Buffet Moderne (Forge 1.18.2)
a href=”https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/modpacks/buffet-moderne”>Buffet Moderne is a modpack exploring mechanics for communal and collective play consistent with the modernist thematics of our research. Major themes include consumption, industrial aesthetics and landscape design. (June – August 2022)
Dappled Light (Fabric 1.17.1)
The Dappled Light modpack is specifically choreographed to support abstract architecture, neo-brutalist and tropical modernist builds, with special attention to lighting mods, blocks for playing with reflection, colour and shadow. (Jan – March 2022)
The Allegorical Build (ver2)
The second version of modpack for our pedagogical project, The Allegorical Build, shares its name. This version features the custom mod Moloch the Consumer (by Nic Watson, Stuart Thiel and Gina Haraszti)
Interlude (Forge 1.16.5)
Interlude is an experimental kitchen-sink pack developed to explore mod interactions and compatibility for the development of further projects by the TAG Minecraft Bloc. (Summer 2022)
The Allegorical Build: The Classic Edition – Forge 1.16
TThe Allegorical Build: The Classic Edition originated as an experiment in using a modded Minecraft server as a university classroom and experiential laboratory. Through gameplay juxtaposed with course readings, students explore allegorical relationships between modernity and Minecraft. The Classic Edition is the original iteration of the project. (Sept 2021)
Solarpunk Oasis (Forge 1.16.4)
The theme of this pack is “Solarpunk in the Desert.” Unlike previous packs exploring industrialization, modernity and its consequences, this new pack takes on solarpunk themes of sustainability, ecology, optimism, appropriate technology, class and privilege through more magical rather than tech mods. These themes are also explored through interpretations of the Mexican modernist architecture of Luis Barragan and others. (February 2021 – May 2021)
Imagine No Dragons (Forge 1.15.2)
Imagine No Dragons is a relatively peaceful modpack foregrounding the Terraforged mod to play with procedural generation, landscape and scale. Other themes include the organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, canals and other water- oriented logistics. The pack features one of our first custom mods: Breeze Blocks (by Raul Martin in consultation with Bart Simon). (October 2020 – January 2021)
Minecraft After the Consequences (Forge 1.14.4)
In the Minecraft After the Consequences modpack, players explore a world rebounding after an unnamed apocalypse. Nature is quietly reclaiming the remnants of a society that clearly ran rampant, made evident by the sprawling urban landscapes that dominate the game world. These Ballardian city biomes are alternately quiet, brutal, and violent, filled with darkened skyscrapers and long subway tunnels holding unknown secrets. Nature biomes are enchanting, diverse, and lush — rich with a diverse array of flora, fauna, and even magic. What has modernity wrought? How can we survive and thrive in this world without high technology and deep magic? Will this be modernity reborn or something else altogether? This pack is also the first to feature Stuart Thiel’s Chessmod (https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/chessmod). (April – July 2020)
Siegert’s Miasma (Forge 1.12.2)
The Siegert’s Miasma pack is named after the German media studies scholar Bernhard Siegert, and it is indeed miasmic; an attempt to explore and critique the idea of capitalist accumulation at the heart of Minecraft’s neo-colonial discourse. The mods foreground industrial production, pollution, weather, hunger, Shoggoths and sea serpents. Accumulation for its own sake undermines critical play, but through what we call “mod choreography,”” we can confront accumulation as a playable problem in Minecraft and thus begin to think otherwise. (December 2019 – March 2020)
The Ultimate Goal: A Bauhaus Adventure in Minecraft (Fabric 1.14)
The Ultimate Goal: A Bauhaus Adventure in Minecraft was designed for the Ultimate Goal project, which brought together a dozen researcher-players for 30 days during the Bauhaus centenary to modernize a village in Minecraft, all the while interpreting, emulating and enacting design principles from the historical Bauhaus. The project deals with themes of resource extraction and exploitation, the politics of urban renewal, assumptions about material logistics and infrastructure, the negotiation of idealized plans and the situatedness of actions and, yes, the zombies and creepers of national socialism. (October-November 2019)