Myths of County Durham

To add your own myths and stories, go here.

This game was made by David Blandy during a residency with artist Petra Szemàn. They have both exhibited and produced work internationally, but for their games they wanted to work collaboratively on a symbiotic programme across County Durham. Petra has made another game that links to this one.

“Working in collaboration with Petra, I wanted to bring together a digital community around a shared quest, to create an online encyclopedic map of an alternative mythological County Durham. I want to encourage disparate and often left behind communities to think about the places around them, to question the normal and to listen to diverse stories - to highlight the fact that we all inhabit different internal worlds even though we might live in the same physical space.” David Blandy (he/him)

“A real-life place can take on a virtual quality in multiple ways. One may see the place in a film, or know of local legends and mythologies tied to it, or a place may simply evoke a dream, or a memory of a different time. I envision these versions of “place”, different layers of multiple parallel realities, twisting and merging together, becoming a sprawling archival output. This shared quest aims for establishing an alternative future County Durham.” Petra Szemàn (they/them)