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.

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

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.

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.

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]

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.

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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]

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.

The forecast called for snow which would have made it quite pretty. Unfortunately, it only rained and we ended up soaked and cold. But it was fun until I lost feeling in my fingers.

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The exhibit Water: H2O = Life is on exhibit until May 26, 2008. I went to see it because I have a special interest due to my own projects on the water crisis. The entrance is quite inviting. You walk through a mist of water with text projected on the mist. The text should say how much water is used each day to create and run the mist machine all day.

The most effective illustration was a projection on the globe at breaks down the amount water on the earth. It ends with a single line of blue representing the 3% of potable water available to us.

At the end of the exhibit there is a video survey where you click on a device in house and choose one of three options. While it is entertaining it is not very effective. Because it obvious what you should choose which is comple

tely different that what is done.

Definitely check it out but have a critical eye.

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