wildred

(adj.) feeling the haunting solitude of extremely remote places—a clearing in the forest, a windswept field of snow, a rest area in the middle of nowhere—which makes you feel like you’ve just intruded on a conversation that had nothing to do with you, where even the gravel beneath your feet and the trees overhead are holding themselves back to a pointed, inhospitable silence.

PROTOTYPE

wildred is a game about wandering through a place that does not belong to you. it can be a forest or a desert or a mountain or a colossal brutalist megastructure or something else. to play you need a deck of cards and yourself. you should be alone and somewhere quiet.

to begin the game, shuffle your deck of cards and lay it facedown. close your eyes. envision the image of the wilderness you are moving through. where is it? what does it look like? what flora and fauna exist here? once you have a good image, keep your eyes closed for enough time for it to become uncomfortable. then open them. play can begin immediately.

play consists of drawing cards from your deck one at a time and answering prompts. when you draw a card, consult the tables below for its suit prompt and rank prompt. choose one to answer. then draw another card. the game is over whenever you decide your journey is.

SUIT PROMPTS

HEARTS - CLEARINGS

you stop here for a moment. how long is your break?

DIAMONDS - PATHS

you continue down the path. what pace do you walk at?

CLUBS - CROSSROADS

the path diverges here. how do you decide where to go next?

SPADES - OBSTACLES

something blocks your way. what do you lose in surmounting it?

RANK PROMPTS

ACE

you have walked in on two nonhuman entities conversing. now that you have seen them, they will never speak again. what are they, and what was the last sentence you heard?

2

you hear the movements of an animal in the distance. for some reason, you are compelled to imagine its inner world. what is it doing?

3

you feel like something is watching you. what do you do when you are being watched?

4

you feel the urge to open your mouth. what sound comes out?

5

you find something cool, and pick it up. how does the world around you react to your act of petty thievery?

6

you come across something almost incomprehensibly large. what is its attitude towards the miniscule creature that is examining it now?

7

a group of somethings converse nearby. how does it feel to be excluded?

8

there is a fellow solitary creature here. what emotions do you share?

9

something small lands on you. what is your immediate, primal reaction?

10

if your surroundings could speak, would they?

J

someone has been here before you. how can you tell? what have they left behind? how does this make you feel?

Q

there is a small, ineffable beauty hidden here. how do you ineffectually try to capture its beauty? how do you fail?

K

there’s just quiet. how do you deal with it?

ARTISTS STATEMENT

making this game, i wanted to capture a certain feeling that i get on campus - wandering through the woods, half-lost, headphones dead or powered off, simply exploring - feeling like you are in a place that is a wholly separate world, the troubles of society and daily life fading away. i also wanted to make the game feel like the world is not yours - the world should feel like something that is uncomfortable to exist alongside, and yet exist we do.

DOCUMENTATION

The closest things to process images I have are these pictures of me in the wilderness.