nordiclarpyearbook2015

Crafts/Cathedral construction: these rules
connected the Cathedral with spirituality.
Three main arts – mosaics, stained glass
and murals – were a collective work of the
majority of the monks. At a fixed hour, all
participants created the concept of a future
work, filling the template with symbols,
which was an important opportunity for
heretics to show what they were thinking.
For example, by the end of the larp all the
frescos in the Cathedral had turned out heretical
(gnostic).
Imagining the Cathedral
We should mention that there are many
differences between Russian and Nordic
larp traditions. Nordic 360° illusion means
“everything or nothing” – if you can’t show
something for real, don’t even try. Most
Russian larpers consider this a needless limitation.
They are ready to accept a certain
(and rather substantial) extent of conventionalism
if it suits a particular larp. The
construction of the Cathedral was therefore
first and foremost a symbolic action, and
there’s a huge difference between playing
in the real cathedral and building a cathedral
with your own hands. We thus needed
something that could actually be constructed
during the larp and by the participants
themselves.
Things that inspired us were the gothic architecture
itself and the novels The Spire
by William Golding and The Pillars of the
Earth by Ken Follett, both of which were,
in their turn, inspired by the Salisbury Cathedral
in England.
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Our limitations when making the project of
the Cathedral were the following:
The in-game building was to house and
protect from rain all the participants (about
100 people) during the Easter mass at the
end of the larp;
The style and structure of a gothic cathedral
needed to be recognizable;
It was to be constructed by the participants
and NPCs without any help from professional
builders;
The time allowed for construction was 3
days before the larp plus 3 days during the
larp;
The use of modern tools was to be minimized
during the larp;
It was OK not to finish the building, as in
reality cathedrals took centuries to build;
By the end of the larp the Cathedral was
to be decorated inside with frescoes, stained
glass windows, mosaics, sculptures and
handmade candles.
We decided to construct the building from
1-inch wooden planks, and to cover the
walls with cloth and the roof with tarpaulin.
This approach is typical for Russian larps,
but this particular project was different
from the others not only because of the
size of the building, but because it was really
much more complicated than anything
done by Russian larpers before.
Our main limitation was scarcity of time
and people, so the task had to be simplified
as much as possible. We therefore decided
not to make any second floor in the building
and play only on the ground. Initially the
3D-model of Salisbury cathedral was taken
from Google Earth and used as a reference.
Then 1-millimeter precise project was created
in Trimble SketchUp. A professional engineer
was called upon to verify the project’s
feasibility and safety, and his suggestions
were adopted.
Finally, a three-nave basilica with a transept
and a tower above the crossing was projected
(see the plan). Final dimensions of the
building were 19 meters in length, 8 meters
wide and 9 meters high.
In order to speed up the process we decided
to assemble the roofs, facades and the
tower on the ground and then raise them
up as a whole using ropes and poles – yeah,
not historically correct for sure, but definitely
dramatic. The projected lift weight of
the tower (with the spire) was about 111 kg.
Raising the walls
There was an in-game architect that overlooked
the whole process and could take a
look (at his personal room where other participants
couldn’t see him) at the 3D-model
on his laptop. Looking at the model he
made sketches by hand on pieces of paper
and gave those sketches to the building
foremen who oversaw the construction.
Foremen further distributed the tasks to
workers who performed them using the
sketches, and the architect was monitoring
that everything was being cut and assembled
correctly.
The participants who were actually building
the Cathedral therefore didn’t need any
specific knowledge or skill except for the
ability to climb a stepladder while wearing
a frock and using an electric screwdriver.
Those who didn’t know how to do it were
taught on-site. In this way, everyone whose
characters wanted to work got the chance
to do so. To make the building process look
more authentic during the larp we invented
historical designations for all the materials
and instruments we were going to use. We
pretended planks were stone blocks, the
electric screwdriver was called a brace etc.
106 Making the mosaic. (Photo: Alexandra Koval) 107