From the Island of RIISMA, Emeralda Region

Another Day

2010-02-28T07:40:00.000-08:00

Another play - Handwritten notes from the would-be hero/professor of Printmaking Camp he made while trying to morph a rock group computer game into a learning experience for printmaking students. He’s on Chapter 2, level 14, and he thinks he found a surprising story link. 503 Words. ri100110. ©2010 Bill Ritchie.

Carrying Carrion

2010-02-19T07:30:00.000-08:00

The next level of a project - Over twenty years ago this former art professor began a project he called “Carry On Carrion: Full Circle.” He never finished. Now a new experience is opening up, thanks to a chance encounter with another professor. Writing now he envisions on a new level. 1529 Words. ri100219. ©2010 Bill Ritchie

El Regalo de Ulises Carrion

2010-02-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

The Gift of Ulises Carrion - Do we have bigger ambitions when we are young compared to when we are older? When he was forty years old, this art professor (now retired) wanted to start an international institute for study of multimedia arts. One who inspired him was Ulises Carrion, a Mexican artist/archivist who showed the kind of thinking needed for vast ideas in media. In a video the professor sent his archive to a Mexican colleague who might have been part of his ambitious dream. As this blog session failed to upload the video, he sends it to his YouTube site instead: omemeralda.

Where 2 Now?

2010-02-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

You’ve won the game – Now what? - After ten weeks playing a casual game by a classical rock group, the author wonders what he’s supposed to do with what he learned in the process. He played the game like an outsider, trying to learn from musicians what an artist can get from video gaming. 751 Words. ri100209. ©2010 Bill Ritchie.

Meaning and Meaningless

2010-01-30T07:10:00.000-08:00

Organizing snapshots in a casual game - In the game by REO Speedwagon called “Find your own way home” the player finds several instances of arranging snapshots in some order. Often there is no meaning to the order. It’s arbitrary. In order to make a serious game, some meaningful order is needed. 631 Words. ri100130. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. For full text email: ritchie@emeralda.com

Your Passport

2010-01-20T07:28:00.000-08:00

Your passport is your portfolio - For his idea for a user interface to go with an online fine art printmaking class for the 21st Century printmaker, the author has used the passport as a metaphor for building a portfolio. He uses a game made by a rock band, which has a book, to get ideas. 330 Words. ri100120. ©2010 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emerald.com

Crazy Muse

2009-12-31T07:33:00.000-08:00

Playing the game - After a ninety-minute session playing a game that has not yet been invented, the author wonders if his muse is crazy. Can a man who doesn’t like card games, board games, party games, computer games, etc. actually invent a game? She says, Yes! She’s crazy! 233 Words. ri091231. ©2009 Bill Ritchie

About RIISMA

2009-12-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

A brief history of Ritchie’s International Institute for Study of Multimedia Arts - He is not sure how it all began, but several possibilities come to mind. One was the Batelle Research Institute, and another was suggested by an artist who studied ephemeral events. He was working at a major university at the time with international ties. 1106 Words. ri091221. Copyright 2009 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Finding My Own Way to Printmaking World

2009-12-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

Another metaphor for learning printmaking online - This journey on a new pathway started when his wife mentioned a rock group started an online game to help boost sales of their music. You pay to play, she said, and in the course of playing you are getting their advertising. Great idea! So he started out. 2230 Words. ri091206. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

About RIISMA Zine Database

2009-11-26T07:50:00.000-08:00

By way of review - Nellie Sunderland has taken charge of organizing all my essays so they can be quickly and easily accessed using a computer. The objective when I began working with her on this was to set my writings up in such a way to link them with my art. 1005 Words. ri091126. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. Full text by e-mail request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Emeralda Stage

2009-10-27T06:56:00.000-07:00

Arriving in a new virtual world - The author has joined with a video game designer to develop a printmaking world inside an imaginary place in an imaginary world called SpotOn3D! He may never have another opportunity to know how the moment of arrival feels, so he writes down his feelings. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. 933 Words. ri091028. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Play Space

