Re:Activism NYC: Urban Interactions and Learning

Colleen Macklin

Wed., June 10, 2:00–3:00, Inn Wisconsin (2nd floor, East/Southeast)

This presentation will reveal some of the unexpected outcomes and design strategies developed over several iterations of Re:Activism NYC, a big urban game or “B.U.G” designed to reveal the history of activism, protests, and riots in New York City. Big urban games are uniquely suited to contextual learning, but they also pose some major logistical challenges. These potentials and challenges will be explored through examples of our play.

Re:Activism is also a mobile game, where direction is provided in real time through SMS and cell phone technology. The primary goal of Re:Activism is to contextualize a learning experience growing from the history of activism. Equally important is the exploration of embodied play in urban spaces and revealing how mobile communication is used in activist contexts through flash mobs and citizen journalism.

The play involves teams racing through neighborhoods to find historic activist sites, unlock challenges, and perform strategic moves to either act in solidarity or to sabotage competing teams. Players reanimate these sites through reenactment and public engagement.

Re:Activism was initially developed for and played during the Summer 2008 Come Out and Play Festival. A revised version was played by high school students on Election Day as a part of the NYC exhibition “Ours: Democracy In the Age of Branding” at the Kellen Gallery.

As designers we learned a tremendous amount about the constraints and possibilities of the B.U.G. genre in terms of play and learning. The uncertainties of the urban environment and interaction with people on the street led to player experiences that ranged tremendously. While public interaction is still considered an important feature of the game, we have now developed a set of game features and mechanics to enable a greater degree of friendly and synchronistic interaction. This and other insights from the play of the game will be explored with the audience, with the goal to engage in a discussion about big games and their potential for learning and civic engagement.

Re:Activism NYC is one of several games designed last year by PETLab, a lab focused on the prototyping of games for learning and social change. PETLab is a partnership between Parsons the New School for Design and Games for Change. Re:Activism was made possible through funding from the MacArthur Foundation.