Nov 11 meetup notes

Athens Branch
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Some brief notes from the meeting, feel free to add anything I missed/discuss below!

quick recap of what we took away from the training week

considering ways to connect with other members of the program - esp. nomadic branch

Making an effort to document what we’re doing each meeting at the Athens branch to  allow the other branches to see and maybe follow along

// Documenting our individual design processes

maybe sharing on the platform personal diaries/journal entries about play, trust, etc. and our ideas about projects etc.
also for helping to share a more practical side of design/though process of each designer

-privacy concerns with the fully open platform?

    ways to amend this
    
    -role playing chat on the platform? (a sort of form of online LARP taking place on the platform)
    (online design/roleplaying LARP between designers)
    
    -using anonymity? 
    
    -using physical journals 
    -sending them to people in other branches via post (kind of like secret Santa)
    
    -random face to face chats
    -Skype at a specific time with random person from another branch

//

final project brainstorming

post training week - starting forming teams and pitches (pitches starting in December)

//pitch

how does it involve the city? why do we call it urban?
what is the playful aspect? (doesn’t need to be a game, could be an artistic installation with playful elements)
what is the aspect of Trust

who are the team members?

//

for consideration when forming a pitch

what specific space will this project be in?
design with a space in mind

what community will this project interact with, how will it impact them?
not just finding the community, but also making the community

  • doing field work within the urban space
    more on this on the online platform

use your personal connections, interests
who do you know? where are you living?

then do some online research, identify some people, and see how they might communicate with each other and with you, and how your project can facilitate this through playful interaction (of course depending on who you’re addressing)

you have to understand the space and the people before you enter the space

how do you infiltrate a space without being invasive
respecting and sharing information/experiences with the inhabitants of the space

//

For January
formal Budget proposal
(you can also find external funding from other organizations, maybe getting funding from someone within the space you want to work in)
more concrete/specific pitch

// final project initial ideas

series of modern urban gothic fairytales

possibly filmed and sent to the mainstream media

involving actors, maybe zombie games in interaction with the police

Alternate Reality Games (ARG) and LARPing

//

just a topic: milgram experiments (electroshock power dynamics psychological experiment)

a game training you in disobedience

//

neglected monument in piraeus

next year is a 2500 year anniversary of a historic battle

maybe highlighting this specific monument with a game around/inside

//

site specific game including stories of locals who live in park central park “mars”

also some roleplaying elements (maybe teaming up with LARP people)

//

contextually about memories/memories of a place

communal/collective memories of a place

how can we trust what is the real memory of a place

what’s the real memory?

using FB spark (AR camera filters)+ 3d modeling

//

team formation ideas
self formation

you can also hire outside people from wherever - independents etc.

1 Like
2

Realized I never included my own proposal in the notes! here’s an updated version
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Jonah’s Proposal - Long term play installation

A physical installation that allows for long term play between people who interact with it

Below is one idea that I’ve been playing with, but it could also take a different form

//Format ideas

Installed inside of a telephone booth (either an existing one that is modified or a new one that we build)

(installing inside of a real abandoned phone booth would have the advantage of providing an existing permanent structure, electricity, and cultural context, as long as we can get permission from the city)

picking up the phone allows you to listen to record a message into the installation, and here previous recordings from other participants

(the tech for this should be quite do-able)

// Theme/mechanic ideas

sharing different perspectives of one idea/event, or sharing ideas or feelings about the Actual area that the installation is installed in (ideally it could be installed in a play that already has a lot of cultural context and history)

Also could be a play on the children’s game of telephone (not sure what you call it in Greece https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers)

The phone could also provide instructions for further participation, prompts, or directions to another site specific location

// Team composition and needs

The thing I feel most confident organizing here is the technology (which as I mentioned in the last meeting, shouldn’t be the core of the project but rather just the canvas in which the actual play interaction is facilitated on)

This project would definitely need

Someone who knows a lot about Athenian culture/history and can help with the questions

-How do we choose the format and/or prompts to facilitate interaction

between community members rather than injecting our own ideas into them?

-How do we present an installation in a real neighborhood that residents can

enjoy without feeling condescended towards?

-How can we make a long term installation in a real neighborhood

without intruding/disrupting a community?

Someone who could lead in the transformation of an existing booth into an installation and help with the questions:

-In what ways do we modify the structure to show that it is an installation

(or do we want it to not look like an installation?)

-How do we make the booth suitable for long term installation without having to

maintain it? (keeping the electronics safe from weather and people)

-some logistics of the actual physical setup of the booth

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Hi all,

thank you for the discussion after the meeting! As I learned in the discussion my suggestion was not so clear. So:

I am interested in creating a game that TRAINS you in DISOBEDIENCE. That’s it.
I am NOT interested in creating any game that has to do with electroshocks or seemingly giving electroshocks or anything like that. The idea originally comes from the milgram experiments. I told you this as a background story.

Looking forward to discuss/play with you!

4

Jonah

I connect a lot with your idea.

I was flirting with the idea of creating an urban object - play device, that would create possible playcorners in various urban voids

with the intent to foster playful interactions and empower activities and community building on a neighbourhood scale basis.

The idea of the phone booth is brilliant and what it can relate to.

Communication via phone device and physical interaction has even historic background since in the past when no phones existed in each and every house people used to gather around public phone devices to communicate with relatives.

We can discuss some ideas about how to achieve technical support.

I also love the specific space that you suggested since it is an interesting empty place that is quite unknown and neglected, although it is found in a very central location in the historic center, probably because of the lack of residences and residents in the area.

We should discuss about target group of players/ communities to address to.

The idea of revisiting traditional physical games which could be revived or re-introduced and especially those that use music also could be used.

In general fun factor I think is important.

Maybe using fun, street art and cheap/ reusable material can make the object / device/ play phone less vulnerable to vandalism.

Let’s discuss further when we meet, whenever that will be, hopefully on Monday or later.