A Young Person’s Guide to Walking Outside the City (1983) is a computer animation by Swiss artist Alexander Hahn, part of the Digital Art Collection Basel and on permanent loan to HEK Basel. Created early in Hahn's career, the animation follows a small blue protagonist on a surreal walk through the countryside full of strange events.

After being shot at by flying fish fired from a cannon, the protagonist builds a bicycle from the cannon to escape, but the cannon transforms into a menacing, flashing monster. He is eventually rescued by a UFO, leaving the monster behind.

The animation was created using Texas Instruments Extended Basic on a TI99-4A home computer, with randomly generated elements such as the flying fish and cannon. The animation unfolds in real time, with an organist playing continuously, and progresses only when the viewer presses the enter key, adding an interactive element.

Hahn deliberately exploits the limited visual possibilities of early computer graphics to create a surreal, undefined space. The protagonist repeatedly reappears from the left side of the screen, creating a looping motion, while the fish swirl around the screen in an endless cycle. This repetitive imagery serves to develop a humorously absurd narrative, subverting the limitations of early computer graphics to tell a story of escape and transformation.

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The following paragraphs are based on an interview with Alexander Hahn by René Bauer, conducted on April 7, 2025, in Rapperswil. The interview is part of CH-Ludens and has not been published.

Alexander Hahn grew up in Rapperswil and showed an early talent for game design; in 1972, while still a student at the cantonal high school (gymnasium), he used APL on Teletypes (typewriter terminals) to remotely develop a snakes and ladders game (Leiterlispiel) on an ETH mainframe in Zurich. After deciding to roll the dice, you receive a printout of what happened and then decide whether to continue or not. Hahn studied, then worked as a painter and created video and performance art. His work often revolved around science fiction. At that time, he was living in New York. But this was obviously not enough for him, and so he soon began creating interactive artworks. He developed installations featuring SciBorgs made from electronic waste, as well as the ability to interact with a keyboard. In the very futuristic-looking installation “It that once beat the masters,” visitors can also play chess. However, any input will be futile, since no further moves are possible. The technology behind this AI-generated work of art is the Texas Instruments 99 home computer, which controls the visuals and interaction using BASIC.

This, in turn, leads to “A Young Person’s Guide to Walking Outside the City.” In it, someone is walking. A rising sun (later Pac-Man) encounters a cloud and transforms into an organ that generates random fishes. They are flying through the air. Then the avatar sits down at the organ and plays endless variations of Bach (Canon). The whole thing is randomly generated. The player* can now interrupt this. The avatar then flees on a bike and is chased by Pac-Man/AnotherBike, eventually escaping into a door/field where it turns back into a cloud. The whole thing is also reminiscent of Fassbinder’s *Welt am Draht* (1973), only with interaction and more game-cyberspace. Hahn says that it was a new kind of project: he drew the visuals by hand and then translated them by hand into code—aka sprites—using “Hüsli paper.” In terms of sound design as well, the sound generator opened up a wide range of possibilities. It was also a kind of continuation of the “found footage” film technique—now using code, such as excerpts from computer magazines.

This work is a very early example of the intersection of art and games (aesthetics, functionality, interaction) following the 1960s and 1970s, with their algorithmically generated digital artworks in both image and text.

A. Hahn’s artworks can be found at https://www.alexanderhahn.com

The following screenshots are from the video: https://www.alexanderhahn.com/a-young-person-s-guide-to-walking-outside-the-city.html