Adam James: Midnight Larp

Sun 1 April, 8.30pm – 2.30am
Meet at SPACE Mare Street
FREE & all welcome
Sign up here

As part of his 2018 SPACE commission, Adam James invites you to take part in a midnight larp.

In this larp you will play a family member of a time travelling micro-community from a future in which segregation has become the norm. Over countless expeditions, the journeying families have developed close bonds with one another. In the future, speaking is seen as an inefficient form of communication. Symbol, gesture and collective drifting is favoured above text, word and screen. By coincidence two communities arrive at the same location at the same time by different means. Both communities have similar quests, to obtain first hand encounters with ‘the village’, to obtain artefacts and gain understanding of significant events. The future powers that be have a shared interest, to build bridges and break the deadlock. Time travelling however, is not a precise or especially uncommon art. It’s not unusual for travellers to arrive decades late or centuries early. What it less common, is for two groups to be in the same place at the same time.

Further:
This is a midnight larp focusing on a collective exploration of an urban landscape. Once you have confirmed your participation, you will be sent a player-pack containing information to enhance your play experience. The ‘essence’ of your character will be contained within this pack which will collectively expanded on within the pre-larp workshop, which is also were you will learn all the rules and techniques.

Location:
The pre-larp workshop, which is a requirement of the larp will take place at:

SPACE
129–131 Mare Street
London E8 3RH

The ensuing larp will take place offsite, details of which will be disclosed upon attending the pre-larp workshop.

Date to commit:
Pre-larp workshops start on Sunday 1 April, the larp starts and finishes early on Monday 2 April.

Timetable:

20:30 Arrive at SPACE
21:00 Pre-larp workshop
22:30 Tea and coffee break
22:45 Leave gallery and travel together to Stratford tube station
23:15 Arrive and walk to start locations
23:45 Arrive at start locations
00:00 Start larp
01:30 End larp
01:45 Debrief, hot drinks
02:30 Finish

What to wear and bring:
The pre-larp workshop and the larp itself are quite physical in their nature. There is no requirement in terms of physical fitness but do be prepared to move around. The larp itself will involve at least 90 minutes of walking. Please come dressed for the weather, with comfortable footwear for walking. We suggest you bring snacks, something to drink and a rain mac just in case. If possible please wear black or dark clothes preferably without big logos or lettering.

Age restrictions:
Participants must be 18+. Whilst there is no upper age limit, participants must be able to get around unassisted or attend with a helper to aid any accessibility issues they might experience.

Note:
The larp welcomes beginners and newcomers alike. You do not have to have any pre-knowledge of larp or consider yourself a professional player. This larp has safety mechanics and spaces written into the game and operates a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of inequality, sexism or racism.

Documentation:
This larp will be documented by two roaming cameramen using low light video cameras. It is the intention that documentation from this larp be included within Adam’s exhibition at SPACE opening Thursday 19 April. The player pack contains a release form which needs to be filled out and returned to us by Monday 26 March.

Future larps:
If you are unable to attend this larp, there are a series of larp events programmed to coincide with Adam James' exhibition at SPACE. For more details, please follow the links below:

19 Apr: The Beholder Controller run by Adam James
21 Apr: How to prevent a war run by Adam James
6 May: Katabasis run by Una Hamilton Helle, Susan Ploetz and Francis Patrick Brady
11 May: Strangers run by Nina Runa Essendrop
12 May: No Island is an Island run by Nina Runa Essendrop
20 May: Sign run by Mo Holker
26 May: Alien Phenomenology run by Hamish MacPherson and Sarah Jury

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Larp is originally an acronym for Live Action Role Playing, but today it’s used as name in itself. It refers to an interactive activity where people immerse themselves in fictional worlds to experience how others might live. Larps are played by groups of 2 or more people facilitated by a games master whose role is to ensure the players feel safe, understand the rules, roles and fiction within the larp.

Nordic Larp is a school of larp design originating in the Nordic countries and is one which values immersion, collaboration and artistic vision. This larp event is of the Nordic school.

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Adam James (b. 1978) is a British artist. His works use larp (live action role-play), performance, film, and sculpture to explore new forms of collaborative democracy. James uses non-verbal play to encourage new forms of dialogue, mediation and reconsideration of difference. James is interested in how a private space can be publicly held and how sculptural form can serve as alibi for new forms of exchange.

James received his BA in Fine Art at the University of Brighton in 2003. In 2007 he completed his MA in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art. In 2016/17 he worked with Turner contemporary on the 18-month project Art Inspiring Change and with the Serpentine gallery to produce a larp based resource called ‘Here is the Place’ to help children deal with transitioning to secondary school. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Kent, where his is researching Nordic larp as a progressive model for participatory arts practice.