Today we hosted a group of 22 A-level IT students from Saltash School in The Pervasive Media Studio. After giving them a taster of what we do, I talked them through the Playable City concept and then got them into groups to come up with their own playable city ideas. We gave them a range of locations and audiences to start them off, and just half an hour to brainstorm. I was blown away by their enthusiasm and ideas:
We had a Pacman projected into a park to encourage families to play together; games on windows to amuse bored shoppers; train tickets as portals to commuter games of cat and mouse (where best player wins breakfast); AR history apps for parks and schools and a memory wall for older people that connects into hearing aids and also helps people them get home.
The idea of the morning was to enable them to break out of the IT curriculum and think about what technology enables, rather than the tech as an end in itself. I think it worked and hope maybe we saw some future playable city applicants within the group.