Everything We Do Is Games

About 15 years ago I visited an exhibition in the local museum of modern art. One of the art pieces was a solid white square on the floor, about one square meter in size. It didn't seem like art at all. It was just a white square; "I could make that too."

The museum guide then explained that the square was actually a plastic frame filled with milk. Every evening when the museum closed the milk was drained and in the morning someone filled the frame with fresh milk. The actual art piece was not the physical object itself but the ritual of replacing the milk every day.

This is what Everything We Do Is Games is. As a computer program and as a game it barely exists. Its only function is to do nothing, it has no visible content at all. For something that does nothing it's still carefully planned and executed. Its value is in the act of creating it, not in the resulting program.

Therefore Everything We Do Is Games is art -- or is it? Is it a game? Is a null program a program at all? These are some of the questions it raises but leaves the answers for the audience to ponder.

This piece is inspired by John Cage's famous 4'33 composition, which consisted of three movements, each telling the orchestra to remain silent ("Tacet").

Essentially, the entire game consists of the author's statement (and perhaps the walkthrough).

Play first, then read the author's statement.
Some might say that it is pointless, other that it is brilliant. To me, it was at least odd enough to be worth time.