FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT (read this first!):
Mr. Soren Spies, Projects Manager
Technology House
401-867-5471
soren at techhouse.brown.edu
http://bastilleweb.techhouse.org/

Technology House Creates Largest Art Installation in Rhode Island: Tetris

PROVIDENCE, RI - April 14, 2000 - At 8:00PM, the largest work of installation art ever to appear in Rhode Island was activated. Over five months of planning, construction, and installation paid off as the largest currently fully functional Tetris game in the world appeared on the Brown University Sciences Library. The game will be partially visible from Interstates 95 and 195 and from Narragansett Bay every evening for the next week.

Containing fourteen custom-built circuit boards, a twelve-story data network, a personal computer running the Linux operating system, a custom-built radio controller, and more than 10,000 lights, the artwork, code-named La Bastille, transforms Brown University's fourteen-story Sciences Library into a giant video display which allows people to play a game of Tetris that can be seen for miles.

The original idea to implement Tetris on the Sciences Library was proposed by a Technology House member several years ago. This year, two members presented the idea to the Brown University Visual Arts Department and received university approval to deploy the project as installation art. Technology House members designed the system, located and purchased materials, built hardware, wrote code, and debugged the system for over 3 months.

ABOUT TECHNOLOGY HOUSE:

Technology House was founded five years ago by two Brown undergraduates. It is a Program House at Brown University where undergraduates who are enthusiastic about science and technology cooperate to create projects such as La Bastille. Tech House has 30 members whose interests run the full range of academic and extracurricular spectra.

More information on Technology House may be obtained from http://www.techhouse.org/.

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