nordiclarpyearbook2015

For example, the lighting in the play area
was designed by Puikkonen with photography
in mind. After being a perfect human,
the participants could then see themselves
in actual photos, permanently part of that
world.
Täydellinen ihminen was played in an authentic
corporate environment, in a cluster
of eight conference rooms in central Helsinki.
The setting was a normal working
day at a company called Creative Solutions,
where all the characters worked. The larp
had seven participants and lasted for three
hours, plus one hour for workshops and
one hour for debrief. The day consisted of
internal meetings, meetings with clients, and
lunch. There was no twist in the plot. The
players had been informed in advance as to
how the day would progress, and there were
no surprises. Correspondingly, there was no
character development. Things started exactly
the same as they ended: In the euphoric
state of glorious success.
From Soviet man to happy
consultant
One of the ideas behind the project was
the concept of “the Soviet man”, the perfect
communist citizen. A popular idea in
the Soviet Union, this ideal also revealed the
problems inherent in the system. The state
is not composed of ideal humans, but of
ordinary people.
In Täydellinen ihminen, corporate stock
photos replace the paintings and statues of
Socialist Realism. They are the ideal people
of contemporary capitalist corporations.
Instead of the noble, strong factory worker,
we have the happy, innovative consultant.
The perfect human of the larp is just one
of the ideals we live with in today’s society.
Another ideal of capitalism is a super-competitive
individualist motivated by greed,
but we chose to focus on creating the world
as it appears in the photos.
The larp featured pre-written characters,
which were designed to embody different
aspects of contemporary ideals about the
perfect employee. We first created a list
of ten generic positions, such as Account
Manager, Management Consultant, Interaction
Specialist, and Finance Manager. These
were fleshed out into concise three-line
character descriptions by drawing on the
language recruitment ads. They are already
written like characters: “You are smart,
fast, independent, and widely networked.”
Few people fill such requirements for ideal
applicants, but in a larp we can just define
those ideals as the character.
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Lean closer
The aim of the larp is to create a simulacrum
of the stock photo world, not a
commentary on it or a critical examination
thereof. This means that all subtext has to
be banned. One of the key rules of the larp
is that there is nothing hidden. Everything
is as it looks. There is no hidden agenda, no
double meaning, no irony, no sexual innuendo.
The most important thing is the surface.
It all needs to look and feel like stock
photos, with the meaning apparent right
there on the surface.
The challenge in designing Täydellinen ihminen
is in creating the feeling and action
that generates that right surface. We do
not want the players to simply pose for the
pictures, but to experience and embody
the bright and wonderful world of stock
photos. As a participant, you have to play
the larp in a specific way, just living in the
moment. In the design we settled on three
elements.
First, we used love bombing. All the players
are instructed to be not just supportive
and encouraging to each other, but to absolutely
love each other’s ideas, to create an
environment where not only is everything
awesome, but you specifically are awesome.
The aim is to give people positive energy
and a continuous upward trend. Love
bombing is used by cults to create a feeling
of unity and belonging.
Second, from laughter yoga we borrowed
the motto of “fake it, fake it, until you make
it.” The idea is that if you pretend to laugh
long enough, you will start laughing for
real. Our emotions are embodied, and pretending
to have an emotion will help that
emotion to appear. Thus, the players were
instructed to pretend until it started to feel
real. This is, of course, how larp in general
operates, but in this instance it was explicitly
discussed and practiced in the workshop.
Third, to help create trust fast, sexuality was
banned from the larp. Täydellinen ihminen,
as a larp, is a fairly short one, lasting only a
few hours. There is no time to spend a long
time establishing the ensemble and slowly
building trust – yet it is important the people
are able to touch each other and stand
very close to each other. Partly because safe
bodily contact helps foster positive emotions,
and partly because people in stock
photos, like in films, are always too close,
very much in each other’s personal spaces.
In order to be able to touch each other in
encouragement and hug when celebrating
a victory without reservation, all innuendo,
creeping, flirting and suggestive behavior
is banned. Obviously all of these methods,
and their reasoning, are explained and
demonstrated at the workshop.
Participants and organizers.
202 (Photo: Tuomas Puikkonen)
203