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Short abstract:

Interactive social game and discussion.

Abstract:

In the era of surveillance capitalism, few locations are as thoroughly surveilled as the university campus. While they explore their personal, political, and intellectual identities, undergraduate students’ behaviors are documented and monitored at an increasingly intensive scale. What is the effect of surveillance systems on the American undergraduate student? Informed by an ongoing qualitative study researching the manifold effects of data surveillance on college campuses, this workshop aims to replicate hierarchies of need and visibility through an interactive game. Players designated “students” will move between stations to collect tokens representing the daily requirements of student life, while other players regulate how many tokens are distributed, or confiscate them if students are caught breaking the rules. Players will find that students’ needs are not uniform, and students will need to collaborate in order to achieve a collective win. Trading tokens and convincing station managers to dispense limited extra resources are the only ways to ensure each student receives all the tokens they need to win the game, but the agents of the university will be watching to prevent those very things… This workshop will include games that last for about thirty minutes, with a fifteen minute discussion afterward based on the observations of the players. Curious and creative minds wishing to learn through experience are welcome, and dropping in/out will be facilitated by the organizers. “Discipline makes individuals,” wrote Foucault (1979: 185). What individual does a college make of you?