🧭 The Egg Carousel: Joyful ritual and roleplay

🎠 A carousel of roles, a sprinkle of surprise

Apr 17, 2025

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I’m on an odyssey to expand my experience design practice through a year long residency program. If you missed my announcement you can learn more about that here:

Embarking on an odyssey 🧭

Feb 25

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If Playtopia had a town square, the Egg Carousel would sit right at the center—part sculpture, part ritual, part joyful mystery.

What if your “job” didn’t start with a timesheet…

…but with an 🥚 egg?

This was the spark for my latest Odyssey Works Residency project, creating a narrative within Playtopia, a fictional world where joy measures success and even work transforms into play.

The story

For this assignment, I had to further the world-building of Playtopia by designing with one of the 4 types of interactive narratives:

Worlds built through discovery of narrative
(think roaming through Meow Wolf or entering the Sleep No More performance)
Linear plots that progress (or fail to) through audience participation
(think video games, pilgrimages, this incredible home-based experience built by a father for his children)
Plots that are assembled through audience choices as they move through branching narrative pathways
(think Choose Your Own Adventure books and Netflix’s Interactive Specials like Black Mirror)
Stories and plots that emerge through audience interaction and improvisation
(think Story Circles or ritual performances)

In Playtopia, work transcends the typical grind—it's a joyful way to contribute to the community and of course, a form of play.

Inspired by one of Playtopia's Gooberment branches, "Yeast, Yolk, & Yam," I wanted to touch on the agricultural, food, and farming aspects of this society. Why is it even called Yeast, Yolk, and Yam? (Explore my interactive story to discover more)

Most importantly, I wanted my narrative to explore the ritual of "WORK."

What if a work day felt more like a surprise gift, and your role more like a game?

🍩 The Sprinkle Cipher → The Egg Carousel

Each morning, the citizens of Playtopia gather around for breakfast and are presented with a tray of rainbow-sprinkled donuts.

Most look ordinary.

But a chosen few?

✨ Their sprinkles reveal something more…

If your name appears, you’ve been summoned for Work-a-Play and must skip (literally!) to the colorful Egg Carousel.

Each dangling egg is of a different hue from the rainbow spectrum—mysterious, glowing, just waiting to be cracked.

But on the head? Or in the hand?

You must pick one.

And CRACK! Confetti bursts out, along with petals and a tiny scroll revealing your role for the day.

🥚 Your Work-a-Play Begins

Each role is revealed through ritual and rhyme. Each egg cracks open not just with a task, but a tale.

🟡 Sprout Sower

🟣 Compost Conductor

🔴 Flavor Alchemist

…and much more (to explore all the roles visit the interactive story here).

The build out

Rather than just imagining the Egg Carousel, I wanted to bring it to life!

I set out to create something tangible that would extend this imagined world into physical reality—an object that would both embody and propel the narrative forward. This interactive piece would complement a digital story I created using Twine (a new tool for me).

The design process began with the heart of the project: confetti-filled eggs!

The inspiration came from a perfectly timed birthday gift and blossomed through a conversation with a friend who shared the cultural tradition of cascarones. These delightful, colorful eggs serve as celebration markers and symbols of joy, mischief, and transformation. The symbolism captured me instantly and reinforced that this was the perfect gateway into a Playtopian workday.

From there, I crafted a maquette of the Egg Carousel, drawing inspiration from some of my favorite designers:

Ray and Charles Eames, whose work reminds me that design can be serious and playful. They treated interaction, curiosity, and joy as essential tools.
Alexander Girard, who designed with emotion and cultural richness in mind and infused even the most everyday objects with sacredness and delight.

The design draws from their respective toy design and folk art collection, and from my recent visit to the Luna Luna exhibition in NYC, which was full of fantastical, artist-designed amusement park exhibitions.

I wanted to create a design object that was both playful and participatory.

Not just something to look at, but something to step into.

The experience

Ritual, not routine

In Playtopia, not everyone works every day. Those who do participate with surprise, ritual, and a joyful spirit of contribution. The Egg Carousel became my way of exploring this concept.

Though just one small narrative within a larger world, this idea has lingered with me.

What if work didn’t begin with a to-do list… but with joyful ritual, surprise, and a touch of magic?

💭 What small rituals make your work feel more like play?

💭 And how might things change if joy became part of the assignment?

With wonder,

Sarah