Bird is a social impact game about mass incarceration where players explore the memories and artwork of Darrell Fair. Darrell is an artist, activist, and mentor, represented by the Exoneration Project. He was wrongfully convicted in 1998 due to a coerced confession and has been serving time in Illinois ever since. Bird is a documentary, a virtual art gallery, and a video game all at once.
The central framework of Bird is built on a metaphor from Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow," which compares mass incarceration and racism in the U.S. to a birdcage.
“One theorist, Iris Marion Young, relying on a famous “birdcage” metaphor, explains it this way: If one thinks about racism by examining only one wire of the cage, or one form of disadvantage, it is difficult to understand how and why the bird is trapped. Only a large number of wires arranged in a specific way, and connected to one another, serve to enclose the bird and to ensure that it cannot escape.”
― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
This metaphor permeates Bird’s gameplay, and inspires players to ask themselves, what can I do to free this bird?
The story of Bird is told through animations, hand-drawn in Stateville Correctional, recorded audio interviews with Darrell and his family, and a dynamic choral soundtrack with lyrics taken from interviews conducted in Stateville and sung by the multi-Grammy-winning choir, The Crossing.
Bird Main Features:
Rich narrative depicting the true story of Darrell Fair
Explore, collect, and reveal artifacts and memories of Darrell’s life and his experiences in Cook County Jail and Stateville Correctional
Unique interactions including telephone calls from Stateville Correctional, diegetic “home-movie” style videos and interviews played through radios
Hand-drawn artwork and animations, created frame-by-frame in Stateville and mailed to be scanned and collated
Facts about the criminal justice system presented through interviews
Dynamic choir music sung by The Crossing
