The Game and the City: A Working Approach to Addressing Urban Experiences in Belarus?
In recent years, many people have experienced alienation and boredom inflicted upon them by towns and cities, both in Belarus and in countries they were forced to relocate to. This text suggests a game-based approach to urban space as a relatively safe and understudied way of rethinking and reclaiming it. It examines the urbanistic background of play, showcases an implemented project, and considers the prospects of game-based formats for the Belarusian audience.
ANTOS SIVYH is a visual artist and filmmaker who works with urban experiences and written language. In his works and projects traditional and modern techniques intertwine to shape a new outlook on the phenomena of movement in the city and writing. Through experimental games, free calligraphy and cinema, Antos invites viewers to find new connections with their cities and their language. Founder of Lodka Production and the Ruh urban project, author of 10+ documentaries and experimental films, as well as of the Versingforms art project. Learn more at: https://sivyh.com/by
All visual materials were created by the author.
A Playful Approach to Working with the Feeling of Alienation from the City
In recent years, feelings like boredom, alienation, and loss have become part of everyday life of Belarusians living both in Belarusian cities and abroad. I often hear from my connections in Belarus that they experience these feelings not only in the city. The events of the year 2020 robbed many people of the feeling of home, as well as of the feeling of its beauty and the joy of staying there.
Chances are that many of those reading this article have felt or still feel the same, having experienced the events of the early 2020, being in Belarus, or in forced emigration. Several studies on the current state of Belarusian society and its traumatization have already been conducted. A study by the Center for New Ideas demonstrates not only the statistics on how many people have actually seen or experienced violence, pressure and brutality from the state, but also showcases response strategies. In the current situation, a lot of people devote much more time to their children and family as a whole. Another major part of those surveyed go headlong into work, sports or creativity. 18 percent of them try to change the scenery and travel somewhere. Almost 8 percent take special medication, and approximately the same number try to calm themselves by resorting to other, non-medical means. Many attend the church, while others go for therapy. According to the study, nearly 100 percent of those who participated in or supported protests in Belarus have experienced trauma and are now finding ways to cope with it on a daily basis.
Rethinking the urban space and approaching it playfully isnot something most people do in their everyday life. My research also shows that Belarusian cities and towns are filled with memories, often traumatic, often exciting, sometimes nostalgic ones, that are in this or that way connected with alienation and suffering. Play is a new method of approaching traumatic experiences based on reclaiming the space of one's own city. The game-based practice that I will describe allows to populate cities with new meanings and view them differently. At the same time, they help to come to terms with the traumatic experience, and to discover something new to "overwrite" the latter.
In recent years, attempts have been made to apply game-based formats, as well as implement interactive media projects with an aim to work with complex urban experiences. Thus, the Neyasnoe game from the sad3d developer is an attempt to convey and rethink the largely traumatic experience of living in a post-Soviet city. Games like Nekko Yume and the older LSD Dream Emulator also feature similar fragments, or aspects of "overriding" the modern city. On the Internet, there is a genre called traumacore, which literally suggests rethinking traumatic experiences in a media format, althoughoften not in a playful way. I would like to note that the nature of this genre is quite controversial, and it is not completely clear to what extent it helps to cope with certain experiences. Several independent games were created that depicted the beginning of the war on February 24, 2022 were created, inviting the player to view the events through the eyes of a resident of Kiev suburbs. Most often, such projects offer brief interactive experiences that help to look at a certain topic and/or experience in the context of the city from a new angle, or to document it in art and media in a peculiar way.
Here I would like to stress that neither trauma itself, nor the presence thereof constituted the main categories of the game. The key aspect we addressed was alienation, and even that word per se did not run through the whole game. It was used only during the information campaign and while admitting participants. Trauma can be viewed as general context, and alienation as its more concrete manifestation in the citizens' experience. Both are negative, and the game was intended to populate the urban space with new meanings.
Below, I will provide more detail about my experience of working with negative feelings invoked by the city.
In the spring of 2022, I conducted an experimental urban game called "The Game of Ruh" in five cities simultaneously. This game was based on historical experience of urban space exploration and urban research, as well as on my personal research and artistic experience of the city. The game was relatively local in terms of scale, which means it was not demanding in terms of resources and was broadly accessible and available. For this trial run, I selected ten participants per game (more people were willing to join, but this number was feasible for me and allowed the games to stay compact). Technically, the games were implemented entirely with the help of a messenger and a chat. They contained tasks, media files, interactive elements, as well as streamlined communication between participants. However, tasks completed by participants and interaction with the city took place almost entirely in the space of the latter and its streets.
