balls for all
created in collaboration with Sarah Wagner and Stratton Coffman in spring 2019, Collective Architecture Studio
exhibited 12th Bienal Internacional de Arquitetura de São Paulo in "Sharing Trainers" by Critical Broadcasting Lab, led by Ana Miljački, graphics and exhibition support by Trevor Herman Hilker and Gideon Schwartzman
(Retro)Utopian Alternatives for Belgrade cultivated a collective studio and examined notions of common authorship, using socialist Yugoslavia as its precedent. Throughout the semester, we interrogated this concept of collectivity in three experiments that include: the mash-up devices/wearables, (retro)museum proposals for Usce Park, and housing alternatives for Belgrade.
The way in which we organized ourselves as a collective - and often disorganized ourselves - offered new modalities for functioning in a society that was physically removed from the context in which we were operating; however, through archiving and in the spirit of collectivizing our workflow, we interrogated this contemporary nostalgia for a former socialist Yugoslavia.
Balls for All is an interactive garment/game constituted from principles of Yugoslavian collective self-management.
contents
five body sleeves
one playing field
five objective holes
one pit of entropy
rules
body sleeves must be worn at all times
if the ball ends up in the wrong hole, everyone loses
everyone wins or everyone loses
versions of gameplay
collectives, for beginners
five players without visual impairment
objective: collectively, all players strive to guide all five balls into the pit of entropy
the foreman
four players with visual impairment + one player without visual impairment
objective: collectively, four players rely on the audible instructions from the lead player to get one ball in each of the five objective holes
equal distribution
five players without visual impairment
objective: collectively, all players rely on one another to get one ball in each of the five holes to win
good will
four players without visual impairment + one player visually impaired
objective: collectively all players strive to get a ball in the hole of the person who is blindfolded