Adam James: The Beholder Controller larp

19 April 2018

Thu 19 April, 7 – 8pm
SPACE Mare Street
FREE & open to all
Sign up here

Or join in during the private view
No prior larp experience required

The Beholder Controller is a non-verbal physical larp led by Adam James using collective embodiment of the sculptures within his exhibition at SPACE to explore the evolution and relationship between discordant objects. This is a short-form larp in which you are welcome to either take part or watch.

This larp is designed to be run in public spaces with early iterations being used to get under the skin of public art collections, such as those of the Tate and the V&A. Play is designed to be fast and physical, culminating in a reflective conversation.

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No experience of larp or movement-based practice is necessary to take part. Play is suited to all levels of physicality, but if you have any specific needs please contact the gallery in advance. Please dress in clothes you are comfortable to move around it.

Possible sensitivities: floor-based play, negotiating touch and consent.

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.