Taste the Game went really well yesterday and I’ve had loads of positive feedback, which is always nice.
Jumping straight in to planning the next one for the 29th though, so here’s a simple slideshow of my photos and video on the basis that it’ll tell you as much as any words I can put together right now will…
A big thank you to everyone to contributed and took part.
Over the last month I’ve been project managing a commission from the Midlands Arts Centre to deliver 2 pervasive games based events as part of their free summer programme.
Working together with the BARG network and a handful of more seasoned games designers based in London, we’ve put together an afternoon of games and activities for this Sunday that is intended to serve as an introduction to pervasive games.
There are more details about the event and what will be on offer on the BARG website, but basically what you need to know is that it’s free, will run from 2-4 (info desk open from 1:30) and it’s going to be great fun!
As well as the project management side of coordinating a team of eleven across different cities and also liaising with the venue, it’s been interesting spotting where little arty bits have come into it.
The main game of the afternoon, Bull Hunt, needed the construction of a bull’s head mask. A fairly obviously arty activity and one I quite enjoyed doing – I was working quite closely from photos of the bull sculpture outside the BullRing in Birmingham city centre and it was good to have to think in a sculptural way again.
Anyway, you know me, so the really interesting part came last Tuesday when it got it’s first public outing…
Sat with it next to me on one of the sofas in the mac, I found myself constantly talking to strangers. People asking what it was for, spotting what it was modelled on, asking how it was made. There was a fab ‘WOW!’ from a little girl too!
There were also some good conversations with members of staff – we’ve been holding various meetings in the building and I’ve been making sure I speak to the floor managers etc wherever possible. I love the way that novelty objects can so easily mediate interactions.
So, reaction to the bull as a mask was good, but reaction to it as a costume with someone inside it was even better! Thanks to Pete, Ant and Libby for all being game to give it a go.
We got some good photographs and also made a quick video to promote the game:
Bull on a bike.
Have you seen this bull? from BARG on Vimeo.
I generally struggle to find licence free music to use as backing for the videos I make, sites like opsound tending to be a bit too electronic for my purposes. This time however I came across this collection from Kevin MacLeod. Short pieces in different styles just right for testing your resolve in editing down your footage to a minute or two!
Throughout the process of putting this event together it’s also been interesting (sorry I keep using that word, but I wouldn’t want to get stuff written down if it wasn’t!) looking at how I’ve been looking at the space. The mac recently underwent a huge renovation project to the extent that it’s basically a new environment, significantly different to what it was like before. However, I’ve only ever seen the new mac through the eyes of someone planning an event there. What space would be good for what sort of activity? How are people moving through this area? What are the acoustics like here? Where can I put 60 helium balloons and a trestle table?
I’ve been at the mac loads now, but never once stopped to look at the art in the galleries or to check what’s on at the cinema! Different. Eyes.
Another month to go (we’re doing a second event on the 29th of August) and then we’ll see what it looks like after that. I suspect it’ll be another area filled in on the “Own this City” map I’m slowly constructing of places in Birmingham I feel I have some sort of ownership over after having played games there.
I’ll be spending today at mac workshopping some ideas for a pervasive game involving this prototype sonar whale hat I’ve made.
Prototype whale hat using a sonar range-finder and Arduino processor
Doing a quick bit of online browsing about whale migration beforehand, I came across this and love the image:
Humpbacks Humpback
Winter: warm, low latitude tropical waters (breed and give birth)
Spring/Summer/Autumn: cooler, high latitude polar waters (feed)Most humpback whales make mammoth journeys every year between their feeding and breeding sites. Because seasons are reversed either side of the equator, Northern and Southern Hemisphere populations of humpbacks probably never meet; those in the north travel towards their breeding grounds in tropical waters as those in the south are travelling towards the pole to feed, and vice versa. [source]
In October of last year, Paul Conneally and myself were commissioned by Nathaniel Pitt and Malvern Exhibition of Contemporary Art (MECA) to conduct Invigilator: Malvern, 6th in the Invigilator series.
Invigilators prepare for Invigilator: Malvern
Invigilator: Malvern formed part of a programme of events taking place in and around empty shops in the centre of Malvern and a publication documenting the project is now available.
You can see a preview of the book below (Invigilator: Malvern is on pages 36-39).
Last Friday I was in Nottingham making a new piece of work as part of the Territorial Play event organised by Trampoline.
Using the same dual-GPS process as for Uncertain Eastside, I selected a route that took me through a variety of different urban environments including narrow streets, open wasteland, alongside large buildings and around the foot of the castle.
Wasteland with desire lines
Each circuit of the route (2.2 miles) took approximately 45 minutes to complete and started and finished at the Broadway Media Centre where the event was hosted.
We had a ‘project room’ that we were using as a base for various tech + mapping activities. After each circuit I returned here, processed the data and turned it into a .pdf file that my glamorous assistant Russell would take to the printers whilst I set out walking again.
By the time I returned there would be a new print put up on the wall combining all the traces from all the previous walks.
Cumulative prints of the GPS traces
I only had time for 3 circuits, but my shoes seemed to think that was plenty.
I’m really pleased with the results and had some great feedback and conversations with the other people at the event.
To share a little something of the resultant drawing – and how it relates to the landscape – I’ve added some details from the drawing to the Google Map of my route. Click on the yellow placemarkers to see the image and read the associated text.