In this text, I use the experience from this game to reflect on how alienated cities can be reclaimed by individuals, on how Belarusian cities can be improved in a situation wheremany methods of urbanism used before 2020 are impossible, and on how Belarusians presently care for themselves in urban contexts.
I will often refer to appropriation (reclaiming, redeeming). This concept of mine includes populating urban spaces with something new and previously unknown, creating new contexts in one's urban life, increasing the diversity and variety of one's urban experience, better knowledge of one’s urban surroundings, and in general, creating new connections in the city in the broadest sense, as well as filling the city with one's own experiences, adventures, and situations from one's everyday life and imagination.
(Not) Urbanism
It seems that now the time is not right in the Belarusian context for what is traditionally called urbanism. Urban and district planning, street design, public spaces, pedestrian environment, and new urbanism ideas have become quixotic and irrelevant to our current reality in the context of a suppressed uprising and hybrid occupation. How can the space of cities be approached now?
One possible answer could be approaching it in a playful way. Namely, by playing a game that is neither public, nor explicitly politicized, but one that can transform the space around a specific person. Play can help rethink the space and populate it with new meanings. On a more general scale, it can reaffirm life, not death, and help invigorate the city where one lives, as well as ensure better contact with it.
I was interested in a game that would not cover one particular city or town, but take place in different localities. A game that could be half secret, not a mass or public event. A game that could foster communication between participants. A game that would allow to sync up the progress and, in general, the sensations participants would feel.
Systems of Tactics for Exploring Urban Spaces: How Can They Serve Belarusians?
Over the years, people have claimed and reclaimed their urban surroundings in different ways and did that in times of uncertainty and turbulence as well. Flannery, street photography, psychogeography and situationism, and parkour are just some of the systems of tactics that can be employed for that purpose. All of them appeared at different times in different places and were intended to cope with alienating aspects of urban life in various ways. Flannery in the 1850s achieved this through promenades without a specific purpose, gazing at shop windows, a certain way of life built around this, and a flannery vision of the city. Street photographers of the 1930s framed the city and captured specific moments (which flaneurs did 70 years earlier without any cameras). Psychogeographers of the 1960s began to look at the city in a playful way and play with the perception of the city, draw fancy maps, and set off for paradoxical drifts. In a postmodern city, parkour found the answer in subjecting absurd spaces to citizens through acrobatics, physics, and physical skill, along with a sense of urban space, its rhythm and pace.
Through studying people around me,engaging inconversations and interviews, I realized that now, for most Belarusians, the above-mentioned systems of tactics are irrelevant in their classical format. But some of their aspects might be attractive.
As a target audience, I singled out young people from Belarus that were receiving or had just received higher education, affected by the events of the early 2020s in Belarus, and who felt uncomfortable, alienated and empty in their cities.
These are people who are very close to me and with whom I often interact. They are many in number, and chances are that many of those reading this belong to my target audience.
The present demands different actions, tactics, and approaches. The approach must not only be of a more "sub rosa" nature and be at the grass root level. It should to a greater extent be directed inward, not just outward. The game featured in this article and the project I implement is rooted in its principles, allowing us to look at urban spaces and enrich them, however, in most cases, without changing the physical surroundings. This constitutes a major strength,but also a weakness, of this game-based approach. This is what makes it as safe as possible in today's context without reducing its significance and effective impact on the perception of the city. Later I will also analyze the overall impact of such tactics on society.
Radical Care
Being overwhelmed by emotions provoked by (horrible!) daily news, having friends behind bars and friends at the front line, one may ask: "What does it change anyway? How can games be helpful now?"
In my work, the point of departure is the idea that right now Belarusians need to take care of themselves more than ever before. Feeling oneself in one's place, feeling the ground under one's feet, feeling connected with people and the space around, taking care of oneself and one's nearest and dearest are the main mission of the people of Belarus for the near future, both in the country and abroad. Preserving health and freedom, finding one's own way, being in one's place and feeling it. These forms of care can and should be collective and grass root, as the authors of the radical care concept suggest. At the same time, they make it possible to keep a low profile if visibility implies risks.
