Helix
Frank Lantz (American, born 1963),
Kevin Slavin (American, born 1969),
Kevin Cancienne (American, born 1975),
Kati London (American, born 1976),
Mark Heggen (American, born 1982),
Demetri Detsaridis (American, 1975),
Jesen A. Fagerness (American, 1973), Mike Essl (American, born 1974) and Christian Svanes Kolding (Danish, born 1969)
2011
Helix is a two-player trading-card game
currently under development. Players
send in swabs of saliva; the designers
send it out to be analyzed and then
generate a customized 50-card deck
from each player’s specific DNA. With
these cards, two players can engage
in tabletop warfare, pitting their personal
resources against each other in duels
that reward strategy and decision making
but are limited by genetic reality. Customized
down to the most detailed level, the
deck becomes a literal, pocket-sized copy
of genetic code. But only part of the story
is told with cards—a genetic tendency
(obesity, alcoholism, longevity) may be
present in a player’s deck, but having the
trait doesn’t necessarily mean that it is
expressed. The deck allows players to
become shadow versions of themselves,
with all their genetic cards on the table,
and in the game, as in reality, life depends
on how the cards are played, not on
which cards are dealt. The effects of
any trait depend on the player; the
challenge of the game is how to contend
with or take advantage of it. A player
with a great deck can still lose if the
game is played without strategy, and
a skilled player with a weaker deck
can win.
Category: Life
Tags: Critical Design / Mutants and Fairy Tales / Networks / Visualizations
