Ecological Disobedience

Mixed media sign introducing the game to players.

If you are interested in trying the Ecological Disobedience, or any of Rufus Roswell's other games, it is available for free, along with other free and affordably priced games.

Game materials and text by Calvin Fluit.

In fall semester 2023, Performing Climate Justice course assistant Calvin Fluit (he/him) engaged students in a semester-long game, "Ecological Disobedience," created by writer, artist, and game designer Rufus Roswell. 

A game about an ecosystem reclaiming land that has been negatively impacted by human development, Ecological Disobedience is played by a small community (like a class or a group of roommates) over a period of months, as they leave spare change and notes describing how the ecosystem fights back in a communally available jar.

Cardboard sign with instructions for playing the game.

We played Ecological Disobedience as a class and a campus, deciding on what the nature of our ecosystem's reclamatory crime would be collaboratively and leaving a container with instructions first in the entryway of Shiffman at Brandeis, and later on a coffee table in the WGS department in Rabb. 

Our climate justice performers decided to promote reclamation of a golf course.

Below are the notes game players left in the jar, imagining ecological disobedience on that golf course.

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

Golf course becomes consumed by [n]ative species that are also consumable, so humans can forage for food

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

Nature gathers its force from all the  human being[s] and spits it out onto the course which becomes green, full of trees, leaves, and animals

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

A river runs through the golf course during a flood & destroys the sand bunkers

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

A blue jay drops an acorn which sprouts into a small yet mighty oak tree

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

I  wish that every pristine lawn in this nation was replaced by NATIVE GRASSES  & WILDLOWERS & FIELD ANIMALS. VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!!

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

The squirrels and birds incite wonder, curiosity, & simple joy to all who see them.

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

Weeds and wildflowers sprout up all around, faster than the golf course employees can cut them down

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

Strong winds blow over flags & a shed containing equipment

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

Alligators live in the water traps! 

Enjoy seeing golfers chased by alligators.

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

a golf ball gets stuck in a tree during a competition

all the golf balls do

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

roots of trees grow under the parking lot, cracking the pavement

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

Strong storms uproot a tree on the course, it collapses on one of the holes

Purple slip of paper, with writing, on leaves.

A pack of wild javelings -- who notoriously despise golf courses -- decide to go for an evening, destructive stroll on hole 4. The javelings tear up the grassy turf overnight and then head out to find their next golf course victims . . . 

Do you have an idea about how nature takes back 

the dreaded golf course? 


Or about how nature helps the people who live around 

the dreaded golf course?


Write it on a slip of paper, take a photo, 

and email to Tom King for posting on this website.