Narrativarium

The gates of the Imaginarium are open, the last Archives of a dying universe are ready for discovery. The project offers its audience awareness of foundations and conflicts of perception through interactive installations and exercises. There will be playful tasks, mysterious characters which will teach you to see in the physical-optical sense, as well as to observe the real driving force behind certain events in the world of alternative facts. 

In this empire-shaping republic game you’ll find yourself at a crossroads: support one and only, sole way in order to protect peace and order; or support plurality, in which, although through perpetual arguments, different points of view will exist. 

Our focus is on perception and its imperfections

In our open world you will take drawing and cryptography lessons, and with your new-found knowledge you’ll take part in communal creation. If you so wish, you can support one of the factions leading the world with your information and money (Foton) earned. The world cannot be understood from one perspective. The players have to interact with each other and the actors to understand the Imaginarium. 

The exercises will help players reach new levels. You set the aim of the four-hour game for yourself: will you marvel at the visual aids and installations, or immerse yourself in solving mysteries which might even influence the outcome of the play itself? The mini republic, which the players bring to life and inhabit, offers different modalities of optics, color theory and the creation of art products from inexpensive materials: throughout your work for imperial bills (Fotons) you will explore the problems of light and shadow, vision and cognition. 

The Fotons you earn can be exchanged for souvenirs or can be used to influence the world of the game: you can get the first clue in a puzzle chain or information that will move forward the framework-story of the game. During the game, your mission will become saving the knowledge of humanity in a dying world. The actors add to this framework: Apart from introducing the exercises and supervising the workshops, they play people in power - or those who crave power - in this mini republic; accomplished characters from whom you can get information and help, if you only know what to ask. The actors’ characters have their own goals, which means the players in the Imaginarium better think twice who they trust and make pacts with. The players interested in the driving forces of our built world and choosing to collaborate with others can start different chain reactions through supporting the different factions of the Imaginarium. This means that the fate of Imaginarium can change from one performance to the next. 

The collaboration of the Papír Panír and Narratíva Kollektíva creates a complex theatrical educational event aimed at sensitization and experiencing cognitive processes individually and cooperatively. The Imaginarium offers differentiated participation to all. The participants decide whether they want to be manual artists, archive- and museum visitors, players, or creators of a complex societal game. The event brings together puppeteers, lighting designers, street theatre, visual designers, experienced theatre education professionals, actors, animators, as well as the directors of Narratíva, all of whom work with the participants to shape the event. Learning is a reciprocal, interactive process between participants and animators, the central part being forming and expressing their own opinions, one form of which is testing moral positions through role-play.