Science to Experience: Formula 1mpossible

By Sanne Dekker, Nikki Rademaker, and Yanna Smid

Overview

This project was part of the course Science to Experience. The goal of the course was to communicate a scientific insight through an experience instead of writing. Students hosted a public exhibition to present their work. The general theme of the exhibition was "Living". Therefore, together with Sanne Dekker, and Yanna Smid, we decided to discuss a certain aspect of life as a woman.

Scientific Insight

Our project focused on gender bias in research. Inspired by "Invisible Women" by Caroline Criado Perez, we looked into how women are often excluded from research because of hormonal complexity and higher costs. We learned that this exclusion has serious consequences for medicine, car safety, and more.

Our Statement

We framed the problem with the statement: "Women are overly complex." The goal was to provoke discussion about why women are often left out of research and why this must change.

Women have often been left out of research. Scientists thought hormonal cycles made females too difficult and expensive to study. As a result, many studies only include the "average" male. This lead to knowledge gaps and great risks for women, especially in the context of health and medicine.

The Experience

We built a multiplayer racing game called "Formula 1mpossible". Two players race on different tracks. The male track is smooth and easy. The female track has gaps and obstacles. Players collect money for research. The male character starts with more money and can collect more. The female character starts with less and loses money when falling into gaps. Each fall shows a message about real-world gender bias in research.

The title Formula 1mpossible has two meanings. It refers to Formula 1 racing, which matches the racing game we made. The word 1mpossible shows how hard it is for the female character to win, because her track is much harder. It also points to the idea that studying women in science is seen as "impossible," because of their hormonal complexity, which is unfair and part of the problem.

The person playing for the male character often finished much earlier. This gave them time to look at the female player's screen and start realizing the game was unfair. People watching could also already see the difference. The person playing as the female character often noticed the other player was already done while they were still struggling. In the end, after both players finish, the game shows a replay to make the unfairness even clearer and to explain the issues women face in research.

Included Facts and Statements

The pop-ups in the game were from real-world research:

• Oh no... you need some time to recover. As a female, you are more likely to get seriously injured in car accidents because safety features are designed around the male body. [1]
• Ouch! Studies show that people of the female sex are more likely to have their pain dismissed in medical settings. [2]
• Watch out. Medical treatments can be less effective for women because symptoms that differ from male benchmarks often lead to misdiagnosis or delayed treatment. [3]
• Warning! Drugs developed mostly from male research can be less effective or dangerous for females. [4]
• You fell into a hole. Many biology studies use only male animals, leading to knowledge gaps like this one. [5]
• If you were pregnant, recovering would be harder. Pregnant individuals are often excluded from clinical research. [6]
• Struggling? PMS affects 90% of women yet is under-researched, while erectile dysfunction is studied five times more often. [2] [7]
• Encountered a tricky section? Women often show different signs of heart disease, which leads to poor diagnosis. [3]
• Not concentrating? Diagnosing ADHD and autism in females is often overlooked because criteria are based on boys. [8]
• Whoops! Speech recognition works 70% better for male voices than female ones. [9]

An example replay of the game can be found below.

Exhibition

Formula 1mpossible was presented at the Media Technology Exhibition at the V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, organized by the study Media Technology and hosted by the students. Visitors could play the game and experience the difference between the tracks. Our work was part of a larger exhibition where all projects explored different aspects of "Living". To add to the aesthetics and theme of the purpose of our project, players that played as the female character, had to sit on a more uncomrotable stool, than the players who played as the male characters. Both players had a basic game controller to control the game.

You can download our project paper here.

Below is an example playthrough of the game during the exhibition.

Materials

We used the following materials to create and set up our project:

• Unity version 2020.3.18f: the game was built in Unity.
• FPS Microgame Template: used for basic animations, but we implemented the game mechanics ourselves.
• Nintendo Switch Pro Controllers: used for player controls during the exhibition.
• Crates and Tablecloth: used to build the table where papers and instructions were placed.
• Laptop: inside the crate to run unity.
• Two Chairs with Inflatable Wheels: different chairs were used to symbolize the inequality between players.
• Book "Invisible Women" by Caroline Criado Perez: Displayed to provide context and inspiration for the project.
• Reading Light: positioned above the book for better visibility.
• Pole with Bookstand: used to present the book upright next to the setup.
• Projector and Projection Screen: used to project the game and the replays for the audience.
• Speaker: for the audio and sound effects.