Levelfive

LevelFive, an ongoing series of larps originally performed at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2010), later at the Zero1 Art festival San Jose (2010), The AND Art Festival Liverpool (2011) and The Berlin Biennale (2016). The piece was created by Brody Condon, the larp mechanics and structures by Bjarke Pedersen and additional work by Tobias Wrigstad and Monica Hjort Traxl.

LevelFive investigated the ideological legacy of controversial large group self-actualization seminars from late 1970s in America. These seminars were emotionally intense multi-day sessions of talks, physical exercises and manipulative group dynamics with the goal of breaking down the participants’ everyday identities and liberate the inner self. A single seminar could attract thousands of participants, who hoped to unlearn societal constraints and achieve personal transformation. Values and practices from this once influential movement still shape fields like management consulting today; the larp took the participants back to the self-actualization seminars at the source.

Video form the 2010 runs of the larp in Los Angeles.

Trailer made with footage from Los Angeles and San Jose.

Video of Brody Condon talking about the context of the larp

Video of 2016 run at the Berlin Biennale