2009-10-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

Experimenting with learning printmaking online - The author works on ways to participate in teaching and learning, research, practice and community service online as well as in the real world. He has been inventing ways to do these things by using online 3D worlds—virtual worlds—for a printmaking world. 1601 Words. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. ri091017. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Bill’s Screenplays

2009-10-08T06:16:00.000-07:00

My ideas for five movies I’d like to see - In his day to day work the author is an artist, with a special interest in printmaking. Writing is also a big part of his day and lately he’s been learning the art and craft of screenplays. As things happen, these screenplays are connected to printmaking. 1019 Words. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. ri091007. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Real Bible

2009-08-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

How my bible works for me - Being a media artist of the 21st Century needs adapting to video games as this is the art of the century. As an industry grew out of video games, individual artists were left in the dust. However, as the dust settles, a 21st Century artist’s bible appears. ©2009 Bill Ritchie 1211 Words. ri090808. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Feeling Economics

2009-06-02T06:04:00.000-07:00

Heart and head in the arts of the digital age - Reviewing the editor’s rendition of one chapter in his novel, “Hunt for the Emeralda Treasure,” he is pleased with her work. His mind turns to co-ops, collaboration and cooperation among artists, and his discovery that shared worlds are a genre of sci-fi. 1486 Words. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. ri090602. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Shared Worlds

2009-05-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

Video games and printmaking - This printmaking professor sees joining of community with performance in the printmaking world; and the printmaking world, like that of the video game designer, is a shared world. As in the shared worlds in literature, co-operation is the key to survival. 1599 Words. ©2009 Bill Ritchie. ri090609. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Scrimshaw Story

2009-05-20T07:26:00.000-07:00

Vladimir Petroslovana Chichinoff’s narrative on the sides of the Plasteel Press
The Plasteel Press is patterned after theMini Halfwood, but, instead of wood cladding the steel parts, it is clad in plastic that looks like ivory. Scratched in the sides is a story by a Russian, Chichinoff, kidnapped and then cast away on Two Dog Island. 761 Words. Full text by email request.

Many Ways to Write A Premise for A Video Game

2009-01-20T08:20:00.000-08:00

As he is inventor of a blended learning product designed to teach college level printmaking, and variations intended for younger learners, the author must write the premise—the log line—for his concept. Here he writes several variations on the same theme. 512 Words
2 Pages. For the complete text email ritchie@emeralda.com

Press Factory

2008-04-19T11:57:00.000-07:00

A vision expression
In the style of the child’s story, “The House that Jack Built,” this artist (who is also entrepreneurial) describes a path leading from an imaginary press factory to the award of a college diploma. He is thinking how to present his idea to his Alma Mater. 1095 Words. Send email for full text.

Dreaming Games

2008-02-09T15:09:00.000-08:00

Focussing on Cell 4
The author recalls having a dream that he was playing Emeralda, his Card game, and focusing on Cell 4, one of the nine cells of the card. He thinks there was a teacher in his dream, too, explaining an idea that vaguely resembles the theory of recursivity. 379 Words. Copyright 2008 Bill H. Ritchie. Full text by email request.

New Frame

2008-01-31T07:54:00.001-08:00

Out with the old, in with the new - The act of clearing the content of a spreadsheet gives rise to the notion that the frames of cells in a spreadsheet are like the frames of works of art—one is digital and virtual, the other is real. There is a connection here this artist explores for fun. 1045 Words. Copyright 2008 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Game Yield

2008-01-20T10:58:00.000-08:00

Getting the best of both worlds - Today, game worlds appear in two forms—real and virtual. Board games exist in real form and also in digital online forms. Money gained from skills in playing games are one kind of yield. The age of digital production has another kind of yield for artists. 1233 Words. Copyright 2008 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com

Stephen Hazel

2008-01-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

Recollections by an admirer - Inspired by discovering of a Stephen Hazel print in the collection of a good friend, the author reflects on his meeting with Stephen in the 1960s, and how this artist’s arrival in Seattle put in motion a chain of events that changed many lives in Seattle. 889 Words. Copyright 2008 Bill Ritchie. Full text by email request: ritchie@emeralda.com.