciplines including media arts, illustration, robotics and computer graphics. Their current objective is research into alternative artistic approaches to well-known video game standards and cross boarders (installations, energy, real-time & real-world simulations).  Photo: susigames susigames, susipong, 2006, Game for Java Compatible Mobile Telephones, loaned by the artists |