Most recently, Knot Network was featured at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, the world's largest interdisciplinary gathering of science professionals. Nearly 6,000 attendees were invited to rip, knot, and network!

Knot Network is a large-scale artwork built through simple yet unique contributions from many individuals. Upon closer inspection, Knot Network is more than spectacular, tactile art; it is a tool. The art-making process allows for any number of people to connect more deeply with one another in a fun, non-intimidating environment, while the seemingly whimsical outcome reveals a visual representation of significant connections amongst participants.

Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History invited HERD to perform in the annual GLOW Festival. What is that you say? You are telling us we get to light up the night with creepy crawlies? And we get to herd innocent bystanders at the same time? We're in.

We rehearsed some new herding techniques for this one.

Imagine you're in a huge 2-story lobby enjoying an arts exhibit, when a 20' wide by 10' high fabric wall appears and slowly corrals you and your friends towards the glass-walled entryway... You're packed like sardines with the rest of the crowd, and now the performance moves outside to the patio, leaving you to observe from behind the glass like art connoisseurs in a fish bowl.

But you don't mind one bit. You are captivated by the intricate patterns on the projection-mapped building exterior, the soothing sounds of the automated yet ancient Indian instruments, and the rolling sea of 25-foot LED waves. ...And suddenly you are released, and find yourself joining the procession as the performance goes rogue, winding its way around a city block in San Francisco.

HERD: WALLS had the opportunity for an encore performance, this time at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which teamed up with Institute for the Future to produce Open City / Art City. The event invites the Bay Area community to imagine how we can build a city that is more open, creative, and inclusive. 

Come Out & Play is an annual festival of street games that turns New York City & San Francisco into a giant playground. The event provides a forum for new types of public games and play by bringing together players eager to interact with the world around them and designers producing innovative new games and experiences.

ATLAS is a chance-based urban wayfinding game that invites players to invent adventurous forms of navigation, sending them in unexpected directions and altering ways of interacting with the spaces and fellow humans that surround them. Each game results in a co-created map that documents the collective journey. It is not unusual for Atlas players to get lost in familiar territory, stumbling upon treasures that always existed but were never noticed.

Co-created with Richie Israel and Jared Wood. 

Caught in the Act was featured in San Francisco’s Come Out & Play Festival this year!!!

It is a thrilling game of espionage and evidence-gathering to be played by 3-9 people in a bar setting. (Yup, kind of a guerilla-style public interruption of sorts — but all in good fun. In fact, one of our underlying objectives was to connect strangers in a way that prioritized playful public interaction over boozing in impermeable bar scene bubbles.)

Here’s the setup story…

The Heist Crew is planning a heist that’s going down in 10 minutes. The Security has that time to identify the specific missions to foil the heist.

●      Heist Crew goal: complete 3 (and only 3) of your 6 missions without being detected.

●      Security goal: at game end, correctly identify which of the 3 missions the Heist completed.

Setup:

●      Total players = 3 to 9.
Divide your group into Security and Heist Crew.

●      There should be 2 Heist Crew for every 1 Security. (If you have 5 players, try 2 security and 3 heist. If you have 7, try 3 and 4. 8: 3 and 5.)

●      Players go to the website to get an assignment of 6 missions. Share info with all players.

●      Everyone set a clock timer of 12 minutes.

●      Security Crew leaves for two minutes of recon.

●      Heist Crew privately decides 3 of the 6 missions to act out and makes their plan.

●      After two minutes, the game is on! The action will last 10 minutes.

Winning:

●      After 10 minutes of play, meet at the starting point. If Security correctly identifies the 3 completed missions, or if Heist does not complete 3 missions, then Security wins. Otherwise, Heist wins!

At the website, teams input the preferred “level” of play:

• Small/empty venue -> subtle missions

• Large/busy venue -> obvious missions

Example missions might be:

[S] Subtle -- [MM] Medium -- [OOO] Obvious

Individual Missions

●      [OOO] Scope out the area: Stand on a chair and circle 360 degree.

●      [S] Recon the bar: take a photo the bartender preparing a drink.

●      [MM] Identity theft: take a photo of a non-player’s credit card or ID.

●      [OOO] Don’t forget to eat: take sequential two bites of something.

●      [OOO] Create a diversion: pretend to trip & fall on the ground.

●      [MM] Practice your cool: pretend to smoke a cigarette and take a selfie.

●      [OOO] Send a secret message: make a paper airplane and throw it

●      [MM] Work on your balance: hold one foot against opposite knee for 10 seconds.

●      [S] Poison a drink: put a straw into a bottle or can and take a picture.

