This evening, Thursday 28 May 2026, Dundee’s Biome Collective will host a public sharing of an extraordinary, Creative Scotland-funded residency project: GTMO 441: Games, Detention, Power.
Taking place both in person at Abertay University and streamed live online from 5:30pm, the event offers a first look at experimental playable media shaped by the lived experience of Mansoor Adayfi, who was detained without charge at Guantánamo Bay for 14 years.
A Study in Resistance and Psychological Escape
This project is a collaboration between Biome Collective, and researchers from Abertay and Mississippi State Universities. Over the course of a week-long residency workshop, the international team has been exploring how we might respond to life inside Guantánamo using experiential storytelling, game design, and playable media.
The creative focus here is profoundly unique. The team is not trying to build a superficial simulation of confinement. Instead, they are experimenting with ways to reflect how games – both traditional, improvised, and digital – became active tools of survival, resistance, and psychological escape under conditions of extreme confinement.
For 14 years, under conditions designed to strip away agency, play became a mechanism for reclaiming humanity. To study how those improvisational acts of play can be translated into interactive digital experiences is some of the most artistically innovative, ethically grounded, and emotionally resonant work to emerge from the Scottish cluster.
Strategic Analysis: The True Power of the Medium
At SGN, I have spent years challenging the insular nature of the ‘industry’. When we confine our thinking to the retail shelf, we miss the true power of our craft. GTMO 441 is a vital reminder of the games sector’s capacity to collaborate with historians, human rights advocates, and international scholars to keep urgent stories alive. This is the More Than Games philosophy in its most profound, human-centric form.
As Guantánamo continues to hold detainees amidst renewed proposals to expand operations there, this project insists that these narratives remain active and unfinished. By bringing together game designers like Biome’s Malath Abbas and Tom deMajo with memoir co-writer Antonio Aiello, researcher Jenna Altomonte, artist Joseph DeLappe, and scholar Darshana Jayemanne, Biome Collective is proving that Dundee is a hub for brave, boundary-pushing digital art that refuses to play it safe.
Join the Conversation Tonight
I strongly encourage everyone interested in the power of interactive storytelling to join this this evening’s event. It will feature a presentation from Mansoor Adayfi himself, followed by presentations from the project team, a panel discussion, and a live Q&A.
This is a rare opportunity to witness the raw, early-stage development of a project that could redefine how we view the ethical boundaries of game design. Whether you can make it to the room in Dundee or choose to tune in from home, your presence supports the kind of vital, independent creativity that makes our national ecosystem so special.
Event Details:
- Date: Thursday 28 May 2026 (Tonight)
- Time: 5:30pm (Experimental games to play), 6:00pm (Presentations, panel, and Q&A), wrapping up by 7:30pm
- IRL Venue: Room 1502, Abertay University, Dundee (Venue details: Abertay Room 1502)
- Online Stream: Join live from 5:30pm via Microsoft Teams (Stream link: GTMO 441 Teams Meeting)
Learn more about the creators: Biome Collective