An Intelligent Maze

North Pitney’s experimental maze piece (shown in the video above), utilizes Max/MSP/Jitter to render an ever-changing maze controlled by the computer in the real world. This is an interesting concept as it draws on ideas and that are being used in the game design field as well as problems that have plagued the game design field for years.

The ability to randomly generate a playing field in a game has been a hot issue for a long time. Once a player has finished a game, or a level, or a stage, or whatever, there is no reason why the player should want to go back and play it again (unless he/she just fell in love with the game). However, with a randomly generated level, the game is a little bit different each and every round. However, many game designers and companies have found it difficult to do so. In early games, there simply wasn’t the technology. Once there was, games with randomly generated dungeons (such as in the “Diablo” series) were put to use. However, soon after games moved to 3D, which posed a problem. It’s easy for a computer to lop a bunch of 2D elements together to make a level. It’s not quite as simple to do that with 3D, as there are so many more things to take into account. How can they create dynamic lighting if the level changes every time it loads? How do they make subtle transfers in texture? How can they place random junk/crates/whatever where they’ll look natural?

While game designers are just now figuring out how to do this (such as in “Hellgate: London” [which is being designed by the people who did “Diablo”]) , Pitney has already passed them in a way. His maze, which changes to reflect a user’s actions, acts much like these games and it is clearly three-dimensional. So, is Pitney’s work a form of entertainment? Is it a game? Or are games themselves pieces of art? Is Pitney’s “game,” also art?

I believe the answer lies not in whether or not the maze or the game itself is art, but, as Pitney touches on, somewhere in between. The unification of the virtual world and the real world, which one rarely sees in this form, is what is artistic about this piece. Games now a days boast extremely intelligent AI that can watch what you’re doing, predict where you’ll move, and take action against you (especially in first person shooter games). Pitney’s piece brings this sort of AI to the real world. The maze itself, which is controlled by a computer, is “thinking” in its own way, and working against you, much like an AI controlled character in a game might. But the difference is that it is acting against you in the real world.

In a game, I can simply pause or quit or walk away from the computer, which renders the AI helpless. With Pitney’s maze, however, this is impossible. You are confined in the maze and you can’t just walk away from it… you must literally out smart the computer to get out. This transfer of intelligence from the virtual world to the real world poses many interesting questions. Is the computer thinking? Is it possible for the computer to keep you in the maze if it chooses? Or is it Pitney who is keeping you in the maze? After all, he wrote the code that controls the maze.

Regardless, this piece provides an interesting insight into the realm that lies between the virtual world and the real world. One can only think that in the near future more complex virtual/real world environments such as this will be made, further blurring the line between that which is artificial and that which is real.