Weronika Jurkiewicz & Michal Szota

Put yourself in the shoes of an authoritarian leader and learn about the tactics the authoritarian governments use in order to attack the civic society.

The goal of the game is to suppress, take over and shut down as many civic society institutions as possible. The players have limited resources (represented by cards) that they can use: defunding, use of police, harassment, intimidation, smear campaigns, replacing people in executive positions etc. All actions are based on real-world examples. The civic institutions regenerate automatically over time (which demonstrates our trust in the civic society).

The board game has a digital component - a web-app which provides a special newsfeed with action items for the game, also based on real-world events. The newsfeed is updated over time, so that the whole game stays engaging and relevant in the changing world. And we can improve the game in the software.

Winner, 5000 EUR by Fine Acts

Stefan Prohorov & Vladimir Velikov

The Whole Story is a browser-based interactive fiction game that explores the civic aspects of our everyday decisions. With yes-or-no answers to simple questions the player navigates through different storylines, all of them modeled to highlight problems of shrinking civic space (restrictions of the right to protest, delegitimisation and demonisation of activists etc).

By offering the ability to easily adapt the gameplay to any problem at hand, it constitutes a versatile tool that can and is intended to be used as an educational tool in both institutional and informal education. An inherent feature is also data-gathering that can be used for a sophisticated (think A/B testing) analysis of behavioural patterns. The Whole Story rests on the natural human ability to learn through play.

Additional support by Ontotext and Fine Acts

Anna Rubi & Mate Nadasdi

There is a big gap between certain social groups that we’d like to sensitize towards each other. The project’s first phase is a research and an extended collection of interviews of various communities. The installation itself is placed within a white room. Even before entering you can hear a slight murmur of voices coming from the room. Inside, from the right, you can find the confessions coming from the people a bit more influenced by populist propaganda and when you reach the left side of the room than you hear the fears of more liberal people.

Approx. 40 invisible microcontrollers with speakers/directional speakers and sensors will be hidden in the walls. As you go closer to one source the murmuring sound is getting more clear and articulated. This effect can be achieved by using ultrasonic sensors controlling the volume and the amount of low-pass audio filter applied to the voice based on the person’s distance, so only once you reach the wall with your ear, you can have an intimate experience of listening to someone’s secret and others won’t be able to hear it.

Additional support by Fine Acts

Katerina Vaseva & Martin Grahovski

Bulgarian Family is an art campaign centered around an interactive installation and six short documentary films. The installation component will allow a variety of NGOs the opportunity to work together with real world families in Bulgaria to curate and design both the physical appearance of the faceless mannequins but also the three meter squared space around them.

Passersby have the opportunity to interact with the installation however they wish whether that be by vandalizing it or showing solidarity with the family of the week. This support will be shown through touch sensors within the hands of the mannequins that in turn illuminate the entire park in which the project will be exhibited.

At the end of each week, the real world families will have the opportunity to reflect on the reactions provoked by their mannequin selves and what this says about the larger issues at hand.

Additional support by Fine Acts

Anna Zsofia Kormos & Gabriela Luhova

FAKE NEWS, REAL LIVES is an art installation - a smart mirror, whose aim is to raise awareness for all of the corrupted, false and misleading information out there on the Internet. The mirror (approx 1m x 2.5m) will look like a standing mirror at first glance and will be put on any crowded public spaces (i.e. airports, universities, bus stations). Moreover, it will have a built-in screen and a 3D camera, which will be executing face recognition. So, once a person approaches the mirror, the face recognition will generate a distorted image of the person. The first impression the person gets is that this is some kind of a game and he/she has the option to see more, which is implying more face filters. But, the next thing appearing on the screen are already published articles, which have person's face on them. This way we make people to put themselves in someone else's shoes and just feel the consequences of fake news and demonizing. This popping up of articles lasts for 10-15 seconds and then there is a QR code and link to our website. So, we are going from offline to online. After the first interaction with our mirror, people have the opportunity to get access to our website, where they can get more information and learn more about fake news and some tips and tricks on how to distinguish them.

Robert Obert & Dragos Silion

AwARe is a series of murals targeted on Fake News and Freedom of Press and Expression, meant to raise awareness and engage people further about the subject, using Augmented Reality tools to enhance the experience and also the messages behind the first layer of perception on this (the mural will become animated, extra messages will pop up, there will be also an option to share your experience on social media, additional information will be available). The project is thought as a series of large scale murals done in several central locations of cities (mainly capitals of Eastern European countries at first) which contain a QR code that allows the AR experience further on. Also, a the inauguration of each piece, there will be an additional installation with tablets that are already connected and ready to use in scanning and entering the Augmented Reality Experience. Using both of these tools, the project will have a double impact on the people, firstly with large scale piece of art that attract the attention and secondly with the Augmented Reality that gives a plus to the message and visual, also becoming more viral and easy to reach more people. AwARe is about opening up the minds of people and raising questions on the authenticity of news and media all around.

