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Today we're going a bit off the beaten path of houses and talking about rooms. Lots of rooms. 99 of them, in fact.
99Rooms is an internet art project involving haunting music, wall mural art, and abandoned places, wrapped up in the guise of a game. Navigate 99 rooms full of interesting wall art, find the "door" to the next, and start the process all over again, with little more than the eyes of spooky and eerie paintings as your guide, companion, and shadow. It was launched in 2004, and since then, more than 5 million visitors have wandered through the eponymous rooms.
I chose to exhibit 99Rooms for House of Leaves Week because of the lingering haunting and empty rooms (not unlike the ones inside the Navidson house), and because they offer a contrast to the aforementioned residence in that they actually HAVE something in them. Something weird, creepy, beautiful, crazy, or amazing, but its something. This game is best played in full screen view, both for the clarity of images, as well as avoiding the small advertisement for Rostlaub's new game (mentioned later).
When you first enter a room, your pointer will be a white arrow. When you find something to grab or click on, it will become a tiny pointing hand. When your pointer becomes an arrow with three small arrows pointing out to the right, you are able to leave the room. These are really the only rules to the game; in fact some rooms will already be "open" for you (your pointer has small arrows already), but clicking to the next room without fully exploring it would be a waste. Running your pointer over the room can also produce effects that don't really bear relation to leaving, but add to the depth. Turn on switches, lights, push panels and buttons, turn cranks, brush aside flecks of paint; these are all ways to unlock your room to move on. Sometimes, all you have to do is wait for something to happen. If you get stuck or want to see a particular room you have visited already, hit the spacebar to see all 99 rooms in a menu, and with a click, you can enter or reenter any of the 99.
The first thing you'll notice is the rooms themselves. Each "level" or room is a single still photograph that often has wall murals in them. According to the website: "99Rooms stemmed from the mystical, often apocalyptically charming pictures created by Berlin artist Kim Köster within the countless vacated premises of East Berlin‘s industrial sector." Köster's art is elegiac and haunting, and sometimes a bit frightening, but always thought-provoking and unique. One must not only appreciate the skill in his paintings, but also his choice in composition and location in any given wall and room. The murals do not simply remain on the walls, but are sometimes incorporated directly into fixtures and other abandoned objects in the industrial buildings. Sometimes they're a clue to completing the level. Other times they're decoration or silent guardians to their respective rooms. Occasionally, they provide amusement (Room 56's musical bird and ladder). Room 26 will be the only "scare" room, but it pays to be patient and not immediatelly click to the next room even when you're able to do so.
99Rooms has some excellent music. Composed by Johannes Bünemann, the music really sets the tone for the game. Sometimes, they're lonely, ambient style melodies that add to the atmosphere of the room, or quiet, meditative, and soothing. Other times the music is whimsical and amusing, if quiet and understated. And still other times, your room is silent, outside of sound effects (footsteps, rattling fixtures, running machines, dripping water, animal noises, etc). The sound, as much as the music, really establishes the mood, and at times are just as effective as music. Immersive, the sound and music for 99Rooms is joy to experience (even if it seems to scare you every now and again). Some of the most effective noises include shallow breathing, coughing, even the lonely, hopeful murmur of a painting locked away in a room. This room is almost heartbreaking in its construction and "puzzle"; a figure sits behind a locked grate door, and your only action you can perform is a slight jiggle of the latch. The figure makes a small hopeful noise, and after a pregnant pause where you realize you can't do much else, it sighs in acceptance of its eternal prison sentence. You yourself must decide what the story is behind this room, why the figure remains behind bars, and what the figure must feel when you finally leave the room, no wiser, unable to free it.
While some rooms seem frightening or simply uneasy, others are lighthearted and humor, and still others reveal places of loss, sadness, and even death. Each room has its own story, unconnected to the last. By the time you make it to room 99, you'll want to go back to the start and begin again, discovering new things you may have not noticed on your first trip through. The team that brought you the surreal maze of art and sound have also made a new game, named Ana Somina, that promises a dream-like adventure through childhood memory and images, all with the additional use of lights (by using your computer's video camera). With such technical skill and obvious love in the craft of the internet art installation, you can come to expect great things from Rostlaub. So take a trip through all 99 rooms. You won't be disappointed. HIGHLY recommended.
Update (2/22/12):
Its been brought to my browsing attention that 99 Rooms was "featured" in the SCP Foundation as SCP-700, though its explanation of its rooms is a might more adverse than a simple art installation. I heartily advise caution navigating the link; not so much as its creep factor, but that its completely possible you will be frequenting and reading the site linked. I will not be responsible for days and weeks on end spent on the site. 8D Have a nice day.
--Dio (10/14/10)
(screenshots and images from 99Rooms.com)
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