●      [S] Revitalize your energy: take a selfie of your drinking something through a straw.

●      [MM] Counter-recon: take picture of a Security player

●      [MM] Request a change in the music

Multi-person Missions

●      [MM] Create a diversion: Get a non-player to look at the ceiling by pointing

●      [MM] Find your mark: Collect 73 cents of change from non players.

●      [OOO] Practice drugging a target: buy a drink for a stranger. They must take a sip.

●      [MM] Record an audio password: Get a stranger to say “Swordfish”

●      [S] Exchange codes: Whisper “Have you noticed anyone acting really weird in here?” in someone’s ear

●      [OOO] Obtain counterfeit cash: get change for a bill from someone else

●      [S] Diversion: Tap someone on shoulder and be on his/her opposite side

●      [OOO] Identity theft: Get a non-player’s autograph.

●      [MM] Plant a bug: Give someone a 5-second minimum hug

●      [MM] Identity theft: Find out a stranger’s full name (including middle)

●      [MM] Send a codephrase: Pass someone a note

●      [MM] Bluff your way in: Play rock/paper/scissors with a stranger

●      [MM] Identity theft: Find out someone’s birthday or astrological sign

●      [MM] Record the moment: Take a selfie with someone else who is facing camera

●      [S] Seal the deal: Shake hands with someone at the bar.

Weird, right? And way fun. Or at least we thought so. And so did the attendees at the Come Out & Play Festival!

This was a group effort that came out of a weekend-long game design event. (Amazing what you can accomplish in a short amount of time and with endless caffeine, snacks, and playmates!) Team members included Albert Kong, Sam Bobra, John Rogers Oliver, Erik Koland, and Gabe Smedresman.

From dozens of proposals, HERD was selected as the recipient of the Best Emerging Artist Award, and was a feature performance at this year's Live Arts Exchange Festival in Los Angeles, California. And wow, did we perform. In this participatory experimental research performance, the unsuspecting audience members in this blackbox theatre were the center of the experiment. We moved these gracious participants through a process that at times was fascinating and entertaining, but at other times uncomfortable. Each time the physical formations of the spaces changed, social norms were subverted and reactions amplified. From avoidance and shouting to singing and dancing (and even a bit of blood), this experiment delivered a wide range of information on what it means to Herd Humans.  

WALLS, a project of HERD, uses modular set design, large-scale interactive installations, and contemporary performance to forge connections across diverse communities, rethink space and human flow within space, and catalyze play as the building blocks for social innovation.

The project is based on research of animal herding behaviors and corralling systems, urban planning and design, and fundamental psychology of interpersonal interactions and co-creation. WALLS has been and continues to be a multi-phase, scenario-driven experimental approach to revealing findings that further the work.

We took a field trip to University of California - Davis, where we were guided by the Chair of the renowned Department of Animal Science. Inspired by Temple Grandin's work on corralling systems and animal welfare, we wanted to see and feel the realities of manmade animal herding systems. 

How would you like to experience your same ol' neighborhood through completely fresh eyes? Or maybe you want to get to know a new city without jumping on the tour bus?

ATLAS is an urban way-finding game that invites you to navigate a city in a way you would not have otherwise. Through beautifully-designed navigation cards, 2-3 players are guided on a spontaneous journey with special attention to the seemingly mundane. You will notice new qualities of an environment you pass through every day, connect more deeply with a place, and maybe even transform strangers into friends.

After players use a card (and sometimes the included compass) to navigate the next phase of their ATLAS journey, they add another leg of the route to their hand-drawn map. The collaborative map documents each game, usually in the most abstract of ways. And the only rule? Never let anyone outside of the game know that you are playing the game.

ATLAS accommodates and supports a variety of different ways to learn and to express. Through loads of test playing, we refined each card to bring maximum fun and guaranteed stories. Featured at Come Out & Play Festival - San Francisco among other public and private events. 

Interested in having ATLAS in your own hands or for a gift? Great for visiting a new city, giving a fun focus to otherwise awkward first dates, or simply gaining appreciation for your own neighborhood!

Co-created by Richie Israel, Jared Wood, & Kate Spacek. 

LAST Festival. San Jose, CA. and more...

They emerged from the ocean. 

Slowly but surely they crawled, changing before our eyes. 

Transformed by the air, the sand, the rhythm of the wind. 

What were these beasts of the sea? 

How did they come here and for what purpose?

Emergence is the first production of the multi-disciplinary, multi-platform HERD project, which explores the connections between and impacts of animal and human herding behaviors. HERD: Emergence premiered at the Bloom Festival in Santa Cruz, California - and the Pacific Ocean served as the perfect backdrop.

