Paper short abstract:

This paper examines differing degrees of "simultaneity" in three case studies from the Ruhr region, which examine the use of artistic games modeled on real-life structures as tools of critical pedagogy and generators of "non-places."

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines differing degrees of "simultaneity" in three case studies from the Ruhr region, which examine the use of artistic games modeled on real-life structures as tools of critical pedagogy and generators of "non-places."

The first non-place is the floor of a stock exchange in which people exchange utopic visions written by regular by-standers previously solicited in the street. Within such a scheme, a competition between individuals also serves as an agora where personal wishes and dreams become visible, public, and circulated. The model of the stock exchange thus becomes a means for a kind of "deliberative" democracy where ideas for city improvement acquire differentiating value and legitimation through the trading of shares. The second case study examines the role of simultaneity in a six-month project Investment Zone in which "players" invest real money into an empty plot of land under the rubric of game. The third case study focuses on Rimini Protokoll's Situation Rooms, which adapts the technology of Ipads to address the various roles people play that support and enable globalized weapons trade. Over the course of ninety minutes, participants cycle through ten different characters and play their role in various dialogical situations and scenarios, thereby experiencing different sets of emotions and differing degrees of culpability.

Overall, this comparison raises issues regarding how differing degrees of identification/non-identification impact the aesthetic experience of play and sense of responsibility, as well as the possibility for real-world effects (i.e. blurring between frames of fantasy and reality)