M.C. Spross
Masters Project
2013
Babel Build is a cooperative construction game meant to forge personal interactions between people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. It is designed to break the routine cycles of culturally biased media consumption and homogeneous primary relationships that can breed prejudice. To achieve this goal the game is played with large building blocks in public places where people of different cultures pass every day but rarely interact. The game provides an irrational space of play that allows people to break normal social barriers and interact with people of other cultures. This playful interaction helps people view others as humans instead of stereotypes and can plant the seeds of cross-cultural friendships. Babel Build achieves these things by having a simple set of rules and by stipulating that all communication in the game is done via gesture instead of speech.
