Open Play
Read. Write. Game.
Project Type: The Learning Games Iniative and the Los Angeles Leadership Academy
Team: Juan Devis, Alessa Itsell, Katynka Martinez, Priscilla Ovalle, Veronica Paredes, Susana Ruiz, Alex Tarr and the Los Angeles Leadership Academy Students
Open Play was a collaborative project that lasted from 2004 to 2007. Beginning as part of the Learning Games initiative of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Open Play recruited students from a local high school, the Los Angeles Leadership Academy, along with artists and academics from the USC community.
In the first year, participants wrote and developed stories, then learning Flash in order to animate their narratives. These animations ranged from a fantastical allegory about global politics to an action adventure set on a fast food counter to an epic adaptation of the Star Wars saga, set in South Central Los Angeles. In making their own media, the group discovered a grammar to fantasy and storytelling, and also realized the importance of place.
“Either by choice or by force, we are in Los Angeles; and even if the city at times seems unfriendly, we came here to stay. That's why we thought it was important to define L.A. for ourselves. So we set out to map our neighborhoods and experiences in order to understand the ways in which this city belongs to us. We discovered that paper and pencil continue to be important and immediate tools of communication, and that the reality around us is the ripest and juiciest raw data one can find. These maps of our neighborhoods allowed us to create narratives - open narratives - that could easily be translated into the format of a game.” (Juan Devis, Project Lead)
Looking back at the history of games, the group was most intrigued by the simplicity of Pac-Man and decided to “map” their experiences, places and people onto the Pac-Man structure. Rather than the abstract black space that Pac-Man provides, OpenPlay’s mazes were modeled on the Los Angeles streets that the Leadership Academy students traveled daily. In marrying the students’ everyday experiences with Pac-Man’s abstract, imaginary space, these projects communicated rich content through simple game structures.
