Khoj Studios’ new show blends gaming with contemporary art. Five artists explore myths, urban issues and sociology to come up with brilliant designs
It is no child’s play to create a game that is not only a tool of social engagement but delves deeper into myth and reality or is a sociological study. So when these five artists were given a chance to design a game that falls in the bracket of contemporary art, they explored different subjects and came up with brilliant ideas that make for some serious gaming. The participating artists of Khoj residency programme, Of Games II, are from different backgrounds. They are Mohini Dutta, Shradha Jain, Zuleikha Chaudhary, Krishnarjun Bhattacharya and Vinit Nikumbh. While Zuleikha has explored the theatrical and performative aspect within gaming, through a dramatic exploration of a basketball, Shraddha has worked on a public installation of traditional board game.
Krishnarjun is the author of Tantrics of Old and for his board game, he has picked up mythical characters. He explains, “I have worked on a psychological horror, first person exploratory game as I like working with stories, legends, and myths. I am putting the players in a space where they have to take control of a certain creature and engage in a race towards reality. This does give rise to the question of what is real in the first place, and that is something the players must work towards in a narrative driven board game with specific rules and immense opportunities for strategies. The game moves on to a second phase soon which is very experiential, where every player brings himself/herself into the game. One looks at myths becoming real through a more realist, contemporary lens. I find this happening through Shamanism and possession, and thus the game moves into a series of stories told, secrets and confessions, a shamanistic ritual simulated with wireless headsets, the whispers of a myth and a personal connection with each myth.”
Zuleikha, a well-known theatre person has chosen the Bhawal case as the base of her project. She says, “The Bhawal case was an extended Indian court case about a possible impostor who claimed to be the prince of Bhawal, who was presumed dead a decade earlier. My project layers this trial with an audition using the framework of a game to consider being yourself and being someone else and where telling the truth and faking dissolve into each other and become undistinguishable.”
Mohini, a game developer working out of New York, has worked on a game that bases itself within the issues of tribal displacement in the Mahan forests. Her influences are jungle sounds, tribal aesthetics and the current political situation in Mahan. Her work explores play through the lens of cultural immersion, education and disruptive spectacle. Says Mohini, “I am interested in the universality of play to access the troublesome hierarchy between urban and rural value systems. The project aims to critique the urban technocrat’s privilege as creator of public opinion that influences and impacts the existence of a group. Using under-represented narratives from the indigenous experience within a playful context, this project seeks to provide a narrative framework for the isolated urban individual to navigate the tribal experience.”
Vinit is an architect and is working on an app that “gamifies” urban planning. He also has a keen interest in cinema and urban development. When he was selected as a research fellow to work on issues of urbanism in Mumbai, he conducted a study on the issues of pedestrian access to important nodal transportation junctions in Mumbai. The study culminated in a public presentation and a draft of pedestrian accessibility guidelines that could be addressed in the new development plan for the city.
Vinit shares details about his game developed at the Khoj residency, “The contested nature of the Indian urban street creates the narrative of the plot for the proposed game. The realm of the street is in a constant state of flux orchestrated by different urban activities on the street, physical and social infrastructure. The solutions offered by designers tend to treat user participation only as a means to validate pre-conceived design intentions. This is evident in the manner of involving people during concept generation. After this stage the users are entirely ignored — so are all the complex dynamics and un-mappable factors like weddings, festivals, use of rickshaws. This confusion on the street demands for the deployment of complex framework like gaming through which social behaviour can be modelled. The player/actor would engage in the issues of the street and would have the immersive experience and the opportunity to map his way through the maze of the street experience through the act of walking. Collecting the responses of the participants to the procedure of the game and layering them can create insights about the complex urban issues.”