The Interminable Card Game

Friday, 30th January 2009

I’ve been looking into the possibility of an artist residency at Cambridge University, which may or may not materialise, but as part of the proposal I started to unearth an old project. One of those that never got resolved and still excites me.

The basic idea is based around a card game I played a few years ago in which a stalemate occurred. Four players, each collecting a series of cards, take turns picking cards from a central pile and either includes them in their hand or passes them on. We were each waiting for a key card to complete our hand and win the game. The problem was that there was a missing card. The absence of this card meant that the game couldn’t be resolved and a few key cards were being passed between the four of us repeatedly, in a loop. This loop intrigues me - how this missing information handicaps the game and results in a locked situation.

I’m looking again at this scenario in conjunction with economic theories, game theory, post-structuralist philosophy and creativity. It strikes me that the game provides a case-study/analog/metaphor for the effects of ‘missing information’ on a dynamic system. It prompts associations with creativity and the idea of a chase, a lack or a surplus. It also hints at an investigation into equilibrium, markets and systems. I could go on forever explaining the ideas that I get from this locked card game, and I think that’s the point - chasing this missing card is like chasing my own tail. Fun but without resolve. Production without finality. That missing card is like my oracle, but she’s only whispering at the moment.