I used a bigfoot hoax as a vehicle for an open-ended, collaborative social fiction at a summercamp. The collective production of false evidence and documentation reinforced collective belief in the overall fiction. This illustrates the potential of alternate reality games in communities where the desire to live and tell a story supercedes the desire for fact.
No one involved in the production of Hidden in Plain Sight would admit that it was fiction publicly and experienced critical fictional moments collectively and as a kind of reality, yet their very involvement in the creation of the illusion ensured that they knew on some level that it was fiction. This double mind is of great interest to me.
The purpose of this project was to illuminate social fiction as a changable design element of the built environment. The kind of story that unfolds in the space we share is alterable and should not be taken for granted.
Virtuality is the domain of the mind, not of computers. Mixing reality with the virtual - "mixed reality" - is a result of social fictions and socially implemented fictional templates.
The name "Hidden in Plain Sight" is in reference to the X-Files. Special Agent Mulder often encounters cases of paranormal activity where the paranormal force or suspect is described using that phrase.
