Dot.Walking the Ghost Town [Occupy the Maze; drifting with Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde]

Dot.Walking the Ghost Town [Occupy the Maze] 

Rotterdam // August the 3rd 2012// 16.00 Hours

A .walk part of the NAI Summer program.

# “This town, is coming like a ghost town
# Why must the youth fight against themselves?
# Government leaving the youth on the shelf
# This place, is coming like a ghost town
# No job to be found in this country
# Can't go on no more
# The people getting angry”

#

# The Specials

Consider Pacman. Trapped in a ghost town designed to control and subdue him. Running for his life, driven by a hunger that is never filled, eating everything he can only to be forced to do it again and again as he progresses through the system, but in increasingly hostile circumstances. All in the baseless hope that it will get better and that the fear, the existential fear that is his only birthright, will reside. Pacman is in the death grip of a permanent crisis. We all are. It is not a coincidence that generations have mindlessly assumed that Pacman is the good guy, a hero, the employee of the month, but he won't be a role model to my children. Pacman doesn't Occupy the Maze, Pacman is the perfect slave, the one who thinks he is free and happy only because he never tasted true freedom and true happiness. Pacman is not a victim, he is a coward.

# This town, is coming like a ghost town.

Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde are innocent to the concept of labour, their quest to chase Pacman and eat him is purely recreational. Failure is without consequence, the drift is theirs and their wandering strategies are an inspiration to every psychogeographer beyond the maze. Their scatter-chase-repeat routine is a wonder in itself but their swagger in blue mode, when the roles are reversed and they can be eaten by their dinner, is the unchallenged masterpiece in the arsenal of experimental walking techniques. Again the ghosts do not encounter real harm when devoured, they are positively transformed and reborn while travelling. The ghost in blue mode is in trickster mode, they are urging Pacman to feed them power pills not just out of self-interest but out benevolence, to teach him.

# This town, is coming like a ghost town.

Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde are not attacking Pacman, evil is not a useful concept in their carefree existence. They are the Magister Ludi's of crazy cookie land, enticing Pacman to look at the true nature of his condition and rebel against it: 

The game is over!

There is no next level!

Pacman goes to heaven, ghosts go everywhere!

Become the ghost!

Conquer da ghost town!

Join the Dot.Walk!

Pacman forage psychogeography

Pacman (1980) is a game that deals with the challenges of foraging for food in a meaningless, inhospitable and often random world. 

Pacman designer Toru Iwatani: "Food is part of the basic concept. In my initial design I had put the player in the midst of food all over the screen. As I thought about it, I realized the player wouldn’t know exactly what to do; the purpose of the game would be obscure. So I created a maze and put the food in it. Then whoever played the game would have some structure by moving through the maze."

Pacman displays all the patho-obsessive characteristics that are the special achievement of the first generation peasant. Pacman does not live, he survives. Pacman does not know the freedom and enjoyment of the drift; he is locked in a Malthusian trap without cheat codes, doomed to struggle ad infinitum to overcome his hunger in the knowledge that the next meal will be even harder to acquire. To eat more is to be chased with added vengeance. 

For the ghosts work does not exist, their quest to find Pacman and eat him is purely recreational. Failure is without consequence, the drift is theirs and their collective wandering strategies are an inspiration to every algorithmic psychogeographer. Their scatter-chase-repeat routine is a wonder in itself but their swagger in blue mode, when suddenly they are prey and may be eaten by their dinner, is the unchallenged masterpiece in the arsenal of experimental walking techniques. Again the ghosts do not encounter real harm when devoured, rebirth comes as a guarantee. The ghost in blue mode is in trickster mode, they are urging Pacman to eat the freaky corner fruits out of self-interest but also out of benevolence.  

Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde are not attacking Pacman, evil is not a useful concept in their carefree existence. They are the Magister Ludi's of crazy cookie land, enticing the pupil to work harder and to move further, to new level-environments. It is not necessary to eat, it is necessary to travel.

Toru Iwatani: "The way the ghosts were designed, it’s not something nasty.  It’s an enemy, but still somewhat amicable, lovable.  Even when you eat them, their eyeballs come back.  And also the action of eating itself, it’s not so much eating as destroying, but it’s more like the action of biting to make them go away.  And in fact they do come back.  So this kind of a non-violent character was very important."