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ARTCADE Submission: We Are Fine, We'll Be Fine

Nicole Pacampara, Raoul Olou, Hope Erin Phillips

Design Team: Team Sagittarius

write@bendingboundaries.com

Abstract

We Are Fine, We'll Be Fine[1] is an auditory and tactile experience played on a wooden game board exploring people's stories about marginalization, oppression, and the navigating hope for the future. Participants unravel stories of struggle and hope by holding hands with each other while touching the board. As they progress towards the centre of the board, more stories emerge. One of the goals of our project was to provide an interactive experience amplifying the voices of "the unheard". We focus on the underrepresented members of society (touching upon stories of feeling like the "other" because of one's gender, sexuality or race among others). We wanted to create a space where players would actively listen by searching for and unlocking these stories (through the wooden board and using each other as "interfaces"). We not only wanted to emphasize these stories, but also to deliver them through meaningful interactions fitting the game's themes. Through countless iterations, we ended up with a wooden board and the act of holding hands - focusing on the senses (predominantly touch and hearing) to amplify the emotional response of the players. By rethinking how we tell these stories (i.e. by using games and alternative controllers like our bodies as "interfaces"), we believe that this can lead to unique player experiences offering an inward-looking moment of introspection and an intimate shared experience.

Author Keywords

Marginalization; oppression; social justice; art; activism; documentary; audio; stories; interaction; hand holding; alternative controller; games; play

We Are Fine, We'll Be Fine

We Are Fine, We'll Be Fine (Phillips, Olou, & Pacampara, 2015) is an auditory and tactile experience played on a wooden game board exploring people's stories about marginalization, oppression, and the navigating hope for the future. Participants unravel stories of struggle and hope by holding hands with each other while touching the board. As they progress towards the centre of the board, more stories emerge (as shown below).

Too often, games and art dealing with social justice and identity politics aim mainly to make others understand, but what about those of us who experience it every day? We wanted to create an experience that recognized these issues but did not belittle or trivialize them (as is always the danger when creating a game-based experience). We wanted to show these issues as they exist now - the real moments as told through the voices of those who experienced them.

The game attempts to create an artificial and temporary intimate space where people can share their experiences of marginalization and the trauma that comes along with it - letting players hear how these experiences have shaped the lives of those affected by it. We wanted to create a space where players would actively listen by searching for and unlocking these stories (though the wooden board and using each other as "interfaces"). We also wanted to decenter whiteness (or the status quo) as the principal gaze as is often seen in most educational games. Rather, we attempted to change the ownership of the gaze to the people experiencing these feelings. The game was never going to be "Oppression 101" but a means to heal, share and empower those affected without needing to explain why these feelings were valid.

To explore these feelings of oppression, we focused on delivering these stories through the senses - focusing predominantly on touch and hearing to amplify the emotional response of the players. We were interested by touch (Figure 2) because of the sensuality of it - being one of the first senses we acquire and touch automatically suggesting intimacy because of how touch in western society (specifically in North America) is reserved only to a close circle. Additionally, while no screen is present, we did create an aesthetically pleasing game board at the centre of the experience - designed to set the experience and to have a visual representation of the players' progress within the game.

Many of our design decisions were motivated by our desire to emulate feeling safe in sharing and confiding deeply personal stories between friends or a support group. As such, we felt the primary mechanic that symbolically fits with this was the act of holding hands while listening to the stories. This main interface emphasizes the need for shared intimacy, of being able to talk and listen but also having assurance that your story will be heard until the very end. We wanted to recreate this feeling of intimacy and support especially when sharing a traumatic story. Through the act of hand holding, the interaction signals a sense of trust and intimacy.

Ultimately, through all of these design decisions including the narrative structure (with a final story delivering a vision of hope in the end), we tried to reinforce who the gaze belongs to - in that, we share these feelings of exclusion in order to heal, to help ourselves and to help those who may be experiencing similar feelings. It is a mantra to say that we are fine and we'll be fine because we are more than our trauma. Despite everything the world wants us to believe, we are not alone.

References

Graham, M. (Photographer). (2015, August 20). We are fine, we'll be fine [digital images]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/taglab/albums/72157654658246445/

Phillips, H.E., Olou, R., & Pacampara, N. (2015). We are fine, we'll be fine [Board game]. Montreal, QC: Team Sagittarius.