Laser Equipped Annihilation Protocol

Description

The room is pitch black and filled with the hollow sound of a machine breathing. An intimidating series of red laser fences sizzle as they fire alternating patterns that slice through the fog-filled air. At the other end of the laser fences, an ominous red light illuminates a single keypad, your only hope against complete annihilation.

Laser Equipped Annihilation Protocol (The L.E.A.P. Engine) is a live-action gaming environment that explores the personality of a snarky and mysterious game sentience who has infected a room with technological systems that challenge players and collect data. With a limited amount of time, the player must pass through a complicated series of changing and alternating laser patterns without tripping any of the lasers in order to deactivate the system and win the game. If the player trips a laser or if the timer runs out, it's game over.

The L.E.A.P. Engine uses Max 6, Max For Live, an Arduino Mega 2560 R3 and custom electronic circuits. The project uses a special modification of Lasse Vestergaard's and Rasmus Lunding's ArduinoInOutForDummies designed to allow communication between Arduino 2560 and Max. This project also uses the University of Music Basel's note~ object as a laser pattern sequencer / level editor. Patterns can be written with a MIDI piano roll editor and saved as text files for recall.

More documentation and process images can be found at hopkinsduffield.com

Notes & Awards

Created in collaboration with Daniele Hopkins, this project was incubated in Site 3 CoLaboratory's Artist in Residency Program, which occurred from November 2013 to September, 2014. This project received Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance (recommender Interaccess Electronic Media Arts Centre).

This piece also received the Toronto Arts Council Emerging Media Arts Grant in 2015

Press

  • Make:
  • Relive Your Favorite Heist with this DIY Laser Dodging Game
  • Article

Exhibitions

Ubisoft Toronto Holiday Party (December 16, 2016) at Branksome Hall.

Taste of the Danforth (August 16 - 24, 2016) at Electric Perfume.

Hamilton Super Crawl at The Factory Media Centre from September 12 - September 14, 2014.

Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2014 (October 4 - 5, 2014) at Site 3 CoLaboratory.

Thank You

We would like to thank the following people for making this project possible: Site 3 CoLaboratory, Christopher Thomas (Technical Consultant), Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Interaccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, Dann Hines, Active Surplus, Creatron, Seth Hardy, Kate Murphy, Marc Reeve-Newson, Alex Leitch, Jason McDonald, Michael Awad, Terry Anastasiadis, John Duffield, Christine Duffield, Mike Duffield, Barbara Hopkins, John Scarpino.

Ontario Arts Council
Toronto Arts Council