During the Digithalia Festival – a festival for virtual theatre forms at Schauspielhaus Graz – we had the chance to watch Suit Your Body, a theatre computer game by Frauen und Fiktion (Berlin).
I’m often in places where people talk about „overweight“, where I ask: what „over“ are we talking about? „Over desirable“, „over morally good“, „over-…er“? Why is this „over“ necessary? – Natalie Rosenke
In Suit Your Body, a space is created where all the bodies are welcome. In an ethereal-looking like sauna, the game allows the player to navigate it, while being accompanied by a sonic narrative based on an interview with Natalie Rosenke, an expert on weight discrimination. The excerpt mentioned above represents the core of this project, where a new perspective on body beauty standards is practiced. Lots of questions are asked during the reflective monologue, reflecting on the roots of body discrimination. Why does the word fat have such a bad connotation? Why do we use the words corpulent or curvy instead of fat? The speaker embraces the term, questioning its connotation.
Regarding the game production, the environment has the dynamic aspect of being able to move around the space, which changes according to day time – there are changes in light and also reflections – and regarding sound there are footsteps triggered when the character walks, as well as various ambient sounds, including water and sauna elements that would be reproduced at specific times, really matching the scenes. The sonic narrative, which was also produced as a radio play, seems to be linear and apart from the interview, there are also beautiful choirs that support the dialogue.
