Exploring Social Issues Using Escape Rooms in ‘The Privilege of Escape’ (Q&A)
An interview with Creative Time’s Executive Director Justine Ludwig
NYC’s Creative Time, the public arts non-profit that brought us popular projects like Pedro Reyes’ Doomocracy and Duke Riley’s Fly By Night, is about to embark on a very unusual project this summer: a social dynamics-themed escape experience by artist Risa Puno. The Privilege of Escape will open to the public this July and tackle some thorny issues using puzzles and games.
Puno is a sculpture and installation artist who “uses interactivity and play to understand how humans relate to one another.” She currently has a two-player game called Risk Management installed at Arts Brookfield in Midtown Manhattan where participants compete in a beanbag toss with a twist: preventing the other player from winning may actually hurt your own chances of winning. Her previous works include an “emotional” mini-golf course called The Course of Emotion, where each hole presented a different emotional obstacle (worry, jealousy, or depression).
Creative Team and Puno are currently holding a Kickstarter campaign for the project with a goal of $20,000 in order to keep the experience accessible and free to the public; as of this writing, they’ve raised over $15,000 towards that goal.
We spoke to Creative Time’s Executive Director Justine Ludwig to learn more about this ambitious new project.
UPDATE: The Privilege of Escape will return in September 2019. Free tickets are available now.
NP: Can you tell us a little about yourself and Creative Time?
Justine Ludwig (JL): For over 40 years, Creative Time has been committed to working with artists to realize public art projects that contribute to the dialogues, debates and dreams of our times. Last December, we launched our first ever open call for emerging artists as a way of continuing to support a new generation of socially engaged artists.
NP: What is The Privilege of Escape all about? How is it different from your typical escape room?
JL: The Privilege of Escape is an escape room style game that encourages people to think about privilege and social inequity. The word “privilege” itself has become a very loaded and confusing term, triggering such strong emotions that it has become difficult to have meaningful conversations about this important topic that aren’t polarizing.
Acting as a framework for better understanding, The Privilege of Escape will act as an experiential metaphor, eventually bypassing charged language, allowing people an environment to approach these layered topics.
NP: Why use the format of an escape room to examine the topic of privilege?
JL: Escape rooms are all about teamwork, letting go of assumptions and seeing things from a new perspective. It has been fascinating to think about gameplay and this structure of the escape room as the perfect space to address issues of inequity. At Creative Time, we believe that part of the power of art is its ability to generate dialogue and create safe discursive space, and in Risa’s project we see that illustrated so elegantly.
NP: Who is on the team working on this project and how did they get involved?
JL: As with all Creative Time projects, The Privilege of Escape is a full team endeavor. We work collaboratively across departments and really count on the diverse skills of the Creative Time family to see each project come to fruition.
Natasha Logan, Deputy Director, and Alex McClure, Project Manager, lead the production by connecting Risa to various stakeholders in the project. Our conference room has turned into a game lab where we have all been testing the various puzzles that Risa is planning to use, leaving us with what has been a wonderful and very hands-on experience. As part of the research for the project, the entire Creative Time team even did an escape room together — it was an interesting moment of community and humility.
Rachel Cargle and Brett Stoudt are our Social Justice advisors and Brett Kuehner is our Puzzle Design and Technical Consultant. [ed: Kuehner is the former CTO of Escape the Room and designer of the award-winning The Clock Tower.]
NP: What should participants expect from The Privilege of Escape? And what kinds of choices can the participants make during the experience?
JL: I want people to approach this without expectation. Creative Time projects, in many ways, are about experiencing the unexpected. The known is that you are experiencing Escape Room, what you bring to it and take out is up to you! The goal is that you meet new people, have a good time, and leave the game looking at things a bit differently.
NP: What aspect of the experience is the most exciting to you?
JL: From start to where we are now, our open call initiative has been really rewarding. We selected Risa’s project from 636 proposals, as it really stood out as being proposed in an exciting and unexpected format. It has been such a pleasure working closely with an artist earlier in her career and really having Risa embed herself in the team and fully embracing Creative Time’s way of working.
NP: You’re holding a crowdfunding campaign to be able to have more people go through the experience. What challenges are you expecting to face with the campaign?
JL: Reaching our goal is our biggest challenge. We have seven days left and still a ways to go! It is really beautiful and affirming to have all these people have come together collectively to realize something we all believe in. Over one hundred people have pledged for the project, but we still need your support in order to bring this to as many people as possible. With every share, not only do you help spread public buy in for public art, but you also are contributing to an overall legacy of public art.
NP: What do you hope participants take away from The Privilege of Escape?
JL: I hope the project offers a moment of critical introspection and a questioning of power dynamics that are usually taken for granted. This should be paired with a real feeling of community and teamwork. At the same time, as the project is an escape room, it should be simultaneously be engaging and rewarding.
The Privilege of Escape is expected to open for free to the public in July. Expect tickets to go quickly, like all other Creative Time events. Learn more on their Kickstarter page.
UPDATE: The Privilege of Escape will return in September 2019. Free tickets are available now.
NoPro is a labor of love made possible by our generous Patreon backers. Join them today!
In addition to the No Proscenium web site, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, in the Facebook community Everything Immersive, and on our Slack forum.
Office facilities provided by Thymele Arts, in Los Angeles, CA.
