System in the Room is a game installation on urban housing mechanisms and relations. It is based on the book “The systems of spatial planning” (1980) written by mathematician Mihai Botez and architect Mariana Celac. The game aims to reinterpret these ideas in a contemporary context using playful and participatory methods.
The players explore relations between urban planning concepts using their bodies, by moving through the room, from one red tile to another. Each concept is further developed through interactive illustrations on the walls. The illustrations, based on other urban planning works from the same period, can be explored using a red filter (available on-site or through an Augmented Reality filter).
Team: Maria Mandea, arh. Teodora Ungureanu, arh. Anca Băduț
Presented at Simultan Festival #15: UNSEEN, Comenduirea Garnizoanei, Timișoara
Technical details: site-specific game installation, 5 by 6 m room, various materials.
The initial diagram the game is based on. Diagram of the main links between the motivations of the housing demand. (Botez and Celac, 1980, pp. 96)
"In constructing simulations, play models occupy a special place, because starting from the hypothesis that some aspects of human interaction cannot be made explicit, they try to introduce this part of the decision in the model. In this scenario, the players are responsible for representing the subjective interactions in the model. Simulation and play models allow the combination of these relationships that are difficult to formalize: the very subjective feelings - such as sympathy, political commitment, repulsion towards the interlocutor, etc. Beyond direct information about the social system, games provide information for the study of the content of human interactions and contain a real potential for use in the management of socio-spatial systems."
Celac, M. & Botez, M. Sistemele spațiului amenajat (The systems of spatial planning), 1980
3.2.2. Urban games. Simulation of urban decisions p.187