A Quest for Rest

An interactive, hybrid story transforming the home of an avatar with an Energy Limiting Condition into a magical-realist swamp, where they care for querulous umbrella plant, Sven. A whimsical journey through rest, mutual care and modeling community through

An interactive, hybrid story with integrated access translating the domestic sphere of an avatar with an ELC into a vivid magical swamp, everyday tasks given the scale and imaginative possibility of adventure, as they look after sentient umbrella plant Sven. Players collectively choose how to engage with but also collaboratively reimagine their world and disabling barriers, managing time/energy and reflecting on how and when to rest, together. Through the frame of crip-time, this piece explores what rest might be alongside a narrative of worth, toward a shared community and modelling mutual care.

In groups of 2-4 in person and online, a series of cards are played simultaneously to guide the audience through the narrative. Offering choices about how to manage their energy and prompting the groups to draw a record of their "quest" on a map that overlaps their home with the swamp they imagine.
Energy points are spent on actions and choices. Rest Cards are played to recuperate energy. However this binary relationship is disrupted and transformed, with the nature of rest questioned, and players asked to devise their own shared ways of resting. The division between groups is eventually broken down as the cards prompt cross-group collaboration, play and knowledge sharing.
Other group wide activities include Crash states - poetic interludes for if any group runs out of energy - as well as a collective avatar creation, with an inclusive idea of disability and illness, everyone being in process of change.
There is no win state, there is no failure, this drive is instead replaced by possible reflection and hybrid collaboration, creating a space for rest. At the end of the cards, the groups are prompted to answer whether or not they watered Sven, after their journey through the swamp, without value given either way.
An interactive, hybrid story with integrated access translating the domestic sphere of an avatar with an ELC into a vivid magical swamp. Everyday tasks given the scale and imaginative possibility of adventure, as they look after sentient umbrella plant Sven. Players collectively choose how to engage with but also collaboratively reimagine their world and disabling barriers, managing time/energy and reflecting on how and when to rest, together. Through the frame of crip-time and solarpunk futures, this piece explores what rest might be alongside a narrative of worth, toward shared community, modelling mutual care.
In groups of 2-4 in person and online, a series of cards are played simultaneously to guide the audience through the narrative. Offering choices about how to manage their energy and prompting the groups to draw a record of their "quest" on a map that overlays their home with their imagined swamp.
Energy points are spent on actions and choices. Rest Cards are played to recuperate energy. However this binary relationship is disrupted and transformed, with the nature of rest questioned, and players asked to devise their own shared ways of resting. The division between groups is eventually broken down as the cards prompt cross-group collaboration, play and knowledge sharing.
Other group wide activities include Crash states - poetic interludes for if any group runs out of energy - as well as a collective avatar creation: presenting an inclusive, complex idea of disability and illness, everyone being in process of change. There is no win state, there is no failure, this drive is instead replaced by possible reflection and hybrid collaboration, creating a restful space. At the end of the cards, the groups are prompted to answer whether or not they watered Sven, after their journey through the swamp, without value given either way.