Looking at London

- a Lab activity


Ages 8+
0 – 15 players


Object of the Game

To engage the Lab group in a series of practical activities that will alter perceptions of public space around London.


The Game in Brief

Combining the theme of spatial practice and our desire to perform collaborations, enabling activities and / or interventions with others, the game challenges us to question our relationships to the public buildings and spaces we occupy daily as part of our familiar physical networks. This would be achieved through a series of actions implemented around the city, to enable both ourselves and the wider public to look at such spaces in a new light, or even notice those that we had never really ‘seen’ before. The Monopoly board is used as a tool to guide the actions around London, and provide a non-hierarchical organisation to the game.




Playing the Game

• All tokens are placed at the GO position on the Monopoly board.


• The dice are thrown at weekly Lab meetings.


• A member of the Lab group rolls the dice and moves one token forward the appropriate number of spaces.


• The Site the token lands on is where the action is to take place (e.g. ‘Mayfair’).


• A public space and action are decided upon collectively. (e.g. ‘telephone box’ and ‘dummy signage’, or ‘green space’ and ‘sonic intervention’. These could be prompted by one of a series of ‘space’ or ‘action’ cards previously made by the Lab group, or suggestions made at the time of play that are pertinent to each Site.


• The chosen action is carried out in the space.

If a token lands on a space other than a Site or a Station (e.g. Chance), the dice must be rolled again.

Game play could involve group or solo performances, guerrilla action, street art, covert activities, adoption of perceived roles of authority, projections, fabrication of dummy signage, sonic interventions, demonstrations, interviews, surveillance, re-branding, lighting effects, disorientation / diversion tactics, general tomfoolery and foul play.




Rules

• The action must be carried out in a public space (indoor or outdoor) at the given location.


• Actions may be implemented by individuals, small groups or Lab Group B as a whole.


• Both the action and the reaction must be documented.

The game is non-competitive.