BIG GAMES
New technologies and innovative approaches to games are calling us to get out of our chairs, leave our desktops, and engage in play that uses more than just our thumbs.
Joue le jeu / Play Along features exciting play experiences commissioned especially for the unique architectural spaces at La Gaîté Lyrique. These original games are intimately married to the physical characteristics of the building and highlight how games can exploit a wide range of technologies to reconnect the material and virtual aspects of our world.
These games ask us to move, to jump, to explore—and they often ask us to do those things together. In short, they craft energetic, captivating and shared play. This exuberant generation of games deliberately evokes our childhood and generations of folk games. Their appeal is enduring and universal.
Interference by Nathalie Pozzi and Eric Zimmerman (USA)
Game designer Eric Zimmerman and architect Nathalie Pozzi have designed a singularly elegant large-scale sculptural game especially for the very public Entre-foyer of the Gaité. Pozzi and Zimmerman are a perfect example of an ongoing collaboration between a game designer and an architect. Together they are well known for designing big, dramatic physical games that cross game design and architecture to sculpt beautiful spaces and engender provocative social play.
WWW.ERICZIMMERMAN.COM
The building is… by hide&seek (UK)
The building wants to play Along! Devised by London-based game creators Hide&Seek, The Building Is… converts the Gaîté Lyrique into a large-scale interactive gaming experience. Extending throughout the Gaîté Lyrique and into the heart of Paris, visitors to the Gaîté can interact in unexpected and completely new ways with the familiar architecture of the building. In turn, the building senses them and grows to trust them – and perhaps reveals the secret to its thoughts and feelings.
WWW.HIDEANDSEEK.NET
Electricity comes from other planets Fred & company (UK)
Fred & Company transforms the Mezzanine and mûr mezzanine into an animated “interactive-instrument-machine.” This immersive work provides an arresting visual experience while also engaging the visitor in different types of play – from casual play, to puzzle solving and interactive music-making. Collaborating as a group to perform all the interactions together unlocks the full dramatic audio-visual experience.
WWW.LEMONJELLY.KY
WWW.AIRSIDE.CO.UK
Daily Tous Les Jours by Kit Opérette (QC-CA)
Inspired by the history of the Gaîté Lyrique, Daily tous les jours, in collaboration with the composer Krista Muir, has created an extremely playful environment which invites the visitor to slip, for a brief moment, into the skin of characters in an opérette. The Petite salle is transformed into an experience involving dancing and singing so as to conjure up, both physically and virtually, an interactive opérette. A game leads you to discover different characters and as you participate and explore… a play evolves.
WWW.DAILYTOUSLESJOURS.COM