PLAYFUL FUTURES
Sci-fi online LARP ethnography for Mediterranean coastal communities
September 2022 - May 2023
In partnership with:
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Edgeryders OÜ
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Techno-Anthropology Lab (TANTLab) - University of AAlborg
LARPs (Live Action Role Play) are games where players physically portray their characters,
and interact with other characters as if they are inhabiting the world their characters do.
Online LARPs are LARPs played by means of computer networks, such as the Internet. They
involve all components of in-person LARPs except the physicality. They have grown in
popularity during the pandemic years.
Using online LARPs as a participatory research methodology together with digital
ethnography is innovative and can set a precedent for new application of interactive, playful
tools in citizen science.
Playful Futures encourages participants to question the economic foundations of society. The aim of the project is to test the potential of online LARPs to increase the ability of citizens to imagine their lives in economies and societies radically different from our own. This is useful in addressing problems such as climate change and sea level rising, which require substantial change to become tractable. This methodology applies most naturally to young adults, who often have limited access to formal decision making processes.
In this project, CHC is responsible for community engagement and communication.
A call for illustrators from Croatia on the topic of the future of the Mediterranean cities and communities was open until 17th of November 2022. The selected illustrations are:
Agata Lučić "Air rib rib"
Betty Stojnić "Dead Canal"
Katarina Matković "Water Clock"
This pilot project is funded under the COESO project supported by the European Commission (Horizon2020 programme).
Agata Lučić, "Air rib rib"
ABOUT THE GAME
"A Town by the Sea"
A life by the coast is one filled with memories and vivaciousness. We all have our favorite spots in town, or those that we avoid when wandering around. Our town is filled with landmarks that both newcomers and locals can pinpoint in no time, but everything is bound to change. The sea level will rise and will take away our town, zone by zone, landmark by landmark, memory by memory. What can we save? What do you want to preserve? Will you lose the place of your first kiss? Or the place where you grew up? Or will you accept the change and its consequences? How does the shape of our town change with climate change? In the end, is this town a place you will stay faithful to or give up and leave the sunken land behind you?
“A Town by the Sea” is an online map-building game with role-playing elements where 3 to 6 players create characters and collectively imagine the identity of their coastal home. By creating the landmarks of the town, players get involved in complex ways with the town itself. Later on, in the game, these relationships serve as background for community negotiations on what gets prioritized to be saved from the sea. Finally, the destiny of the landmarks is rolled and by the end of the game, the appearance, the soul of the town and you, the townspeople, are changed.
To play you will need access to internet, a six-sided rolling dice and…your imagination! “A Town by the Sea” is played using a group call app like Google Meet or Zoom, a topographic map of a coastal town and a virtual whiteboard like Miro.
Join the journey and transformation process and partake in a collaborative effort to prevent our past to be completely washed away by the unavoidable future. If you want to participate sign up for one of the introductory sessions where you will be introduced to the game and given further information. The introductory sessions are part of the game experience and it’s mandatory to attend one before the game.