I am currently running an experimental mail art service in Santa Cruz based on text messages. Everything is automated by a Python script which interacts with Google Voice and Skype. If you’re in Santa Cruz and want to participate, let me know and I can send you an invite. Here are the instructions (you’ll need to ask me for the phone number to play):

Experimental Mail Art Service, (831)xxxxxxx

Please read all of the following instructions before deciding to participate. The service requires a time commitment of approximately 1-2 hours which can be completed at your convenience.

1. THINK OF SOMEONE YOU WANT TO MAIL ART TO. They should live in Santa Cruz and be active in the public sphere. Please do not include their last name.
2. THINK OF A CLUE THAT WOULD HELP SOMEONE FIND THIS PERSON. Do not give an address! This clue should help someone find them in the public sphere. For example, you could say “he/she hangs out at Lulu’s coffeeshop” or “he/she works at the pizzeria”. Be creative!
3. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO SEND HIM/HER. You should decide on something that can be made/written/gathered in an hour or less and which costs little or nothing. For example, you could say “a collage”, “a drawing of your hand” or maybe “a story about walking”. Be creative!
4. PUT STEPS 1-3 TOGETHER INTO A SINGLE SENTENCE OF 160 CHARACTERS OR LESS AND SEND IT VIA SMS/TEXT TO: 831.xxx.xxxx. Your delivery request will automatically be sent to another participant! Text messages over 160 characters will not be delivered. IMPORTANT: you are only able to send one request to the system (subsequent requests will be ignored), so make sure you get it right the first time! And it must be from a cell phone that has an unblocked number. Here is an example request: “Please send a flower to Dennis who is a regular at the Red Room”
5. MAKE SOMEONE ELSE’S DELIVERY. After you send in your request, you will receive someone’s else’s request which you will make and deliver! Please be patient–it may take a while for you to receive your delivery instructions. It is OK if you make the requested item and hand it off to someone else who is able make the delivery–just make sure it gets there.
6. INCLUDE THESE INSTRUCTIONS WITH YOUR DELIVERY AND PASS THEM ON TO ONE ADDITIONAL PERSON WHO YOU THINK WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE. Please only give these instructions to two people!

Send comments/questions, bug reports (this is the Beta version!) and/or documentation of your adventures to: xxx.

photo by Kally Kahn

Here are some photos of people playing my video game at the art.tech exhibition at the Lab in San Francisco. And below is the Processing code for the game. It’s currently configured to run on a computer with an internal video camera and an external video camera attached via firewire. I have tested it using an iSight camera and a DV camera, both work great. I recommend running it with two mirrored screens set at 640×480. You will also need to add sounds to the Processing data folder named “good.wav” and “bad.wav”–classic video games sounds work well. See this post for instructions on playing. Have fun!

Processing Code

photo by Kally Kahn

photo by Kally Kahn

This is a video of two people playing a video game I made using Processing last May. Each player sees a silhouette of themselves on screen whenever they move (their silhouette disappears when they are still). The player also sees a silhouette of the other player. The object of the game is to collect the blue balls while avoiding the red balls to achieve a high score. Balls can only be collected when both players’ silhouettes overlap each other and a ball, so the two players must work together. Each blue ball collected is worth one point while each red ball is worth one negative point.