Sindi Breshani
About
I am a designer and writer based in London. My work explores the intersection of documentary filmmaking and games and I have exhibited at Tate Briain, Somerset House, and the V&A Museum of Childhood. My first philosophical paper "Inside a Game" was recently published at the Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective.
Growing up in post-dictatorship Albania and the aftermath of the Kosovo War, I witnessed firsthand how stories frame reality and define how we perceive each other.
Statement
As the child of two parents who grew up in a totalitarian regime, I have always been haunted by their account of a system they once worshiped but now recall as an absurd memory from the past. The shadow of the dictatorship still prevails in Albania, not only imposing its presence through the hundreds of bunkers built across the country but also hidden in collective memories of control and manipulation.
My perception of the dictatorship is formed from various pieces of information collected during my upbringing in Albania and is thus distinctly different from that of my parents. I have been hesitant to take the challenge of representing a whole historical period, despite my life-long curiosity. When I began interviewing, the individuals I met moved me completely, and I knew then that I was not going to simply tell the story of the Albanian dictatorship: the world needed to know their stories. Hopefully, my docu-game Diktatura will inspire its audience to detect authoritarian insurgencies and hold power to account.
DIKTATURA
What you are about to experience is based on the testimonies of individuals who lived during the Albanian dictatorship, whose voices you will encounter throughout the journey.
You, however, are entirely fictional.
Medium: Dystopian docu-game based on the Albanian dictatorship
Teaser Trailer
About
Diktatura is an upcoming VR docu-game that explores life inside a totalitarian regime, based on true accounts from individuals who experienced the Albanian dictatorship. You are transported to the center of a dystopian country, where you adopt the role of the Secretary of the Party monitoring your neighborhood by collecting information on its residents. As you progress through the narrative, you see the dictatorship from different perspectives, experiencing the life of each individual, and their untold stories. By drawing parallels between the Albanian dictatorship and our current times, Diktatura offers a unique take on nationalism, surveillance, and data collection.
You can test a playthrough of Diktatura during Games for Change Festival New York (Online).
http://festival.gamesforchange.org/
Due to premiere agreements, I cannot show the VR experience. Please contact me for more information.
My role in the project: Creator, Director, Writer
In Collaboration with:
- Marco Evangelisti
Developer - Nedi Breshani
Developer - Juliette Coquet
3D Artist - James Dovey
UX Designer - Avjerino Vjero
Composer - Dimitris Menexopoulos
Sound Designer - Frenkli Vjero
Sound Designer - Egis Breshani
Business Developer
Script Excerpts
More Projects
Other projects I have worked on during these past two years.
RACE FOR THE ARCTIC
Race for the Arctic is an experimental docu-game in which players race as freight-shipping companies to deliver their cargo across the arctic. Each lap of the race represents a different epoch of climate change in the region. As the game narrative travels in fast-motion towards the end of the 21st century the environment is transformed, new race routes open up, and subtle details emerge.
My role in the project: Director and Producer
Medium: Experimental docu-game
In Collaboration with:
- James Roadnight
Director and Producer - Juliette Coquet
Art Director - Feiqi Wang
Art Director - Sammy Selin
Art Director - Dimitris Menexopoulos
Composer and Sound Designer
THE VILLAGE
The Village is an interactive open world story originally designed for the V&A Museum of Childhood; Festival of Play that answers the question How can we use VR to bring to life an old form of play? The story was built based on characters and events created by local schoolchildren. Over two days of the festival, the experience attracted over 300 visitors. They could virtually enter inside the installation of Rachel Whiteread with the same name, after receiving a physical train ticket and a sticker.
My role in the project: Writer
Medium: Open world interactive story
In Collaboration with:
- Juliette Coquet
3D Artist - Izabela Duszenko
Toy Designer - Dimitris Menexopoulos
Composer and Sound Designer - Feiqi Wang
3D Artist - Anna Tuhus
Writer
PROPAGANDA
Propaganda is a board game that unravels contemporary methods of control and manipulation that structure what we accept as reality. Grasping current events in the perspective of a propagandist, players establish loyalties and target audiences in order to build power - for power produces and silences ‘truths’ - and increase the number of followers, which will make their perspective win. Beside strategic decisions, players encounter lucky and unlucky moments extracted from our post-truth era, including hashtag movements, conspiracy theories and data protection laws. This game ultimately suggests that one story is not the only story, but a story that happened to win the game of propaganda.