> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://meetingplace.bogbodiespress.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # we have a story for you - URL: https://meetingplace.bogbodiespress.com/we-have-a-story-for-you-2a4/ - Published: 2024-12-15T14:00:26.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-21T13:28:48.000Z - Description: no.2 - a bi-weekly series of stories we've published - Author: bog bodies press - Tags: Newsletter, #Migrated-1792589186246, #Import 2026-10-21 13:27 in case you didn’t know, every two weeks we share one (or two) of the brilliant stories we’ve published with you here on substack. we’re delighted to have another platform for our contributors’ work - incredible wide-ranging stories from everywhere that need to be heard. we genuinely love these pieces and can’t wait for you to read them too! here is the second of the series, from [mnemotope issue 003.](https://bogbodiespress.com/mnemotope-003?ref=meetingplace.bogbodiespress.com) this piece was submitted as an audio work which we transcribed - you can see both here! [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ## Playing in a Promised Future by Daragh Griffin ##### ‘The lines between online and offline are becoming increasingly blurred’ is a statement that gets thrown around a lot. A nice sentence to be fair, but it's been doing the rounds for about a decade. Surely by now the blurry line they speak of has vaporised into a glitchy haze. Keeping with the expression though, I don't imagine the worn rigid lines separating the material and the digital realms. It might be better to look at it from the perspective that they both have their own distinct lines that run parallel to one another. ##### Between these two lines is a space; a space of becoming, where a person's pursuits can flourish or fail beautifully. A metaphysical wardrobe to try on many hats and too much of an encroachment of the digital realm into this space affects our ability to become if not anything but ourselves. Because if you think about our ability to present a version of ourselves online, it's always subject to the exercise of power by the platform. ##### The ways in which we're allowed to act and express ourselves are dictated by the platform's architecture. Just as Pac-Man was restricted to his maze, our action possibilities are provided to us by a platform's predefined format. The moment we log in, we're voluntarily participating in a dominant power structure where the algorithms shape the information we encounter. And that's not my opinion, that's just the way of it. ##### My opinion would be that our ability to be and become ourselves is a bit spoiled in a space where the motive is to extract our data. And while that's my opinion, it's not really my point. I actually enjoy digital culture a lot and it's something I participate in myself. But when stroking my chin it dawned on me that similar constraints exist in the physical world, if we look at it through the same perspective; an encroachment into our space of becoming. ##### I love living in a city and to thrive in a city you've got to use it - everything from its public transport network and cycle lanes, to park benches, street markets and libraries. The space provided is space to be used. I'm blue in the face of romanticising Dublin, but in all seriousness, I can't help it. The history, the character and the characters all make an impact on a sensitive creature like myself. And if you think I'm biased, you're dead right, but I do, on the other hand, imagine the city speaks of better times when we're asleep, remembering the future we'd promised it. The promise of an egalitarian Dublin, not the one run amok by Conor McGregor's band of fuckwits. And it's an ideal that we've all experienced at some point. It never stays, but it never leaves either. I think it exists in our space of becoming. ##### A while ago I'd play the odd game of Sunday football with 1815 FC. We'd play whatever-a-side, depending on who showed up, and coming out of the depressing cave of lockdown, it was like medicine. But there was more to it than having a laugh and kicking a ball around. It was football as a form of protest. Only once in my stint had the council wrongly assumed tha tarmac pitch unsafe, and decided to lock it up. So aside from the one padlock needing the gentle touch of an angle grinder, it was a peaceful protest. ##### 1815 is embedded in the idea that by keeping the city's public pitches in use on a weekly rotation they might evade the gaze of perverted developers. All the pitches are between the two canals which makes them prime real estate for a ten-storey stay-city. And in a city with a government horny for dereliction, demolition and redevelopment, it's a real threat. But it's a bigger threat to our space of becoming. ##### Whether we like to think about it or not, certain action possibilities are provided to us by our environment. It only gets problematic if you throw the idea of free will in there. But think about it this way: you can't get a kebab from around the corner if there's no kebab shop. So through this perspective, we're subject to the exercise of power by developers, by government and by other suits. Well fuck that. Or more eloquently put, be careful who you vote for. But as I said before, to thrive in a city you've got to use it. And at the core of it that's what 1815 is about. That by turning up and using these spaces for their intended purpose, you breathe life into them. Important as always but even more so in areas of a city where economic pressures of urban renewal are looming. A required commitment to turn up and make it happen, but in doing so the realization of a community took place and new relationships would spring to life between like-minded people. ##### It was a way of sustaining the Dublin of promise, after closure after closure of our favourite and most frequented spaces. I think of a lung breathing oxygen, inhaling, exhaling and inhaling. I think a physical space functions exactly the same. Congregate, disperse and congregate. I'd go as far as saying congregation is a human necessity and not just on a social level but morally and politically too. ##### Physical spaces provide the possibility for action, for play and for real community. When turning up and kicking a ball was the only motive, it felt like we were playing in the city we were promised. The same feeling when dancing at Jigsaw, where both pitch and dance floor were equal and welcomed any race, ethnicity, age or gender. In these moments we actualised our space of becoming into the spaces we inhabited. And just because these moments were fleeting doesn't make them any less impactful. ##### Through playful moments in space and time, we elevated above the constraints of the city to achieve something joyful and lasting. ##### Hope. ![](https://meetingplace.bogbodiespress.com/content/images/2026/10/91bd8b28-787d-4b90-80f8-895adf3379e5_2376x1697-jpeg-1.jpg) [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) see you next time!