The Research and Its Objectives
At the beginning, the objectives of the game were outlined as follows: reducing the participants' alienation from their cities, stimulating curiosity, and supporting rediscovery of the surrounding space. I have been doing film and video for 10 years, and at first I planned to create an interactive film about the city. Having analyzed conversations with people and earlier exploration tactics, I realized that I would be making an unusual messenger-based urban game that would be suitable for any city (and not only city, as experience showed). Later I started writing the scenario and rules of the game. However, in a game with no distinct winner, rules are rather principles and guidelines by which the game functions.
At the first stage, I researched earlier experience of working with urban spaces and development thereof, and systems of tactics for exploring urban spaces. I studied literature, including works by creators of such systems and academic papers, and analyzed the reactions of online audiences to my publications. From the very beginning, social networks played a big role in spreading the word about the project. By that time, I had been posting about moving in urban settings for more than a month.
The second stage was an autoethnographic study of my own behavior in the city, identifying my own tactics and how they impact the way I feel the city. Obviously, this way or another the game is largely based on my perception of the city. To me (although it was not always so), all cities are interesting, and all places are special.
The third stage included studyingthe target audience through conversations with residents of different cities, urban dwellers, most of whom fell into the target audience of "The Game of Ruh". With the help of Instagram, I managed to take seven interviews about various emotions and experiences in cities, which gave me a better understanding of the context and the feeling of the surroundings by my target audience.
Focus of the Game: Movement Principles
To conduct the game, I formulated several principles of movement. They were not explicitly stated anywhere to avoid restricting players' freedom, but the game methodology was based on these principles. Here they are:
There are no straight streets. People do not move along the streets strictly straight, even if it is a very straight and rather narrow street. They step aside, look at shop windows, cross roads, go deeper into yards, change sides of streets, sit on benches, enter and exit buildings. Thus, they move as they like, but not strictly in a straight line.
Shortcuts, whenthey involve passing through a courtyard,a shopping mall, vacant lots, or other places outside the person's intendedroute, not only shorten, but also enrich the experience. I called such shortcuts portals.
Movement differ from teleportation. Here, teleportation is not literally instantaneous movement in space, but such a movement in which space is of secondary importance. In the course of teleportation, one does not pay attention to the surroundings, is deeply engrossed in their own thoughts, and relies on a navigator, without looking back or gazing. Movement is quite the reverse. It implies appropriation of the space, establishing connection with it, reclamation and exploration thereof at a micro level on a daily basis. It involves gazing into space, observing it, active interaction and movement, in which the person is both an actor and a part of certain places, while the latter impact the person directly.
Direction, as a flexible path, overrides the route as something firm and uncompromising. People move along well-trodden routes simply and with little spatial interference. They go from point A to point B, and point B is more important here than the space between A and B. Direction is a variable path filled with physical content of a structural and urban nature.
Connection is the opposite of dependence.
Each of these principles emerged as a result of research. Many people draw inspiration from earlier urban space exploration tactics, from literary sources or research. However, in this case principles rely on creative rather than scientific grounds, thus, they should not be treated dogmatically. These are the points that can be used as a foundation to construct a game or a different project that works with perception of the city. Thus, you can also rely on them to create something on your own.
Movement as a System of Tactics: Creating the Structure of the Game
Movement itself is a sort of an engine that keeps the game running, a system of tactics for today's Belarusians, which helps reclaim the surroundings. It is like parkour, but with no jumping. It is like psychogeography, but without intellectual context that is difficult to study. It is like street photography, but without the need to hold a camera. It is like flannery with more confidence and clarity.
To outline the movement and game structure, I used a small board and began adding elements to it.
The very first thing I did was to divide the board space into seven days. I took the paper on which I had earlier described various exercises, practices, movements, and aspects of the game. I built a logical sequence out of them. Then, I cut the paper into pieces, allowing for the placement of elements on different days of the board. It was remotely inspired by a psychogeographic festival in Exeter, England: there, every day marked a certain aspect of urban life and urban details, from shoes to animals.
