Project overview
This project addresses a major issue facing UK citizens: the deterioration of “public” infrastructures due to neoliberal and austerity-driven policy regimes. We propose to develop a pilot collaborative game to be played by members of the public focusing on the experience of fracturing and failing infrastructures, where routine frustrations (such as broken-down trains) can draw together temporary communities which cut across typical social groupings. We look to turn these frustrations and temporary communities into empowered and informed citizens, able to undertake self-advocacy.
The gameplay will be situated in the context of infrastructure collapse and will hinge on the major problems facing the railways— including the fragmentation of ticketing, the inflated prices, and lack of accessibility—while providing players with real-world information about the structural nature of these everyday frustrations and how they could be improved. We understand the game as a participatory artwork, and games as an inherently political tool for co-constructing meaning. The design will draw on the team’s diverse creative practices, and performative elements will be brought into the gameplay experience.
The gameplay will be situated in the context of infrastructure collapse and will hinge on the major problems facing the railways— including the fragmentation of ticketing, the inflated prices, and lack of accessibility—while providing players with real-world information about the structural nature of these everyday frustrations and how they could be improved. We understand the game as a participatory artwork, and games as an inherently political tool for co-constructing meaning. The design will draw on the team’s diverse creative practices, and performative elements will be brought into the gameplay experience.
