Louisa-project proposal

1 What do you want to make?

How can I blur the boundaries of the “magic circle” by connecting a digital game to physical puzzles in the real city?

Ways of overlapping game maps with an actual map of the city, as in unlocking parts of a game by going to given coordinates in order to find something in the real world. As possible spaces of real life game play I am picturing are supermarkets, internet cafes, parks, metro stations. etc.. I would like to encourage players to look closely in order to find hints which would have otherwise blended into the environment smoothly.

2 How do you plan to make it?

the power of imagination

3 What is your timetable?

OCT I am planning to start connecting an Arduino with a web server in order to control physical output through interaction on a web game. I am following a workshop series atm to get a kickstart.

NOV I want to run small test games with this set up, starting to form a narrative around the puzzles and their chosen location in the city. 29th NOV making a city game for The Overkill Festival in Enschede

DEC Talk to experts, deepen the subject matter as much as possible. Maybe I can record it as a podcast style audio piece. Interface sketches, research.

JAN 2022 Development Week at TETEM to build locks/containers and play test with audience.

MARCH I want to build some mystery around the game and start creating untraceable manifestations around it (ARG style)

4 Why do you want to make it?

Personally I am interested in the ways in which virtual worlds pull us in and dissociate us from our physical environments. From a young age I was interested in the meaning of a common reality and now as a maker I am searching for the moments this common reality noticeably crumbles. I am noticing the process of extreme personalisation of content online which is one of the causes reality is crumbling, which I expect to extend further and further into the spaces outside of the screen. For that reason I am to explore the experience of mistaking games for reality and vice versa, along with the feelings and social implications which follow.

5 Who can help you and how?

Tomo Kihara Frederik de Bleser

6 Relation to previous practice

As a maker, my focus lies heavily on tools of interaction and gamification, interlinking digital and physical spaces. I am working with themes around gaming and the effect of new technologies on the player's perception of reality. By analysing gameplay methods and implementing them into RL settings, I am creating scenarios in which the viewer turns into the protagonist of an interactive fictional narrative. More specifically I am intrigued by the mental process of dissociation, methods of ludified surveillance capitalism and personalised virtual echo-chambers social media platforms construct based on user data.

7 Relation to a larger context

What subtle techniques are both video game makers and the (dutch) government using in public spaces in order to delegate human behavior and movement? What are positive and negative consequences of a ludified smart city and what is the current status? What effects does the gamification/tokenization of career rewards have on society? What effects does a constant recording and publishing of public spaces (not only through surveillance cameras but also through civilians documenting their day on online platforms) have on human behavior and privacy? What games create moments of confusing what is part of the game with the “outside world”? Moments when the “magic circle” has blurred boundaries.