contamination
Contamination is a cooperative board game based on Forbidden Island. The aim of the game is to educate people on the concept of environmental injustices in the context of North America. Through modifications of the original game, it highlights significant instances of environmental injustices and emphasizes key players who have a role in mitigating the negative effects of these injustices on groups who have been historically disadvantaged. The project focused on implementing indicators such as colour and symbols as forms of visual communication. This project was completed in collaboration with Shawn Gochan and Daniel Mare.
work as A team to keep the regions from becoming over contaminated in order to save citizens from falling ill or worse… dying Region Tiles
The Region Tiles make up the game board. Each region represents where an incident of environmental injustice or racism occurred in either Canada or the United States of America. A photograph of the place or a protest is on each tile and they are to be made to look like a polaroid snapshot of each incident. The back has the warning symbol for biohazards. The green reflects toxic substances such as arsenic which produce a bright green hue. The Contamination cards below correspond to the region tiles.
Contamination Cards
The twelve Contamination cards correspond to the Region Tiles. When one of these cards is drawn, the region it corresponds to becomes contaminated and is flipped over. If the region is already contaminated, then it turns into a biohazard and is removed from play.
Factor Cards
Each Factor indicates a component that can influence the mitigation of environmental justice or racism or help alleviate the negative consequences that result from either.
Research +
Policy
The research card is purple because of the colour’s association with wisdom and wealth of knowledge. The policy card is blue because of its associations with security and order.
Education +
Technology
The education card is yellow due to the colour’s association with intellect. The orange hue of the technology card is associated with innovation.
Protest
Protest is a special action card. The act of protest calls to attention the power community action has in exposing Environmental injustices. It is green because of its association with environmental activism and has the raised fist as a symbol of unity and/or solidarity.
Lawsuit
Lawsuit serves as a special action card because of the impact the law has on the implementation of policies, legislation, regulation, etc. The red symbolizes is red power and has the scales as an icon for justice.
Increase in Toxicity
This card has the hazard symbol for toxic chemicals — the skull and crossbones. The green is used to indicate associations to contamination and toxicity
Role Cards
Each card represents a role a player can take on in the game (Lawyer, Activist, or Researcher). The player’s role corresponds to the colour pawn they use during the game. Each role has a special exception to certain actions that can be taken during a player’s turn.
To Win…
Collect all four Factors and all pawns are at Houston (where Environmental Justice has its roots) and use the Lawsuit card to serve justice
Loss
The game is lost if any of the following occurs:A tile corresponding to a Factor becomes a Biohazard
Houston becomes a Biohazard
A pawn is on a Region tile that becomes a Biohazard and can’t get to an adjacent tile
Toxicity reaches the peak Biohazard level