FLATLANDS I
Nathalie Pozzi
Flatlands is fictional archive for nearly 200 game boards. Within this theatrical space, two players compete to find the perfect board to please a judge and win the game.
Each round, players play cards from their hand that create changing criteria for the comparison. There are adjective cards and noun cards, which combine to make statements like colorless geometries or nostalgic characters. (Of course, colorless characters or nostalgic geometries are just as possible.) The players argue their case before the judge, who picks the winner.
In Flatlands, the field of play is a cultural space, as players argue over visual aesthetics and social meanings of the colorful game boards. It is also a narrative space with a fable-like quality - two archivists search through a randomly organized collection of objects and then present their case to a judge, whose word is law.
Flatland was originally commissioned by Babycastles in 2010 for their Manhattan gallery.
It has since appeared in 2013 at the Museum of Design Atlanta’s exhibition XYZ – Alternative Voices in Game Design and in 2017 at the D-DAYS in Paris.
Large-scale physical installation
Collaboration with
Game designer Eric Zimmerman
Exhibition by
Babycastles, in collaboration with Showpaper
Curator
Matthew Hawkins
Graphic design
Rachel Morris
Location
New York City
Year
2010
