Join the Institute of Digital Games for a playtest of the Playfields app, and a discussion of play and digital game tools in social research
The Institute of Digital Games is inviting students from all fields to join for a playtest of the Playfields app on 16 June starting at 13:00 at the Institute's premises. Playfields is a digital tool for playful fieldwork – an app for encountering surprise and challenging traditional ways of doing field research. Currently developed as a proof of concept, it brings together creative maps, mobile methods, team work and challenges in a digital interface. It has been created for interdisciplinary settings, and has already been used in field courses all over Europe.
The Institute of Digital Games is inviting students from all fields to join for a playtest of the Playfields app on 16 June starting at 13:00 at the Institute's premises. Playfields is a digital tool for playful fieldwork – an app for encountering surprise and challenging traditional ways of doing field research. Currently developed as a proof of concept, it brings together creative maps, mobile methods, team work and challenges in a digital interface. It has been created for interdisciplinary settings, and has already been used in field courses all over Europe.
Key ideas behind the project will be introduced, before trialling out the app on campus: in teams, you will be creating ‘situations’ for others and record your experiences. We will end with a feedback and discussion session.
The workshop is open to anyone with an interest in creative methods, games, exploration, inter-disciplinarity and team work.
Provisional Timings
13:00 - 14:00: Introduction to the project and the app
14:00 - 15:00: Playful exploration of Tal-Qroqq campus
15:00 - 16:00: Discussion of team experiences and results
Background
Playfields is an 18-month ERC funded project led by The University of Warwick, UK, which aims to create a prototype mobile app for playful fieldwork. It draws on the insights and outcomes of two related projects. The Charting the Digital project (funded by ERC, 2011-2016) investigated new theories, media and practices of digital cartography pointing towards the potential of digital maps in understanding and performing environments in new ways. The Go Go Gozo project (funded by Erasmus+, 2014-2017) focuses on the relationship between mobile methods and playful research in the field, and applies these approaches in a multidisciplinary and international student field course. In order to develop these ideas and to make them available to others, we are now creating the Playfields app as a proof of concept. The play testing of this prototype is also co-funded by a proof of concept award of Warwick Ventures.
The Playfields project team are: Sybille Lammes (Principle Investigator), Jonathan Dunn (Developer), Jana Wendler (Designer), Sam Hind, Clancy Wilmott and Alex Gekker (Research Team)
More information is available at https://www.playfields.org
Places are limited. To register click on this link.