In a fantastical multi-media performance, eve Warnock and Kate Spacek bring the consequences of a polluted ocean to life with the emergence of an evolved self-organized species from our oceans. Using researched-based algorithms to inform movement, these species will evolve and transform in front of your eyes. Compelling costumes, set, sounds, and projections will allow these organisms to dwell, feed, and reproduce among us.

I am pleased to announce a new initiative at ZERO1: The Art & Technology Network (Where Art Meets Technology to Shape the Future). We have received a grant from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to implement a program we designed, called American Arts Incubator. 

The ECA has partnered with us to launch a new media and mural arts program, American Arts Incubator, which sends U.S. artists abroad to team up with local youth, women, artists, and organizations to create impactful community-driven arts-based projects.

American Arts Incubator is a new creative exchange program using art to address pressing social challenges and promote cross-cultural collaboration.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

American Arts Incubator is a hybrid of training lab, production workshop, and public exhibition. The program will create opportunities for innovation by translating creative practices used by artists into community-driven artworks and ongoing arts programming that will bolster local economies, influence public policy, and further social change.

The project involves a unique micro-granting program developed by ZERO1 in cooperation with ECA to be implemented in the chosen countries: Laos, Mongolia, Papa New Guinea, and The Philippines. Via virtual exchange amongst overseas artists, international embassies, and community leaders, a network will emerge of fully documented, global, community-driven art projects centered on developing citizenship, addressing pressing social issues, and promoting cross-cultural understanding and collaboration.

Contact me with questions: kate[at]zero1[dot]org

autodesk headquarters, san francisco

What if ten people in a class speak ten different languages? How do you find a common method of communication? One answer: Play!

For six months, Kate Spacek facilitated weekly "experiments" to explore what Play is and what it is not, what is required for people to enter a playful state of mind and body, and how perceptions of Play differ across cultures. 

Using games as a foundational tool to integrate art, movement, story-telling, sound, non-verbal communication, team challenges, and all sorts of spontaneity, the course content was a surprise to every student, every time. To find each student's own definitions and parameters of Play, occasionally the activities triggered some discomfort, which in itself was a powerful learning experience for all involved. And Kate pushed her own boundaries as well, making it a rule to add at least one newly-designed game or untested activity to the curricula each week.

Most frequently, classmates who entered the studio as strangers were crafting lunch plans together after class. Middle-aged men and women became teary-eyed, confessing they had not felt these sensations of freedom since childhood. Students entered as adults busy with the rigors of daily routine and walked out calm, liberated, and wide-eyed to the possibilities of creative potential around them and within them. 

Eiji Han Shimizu, producer of the critically-acclaimed film HAPPY, continues to offer the film's premise (and his own aligned passions) in different formats. One way he 

How fortunate! LUDIKA was invited again to facilitate an afternoon of Play at HAPPY Bootcamp, the brilliant creation of Eiji Han Shimizu, Producer of the critically-acclaimed film, Happy. Rooted in practices of mindfulness, HAPPY Bootcamp gently and effectively invites participants to find their "happy" from within.

A genuine state of Play brings people to the present moment, letting go of concerns about their task list or looking bad in front of others. We open to spontaneity and deeper connections with ourselves and others. Play and mindfulness go hand-in-hand.

With the Grand Jury Prize from the Amsterdam Film Festival and a slew of awards and accolades from international festivals and top film critics, HAPPY: The Movie has gone beyond a compelling documentary; HAPPY: The Movie is a movement. The film's producer invited LUDIKA's founder, Kate Spacek, to add some pizazz to his newest creation - HAPPY Bootcamp.

One small detail... none of the campers speak English. Another opportunity to reveal Play as a common language! This crew of shy yet kind and eager individuals opened slowly but surely to the freedom brought about by collaborative art and games. By the end of the day, our faces hurt from all the happiness.

"Whether you want to make a difference in the world, be filthy rich, raise your children to be incredible human beings, live life to the fullest, or all of the above... Play is your answer, but maybe not how you might think. Play is a primal and biological process, as important as getting enough sleep or exercising. Without play, life becomes mechanical, your mood darkens, you become less productive, less alert, less connected, less healthy, less happy."

In Bali, Indonesia, where the people's smiling eyes and openness to the unexpected exemplify the qualities of Play, the audience embraced the message through this new perspective. Kate invited the eager crowd to see Play as a state of being as opposed to something you do, and that this state of being requires intentional action. Incorporating playfulness into our physical and mental realms will impact every area of life, from family and health to relationships and corporate culture, on both micro and macro scales..