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                    Helen Kwok

                    Test Sites Online: Round 1

                    Silhouettes of people dancing
                    Helen Kwok is a multimedia artist and designer with an interest in creating immersive and memorable experiences at the intersection of art, design, games and play.

                    Helen considers herself a creative chameleon, having created playful installations, experimental games and urban play activations.

                    Her creative practice often involves blending the digital and physical, crafting work that playfully extends beyond the screen into the physical world. In 2020, she collaborated with Dr Troy Innocent and the City of Moreland in a playable cities project to activate sites across Brunswick to reconnect people to the lived experience of the place through urban play.

                    Helen has spoken and showcased her work at festivals both locally and internationally. Helen was named a Freeplay Awards finalist in 2020, and is currently studying a Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity at RMIT University.

                    Street Tape Games

                    The coronavirus pandemic has brought about enormous changes to the way we live, work and play.

                    As social distancing becomes the new normal, people have become fearful of playing together in public space, resorting to playing games on screens and devices within the safety of their own homes.

                    But what happens after lockdown? How do we encourage people to come outside and play again? Is it still possible to safely play with others in public space? Can we still play street and playground games with social distancing in place? How do we play tag when we can’t tag each other anymore?

                    Street Tape Games aims to answer these questions.

                    Street Tape Games is a large-scale, temporary installation that uses social-distancing tapes to create playful markings, boundaries and patterns on the ground. These tape markings form a play space that the public can use to play a series of street games that have been redesigned with social distancing in mind.

                    These games will be introduced to the public as part of a public play event, where facilitators will provide the rules to players. The tape markings will also invite players to make up their own socially-distanced games to play together when there are no facilitators around.

                    The installation repurposes social-distancing tape from a tool that is used to isolate people, to something that brings people together through play. Even though we are living in the midst of a pandemic, it shows that with a playful reframing of the mind, it is still possible to have fun and connect with others.

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