URBAN GAMES IN PANDEMIC TIMES
URBAN GAMES IN PANDEMIC TIMES

Summary/Abstract: The Covid 19 pandemic crisis has restarted the debate on how we can use the urban space as citizens in a safe and caring way. This research presents our explorations in human-scale board-games developed during the second part of 2020. Not only we had to rethink the rules of the games to cope with the current pandemic situation and create a safe environment for the players, but also the concepts played in the games started to have a deeper understanding of processes that create or are created by the urban environment. The two games are `Far to Close` developed within Life Long Burning 2020, at WASP Working Art Space and Production Bucharest, and `The System in the Room` created during Simultan Festival 15, Timișoara. The first game explores urban situations and how the players deal and react to some trivial city-happenings. To win the game, they have to use the physical distancing rules to `move` in the board-game city and tell the story of their trip. The second game centers more on dialogue than on winning. This time the players move in a board-game that represents the system behind housing developments. They have to explain the concepts presented in this system and create together a narrative on how housing developments should work. While, at first glance, the games can appear different in concept, the hypothesis behind them was the same: how can we use games as a tool of understanding the relationship between the citizens and the urban environment. This paper will present our observations derived from playing and observing the two games.

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