The use of board games has been very different from culture to culture and through time. They have been used as a means to settle disputes, to predict the future, as a leisure activity or just for pleasure. Now with ludoztli, I intent to redirect the creation of board games, and the activity of board game playing, to build a new approach that leads to social awareness.

This movement that I have called ludoztli (making games) exhorts the artist to stop making non interactive art, and break the wall between the art object and the passive viewer.

In this movement, games cease to be a purely recreational object and become active art. Anyone that wants to express an opinion, a social statement or to declare an injustice can approach it this way. I expect that the game-art, the ludoztli product, will place the viewer in the eye of the hurricane, transforming him/her from a simple viewer into an active participant, into a social-aware gamer. With ludoztli I intent to promote interaction: action and reaction. Board games will lead the way!

With this movement, I hope that the active player —through the interaction with the ludoztli object, or by the interaction with the other players participating in the same game scenario— will have a change of heart in her/his perception, hopefully influenced by the outcomes of the game. At the same time, we also expect that the ludoztli object will be considered as an unfinished art piece that will mutate constantly when it is being played by a new set of players. The game-art product will always be different.

I do not assume that ludoztli is a new concept; I am well aware of this. The use of games to express a social statement or a demand has existed for a long time. But through this manifesto, ludoztli makes this practice evident and public once more and renews the strength of the game-art concept so others like me can express their social opinions through the creation of board games (and similar objects).