Dreaming The Prairie uses a game engine as a platform for storytelling and story-asking. Located in Illinois, Bell Bowl Prairie—an 8000 year old ecosystem—provided critical habitat for a number of rare and endangered species including the federally protected rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis), and a number of rare prairie plants. A recently contested expansion of Chicago Rockford International Airport (‘owners’ of the land) destroyed a large portion of the rare and fragile dry gravel prairie.

Amid hard deadlines for as many as five other college courses, the students featured in this exhibition developed intriguing projects in the feverish context of the late semester crunch. What’s more, these projects stand out in particular for demonstrating genuinely original inspiration from the beginner tutorials they received in creative coding, video game design, and augmented reality. These delightfully weird and unpretentious early works are a testament to experimentation in new media art education.

These incredibly talented and dedicated students will be playtesting their game GET OFF MY CHANNEL live at The Annoyance Theatre on Sunday, April 21st at 5pm. There are guaranteed to be surprises. You won't want to miss it.

Game Dev and Comedy Arts Students UNITE FORCES to make the weirdest video game possible…in less than 60 hours. For the entire weekend of April 12th-14th, teams will have to write, produce, model, and code an original game, with the exclusive help of some of Chicago’s finest in comedy writing and game development. Those who finish will have the chance to see their creations playtested at The Annoyance Theatre on April 21st!