Cui Yingting (China)

Walking in a levitated community was a site-specific work created in Shenzhen TongFuYu Industry Park.  It began by inviting residents to participate in a world-building map-based TRPG game inspired by Avery Alder’s The Quiet Year.  It helps players develop a collective imagination of this complexly shaped community. People share their needs and tell stories about the park. Building on top of the imaginary world, the artist reinvited everyone to a fake book event is the entry point to an alternate reality game. Players follow the tracks and clues hidden in each scene and drift through dual sides of the park with a map in hand. On the one hand, history, work culture, and mundane life are mapped into the physical space of the park. On the other hand, absurd, religious, sexual, playful, and disconnected narratives come through in the form of brochures, texts, links, and installations. The chosen places are often overlooked by locals or even completely unknown to them. The piece reshapes how residents perceive the park.

Game page: https://yingtingcui.com/walking-in-levitated-community-2019

© Cui Yingting She is an artist, game designer, performer, storyteller, photographer, and dreamer. Her work explores technology as an institutional solution to governance, the collective unconscious in the atomized world, and the boundaries between personal memories and fabricated history. She bridges the real and the imaginary, creating socially engaged games to simulate, deconstruct and reconstruct reality.