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The Initiation
Writer, Designer, Researcher | Site-Specific Narrative Scavenger Hunt
Yale is famous for its secret societies, yet most people don't get to experience them.
So I created a free site-specific story journey that allowed anyone to join in on the gothic fun.
For my senior thesis at Yale, I created a cult.
Technically, I used a custom site-specific narrative scavenger hunt as a creative research methodology to write a fifty-page paper on how political ideology influences methods of immersion in location-based entertainment experiences. But cult sounds snappier.
Secret Society initiation rituals. Sans goat sacrifices.
Initiates traveled around Yale's campus and New Haven to reveal story beats and join a secret, underground order.
Strange Insignias, U.S. War Spies, and Trompe L'oeil Paintings.
This ancient society has pre-American origins. Their signs and symbol linger throughout the city.
"Wait, is this real?"
Using existing Yale's infrastructure, history, and mythological connection to secret societies, the story blended fact and fiction.
Thesis Reviews
I used this experience as my primary source for a research paper about how political ideology, specifically marxist aesthetics, could influence types of immersion in site-specific immersive experiences. Here are excerpts from my readers:
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"I was one of those lucky ones who went on that journey. The destinations, the hints of a secret open to only the chosen, and the gnomic prompts wittily imbued with eerie overtones the statue of Nathan Hale, the Beinecke Library, and the Felice Varini trompe-l’oeil painting downtown. ... The mixture of theory and practice in this essay is evocative. The works consulted are pertinent, their citation meticulous, and the appendices and illustrations helpful."
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"This essay was a “total” pleasure to read. The writing flowed smoothly (even when wading through aesthetic theory) and the incorporation of interviews and analysis of Alec’s own piece was incredibly effective at achieving the goals of this thesis."
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