Man-Eater: The Urban Game For Commuters

For his graduation project at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Daniel Disselkoen created an urban game for trams called Man-Eater.

Travelers in the tram can easily play the game by closing one eye while trying to ‘eat’ as many heads of pedestrians as they can between two tram stops. With this game Disselkoen tries to change the travel experience in The Hague a little bit.

I believe most people are familiar with the game-play of this game. Staring outside the window of a moving vehicle, a tolerated form of sadism pops up in all of us. Differences in perspective are used to smash innocent people and hit other cars. Disselkoen’s Man-Eater intervention builds upon this idea. The only thing the ‘gamer’ has to do is move his/her head a little while focusing on the mouth of Man-Eater and the heads of fast approaching pedestrians. A sticker on the opposite tram chair explains how Man-Eater works.

After taking the same tram to his art academy each day for four years, the artist wanted to slightly change the urban landscape he looked at from the window. “Why would you look out the window with curiosity when there is no reason to expect anything new?” With this project he aims to change the daily journey for his fellow passengers and himself while introducing a little bit of passive urban play.