Could Melbourne survive as a megacity? Play this game to find out
This isn't the plot of the latest dystopian blockbuster, rather it's the premise of Open House Melbourne's first ever citywide urban role-playing event.
Conceptualised by urban play scholar Troy Innocent, Reworlding Naarm will invite groups of 16 people to tour Victoria's capital city alongside experienced game-masters who will describe a future city in need. Combining augmented reality, immersive sound and storytelling, each group will grapple with the question: when one world collapses, how do we build the next?
'It's a matter of learning from place,' Innocent says. 'It's about accepting there is a crisis, but rather than thinking 'every person for themselves', or waiting for somebody to come along and save the day, it's about thinking, 'how can we collectively respond to this? How could we bring people together to explore ways to reimagine and remake our cities over the next decade – to be responsive and adaptive to change?''
Reworlding Naarm came from the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Summer bushfires. While play-testing another project, Innocent says he began to smell the smoke, and suddenly the crises around him felt incredibly real.
But instead of catastrophising, Innocent says he invested his energy into creating an event in which the core mechanics are possibility and hope. Players – who can either play their future selves or someone else entirely – will be given a handful of marbles to represent this hope, which they can lose over time as extreme heat, flash floods and other events occur along the way. If you lose all your marbles, and therefore all hope, the group will leave you behind and your game ends.
Innocent began smaller-scale, creating Reworlding: Cardigan Commons, which physically transformed Cardigan Street in Carlton into a future Melbourne. Now, Reworlding has expanded to encapsulate the entire inner-city.
For many of the participants, Innocent says this could be the first time they have engaged with place in a multisensory, complex way since they were children. This kind of urban role-playing – which blends familiar, contemporary urban settings with fantastical elements – offers an opportunity to bring imaginative play into adulthood, something that has proven to be regenerative and joyful rather than anxiety-inducing. For example, a dilapidated building could be reimagined as an urban garden, or a submerged shopping centre could become regenerated wetlands.
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Perth Now
8 hours ago
- Perth Now
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Sky News AU
a day ago
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Herald Sun
3 days ago
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Bachelor's Irena Gilbert reveals Covid burnout battle and mental health journey
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Picture: Philip Gostelow/ One of the most surprising things for Locky was the support of his inner circle when he began to be more vulnerable with them. 'The funny thing I realised was that (before therapy) in my head, I was constantly telling myself: 'don't show your emotions, this is what needs to be done.' That's what I had in my head,' he said. 'But when I came to all of my best mates and said, 'hey, I'm seeing a coach, and I'm trying to release all my emotions, and all this trauma kind of stuff,' they were all super proud of me. 'They're like, 'man, this is awesome. This is amazing'. Irena, my mum, everyone that was close to me was super happy that I was showing these emotions, and they're the people that I care about.' It's still early days and 'a work in progress,' says Locky, but he's been stunned at the change he's seen even in a matter of months. Irena agrees. 'Locky's changed so much since he's been seeing our therapist and opening up,' she says. 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