When the seven-day structure was ready, it turned out that its logic matched well with the way the narrative was constructed in the promotional TikToks that I had made for "The Game of Ruh". The week began with something static and developed into literally breaking through the space and entering the realm of pure movement. This space, as its name has it, expands the next day and creates a node the day after. Then transport is incorporated into the game, and aspects of moving around the city's premises, as well as their connection to the city, are explored. The game ends with a symbolic fight with the dragon, the final boss. This structure also reflects the metaphysical perspective on moving through space in Belarusian culture. At the same time, it is in a sense inspired by the structure of board and computer games, and even more so by Jacques Rivette's film titled "Le Pont du Nord". It features two female protagonists walking around the city for an hour and a half, playing the ancient "Game of the Goose '' together.Their quest ends the way this game is supposed to end: they arrive at a "cage" with a dragon. It is in this cage that one of the heroines fights with a dragon, which is simultaneously imaginary and real, and literally takes the shape of a playground. The last task of the game and its description are very much inspired by this particular scene from the movie, as well as my experience of long walks around various cities. But what are these practices that are so strangely named? How do they work?
Tasks, Moves, and Examples
To make the game more entertaining, I highlighted several concepts and added gameplay features to them. For example, sources is an abbreviated name for "sources of interaction with the city", which implies any objects and places in the streets one can interact with. Often the number of sources is directly related to the potential for interaction with the surroundings. The source of [interaction] with the city (tactile, sensual, even visual, e.g., if it is a big mural on the wall, ) can be anything. Some interaction options include the following actions: touch, flip, pass between, examine in detail, notice, type, smell, photograph (if possible), sketch, buy, notice, open, climb on, descend from, jump from, move, kick, lift, get, spin, join and so on.
The concept of the boss, as I mentioned above, comes from video games, but is originally rooted in folklore images of dragons, giants, large metaphysical barriers, etc. The boss as such, the final boss and the mini bosses represent sort of boundaries between the days, as well as boundaries that help separate the game's space from everything else.
Another important concept for the game are historical layers. Historical layers are a collection of various visible and invisible phenomena that belong to different epochs and temporal layers in the space of the city. From a specific place in the city, one can see buildings that belong to the current, previous and even earlier centuries, while the landscape around probably remained similar for a thousand years. And even earlier, for example, an ancient trade route could have passed here. From this point of view, a particular place in the city may contain multiple visible and invisible stories from those different epochs. Furthermore, they can influence the perception of space, as well as everyday life in it a certain way. Personal and shared stories that take place in the city are also important (participants shared many stories which largely reflected life in Belarus in their respective tasks).
Also, the multi-media format was vital for the game per se. Each task was accompanied by a seamlessly integrated short video illustration, usually stop-motion animation, and corresponding shots. This way it was easier to convey the feeling of movement and set the mood, inspire the participants to complete the task and attempt something exciting. Some participants noted that materials turned out to be really helpful during the game.
Also, sometimes I recorded audios with comments concerning tasks or certain game concepts. Such "podcast briefings" made the process clearer.
It is important that the game was conducted both in the messenger and through chat: the participants were constantly in touch, got acquainted with one another, exchanged comments, and found familiar contexts in the different cities they were located in.
Media and videos were also important to promote "The Game of Ruh", to find the target audience and attract it, to stimulate interest and intrigue the participants prior to and in the course of the game. I will talk about this, as well as the process itself and the conclusions in the next part.
How Did People Join the Game?
To attract people from my target audience, I used social networks, mainly Instagram, in which I already had a certain number of active subscribers. They were people I didn't know personally. However, they were united by a rather similar context. By the time I launched the promotion campaign, they had already been following me for several months or even years. So, I had to get these people interested. Besides, I also wanted to attract completely new people, so I developed a certain marketing plan for each step.
For the promotion campaign of "The Game of Ruh", I decided to shoot several videos that would help set the theme and mood of the game, and allow to take sneak peeks at its design. The first video was intended as a teaser, rather remote from the game itself, and the second one was supposed to demonstrate the project's mood and provoke more questions about the game itself. The third video was a trailer of the process, which was supposed to answer some questions the audience might have had. In the end, those three videos about the city and movement turned out to be quite different in pace and format. However, they are united by their clip-like nature, speed and intensity, the use of multiple visual and cinematic techniques, and dense editing. This brought them closer in format to Tiktok videos and Instagram reels.
On social networks, I also conducted surveys, asked questions to the audience, published videos and short posts about the process of developing the game with intriguing details.
Later, I launched a special Telegram channel, where I shared short text notes devoted to movement, the city and perception thereof, as well as announcements about the game. I also actively corresponded with people who sent me questions or requests. Later, some of them joined the game.
