"The most irritating feature of play," says Robert Fagen, leading animal play theorist, "is not the perceptual incoherence, as such, but rather that play taunts us with its inaccessibility. We feel that something is behind it all, but we do not know, or have forgotten how to see it."

I'm interested in the concept of play, its theory and application in everyday life. “Dear Christine” explores the boundaries of generally accepted constructions of time and the social world, trying to understand and transform the interaction of these processes by challenging and playing with their borders. This game is self-directed, and includes a set task, structure, and rules.

Task of the game:

To look for and try to find my childhood penpal Christine from Horn, Austria, who was randomly selected in an extracurricular German language group, possibly within a international school exchange program. Our mutual communication ended for reasons lost to memory about 22 years ago.

Rules of the game:

Use only the communication, transport and research tools that were available to me in 1997:

1) A written letter sent by mail (no modern social networks were used to help contact or find Christine);

2) A direct visit (the most popular means of communication in the past - a call to a home telephone or knocking at the door of the place of residence without warning, asking, "Is Christine at home?");

3) Possible means of transport - bus and train;

4) Research tools - physical maps (obtained from a bookstore and local information center), oral communication with people living in Horn or Vienna, as well as physical movement - approaching.