London Week 2
Still feels very surreal and dream-like. Probably due to lack of sleep and unending to do list. I volunteered to do first presentation for Research Module on Tuesday. I thought I would get around to mashing up existing presentation into one cohesive one but that didn’t make the weekend agenda.
So far mainly visit Queen Mary Campus or various businesses to take care of transition stuff. I decided to walk to the nearest Barclay bank that will open international student accounts. It is on this adventure that I discover while the public transit is well marked, streets are a game.
London Week 1
You will notice that have placeholders for the pictures I would have taken. Those that know me are probably surprised that I was too tired and overwehlmed to even think about taking photos. The first week was a blur.
Sept 26th – Sunday – I land in UK and successfully navigate transit to hostel. The first task after checking in is going to the Apple Store to get UK plug for my MAC. Can’t go many hours without internet and power.
GLS 0.5.2009
The Institute of Play is at Games + Learning + Society 2009 conference. It has been a great experience. Some informative sessions, interesting Frag and Chat, fun workshops playtesting and of course the food. Yum!
Thursday was a double win with an opening Keynote by Jim Gee of author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. His speech covered an interesting case study of a woman who used the SIMs game to simulate the “feeling” of being an unskilled worker while retaining the engagement. Successfully marrying intention with fun is always a challenge for serious games.
The end of the day was with Julian Dibbell talk on politics of play. The case study being the loose internet swam Anonymous and the Church of Scientology. Learned about the consequences of hacking an epilepsy site to the persistence LOL Cats.
Big Tangrams Play Test
If you love Big Puzzles you are in luck. We are running our Big Tangram game during the weekend of June 12-14. We are fortunate to be participating in both the Come Out and Play Festival and the Figment Festival.
The Figment Festival is on Governor’s Island. We will be there Friday and Sunday (June 12 &14). At Figment it will be the casual version of the tangrams. You compete against your friends or just see how many you can solve. It is a fun time and kid friendly.
Day in the Park is our theme game that we are running at the Come Out and Play Festival on Saturday (June 13th) at noon. We will have a 4 teams of max of six players. You will not only compete in solving the puzzles but also there are missions to complete to earn the next puzzle. Each member of the winning team will get a tote bag for their day at the park. Everyone is invited in a post celebration picnic.
Come out and join the fun!
See full flickr set of playtest.
Game Designers:
Doris Cacoilo, Mary Jeys, Pollie Barden, Giana González
PS Mail Shop
Mobile Post Office
It was a pleasant surprise to see a mobile PO. Shop on Washington street. It was one of the few days that I was out during mid-afternoon. I needed postcard stamps. I found out that they have been doing this for about 10 years. Definitely don’t see these in suburban land. The hours and days of service have changed. So I will have to find out the new ones.
Apparently, they are quite prevalent in the Finance District in NYC too.
Slow Children
The charter school near where I live put up new signs to handle the pre and post traffic jam. Arrival and departures of the kiddies for school is always a time of danger. Temperatures run high and all that consideration that parents tell their little ones about is not demonstrated.
These signs help remind people that those kiddies can pop out from anywhere.
{Rake} @ MonkeyTown
A while back I participated in Dan Winckler’s video improv workshop. It was fun day and I got introduced to his work. I was happy he when sent out an email announcement that he will be performing with {Rake} at Monkeytown. It was a fun show and my first time going to MT for an non-ITP event.
My favorite performance was by a Audrey Chen and her cello. It was an interesting combination of classic and tech.
Sample Clip of artists:
[QUICKTIME http://shadiblue.org/video/rake.mov 320 257 false true]
Crafting Protest Panel
The New School hosted a panel discussion on Crafting Protests. The artists on the panel were Sabrina Gschwandtner, Liz Collins, Cat Mazza, and Allison Smith. It was an interesting panel.
Liz Collin’s work stood out to me. Especially a piece she did on Governor’s island. The purpose of the piece was suppose to highlight the slave labor conditions and violations of human rights used to produce fashion. However in describing how she got the material and supplies for her installation, it was clear she was taking advantage of the very practices she was commenting on to create the piece.
She alluded to her awareness of this fact by the tone of voice she used when she mention getting the bulk fabric. But she stopped short of addressing it directly. It got me rethinking my own current project on the global water crisis. It is clear that when one is making a social commentary then I need to transparent about the how the installation or piece is a very product of that which is being condemned.
Sculpting Voices @ MonkeyTown
R. Luke DuBois and Lesley Flanigan put together a great collection of artists, visuals and sounds. It was an ITP fest as well. View Pix.
All the performances were excellent. My favorite was the combining a text game moves to create sounds
[QUICKTIME http://shadiblue.org/video/sculptingvoicesG.mov 320 257 false true]
Sample Clips:
Andrew Schneider
[QUICKTIME http://shadiblue.org/video/sculptingvoicesA.mov 320 257 false true]
Doppler Project
[QUICKTIME http://shadiblue.org/video/sculptingvoicesD.mov 320 257 false true]
Nancy Grace and Mike Dory
[QUICKTIME http://shadiblue.org/video/sculptingvoicesNM.mov 320 257 false true]
Luke DuBois and Lesley Flanigan
[QUICKTIME http://shadiblue.org/video/sculptingvoicesLL.mov 320 257 false true]
Walking Dogs
My friend Jessica is dog sitting for a friend. I was needing some dog time. I volunteered to help. She warned me there were big. They are colts in disguise. They give great dane a run for their money.