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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Poietic Generator is a Social network game designed by Olivier Auber in 1986, and developed from 1987 under the label free art thanks to many contributors[1]. The game takes place within a two-dimensional matrix in the tradition of board games and its principle looks like the game of life (Conway) and the exquisite corpses of surrealists.
However, it differs from these three models in several aspects. While the game of life is growing in a limited matrix, games of the generator Poietic are played over a space of variable size depending on the number of players (potentially unlimited), and this is not an algorithm (like Conway), but human players who control real-time graphic elements of the global matrix, on the basis of one unit per person. Unlike the exquisite corpse in which there are always hidden parts, here all the players' actions are visible at all times by each of them. Finally, unlike the board games, there is no concept of winning or losing, the goal of the game is simply to collectively draw recognizable forms and to observe how we create them together.
The name "Poietic Generator", which derives from the concept of autopoiesis in life sciences (Francisco Varela), and of poietic in philosophy of art (Paul Valéry, René Passeron (in French)), illustrates the process of self-organization at work in the continuous emergence of the global picture. Since its inception, the Generator Poietic designs as part of an action research wider to create an "Art of Speed"[2].