Crate & Barrel
Crate & Barrel (2007) was a project that looked into critiquing first person shooters usage of crates and barrels in level design. Looking at this long held and unchanged trope of placing crates and barrels seemingly arbitrarily within levels to complicate space, setup jumping puzzles, provide cover or add “atmosphere.” I began to think what would it be like if these crates and barrels could speak their mind and express their opinions about their arbitrary use by game designers.
With Crate and Barrel I created both a crate and barrel within Second Life (the sanctuary for refugees of their respective kinds) that could express their opinions of their usage in first person shooters, their hardships and their experience. They speak to anyone who walks nearby to them and began to launch into their call to action to stop game developers from using them in such ways.