Joanna Skorupska & Vena Naskrecka

"Translate The Hate" is a mobile solution, that will sensitized local community on their own surrounding and give them the opportunity to maintain it in a playful way. We use image recognition technology supported by Google Cloud Solution to identify different sights and put a digital layer on it with Augmented Reality. Because freedom of expression is one of our basic rights, instead of fighting with vandalism, we want to give the opportunity to all community members to subvert their environment into the creative and positive way. Our app also gathering Big Data. By analyzing the number, type, and localization of appearance acts of violence we can identify trends and changing behaviors in society and react accordingly in advance.

Alin Răuțoiu & Bogdan Topîrceanu

Starting from the observation that cities have an organic look to them, we want to display the pulse of the civic society, in its broader sense. Our idea is to place in a public square a device that records people’s heartbeats using a digital stethoscope. These sounds will be combined, resulting in a strong and distinct common hum, then visualized over the city as light coursing through the city’s streets reminding us of the blood coursing through our veins. The visualization will be projected inside a geodezic dome where the recording takes place and it will be monitored through an app. Should the people stop recording themselves, the light will fade and the city will die.

The main target audience of this project are young people, who are the most apathetic age-group in our society, but also the ones who would have the most energy to give to civic causes. This installation aims to show them what can be achieved through small, recurring acts of participation and hopefully inspire them to further take part in civic causes.

Ioana Turcan & David Timis

Participation needed is an experimental installation that aims to raise awareness about the importance of voting.

The participant enters the space, where a wall blocks a corridor. In order to open the door you have to engage with the tablet. The tablet shows 10 vote-related questions presenting laws you can vote for or not, connected with your personal environment. You have to reply vocally. At the end of the questionnaire the door opens no matter your answers.

You enter the corridor, there are 2 screens on top of each other. You can choose to go closer or not. On one of the screens you see the empty corridor. On the other screen you see yourself on that corridor symbolizing your absence or presence in the voting process. When you turn to exit, there is a text written in neon light: We Missed Your Voice.

At the exit there is a sign - like at the airport - with a Yes/No button - asking if you think you will vote at the upcoming elections.

Georgi Tomov & Stefan Vartolomeev

We are building a 360 degree VR art installation which starts with you sitting on a couch in the year 1945. The installation will lead you through time simulating the way information is consumed. It highlights how popular media drowns out important news of political, social or ecological nature.

You will see a typical living room with the informational mediums available at the time. If you look behind, you will see a white wall. Time will progress and mediums will change. At a certain moment, the participant will realize that the room is slowly being flooded with water. As the intensity of informational input increases so will the amount of water rise. The aural experience will near a climax and a loud crack will interrupt the onslaught. The person will be able to locate the sound coming from behind. When they look back, they will discover that the white wall is actually a melting iceberg.

The purpose of the installation is to bring awareness to the way we approach and consume information. To make people snap out of the paralyzing state they find themselves in and realize it is up to them to create change.

Katarzyna Pagowska & Oktawian Freus

The Glitch project consists of spatial components placed in public space for several months and a website providing information on the project and the civil society related topics. The image visible on the screen starts as white and black squares. There are movement sensors accompanying it. When a person passes by the installation, not even stopping, the screen reacts for a second yet everything remains as it was. However, every time each of us stops for a while in front of the image it reacts with small changes - pixels are flipped over to reveal the colour beneath the simplified surface. With every new participant, more and more pixels are flipped.

The Glitch contributes towards acknowledgement how vital it is to grapple over the complexity of the civil debate through individual engagement. The need for civil society does not apply just to the centers of major cities, it is crucial to foster the idea in the peripheral areas, small towns, forgotten corners.

Balint Komenczi & Pardeep Attri

Our project is on the problem of fragmented Hungarian society where different communities don't have interaction with each other. Civil society and democracy can not work properly in a society without interactions.

We will bring ten participants from Roma and non-Roma communities together for a week where they have to interact and collaborate. This alternative reality show will give an example how different communities can live and act together as responsible citizens. We will also create the frames to start a discussion on prejudices and stereotypes. It would challenge the government's negative narrative against the particular community, too.