The crystal oscillator inside a quartz wristwatch vibrates at 32,768 times per second. This is too fast for a human to perceive, and it's even more difficult to imagine its interaction with the mechanical circulation of a clock. 32,768 Times Per Second is a diagrammatic, procedural, and fully functional sculpture of the electro-mechanical landscape inside a common wristwatch. Through a series of electronic transformations, the signal from a crystal is broken down over and over, and then built back up to the human sense of time.

A tabletop set of cellular automata ready to exhibit complex systems through simple behaviors, AutomaTiles explores emergent behavior through tangible objects. Individually they live as simple organisms, imbued with a simple personality; together they exhibit something "other" than the sum of their parts. Through communication with their neighbors, complex interactions arise. What will you discover with AutomaTiles?

Case and Molly is a prototype for a game inspired by (and in homage to) William Gibson's novel Neuromancer. It's about the coordination between virtual and physical, "cyberspace" and "meat." We navigate the tension between our physical surroundings and our digital networks in a state of continuous partial attention; Case and Molly uses the mechanics and aesthetics of Neuromancer to explore this quintessential contemporary dynamic. The game is played by two people mediated by smartphones and an Oculus Rift VR headset. Together, and under time pressure, they must navigate Molly through physical space using information that is only available to Case. In the game, Case sees Molly's point of view in immersive 3D, but he can only communicate a single bit of information to her. Meanwhile, Molly traverses physical obstacles hoping Case can solve abstract puzzles in order to gain access to the information she needs.

Named for, and inspired by, the medieval practice of erecting barriers to prevent the spread of disease, Cordon Sanitaire is a collaborative, location-based mobile game in which players seek to isolate an infectious "patient zero" from the larger population. Every day, the game starts abruptly–synchronizing all players at once–and lasts for two minutes. In 60 seconds, players must choose either to help form the front line of a quarantine, or remain passive. Under pressure, the "uninfected" attempt to collaborate without communication, seeking to find the best solution for the group. When those 60 seconds end, a certain number of players are trapped inside with patient zero, and the score reflects the group's ability to cooperate under duress.

Competitive chess is an exciting spectator sport. It is fast-paced, dynamic, and deeply psychological. Unfortunately, most of the game's drama is only visible to spectators who are themselves expert chess players. DeepView seeks to use computational tools to make the drama of high-level chess accessible to novice viewers. There is a long tradition of software trying to beat human players at chess; DeepView takes advantage of algorithmic tools created in the development of advanced chess engines such as Deep Blue, but instead uses them to understand and explain the styles of individual players and the dynamics of a given match. It puts into the hands of chess commentators powerful data science tools that can calculate player position preferences and likely game outcomes, helping commentators to better explain the exciting human story inside every match.

Today, algorithms drive our cars, our economy, what we read, and how we play. Modern-day computer games utilize weighted probabilities to make games more competitive, fun, and addicting. In casinos, slot machines--once a product of simple probability--employ similar algorithms to keep players playing. Dice++ takes the seemingly straight probability of rolling a die and determines an outcome with algorithms of its own.

Does how you play reflect who you really are? The Media Lab and Tilburg University are bringing science into the game to figure out the connections between our play style and our cognitive traits. To do that, we are gathering data from League of Legends, World of Warcraft, and Battlefield 4, and Battlefield: Hardline players to gain insights across all the major online game genres (MOBA, MMORPG, and FPS). In return, every participant will get an in-depth GAMR profile that shows their personality, brain type, and gamer type.

This project investigates urban metagenomics to reveal the invisible microbiological worlds within our cities. Using honeybees to gather samples[,] and hives modified to capture “bee debris," the project employs genetic sequencing to discern and visualize urban microbiological neighborhoods and render microbiological landscapes of the city. The Holobiont project was first displayed at the Palazzo Mora in the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, with an installation that includes a "metagenomic beehive." Creative, scientific, development and production collaboration with: Ben Berman, Dr. Elizabeth Henaff, Regina Flores Mir, Dr. Chris Mason, Devora Najjar, Tri-Lox, and Chris Woebken, with contributions from Timo Arnall and Jack Schulze and local beekeepers in Brooklyn, Sydney, and Venice.

The MicroPsi project explores broad models of cognition, built on a motivational system that gives rise to autonomous social and cognitive behaviors. MicroPsi agents are grounded AI agents, with neuro-symbolic representations, affect, top-down/bottom-up perception, and autonomous decision making. We are interested in finding out how motivation informs social interaction (cooperation and competition, communication and deception), learning, and playing; shapes personality; and influences perception and creative problem-solving.

Sneak is a hybrid digital tabletop game for two-to-four players about deception, stealth, and social intuition. Each player secretly controls one agent in a procedurally generated supervillain lair. Their mission is to find the secret plans and escape without getting discovered, shot, or poisoned by another player. To accomplish this, players must interact and blend in with a series of computer-controlled henchmen while keeping a close eye on their human opponents for any social cues that might reveal their identity. Sneak introduces a number of systems that are common in video games, but were impractical in tabletop games that did not deeply integrate a smartphone app. These include procedural map generation, NPC pathfinding, dynamic game balancing, and the use of sound.

Giving opaque technology a glass house, Storyboards present the tinkerers or owners of electronic devices with stories of how their devices work. Just as the circuit board is a story of star-crossed lovers--Anode and Cathode--with its cast of characters (resistor, capacitor, transistor), Storyboards have their own characters driving a parallel visual narrative.