embedding politics in fun
What stories can I tell through mini-golf? The Dark Mountain Manifesto has a section focusing on the role stories have in affecting how we move through the world and understand it. They were mainly writing about how narratives around solutions harm us, but they also mention how we mainly consume for entertainment, which is what I am interested in. My work is that of entertainment with learning/politics embedded within that fun. I was relating to the way they pointed out the unequal choice we make between depressing news and mindless entertainment. How can we blend the two in a way that isn’t harmful and is productive? How can my mini-golf be used as a way to show people the role we have in nature/ the role we have laid claim to? (with great power comes great responsibility).
My aim is similar to the Center for Land Use Interpretation, who “specializes in this brand of perceptual revelation, in which a previously overlooked site is made not only visible, but also legible as a guide to understanding larger, nationwide systems.” They want people to marvel at the built world around us as a way to open the door to more nuanced questions. While CLUI is intentionally boring on the surface, mine will be taking the opposite approach in that I’ll bring the audience in through play, with the deeper questions and understanding coming through that play process.