Alternate Reality Games e Civic Media : interações digitais e psico-geográficas no espaço urbano

Abstract

The theme “PlayFul Cities” has already been used in participatory and collaborative projects for some years. Going beyond the virtual, it also uses collaborative games (alternate reality games), social dynamics and interactive sculptures to bring citizens together and transform them into engaged citizens. Similar to a game, it transforms cities into a large board where, through playful and collective activities, it invites citizens to transform the spaces where they live and transit, into a participatory, collaborative and fun experience. At the same time, more and more contemporary cities are being designed for people and their well-being. Through urban strategies and smart sensors spread across cities, private and government initiatives have been focusing on the concept of smart cities that are more accessible to those who live in them. In this dissertation I present the project of the “Mapa Afetivo Colab.” held at the Belém Library in Lisbon. Relying on concepts such as affective mapping, psychogeography and wandering as an artistic practice, the project seeks to develop a collaborative and social methodology that involves residents of neighborhoods in Lisbon. It encourages participants to develop a sensory diagnosis of the neighborhoods’ challenges and solutions through a playful, collective and interactive activity, in which playing becomes a civic engagement tool. It uses walking and wandering around the city as a sensory exercise, so that participants, in their multiple lenses, can perceive, register and experience the city in a deeper and more critical way. Thus, this project proposes an exploratory methodology, based on an investigation in arts and design (project-based research), in which theory and practice are interconnected, for the creation of a concrete project that can, in a playful and sensorial way, deepen how we perceive the cities where we live and move