Data can be ignored. Experience cannot.

RECORD is a 2-player board game about interpretation failure in asylum interviews. One player is the Applicant. One is the Interpreter. The Applicant writes testimony on paper strips, one idea per strip. The Interpreter draws constraint cards and decides what enters the official record. The rest stays behind. The final decision uses what was recorded, not what was said. Neither player is trying to cause harm. The system is.

Components

  • 45 Constraint Cards across three tiers: Procedural, Institutional, Systemic
  • 15 Question Cards across five groups: The Departure, The Threat, The Place, The Journey, Return
  • 3 Decision Cards: Approved, Deferred, Refused
  • 3 Case Files: Nasrin M., Khalid A., Leila H.
  • Game board, paper strips, INAUDIBLE cards, Approved Vocabulary reference card

Status

Prototype complete. Workshop sessions being built. Contact to discuss facilitation.

RECORD prototype board game components RECORD prototype in play RECORD prototype cards and materials

VR / WebXR / method

RECORD

The simulation makes the hidden process visible: speech becomes interpretation, interpretation becomes record, and the record becomes judgment.

XR RECORD ENGINE LIVE DRIFT: 42%

Input testimony

I cannot say this here.

Interpreted record

I do not know.
speech captured meaning unstable record hardening

Simulation premise

By the time the decision is written, the original speech may no longer be recoverable from the document.

VR and WebXR make the lag felt: speaking, being interpreted, being recorded, then being judged by a version that hardened without your control.

  1. Person speaksTestimony begins as situated, emotional, culturally specific speech.
  2. Interpretation driftsWords get compressed, softened, standardised, mistranslated, or made legible to the institution.
  3. Record hardensThe transcript or interview note becomes the version people cite.
  4. Decision is madeThe institution treats the record as testimony.

System behaviour

Meaning changes state.

Language moves through layers. Each one adds pressure: delay, compression, domain mismatch, procurement logic, and the demand for a stable record.

01Speech

situated, partial, embodied

02Interpretation

compressed, substituted, reframed

03Record

fixed, searchable, comparable

04Decision

treated as fact

Method

Embodied record-making

The user sits inside the chain. Each stage changes what can be heard, remembered, and challenged.

Use

Teaching and public engagement

The simulation supports workshops, legal education, talks, and research demonstrations about language failure in high-stakes settings.