Solid Interfaces & Urban Games: Digital Games in the Public Space. Call for Projects

Workshop tutors: Guillermo Casado and Gorka Cortázar. Promoters: Sergio Galán and Víctor Díaz.

Advisor: Nerea Calvillo (Medialab-Prado's Connecting Cities Curator)

Publication of selected projects: June 5, 2013.

Call for collaborators: June 6 - 30, 2013.

Dates of the workshop: July 1 - 7, 2013.

Presentation of projects: July 8, 2013.

 

Framework

In recent years, the video game experience has outgrown TV screens, game consoles and laptops, becoming increasingly ubiquitous. The availability of mobile devices, tablets, sensors, geolocation services, augmented realities and media facades has allowed the development of new game ideas experimentally and as a prototype. At the forefront of these game forms, which take place in some cases without the screen as an interface, is the interaction with other users and with the environment.

Moreover, commercial controllers like Wiimote or Kinect have popularized the idea of the game away from the traditional game controller, transforming the game into a complete physical experience.

This workshop proposes to think about games in the public space as an opportunity to generate other uses of the city and connections among its citizens.

 

Lines of Work

The selection will consider ideas and projects that are already taking place and address one of the following elements:

• The use of urban furniture as an interface for the game: We are seeking trash bins that react to shocks; illuminated tiles ready to be used to play hopscotch; benches that react to weight, etc.
• Media Façade: Medialab-Prado counts with one of Europe´s largest media façades. In the past, games with cell phones and movement recognition have been organized. How can games be integrated in the media façade and in urban furniture?
• Non-Casual Games: Most videogames in the city have been designed for a random use. How can one create a game that makes its players recurrently come back in order to move on to the next level?
• Interaction with the space: Geolocation and mobile technologies.
• Place specific: Games making special use of Madrid´s public spaces and contexts around Medialab-Prado: the Plaza de las Letras, Medialab-Prado´s interior court, Las Letras and Lavapiés neighborhoods..
• Networked City: The 2013 theme of the European project Connecting Cities is “The Connected City”, which understands urban space as a place for interculturalism and encounters. How can these projects be used to encourage connections between the local and the global?

 

Methodology

A maximum of 4 projects will be selected and developed collaboratively in this intensive workshop with the support of tutors, technical assistants and partners.

Workshop schedule: 12:00pm-11:00pm

Once projects are selected, there will be an open call for collaborators, who will be fairly selected by the organization and the project promoters.

Open Call for collaborators. June 6 - 30, 2013

 

Terms and support

Budget
Each team will count with a production budget of a maximum of €1.000. This amount should include equipment and travel expenses to Madrid for those who live outside the city. The budget for group trips should not be more than 50% of the total amount (€500).

Production costs and transportation should be described in the application and approved by the organization. Any unforeseen or uncovered expenses will have to be assumed by the project´s authors.

Accommodation
From June 31 to July 8 the organization will offer accommodation in a youth hostel to all participants residing outside Madrid. Spaces in the hostel are limited and will be assigned according to the selection of collaborators.

Crediting and Licensing
Participants and collectives must agree to attend the workshop July 1 through 8. They should also commit to finish and document proposed projects as much as possible. Project proposals should accept and encourage new participants. For this matter, crediting and specific mentioning is promoted among collaborators and technical assistants. 

The participation of each team member and their involvement within the framework of the workshop Solid Interfaces & Urban Games: Digital Games in Public Space will be added to the project´s credits together with the acknowledgment of support from Ayudas para la Creación Matadero Madrid, 2012, Medialab-Prado and the European project Connecting Cities.

The organization encourages and supports the use of free software for the development of the projects as well as open licenses to make results accessible.

 

Connecting Cities Network

Projects developed for the Media Façade can also be selected for its inclusion in other Connecting Cities 2013 events. Participation conditions will be negotiated with Medialab-Prado once the workshop concludes.

 

Project selection criteria

The following items will be valued positively:

• Competence and trajectory.
• Participant's experience in artistic or recreational projects.
• Teams that are already established with an adequate balance of skills among its members.
• Ability to adapt to space. Games that use the interactive façade or any of the building´s outdoor architectural features.
• Context and communities. Games that involve local communities or that echo the city´s socio-economic context.
• Technical realization. The objective is to have a prototype of a game that can be tested by the end o the 7th day. The areas of the project that could be prototyped by this day should be outlined as well as the ones that will not be able to meet this deadline.

 

This project is sponsored by Ayudas a la Creación de Matadero Madrid 2012 and supported by the Culture Programme 2007-2013 of the European Union.