Staring Contest is a game created by Pippin Barr, an Associate Professor at Concordia University with a PhD in Computer Science and experimental game designer. This experiment has a very pure intention: what if we just looked at art?

In many settings with artworks, it's very easy to let your gaze brush past a wall or an entire gallery of works simply because the sheer quantity is overwhelming, and you've got a lunch appointment at 1pm. Unless you're a highly trained art-looker, it can be tough to really settle down and just look.

In thinking about settings where we do just look at something for an extended time, Pippin thought of the idea of a staring contest and hey presto this game was born. One of the surprises in making it is that, in selecting works that include faces (or at least eyes) and in zooming in on those faces during the contest, the game actually encourages reflection on the many different techniques and ideas and approaches artists use when representing faces.

Whether its just a couple of paint dots for eyes or the microscopic detail of a hyperrealist, looking just at the faces of artworks is a great way to zoom in and find something to focus on, whether you're in a staring contest or not.