More than 14 people applied to join, but due to the game's compact and experimental nature, the first "Game of Ruh" only allowed for 10 participants. To join the game, participants were required to purchase a 'ticket to ride', which served as an integral element of the game. To do so, participants had to use a specialized ticket machine. The tickets did cost as much as a single-ride ticket in the city where the participants were based. This symbolic contribution was intended to become a small quest that would show the person's interest in participating and their willingness not just to join the chat, but also to take active part in the game.
It was important to establish communication with each of the 10 participants: the small size of the group was just right for that. Already at the beginning of the game, everyone told something special about themselves. Participants also began to communicate. It was then that introductory notes about the game and the first task were published in the channel. Every day of the game had a certain structure and offered something new. Participants were most active at the beginning and at the end of the week: I saw that at this very time they completed tasks, described their experiences and enjoyed themselves.
During the game itself, I did not actively showcase the process on my social networks. I was busy generating portions of ad-hoc content, editing video materials and adjusting texts to match the context of the game that had shaped up by that time. One of my mistakes was to publish tasks without giving enough time to complete them, for example, at 7 pm. It was inconvenient for the participants, therefore, the game was a little off pace, and the baggage of incomplete tasks traveled from one day to another.
In general, the participants quickly began to use the terminology of the game themselves and adapt it to their realia. They also began to test Ruh in settings not envisaged by the game concept, for example, in the countryside or forest. On top of that, they sometimes took the initiative and talked about things that were only indirectly related to game tasks. After the second day, many began to actively document the process and share photos, although it was neither a condition, nor a rule of the game.
After the game, I asked the participants to write reviews according to certain criteria and answer questions in a special form. Half of the participants provided detailed answers. Moreover, everyone reached the last task, which is a very good indicator, taking into account the absence of a material prize or a certain winner. The sense of belonging to one's city and revived interest in it became sort of a prize as well.
Conclusions: the Urban Discourse as a Playing Field
Let me move on to some conclusions resulting from the game and the participants' feedback.
Urban space can and should be viewed as a playing field, and through this attitude, one can appropriate and reclaim it in contexts where it seems impossible at the beginning. The process of playing and completing tasks is usually invisible to the people around. Offline communication and meetings are optional for such a game; this time there were no offline materials, although they might come in handy in future games. One can create a compact collection of materials for such a game includinga workbook with maps tailored for each participant, interactive additional tasks, bullet-point notes, as well as graphic materials that can simply be nice to hold in one's hands. However, this is not compulsory, as such a game can be conducted relying solely on a messenger. If necessary, one can even simplify it and put aside the cross-media approach, making the game solely textual, thereby shortening and simplifying it.
The game may have fewer tasks. Most importantly, it should not be overly intense for the participants. Our game came out very intense, as it required several hours of involvement every day. Perhaps a slightly less intense game with fewer tasks would have worked better for my target audience. To achieve th goal of the game, ideas and concepts behind it should not necessarily be complicated.
A playful approach to the city can be supported in the everyday life of Belarusians (in the country and abroad). It may also come in handy for visual, cinematic, or musical art, or when creating content for audio and video streaming platforms.
Engaging in playful practice and reflecting on it is itself a generative process that can stimulate potential ideas for new projects and products related to the city and its perception. In my case, "findings" included topics related to micro-movement as interaction with the city at a smaller scale of only a few cubic meters, currents as the quintessence of movement and its smooth implementation, as well as working with mental maps and cognitive geography in motion.
The format of "The Game of Ruh" can be delicately integrated into everyday life,fitting into lunchtime breaks, one's way home, walks and journeys. Moreover, it is not limited to urbanized space. In this game we concentrated on urban and suburban structures, but it would probably work in rural areas as well.
The game can be adjusted to moving on foot, in a wheelchair, by public transport, and in many other ways. This does not change the main idea of rediscovering space and saturating it with new meanings. To some, this will help overcome the trauma of parting with the city they loved, while others will get a chance to better embrace the place where they have experienced so much but, for some reason, cannot leave. As a micro-project dedicated to bringing back a sense of fully fledged everyday life, "The Game of Ruh" combines social, therapeutic and educational elements. However, it is likely that as a conceptual idea it can be extended to cover planning practices in the future.
If you are curious about "The Game of Ruh", cities and games, and reclaiming urban spaces in general, I invite you to subscribe to my Telegram channel https://t.me/rabiruh and my Instagram https://instagram.com/a.sivyh.
I am also seeking like-minded people, who would like to co-create "The Game of Ruh" with me and develop similar games as both social and commercial projects.