Overview of the final route
Detail from the resultant drawing referenced to the part of the route it came from.
So, head on over to the map: zoom in, zoom out, change views, click on things and have an explore!
I’m currently working on the route I will walk for my piece Location Aware at this Friday’s Territorial Play platform event in Nottingham.
The problem is, I don’t know Nottingham, so I’m crowd-sourcing some input on a route I’ve put together from Google Maps.
If you know Nottingham at all, then I’d be grateful for any feedback on this route (larger version here, or click though for zoom-able version on Google Maps):
My first proposed walking route - what do you think?
I’m looking for the following qualities in the final route:
I’ll be going to Nottingham on Thursday afternoon and will hopefully get a chance to investigate the route ahead of the first scheduled walk at 11am on Friday.
Prior to that though, if you can suggest any changes to make the route safer, more interesting or maybe just different, then I’d love to hear from you!
I’ll be in Nottingham this coming Friday and Saturday for the Territorial Play platform event and symposium as part of Tracing Mobility.
Detail from Uncertain Eastside - I will be using the same technique to explore Nottingham
For Territorial play, Pugh will conduct a series of walks whilst carrying a satellite navigation device in each hand. Glitches in the technology and interference from the physical landscape result in anomalies in the data recorded by each device. As the journey is repeated and the resulting data overlaid, unique generative drawings are produced that reveal relationships between the fabric of the city and the behaviour of the technology.
My first walk will start at 11am and you are welcome to join me (free, there is a sign-up list at http://locationaware.eventbrite.com/), you can also join me on subsequent walks, through until the early evening, however these will be unscheduled.
The generated drawings will be on display at the Broadway Media Centre [Google map] and added to throughout the day as new layers of data are collected.
I’ve just started a 2-week residency with fizzPOP at independent artist studios The Lombard Method.
Over the bank holiday weekend we’ve been running a project – open to the public – to try and cobble together a Heath Robinson style chain reaction contraption to fill one of the studio spaces. Cardboard, gaffa tape, cake and random strokes of genius being the main ingredients.
For the main chunk of the residency I have a few projects that I am intending to work on. These include a second-by-second walk-through of the GPS data from Uncertain Eastside, building a Tannerin style instrument and circuit-bending a butterfly.
I fully expect that I might end up doing something completely different though!
chain reaction from nikkipugh on Vimeo.
Gosh, 2 years since I started sending people around the city seeing things from the perspective of soft toys.
The original Emergent Game website has now been archived at http://emergentgame.npugh.co.uk/
Pirates with parrots and rabbits with robots,
Witty repartee and elegant sub-plots,
Yellow fluff furballs that hang down on strings,
These are a few of my favorit things.Angry triangles and dogs that do scuba,
Tractors and raptors and rum straight from Cuba,
Avataris that fly with a cape, no wings,
These are a few of my favorit things.Overnight braveness in frizzers and fridges,
Ventures to Edinbra and bartrin’ for bidges,
Rodent detectors with baubles and springs,
These are a few of my favorit things.When the peas talk,
When the bots bork,
When I’m feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorit things,
And then I don’t feel so bad.
My favorit things from Egor Beaver on Vimeo.
Recent doings (including badges and a hard drive Spring clean) have left me very nostalgic for Tokyo’s rather marvellous and iconic Yamanote Line, missed friends and projects that haven’t yet been realised.
Here’s a quick scrapbook of Yamanote Sen related stuff…
“The Yamanote Line is one of the busiest train lines in the world. Running in a circle around the heart of Tokyo, it carries 3.5 million passengers a day.”
東京 • Tokyo
I’m not sure what it is, but I’ll assume it is a bank.
銀行でしょうか。
7 or 8 workmen shuttle between a fire hydrant and their van parked some way down the street.
His entourage is ready with clipboards, and walkie-talkies.
Yellow collapsible bucket.
黄色い桶。
As soon as the hydrant has been wrapped, a man comes out of the building and lights up a cigarette.
消火栓の隣で喫煙者が
飛び出します。
The stations play different melodies. Also, I think there are different melodies depending on which platform you are on (which direction you are travelling in). This one from Meguro:
and this one from Shinagawa:
.
“A little song to help you remember the stations on the JR yamanote line.”
新橋 • Shimbashi
ステンドグラスや
エスカレーターや…
I leave the station only to find myself in a large underground shopping centre.
At what stage do I start following the map?
I walk past a truck full of ice.
装飾的な噴水と
ややこしい階段は
あります、でも
遺孤の葉っぱが
のほうが顕著です。
Amongst the fancy fountains and KerPlunk staircases, it is a solitary leaf that shouts loudest.
One of the 29 stories that came out of my SoPG: Yamanote Line project:
Akihabara from nikkipugh on Vimeo.
Artist Orie Inoue’s interpretation, early explorations for what might one day be Yamanote Stories:
Akihabara: man carrying a large plant
浜松町 • Hamamatsuchō
From the walkway I see a beautiful garden laid out below me.
“Excellent!” I think,
the map must take me there.
とても奇麗な公園をみました、しかし入ることができません。
But there are no gateways into the garden and after crossing several lanes of traffic I end up underneath a monorail.
払い物。
街灯の上にボータイがあります。
A different route back,
I cannot afford the entry fee.
Lunch eaten on a fencepost.
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