Tedium/Incentive from Nipplecat
www.nipplecat.com

5 interactive toys that take their cue from videogames but remove the usual play/reward mechanic. In Boring Job Simulators the player must endlessly scan items at a checkout, grade potatoes or place cherries on cakes. Catfood or Dogfood asks the player to pit themselves against a drawing of a cardboard box as they play a 50/50 game of heads or tails. Box of Wolves takes a while to get started but it’s well worth the wait.

Ross Phillips is Head of Interactive at SHOWstudio. After completing a BA in Time-Based Media at UWE Bristol, he immediately went to work with designer Malcolm Garrett at AMX. Sponsored by AMX, Phillips completed an MA in Hypermedia at Westminster before moving to Treviso, Italy to work at Fabrica, Benetton’s Communication Research Center. Working with Andy Cameron, Phillips produced interactive installations for Benetton Megastores; this work can still be seen in locations including London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Lisbon and Milan. Notable projects include: ‘IN/OUT’, a CD-ROM of sound toys published by Benetton; ‘UNITED PEOPLE’, a kiosk that allows users from all over the world to send and receive video messages from a Benetton store, and a four month exhibition entitled ‘DARE’, at the Museum of the Moving Image, New York.

Since joining SHOWstudio in 2003, Phillips has been working on online and location based installations, including ‘Taking Liberty’s’, an installation in the window of Liberty, Regent St, and ‘Tokyo Style Clash’, based at the Beams Superstore in Tokyo. Recent work includes two projects in the 4th Seoul International Media Art Biennale, three interactives in the current Science Museum exhibition and an installation for Evian as part of London Design Week.