Call for Interactive Art
Premiere & Afterparty · May 16 at Gray Area in SF
If you'd like to sneak in some low-lift art, send us an email.
An indie visual thriller about narrative warfare
Reality Games is a video game thriller about two kids in a battle of narrative warfare over the internet — built to spark conversation about disinformation, weaponized narrative control, and how we take back our collective agency. It premieres at the Victoria Theater in the Mission on May 16, followed by a 650-person afterparty at Gray Area.
We're a fully independent team who have been working on this project for seven years.
Partygoers will arrive buzzing from the film and ready to let loose with DJs, drinks, and conversation. That's where you come in.
Guests will be assigned one of two teams:
The blue team, standing for optimism, positivity, possibility, and morality. They want to improve things and focus on the good.
The red team, standing for justice, stress-testing systems and people, and self-reliance. They call it like they see it.
Guests will also get a secret card with missions that send them to interact with the people and the art. The winning team will be tracked on a leaderboard the size of the whole room.
We're looking for art that:
- ⚔️ Plays with dynamics of competition vs cooperation
Prisoners' dilemmas, us vs them battles, a hugging station, reflections on "the other" - ✨ Sparks curiosity, introspection, or play
- 🤝 Helps partygoers enjoy the party and connect with each other
- 🛡️ Is accessible and safe
- 🧩 Can integrate into our theme and story
Some ways to integrate, from simple to more involved:
- Using red and blue colors or lighting
- Letting players gain points on our leaderboard
- Referencing our characters' images or our story
We'll help you integrate and brainstorm, and can get you access to watch the film.
Art Examples
Use your creativity and explore what's interesting to you. Your art can be simple or complex, digital, physical, or a roving conceptual social game.
Get placed into a scene, head swapped, turned into a friend, or make your digital twin available for the night
A playful experience of being totally owned
Hacky sack, flip cup, but the rules keep changing, etc.
Playing with game theory
Themes to explore
- 🎭 Manipulation: what are the subtle ways we are manipulated without being aware of it?
- 🔍 Figuring out what's real: identifying real images, two truths and a lie
- 💡 Emotional detection or strange new ways of interacting with technology
- 🪞 Self vs other: mirrors, mirages, and illusions
Bonus points if your art:
- Can be woven into the world of the movie.
- Takes up space or subdivides space. Gray Area is big, and we need a few big pieces.
- Has a competitive and a collaborative mode, and a secret way to flip them.
- Uses AI to create a deeper or novel experience.
We will provide
- 💰 A stipend to cover budget and materials of up to $500 ($1000 if you are integrating more deeply into our story world)
- 🎟️ Tickets and drinks for your team
- 🤲 Support with placement and integrating your work into the event. You can:
- Put a mission related to your art on the mission card people get at the start of the game
- Integrate into other parts of the event (DJ set, a performance, themed cocktails)
- Integrate into the marketing and communications in the lead-up to the event
We suggest applying with art that you know you can create on this timeline. What can you make quickly, or what have you already built that can be expanded upon or repurposed?
Submissions are now closed.
If you'd like to sneak in some low-lift art, send us an email.
We're screening at the Victoria. We can organize community nights, talkbacks, and group discounts.
Get updates on screenings, art calls, and behind-the-scenes content.
A lead artist, marketers, a marketing street team. If you're interested, get in touch!
