THE TERROR DRILL
The Terror Drill is a role-playing workshop.
It helps people explore their responses to terrorism through a series of emergency simulations in the post-9/11 era.
When violence happens in an unexpected place, fear limits our ability to understand what’s going on and to act accordingly. This workshop helps participants build resilience to the crippling ambiguity of fear by exposing them to historical terror scenarios.
Watch the demo
The dissertation.pdf
THE WORKSHOP
Imagine a shooting at a mall. One person might only hear a series of loud muffled sounds, whereas another might be blinded by a flash and deafened by gunfire.
During unexpected violence, each witness or victim can experience wild differences in perspective. Details become confusing and the truth seems out of reach.
The workshop exposes this insight in 3 parts.
1
first-hand experience
Participants are placed on inflatable mats. Each mat is partitioned into the different areas of a hypothetical mall (a cafe, a department store, a jewelry shop, etc). Depending on where you are in the mall, you experience something different. Each experience is discovered via a QR code, which shows a snippet of what happened at that perspective on a mobile phone.
2
response sheet
Each participant uses the sum of their experiences to guess what happened. Then, they write down their guesses on Response Sheets. Some participants may recognize a terrorist threat and leave, while others may actually stay in the mall believing a minor accident occurred. What each participant chooses to do depends on what they think happened and, if they recognize a threat, whether they would fight or escape.
Everyone compares their individual Response Sheets to the Truth Sheet, which pieces all the clues together and describes what actually happened. Participants find out they respond completely differently or similarly from each other, and debate the merits of their reactions.
3
group discussion
Each round of the workshop uses the same inflatable mats for different scenarios. The QR codes display different content for each scenario.
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
The Age of Terror
Shaping the Cognition of Terrorism: 9/11 Attacks as a Milestone
The image of the collapsing Twin Towers covered with flames has left an iconic impression of terrorism on the mass public; hence, this has shaped the public’s perception towards terrorism. It’s not only about the catastrophe itself, but also how life has been directly changed since that time.
The chart shows how the law enforcement agencies investigate an event during the period of a disaster/emergency cycle.
This project is focused on the phase between mitigation and preparation.
Users were interviewed through SKYPE, and they are from different cultural and educational backgrounds.
To make the interviews discursive and semi-structured, I made sure the questions in the questionnaire were open-ended.
Some claimed they heard gunshots; others thought it was a terror attack in Selfridges. Twitter users posted various versions of the event, and yet, the truth was not known until late that night.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Reference for different cases of emergency simulations.
British Transport Police: See it. Say it. Sorted. A news campaign on the London tube.
Mind Setting Strategy / How to Deal with Uncertainty
Here I will introduce the OODA Loop as the strategy of my workshop. OODA (Observe, Orient, Direct, Act) Loop is a strategic tool which is used as a military strategy from nation-states and even to terrorist organisations. It’s a learning system and a method for dealing with uncertainty.
Orient includes the most important phase, as it is a mind-setting stage between the process of gathering information and making a decision. Hence, what and how how users are exposed to really matters during the Observe phase.By designing contents(information) of the simulation, I expect users will have a chance to experience different cases of attacks and to build mindset of their own in the end.
Gamestorming Iteration
By simulating a terror attack in a shopping centre, the workshop aims to test people’s reaction to an emergency based on information they gathered gradually on site.
Simultaneously, it also tests how information and public reaction affect others.
Design Process
Building The Workshop
I drew inspiration for scenarios by researching a few real-life terror events (such as the attacks on Manchester and the London Bridge in 2017). First-hand accounts and online footage were used to construct the details revealed by the QR codes.
The original design model for the workshop placed the participants outdoors. The workshop moderator would direct the participants from an overhead platform.
For the first iteration, the game was moved indoors and prototyped on large pieces of paper and tape.
Alpha testers provided feedback on the very first round of the workshop.
Feedback from the first round led to a more realistic and accessible platform design with entrances, emergency exits, and additional locations for QR codes.
The second version of the platform layout.
First round testers thought the workshop was a detective game. They felt no urgency or fear, so their responses were calculated.
To immerse the players in intense emotion, I transformed the platforms into inflatable mats so that, for example, a participant could be tackled at random without getting hurt.
A model of the mattress-ified platforms, modeled in Marvelous Designer and KeyShot.
material design and construction of the Inflatable Mats
It was time to create the stitching for the inflatable mats, to be passed to a manufacturer.
(a) Custom stitching was required to create inflatable mats in the shape of triangles and rectangles. They also needed to have holes to hold QR codes. Stitching for the inflatable mats were simulated in software.
(b) These designs were handed off to a a factory in Guangzhou, China for manufacture. They weren’t able to include holes like I wanted, so they used an internal string structure to create the desired shape and feel of the inflatable mats.
For the QR codes, I designed a detachable magnet that fit into the circles of the inflatable mats. Half of the magnet is stitched onto the mat. The other half is for the participant to pick up and turn over, exposing the QR code, much like one would turn over a stone to discover what's underneath.
Making of the Workshop Film
I decided to create a short film to introduce the public to the workshop. To make it engaging, I wanted to make it game show-like. This feeling was created by intentional decisions in casting, costume, makeup, hair, and script.
For example, this man runs the workshop in the film. You're not sure whether to trust him (because he runs the workshop) or to distrust him (because he cracks strange jokes and looks odd), reflecting the ambiguity of fear present in the feeling of terror.
Fashion design: Daoyuan Ding. Make-up artist: Snowkei. Hair stylist: asashi_sano.
