Listening, archives, engagement |
| Designer: Áron Birtalan |
| Number of participants: 6–18 |
| Duration: 3 hours |
| The presenter feels that this larp IS suitable for young people aged 16+ |
About the larp
Katalin Juhász passed away on December the 26th 2015 at the age of seventy-two. A loner and old maid her entire life, she left behind 3 boxes containing a startling number of catalogued audio cassettes containing private conversations, field and ambience recordings and collages of stray sounds. Katalin is the first experiment to explore this remarkable, real-life archive. We will open the archive, and upon looking at it, we allow it to look back at us.
Katalin is a shared experience of deep listening and deep responding. We will be guided through different playful exercises in imagination and attention; exploring and engaging with the sounds past, in order to re-imagine and transform the present — and ultimately ourselves.
Content Warnings: Katalin mildly touches upon the subjects of:
- Death or dying
- Surveillance and exposure
Players should be comfortable with:
- Being in the dark
- Being in the proximity of other players
- Listening to loud sounds
The experience is not suitable for people suffering from claustrophobia nor nyctophobia.
Presented by
Áron Birtalan: Áron Birtalan is a Hungarian artist who makes games and rituals in everyday environments. Working together with players and their imagination as an artistic medium, he explores the nature of human interaction by creating collaborative experiences, called ‘Transformation Games’. Through his work, Áron encourages people to tap into a playful territory, where art, games and magic mingle. His work draws upon the history of transformation through rites, and as a whole, ritual’s role in society.
Parameters
| Physical contact | Entirely up for the players to calibrate! Usually it ranges from ‘Light contact’ to ‘Moving in contact’, but any player any time has the chance to have no contact without affecting the game. |
| Romance and intimacy | Not relevant for the larp |
| Conflict and violence | Not relevant for the larp |
| Communication style | Non-verbal sounds |
| Movement style | All kinds of movement are possible, but players calibrate their own personal intensity and challenges |
| Characters | There are no actual characters; players play abstract entities, or similar |
| Narrative control | The shape and direction of the story is entirely, or almost entirely, determined by player choice |
| Transparency | Fully transparent – players will, or at least can, know absolutely everything in advance |
| Representation level | The fictional space is so abstract that its physical representation isn’t important |
| Play culture | The whole concept of rivalry or cooperation between players doesn’t really apply |
| Tone | Dreamlike |
The Smoke 