city games Up and Down and Sideways on the Ladder of Abstraction Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets) cb
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city games Up and Down and Sideways on the Ladder of Abstraction Sebastian Deterding (@dingstweets)
cb
how can games and play facilitate wellbeing in cities?
Why am I even here?
“The most powerful way to gain insight into a system is by moving between levels of abstraction. Many designers do this instinctively. But it's easy to get stuck on the ground, experiencing concrete systems with no higher-level view. It's also easy to get stuck in the clouds, working entirely with abstract equations or aggregate statistics.”
bret victor, 2011
this applies!
two stuck and disconnected levels of abstraction
two stuck and disconnected ways of seeing the city
chapter 1
Big City Games
the city as a simulation game
… soon to be real practice in the “smart city”
data model = reality
people pointing at maps
educated elites pointing down at clean, docile maps in comfy, well-lit rooms shielding them from the less-so city life outside.
“Seeing like a state”
Disembodied utilitarian 3rd person view from above on a simplified representation of infrastructures and resource flows through them
MAPS ARE FEEL-GOOD
FICTIONS
“god games”: model train play as power fantasy
the control room fantasy
design fictions
populated by render ghosts
An ephemeral vision forever removed in a
proximate future
MAPPING SHAPES THE TERRITORY
rendering reality legible and thus, manipulable
rendering reality gamelike
… means rendering reality less resilient and livable
MAPS IGNORE &DESTROY THE LOCAL FABRIC
“authoritarian high modernism”
“The plan: Dictator!”
le corbusier, la ville radieuse
costa & niemeyer, brasilia
“The issue is not whether it's a good city or a bad city. It's just not a city. It doesn't have the ingredients of a city:
messy streets, people”
“The point of cities is multiplicity of choice. ... Intricate minglings of different uses in cities are not a form of chaos. On the contrary, they represent a complex and highly developed form of order.”
jane jacobs, 1961
communing
mutual presence, watch & help
appropriation
“placemaking”
chapter 2
Small Street Play
situationist international, 1957-61
constructed situation, “a moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization of a unitary ambiance and a game of events”
psychogeography, “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals”
situationist international, 1957-61
big urban game, 2003
pacmanhattan, 2004
massively multiplayer soba, 2008
drift deck, 2008
koppelkiek, 2009
exclusionary piano staircase, 2009
carpe diem, 2017
the city as parkour play
“Seeing like a citizen”
Embodied 1st person experience of lived street fabric of people interacting with each other and their environs, its subjective uses and meanings
PARKOUR IS EPHEMERAL
PARKOUR IS EXCLUSIVE
“Are you hipster enough?”
PARKOUR IS A FEEL-GOOD
DECOY
chromaroma, 2010: switch more to bike and feet!
car-based, single-use zoning designs physical activity out of everyday life
gentrification: the game, 2010
chapter 3
Translation errors
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
Fictive
Reductive
Fabricless
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
Fictive
Reductive
FabriclessEphemeral
Exclusive
Decoy
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
Fictive
Reductive
FabriclessEphemeral
Exclusive
Decoy
participatory design
play the city
community planit, 2011+
“Now that game play is over, the website has converted to a post-game
state where you can see comments people have left and summary stats on
player responses.”
participation is tokenist
participation is exclusive
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
Fictive
Reductive
FabriclessEphemeral
Exclusive
Decoy
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
Fictive
Reductive
FabriclessEphemeral
Exclusive
Decoy
how to design for appropriation?
open/modular/generative… design
“When designing tools for play – underspecify!”
kars alfrink, 2008
obligatory minecraft slide
new babylon, 1959+
“Homo Ludens will demand, firstly, that he responds to his need for playing, for adventure, for mobility... Homo Ludens himself will seek to transform, to recreate, those surroundings, that world, according to his new needs. ... We would arrive at a new kind of urbanization ... New Babylon where, under one roof, with the aid of moveable elements, a shared residence is built; a temporary, constantly remodeled living area; a camp for nomads on a planetary scale.”
constant nieuwenhuys, 1974
fun palace, 1961
“Its form and structure, resembling a large shipyard in which enclosures such as theatres, cinemas, restaurants, workshops, rally areas, can be assembled, moved, re-arranged and scrapped continuously ... Choose what you want to do – or watch someone else doing it… Try starting a riot or beginning a painting – or just lie back and stare at the sky.”
cedric price, 1964
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
Fictive
Reductive
FabriclessEphemeral
Exclusive
Decoy
the action office, 1964
“#1: Forgiving Principle: We must be allowed to change our minds. The complexity of organizational environments coupled with the unpredictable course of future directions requires a forgiving behavior in facility design. #2: Grace with Change: A facility needs to change with ease. #3: On-line Planning and Expression: The individual can participate in goal setting and thus behave like a manager at any level. Users are often the best judges of what works.”
robert probst, 1964
… and what came of it
“The dark side of this is that not all organizations are intelligent and progressive. Lots are run by crass people who can take the same kind of equipment and create hellholes. They make little bitty cubicles and stuff people in them. Barren, rat-hole places.”
robert probst, 1998
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
Fictive
Reductive
FabriclessEphemeral
Exclusive
Decoy
chapter 4
Stepping sideways
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
realisation gives scale & durability
representation gives legitimacy, wisdom, & spice
Develop, adopt,
cultivate
Mobilize, deliberate, enjoin
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
the muddy middle
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
“sociotechnical networks”
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
“institutions”
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
“politics and economics”
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
“power”
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
“polis”
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
a poorly designed game
invitation #1
How might we … re-frame and re-design our polis as a game for wellbeing?
From plans to rules
filibuster
behaviour and experience emerge from concrete sociotechnical systems
Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
obligatory mda slide
+$ !+-$ !-
frustrating endgame
slow poverty gap
Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics
obligatory mda slide
+$ !+-$ !-
frustrating endgame
slow poverty gap
governance
game design
“The life blood of game design is testing. Why are we playing games? Because it‘s fun. You cannot calculate this. You cannot plan this out in an abstract manner. You have to play it.”
rainer knizia
117
Ideas what to change
Build outidea
Playtest
Evaluate experience
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
Prototype, adapt,
cultivate
Evaluate, deliberate, envision, enjoin
invitation #2
How might we … prototype and playtest our institutions and environs?
where the heck is the entrance?
Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015
Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015
chapter 5
Summary
how can games and play facilitate wellbeing in cities?
we have an important question
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
but we are stuck in two disconnected efforts
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
Fictive
Reductive
FabriclessEphemeral
Exclusive
Decoy
… with difficulty translating one into the other.
civic life Lived reality,
practice, fabric
city planning Map, structure,
vision
“polis”
to move forward, we need to pay attention to the muddy middle.
how about we bring our unique conceptual tools and methods to the task …
Ideas what to change
Build outidea
Playtest
Evaluate experience
to move sideways and …
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