Written by: Ali R. Blake * 1 , Melita Morales * 2 , Jon M. Wargo 3 , Alex Corbitt 4 , & Joseph Madres 1
*shared first authorship. 1- Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA. 2 - School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. 3 - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. 4 - State University of New York at Cortland, NY, USA
Abstract: In this paper, we follow the co-constitutive material-participant relationships that propel action in escape room play, particularly how they open and close paths for learning. We focus on how learning is organized in one escape room game, The Author’s Enigma, as intertwined with conversations on play and learning to consider the relational values and ideologies that appear through more-than-human encounters. We contribute a critical (new) materialist draw toward material-participant intra-actions to notice the production of narrowed messages, as well as openings that lead toward multiplicity. Thinking-with-theory; we take up Ahmed’s (2006) concepts of orientation and disorientation to consider objects’ arrivals and their not-yet-presence. We also move with Barad’s (2003) concept of intra-action, perceiving more-than-human actors as ‘matter-in-the-process-of-becoming’. Following a conch shell as a vibrant material in the ecology of escape, we trace participants and the shell through moments of intra-action across escape play. We detail the communicative forms produced through material intra-actions as both open and closed, while producing resonant logics with players in the room. We discuss implications for: 1) game-based approaches to education; 2) disruption to assimilative lenses for sensing and supporting learning; and 3) valuing particular relational arrangements with materials.
Keywords: orientation, disorientation, intra-action, thinking-with-theory, escape rooms, play, games, posthumanism, materiality