Designing Human-Generated Gameplay for the Playbox™️ v.0.1
- Torien Cafferata
- A
Western Front is seeking a working group of eight participants to take part in a series of workshops led by Torien Cafferata and A of Playbox Studios.
Of the workshop, Playbox Studios writes:
Everybody and your mom says video games are not real life. But what if we told you that real life could be video games? What if you could delegate any activity, no matter how impossible, to a human avatar? Or be guided through new real-world experiences (that you may or may not get to choose) as an avatar yourself?
Here at Playbox Studios, our dream is your dream: to design a “real-life” video game—and live in one forever! Now is your chance to help us fulfill the Prophecy of the Quadroludica as its Age dawns once more. Playbox Studios is accepting applications for a research and development workshop and playtest of the boldest, bravest, and most hyper-realistic, yet sustainable, game system in human history: The Playbox. Why let AI have all the fun when we can still automate human beings?
Working together, participants will engage in a study of input-output game poetics, or “controllography,” taking turns as designers and human avatars. Using everyday materials, participants will create unique controllers, game mechanics, and avatar identities within a live-action, human-generated game system. These elements will form conditions for a series of simple mini-games centred on tasks or activities that explore poetics of delegated experience.
The workshops will take place in person at Western Front on:
Mar 18, 2026, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Mar 25, 2026, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Apr 1, 2026, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
An open rehearsal of outcomes from the workshops will be presented on Apr 4, 2026, 3:00 p.m.
This open call welcomes participants interested in exploring play, labour, madness, and control. No design experience is required. Light meals will be provided at each workshop. Priority will be given to applicants who are able to attend all three workshop sessions and the open rehearsal.
About the Artists
Torien Cafferata is an AuDHD interdisciplinary artist originally from Treaty 4 and Treaty 6 territory (Saskatoon, Canada), and based in Vancouver, Canada. Before receiving their MFA from Simon Fraser University, they trained as a performer, playwright, director, dramaturge, and educator. Cafferata’s practice spans a host of forms: devised creation, social practice, site-specific, mixed-reality, game design, ludology, and Pochinko clown. Cafferata is an avid trifler of digital platforms and lo-fi aesthetics, often using them in explorations of mad/disabled labour, play, interactivity, interpassivity, non-places, and hauntology. As co-Artistic Director of It’s Not A Box Theatre, they have toured performances and installations to the Prague Quadrennial, SummerWorks, and across Fringe Festivals.
A is a games and new media artist-organizer working on sustainable, life-affirming cultural infrastructures.
How to Apply
Sumbit an expression of interest to info@westernfront.ca with the subject “Playbox Application” by March 6, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. PDT, confirming your availability to attend all workshops and the open rehearsal.
Expressions of interest can be submitted in writing, video, or audio recording of no more than 500 words or 3 minutes length.
Successful applicants will be notified by March 11, 2026.
Accessibility
The Grand Luxe Hall is located on the second floor of Western Front, which is accessed by a flight of 26 stairs. Further details about accessibility at Western Front can be found here.
Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.
We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.