EUROSPIN: Betting on Disaster

The serpentine and chaotic system of bonds which link the countries of European Union together weave its way across distant lands and ends up in your breakfast muesli; what might look like a humble orange is in fact an integral agent in the health of the continent’s economies. Based on a game structure derived from research into the interconnected import and export of agricultural goods (vulnerable and vital; commodity items and cultural artefacts), EUROSPIN project is a choose-your-own-adventure imagined as a slot machine-style game which sees the 28 member states of the European Union as balancing Jolly jesters on the stars of a spinning roulette. As Casino Capitalism is in full swing and European economies are teetering on the edge of various agricultural crises, can the logic of the casino be used to combat apocalyptic euro-uncertainty?

Adopting the aesthetics of early 2000’s gaming sites, EUROSPIN democratizes a labyrinthine system, opening it up to comprehension via popular means. Gifs, pop-ups, effects and sounds overlap to create a new means of understanding concepts usually confined to fluctuating digits on flickering stock market displays. Click the button and play the game, will failure of the wine crop in France led to the toppling your favourite Jester? The player is given the power to navigate the numerous permutations of possible crises; but be warned, the Greek olive determines the future but the approximate olive does not approximately determine the future.