Northern Passage: A Quest to Hopian
By Jazmin Morris
The Doncaster Festival of Light will feature Northern Passage: A Quest To Hopian by Jazmin Morris, which debuted at AND Festival in Barnsley (25-27 September). This interactive three-level game is inspired by real Doncaster and Barnsley locations, transforming familiar local spaces into vibrant speculative worlds built around care, knowledge and joy. A disused building becomes a healing garden, a vandalised bus shelter becomes a community library, and an overlooked green space becomes a place for pure joy.
The artwork was developed with support from Doncaster’s Creative Producers, a programme run by Right Up Our Street in partnership with AND Festival and Jazmin Morris. Seven young people interested in the creative industries have met monthly since April to learn from practitioners, including David8 Photography and game designers Jazmin Morris and Ama Dogbe, while supporting Jazmin as she developed the work. They will be on-site at the Doncaster Festival of Light, supporting delivery and collecting vox pops and audience reactions.
Photographs of Northern Passage: A Quest to Hopian
exhibiting at Barnsley Market during AND Festival 2026
Photography by Seth Rose
About the Artwork
Northern Passage: A Quest To Hopian is an interactive three-level game inspired by real locations in Doncaster and Barnsley, drawing connections between digital play, social infrastructure, and the lived realities of working-class towns across the UK.
Inspired by the artist's lived experience of growing up and practising in North England, Northern Passage unfolds across three distinct sites, each shaped around an archetypal gameplay figure: The Creator, The Healer, and The Joker.
As we navigate these environments, familiar spaces are transformed into speculative social worlds where systems of care, education, and collective gathering are reimagined into alternate possibilities.
Across a modular gameplay installation, participants collectively activate these evolving landscapes, positioning digitally rendered environments as a tool for rehearsing alternative forms of social life and shared possibility.