An attraction created during Eniarof #19 Moscow.
Аэлитa (Aelita) is a double arcade machine that allows two players to play together. “Aelita” is the name of a heroine from Tolstoy, whose story was adapted into a silent film by Protazanov in 1924. In this new version, Aelita is the queen of Mars and wishes to join Russian engineer Loss, who is decoding messages from Mars. The player controlling Aelita pilots a spaceship heading towards Earth. On the other side, the player controlling Loss listens to Aelita’s voice. Whenever the spaceship deviates from its trajectory, the engineer loses Aelita’s voice, which gets lost amidst Soviet songs of the Red Army. Loss must find Aelita’s voice again in order for her to continue her journey.
Objective: To bring Aelita and Loss together.
Instructions: Two players play on opposite sides of the game console. It is a collaborative game.
Gameplay: Aelita pilots a spaceship to Earth to join Loss. She only has visual feedback on her direction. She moves straight ahead with the goal of reaching Earth. If her trajectory deviates to avoid asteroids, she loses sight of Earth and must survive a shower of asteroids until Earth reappears. Loss is Aelita’s guide, he hears her voice through a radio device. When Aelita deviates from her route, her communication is disrupted and he loses Aelita’s voice. He must turn his potentiometer to search for the lost voice to give Aelita the position of Earth again.
Project completed as part of the Retrocompatible Museum Moscow, May 2016 – 10-day intensive workshop (partners: Labex Arts-H2H, EnsAD, EnsADLab, Paris 8 University, ATI/INRéV, French Institute of Russia, Polytech Museum, HSE Lab).
