Pitywars

Pitywars was an installation of competitive crying-a darkly humorous yet profound exploration of vulnerability, competition, and emotional expression in the digital age. The project reimagined the classic game Battleship, but instead of missiles, players had to sink their opponent's ships with tears.

The Game

Two players faced each other across a modified Battleship board where each field was moisture sensitive. Instead of calling out coordinates, players had to produce tears that would drop onto the game field to register "hits." The installation created an extraordinary situation where the typically private act of crying became a shared, competitive experience.

But what made Pitywars truly fascinating wasn't the competition-it was the conversation that emerged. Participants began talking openly about emotions and what would make them cry, really cry with tears dropping. They shared movies, songs, memories. This vulnerable exchange transformed the game from a gimmick into something profound.

Conceptual Framework

Pitywars investigated the commodification of emotion in digital culture:

• Can genuine emotion exist within competitive frameworks?
• How does gamification change our relationship to vulnerability?
• What happens when tears become ammunition?
• Is there a difference between strategic and authentic emotion?

The Performance at Ada

During the live performance at Ada, the most fascinating moments emerged from the participants' conversations. People could talk very openly about what would bring them to tears-sharing intimate stories, discussing films, songs, and memories that moved them. This openness created an atmosphere that was simultaneously deeply emotional and strangely comfortable.

The paradox was beautiful: the blinking machine and the screen showing current hits created a technical framework that somehow made this over-emotional situation bearable. The game mechanics provided just enough distance to allow people to be genuinely vulnerable without feeling exposed.

The Moment of Truth

In the end, it was a scene from "Das fliegende Klassenzimmer" by Erich Kästner that started the crying-a little boy who wasn't allowed to go home for Christmas. And when the tears finally came, triggering hits on the moisture-sensitive game field, the song "Ghost" played, making the success clear. The combination of childhood memory, literature, and music created a perfect storm of genuine emotion.

Technical Implementation

The Battleship game field was modified with moisture sensors in each square, creating a grid that could detect where tears fell. This simple but effective system turned the abstract concept of emotional targeting into a physical reality. The blinking lights and hit counter provided real-time feedback, creating a strange gameshow atmosphere around an deeply personal act.

The Paradox of Pitywars

Pitywars revealed something unexpected: by gamifying crying, it actually created a safe space for genuine emotional exchange. The absurdity of competitive crying broke down barriers, allowing participants to discuss their emotional triggers openly. The technical framework-the sensors, the blinking lights, the score display-paradoxically made authentic vulnerability possible by providing structure to an unstructured experience.

This project emerged from Ada's experimental environment where the line between absurdity and profundity is deliberately blurred. What began as a playful subversion of gaming culture became a meditation on how we share emotions, how technology mediates vulnerability, and how games can create unexpected spaces for human connection.

Looking back, Pitywars taught me that the most powerful interactive experiences often work through contradiction. By asking people to cry competitively, we created a situation where they could cry collectively. By quantifying tears, we made space for qualitative emotional exchange. And by turning vulnerability into a game, we somehow made it safer to be genuinely vulnerable.

Documentation