Free London's Monsters
| Free London's Monsters | |
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| Designer: | Story for mixed realities by Andrew Wilson, game design by Andrew Wilson and Alex Fleetwood |
| Year: | unknown |
| Players: | 1+ |
| Stuff required: | 2 laptops, scanner, projector, art materials. |
| Crew required: | One crew, one illustrator. |
| Preparation: | Thirty minutes. |
| Time required: | One hour onwards |
| Place required: | At present Free London's Monsters is a very ambient game, best played where there are other things going on at the same time, or where, during the course of a day or an evening, there will be lots of passers-by who might want to play. |
| Activities: | Writing, drawing. |
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Free London's Monsters!
"Djik lurks round Hoxton Square on hot days, climbs through open car windows and turns bad music up really loud."
Free London's Monsters is an ambient game in which players use text messages to set free London's monsters, and then an illustrator, or the players themselves, draw the monsters in the host venue during the game, and the drawings are displayed as soon as they are finished, either projected if the equipment is available or by displaying the drawings on the walls.
Prizes can be awarded for the most enjoyable monsters to draw chosen by the illustrator.
The Story of London's Monsters
“There haven't always been great towns and cities like London, full of people hurrying to and fro to school or work.
Where now stand shops, factories and offices were once streams, woods and hillsides.
And every one of those places, even the loneliest tree standing by itself on the moors, had a monster to guard it.
The place belonged to the monster, and the monster belonged to the place.
So when towns and cities were built, the monsters had to stay, trapped under the tall buildings made of brick and stone and concrete.
And there they remained, for hundreds of years.
Until now...FREE LONDON'S MONSTERS!”
Preparation
The Venue
Free London's Monsters is a very ambient game, best played where there are other things going on at the same time, or where, during the course of a day or an evening, there will be lots of passers-by who might want to play.
What you'll need
Check that the venue has wifi that you can get onto (though a 3G phone would do if necessary), and a wall to project on. Ideally, the wall will be in the same space as the players will be gathering.
If you are just going to display the illustrations on paper rather than projecting, look for wall space where they are visible but won't get damaged, and check with the venue that they don't mind blutack.
Beg, borrow, steal, bribe or lawfully purchase a projector, a scanner, two laptops (one wifi enabled) and at least one illustrator. This is a human illustrator, not the software programme. One illustrator might use the other, but watching the monsters taking shape on paper with pens, pencils, coloured chalk, potato printing or anything else might have more magic as a performance.
If you run this event with children, an artist can help children to illustrate their monsters.
Beg, borrow, steal, bribe or lawfully purchase some art materials: paper, pencils, felt tips, crayons, glitter, stickers and so on. These will be for an "art table" where players can illustrate their own monsters. Don't make the materials look too serious - if the players feel they have to match the illustrator they probably won't have a go - the materials should make it look like fun.
Print out enough Free London's Monsters instruction flyers for everyone who is likely to attend the venue – there is no reason why the game can't go on after you've left, so if you want, print more than you'll need and leave some behind or distribute in other places before and after the event.
The flyers are A5 double sided, so print A4 sheets once, turn them over and put them back in the paper drawer and print the same number again, then cut the sheets in half.
Do a test with one sheet though before the second run, to make sure you don't end up with the same thing on both sides when you cut the sheets in half.
Running the game.
Find a space where you can project, or a wall where you can stick up the drawings, ideally where players/audience are likely to gather and where you can put the illustrator nearby.
Find somewhere for the illustrator to work where players/audience can watch them at work, and can easily make the link between the illustrator and the projections.
Make up a couple of monsters of your own, or choose a few that have already been set free in London, and set the illustrator to work on them, so that you have some monsters to project as soon as the projector is running. Hook up the projector to the non wifi laptop.
Hook up the scanner to the wifi laptop on a table close to the illustrator.
Set up the “art table” near the illustrator.
As soon as the illustrator has finished the first two monsters, scan them, and put them into a powerpoint presentation with an automatic transition to the next slide after 4 or 5 minutes, and transfer this to the projector laptop by USB.
Project the first slideshow.
As people gather, hand out the instruction to anyone who is interested.
Players will be using their mobile phones so be ready to answer questions and reassure players about costs and privacy as needs be.
On the wifi laptop go to thumbprintcity.com/london and watch for the first monsters as they are sent in. Copy down the first few monsters and hand them to the illustrator – they will only be 160 characters long so this is easy, but watch your handwriting.
When you have some monsters, drawn by the illustrator or other participants using the art materials, scan them, put them on the same powerpoint before the earlier monsters, and transfer to the projector.
Repeat this as often as possible until the illustrator's arm drops off - the more quickly people see the loop between freeing a monster by text, a picture of their monster (drawn by themselves or the illustrator), and seeing it projected, the more likely they are to take part.
At the end of the evening you might want to offer small prizes, and one way choosing winners is to ask the illustrator which three monsters they enjoyed drawing the most.
Instructions for players
Players will be given a double sided instruction leaflet, printed as above.
Apart from general enquiries, players won't need any further help.
The text on the back on the flyer reads:
“Djik lurks round Hoxton Square on hot days, climbs through open car windows and turns bad music up really loud.
Conjure up your own monsters using text messages and set them free on the streets of London, then watch the projections for an illustration of your monster.
Start a text with where your monster lives (all one word, no spaces, e.g. Oxfordstreet), then a space, then put the monster’s name and describe your monster, in one text only. Send it to 07786 207 770
Prizes will be awarded at the end of the evening for the monsters that our illustrator found were the most satisfying to draw.
Costs 07786 207 770 is a normal mobile number, so it only costs the same as sending a text to your friend’s phone. You will not be signed up for anything, ever. You'll get a free text saying “Thank you” from Thumbprint, and that's it.
To find a monster, just text the name of the place (all one word no spaces e.g. Wardourstreet) and nothing else, to the same number 07786 207 770.
Visit thumbprintcity.com/london when you get home and look for your monster – you'll find there is a page for the place where it lives.
If your monster was the first thing in that place, you'll “own” the place, and you can add details about it, and invite other people to add monsters as well.
Djik monster drawn by Andy Sykes, for more like this get Andy’s colouring book from hexjibber.com
thumbprintcity.com/ myspace.com/freelondonsmonsters”
Call for Collaborators
Sandpit on February 18th is the first time we've played Monsters as a live event, and we're hoping to find collaborators to work with us in a couple of ways.
