Fantasy Political League
London, 2017
OVERVIEW
A playful activity that aims to create a political discussion providing a fresh point of view in the post-truth area.
Disillusioned by the Brexit vote and the 2016 USA presidential elections, I wanted to tackle the post-truth era issues with a tool that will focus the political discussion on facts and performances. The Fantasy Political League is a lens that analyses political figures and actions through a tool used in football. Just like in the game of Fantasy Football, participants form teams of political players while following a simple set of rules. They can then follow the actions of their players and other people in the political world and may replace them according to their performances. This tool creates conversations that keep politicians' performances in constant discourse.
DESIGN THINKING
RESEARCH
VISUAL DESIGN
USER TESTING
ANIMATIONS
PROCESS
From zero to expert
The theoretical basis for this project was my BA dissertation “Invitation to Play” where I wrote about ways we can use fantasy worlds created by games to change our reality.
I chose to pursue football and the vast world created around it. Football creates communities, rivalries, common behaviour and language. I wanted to use the interaction with the game of football as the instrument to change the political conversation. During the course of this project, I fully immersed myself in these two worlds, becoming an expert and finding the friction points between the two. I explored how football can influence politics and used it to develop the Fantasy Political League. To frame it all, I formed my team - Guinea Pigs Political Team - followed the players, changed and replaced them and documented it all in a blog inspired by a football team’s website. When other political teams formed, I found the conversations around them to be the most enjoyable part of the process. It was insightful, both from the political standpoint and project development.
