Alicia En Loterialand
Ghia Godfree
1st Prize
2009
Major: Cinematic Arts
PhD Student
Game. Art
Lotería is a game much like bingo where players must arrange cards horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Although the first Lotería game was published in 1539 in France with the game quickly becoming popular with children in Spain; in Los Angeles, the game is most associated with Mexico and Mexican culture. I first encountered the game walking through La Placita Olvera or Olvera Street, located in the oldest section of downtown Los Angeles. Since 1930, Olvera Street has been home to a Mexican marketplace. On many a warm summer evening I have strolled from the stunning Union Train Station building to La Placita Olvera to enjoy an early dinner.
The Hatter's Table
Sean Bouchard, Interactive Media, Graduate Student
J Logan Olson, Interactive Media, Graduate Student
Elizabeth Swensen, Interactive Media, Graduate Student
2010
Major: Interactive Media
Graduate Students
A game of logic for three players.
We created a board game about discovering the hidden and wonderfully strange rules that govern apparently irrational situations. Players must dash around the Wonderland tea party while trying to figure out what rules govern the other players' movement.
The tea party setting afforded us use of familiar characters and a self-reflexive scene. Just as Alice puzzles through the riddles and confusing mannerisms of the Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse, the players solve their own riddles seated at their own table. The characters of Carroll's novel change places to find clean settings without satisfying Alice's desire to understand their idiosyncrasies, while the players are compelled to rush around the game board without revealing their secret logic.
MisMasch: A Tangled Tale
Rachel Victor
2014
Boojum Prize
Major: Neuroscience, film
Freshman
Game and Installation
This submission explores the intersection of Carroll’s invention of nyctography and fondness for word puzzles.
Carroll-A-Game
Andrei Pavelescu
2nd Prize
2011
Major: Mathematics
Doctoral Student
In the summer of 1988, as in any other summer of my elementary and secondary school years, our parents abandoned my sister and me in the strict care of my paternal grandparents, who lived in a small village in the middle of nowhere. My grandfather was an Orthodox priest and, as such, he was held in high esteem by the villagers who saw religion as the remaining bastion of their fight against the absurdities of communism. This, however, severely restricted our list of potential playmates, since my grandmother strictly reinforced social distinctions. Thus, we were left with two options: we either helped out with the daily chores that living in rural Romania entails or pretended we were busy going through required reading for the following school year. As a general rule I avoided child exploitation, especially when I was young, so I spent most of my time in the surprisingly extensive library. It is there that I came across a “Humoristic Almanac” from the thirties and, subsequently, two polysyllogisms of Lewis Carroll. I tried on the spot and for my very own amusement to see what conclusions I could draw about teachable kittens and young pigs carrying umbrellas. Moreover, by When I received the e-mail announcing the Wonderland Award competition I was instantly intrigued and taken back to this happy place in my childhood.
Alice Chess
Lindsey Jones
2013
Dormouse Prize
Major: Liberal Studies
Masters Student
Game and Poetry
Upwards
Kevin Korb
2014
Major: Psychology
Freshman
Book Art; Game
I began with Carroll’s invention of the doublet—or as it is more commonly known today, a word ladder—and disguised a cipher within the one hundred and twenty six steps that take the reader through nineteen words from Carroll’s own works; from Alice to the Queen. Each word was followed by a passage of text from a piece of writing that featured the word. For the nineteen words stemming from Carroll’s works, a passage inclusive of the word from the Carrollian work that each individual word appeared in was used. The cipher should be used to decode the nonsense statement that spans the top of the piece.