Artists repurpose video games to find new ways to shine light on social issues

Five artists have come together to make art more playful, by developing video and board games that explore aspects of how people engage with society, while simultaneously expanding the notion of art practice.   While one artist has developed a game based on a court case dating back to the pre-Independence era, another artist uses a busy street model to develop a board game that aims to garner new insights into complex urban systemic issues like traffic woes, water and sanitation etc. The artists, Mohini Dutta, Shradha Jain, Zuleikha Chaudhary, Krishnarjun Bhattacharya and Vinit Nikumbh had taken part in a gaming residency co-curated by Prayas Abhinav at the Khoj International Artists’ Association studio in Delhi six weeks ago.   Beginning this week on September 4, an exhibition of the developed games is scheduled to be held at the studio for three days. Architect Vinit Nikumbh, who is currently working on a mobile application that gamifies urban planning has researched issues of pedestrian access to important nodal transportation junctions in the Mumbai. At the Khoj residency Nikumbh, has developed a game where the player can have the immersive experience of programming his walk through a busy street engaging with factors like weddings, festivals, the use of rickshaws etc.   “Collecting the responses of the participants to the procedure of the game and layering them can create newer insights about the way we can think of answers to complex urban systemic issues,” says Nikumbh. Zuleikha Chaudhary, a renowned theatre personality has explored the performative aspect within games and gaming.   Chaudhary takes her cue from a very old court case that began in pre-independence about a possible imposter who claimed to be prince of Bhawal, a zamindari estate in modern-day Bangladesh, who was presumed dead a decade earlier. “My project layers this trial with an audition using the framework of a game to consider being yourself and being someone else and where telling the truth and faking dissolve into each other and become indistinguishable,” says Chaudhary.   Mohini Dutta, a game developer working out of Brooklyn in the US and Mumbai explores the potential for play by using tribal narratives to create a palimpsest. Dutta, who has created games like ‘Survivor’ - a video game about growing up and leaving home as an adult. She also has designed the “Humans versus Mosquitos” to educate children about vector-borne diseases.   PTI