About

Interactive Art

     I needed a platform that spoke not only to a person’s eyes and heart, but also engaged their mind and inspired/refreshed their soul. Furthermore, I was looking for a medium already an accepted part of life for most people and unlike traditional art was easily affordable for them. My dream was to upgrade such products to platforms for Art. My path led me first to Playing Cards.

The Admcadiam Minor Arcanum

My first medium - Playing Cards recognized  as Art

     I studied all the different suit systems of the world and combined their influences into an unfolding series of designs that metaphorically explored the development of our awareness here on earth. I called my deck “the Admcadiam Minor Arcanum” *, and it turned out to be the world’s first international deck of Playing Cards. AG Muller of Switzerland  bid to produce them for me because they said they wanted to be part of Playing Cards as Art. So, I was on the right track. The remainder of the original limited edition available here

     The cards were received well and exhibited in galleries from Tokyo to Stockholm. When the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art discovered my intent behind the card, they set me up with a lecture tour across the US called “Interactive Art for the Twenty First Century”. The Video Game industry was just beginning at that time and after my presentation at Stanford I was invited to join it. I already recognized the potential in game to take people on journeys of perception within the safety of play so I moved from England to Silicon Valley.

Lifespan

My second medium - the First Video Game recognized as Art

     I became the first professional artist working in the industry and formed a small company called Flyghts of Fancie with Stuart Rosen, a major producer from Atari. Our first offering in that genre was called “Lifespan” and was introduced by Rocklan the publisher as the “First Video Game as a work of Art” It won most Creative Game of the year and earned me the title “Salvador Dali of Video Games”.  Our second game won most Educational Game of the Year, and earned me the title “Pied Piper of Computer Gaming”. Again, I was on the right track. However, when the industry chose adrenalin entertainment near exclusively as its focus, I quit.

Paradice

My third medium - Board games as Art

     As a result, I ported my undeveloped concepts from the electronic world to the board and card game platforms. Two games, Gaia and Endangered Species left stranded in my former life became the foundation of “Paradice” * my entry into the board Game world. I developed it with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as a translucent sculptural art work and it sold in all the major Art Galleries and Museums across America. I call these games “Interactive Portraits of Life” because I create them in the same way I do a portrait or study on a canvas, the only difference being that in the latter I am observing a person place or thing, and in the former I am observing and analyzing a situation. Paradice has led to a series of nine original titles in which offer you the chance to explore your relationship with love, humanity, society, the environment (3 games) conflict resolution, fear, and fulfillment.  The remainder of the third limited edition available here

The Humanity Spectrum

My fourth medium - Card games as Art and Contemplation tool

     These nine games are designed to offer you opportunities to make choices and experience feelings that result from them, normally out of reach in the real situations in your life of which each game is a metaphor. In support of this, I have observed through play-testing at workshops and events, that the freedom to act in ways a player may deep down prefer, rather than the way he/she may feel they have to be in real life, has often released powerful emotions.  Players expressed feelings of refreshment and gratitude for the glimpses of how much richer their relationships felt with their play partners during play, and how rewarding it would be to apply it to their real lives. I would like to think, that if you similarly enjoy what you feel while playing, the games could illuminate how to “play your hand” in your interactions with life and get more emotional fulfillment out of it. These game do not offer advice in the way Tarot and Oracle cards do. Rather they are designed to put their players in touch with their own Inner Wisdom, where al their answers lie.

     All the games have won awards in the game, environmental or educational arenas, including the Green Apple Award presented at the House of Commons, London, November 2011, and have entered the lives of people all over the world, including Emmylou Harris, Robin Williams, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bono and the Edge of U2.

I Live in the mountains of northern New Mexico with my wife Lisa., and our two cats Charlotte and Romeo.