Bloc/Blog

Smithed Summit 2024 (by Quinn Saggio)

What is the Smithed Summit? Last week from November 2nd to November 9th, I attended the Smithed Summit with very little knowledge of what it was about, and I was blown away by what I saw. Imagine Comiccon, the gathering for all things superhero: comics, movies, books, art, games, cosplay, etc…but for Minecraft Datapacking and…
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What is SunBlock One?

Sunblock One is a prototype solar powered Minecraft server.  There is nothing exceptional about this technologically; we can manage this with inexpensive consumer grade DIY components. We have a 100watt solar panel, a MPPT solar controller, a 12V50ah Lithium battery connected to a miniPC with a 10th gen i7, integrated graphics and 32GB of RAM…
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“A/B Testing” – Allegories & Builds

One of our main goals was to get the Funsters engaged in the allegorical build of the Fun Palace. This meant that YouTube 60s movies and music sharing, or merely playing Minecraft beside the Fun Palace was no longer enough. After all, building Fun is different to building a Palace. And so, we resorted to…
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Building Fun is Different from Building a Palace

This was it. After half a year of creative sculpting, the scene of the urban sprawl was set, the hidden lore pinched away in surprising corners of the map, and the system was up and running – ready to open its gates to millions of incoming Funsters. Shaky Grounds Immediately, people died. That’s what happens…
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The FUN PALACE SMP Is Coming

Join our experimental SMP server and spend 60 days in java modded Minecraft exploring the world and completing the Fun Palace. You will play in survival, and will collect and make the materials to construct any number of activities originally envisioned in the 1960s by the design team.

Cementing Modernity

Skyfall. Mobs everywhere. Aaaaand it’s Tuesday Night. Prelude: 7 days ago in the Mill Meads Clock Mill. Dr. Bart Simon discovers the block of modernity. By carefully studying the Create Mod, and through insistent trial and error, we are introduced to Cement. It is grayish and runny, as if it was cupped from a Minecraft-version…
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Greatness from Tall Beginnings

This was it. After a whole semester of travelling to the Canadian Center for Architecture, of our Wednesday weekly meetings to radio over what was uncovered from our rabbit-holes discoveries and caves of content, we finally had enough – and enough materials – to ‘Minecraft’ the Fun Palace. Despite never being built, there exists a…
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Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Our Introduction to Minecraft Modding

Our journey into modding begins. Angelica and Andrew set out to make the dream come true, independently at first, before combining forces and strengths.

Fun Palace floor plan

On Minecraft, the Fun Palace and Scale

There is a large and growing body of interdisciplinary research pointing to the significance of radical theatre director Joan Littlewood and architect Cedric Price’s Fun Palace (1961-64) for contemporary cultures, even though the project never advanced beyond the planning stage. Most writers tie this significance to the scalar qualities of Price’s body of work in…
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