3 weeks, 2 wheels and a dog on thyroid meds

It's been an intense 3 weeks in Austin. The chickens and their lazy ways have become an enviable and distant dream, I've gotten alot better at negotiating these fault-line hills on my single speed, and Jackson, the elderly resident of the Taylor Street lofts has tired of Mrs. Bairds buns. He's been diagnosed with a thyroid problem and so we both have had to step up to more rigorous medication strategies. As it turns out, pill pockets work like a charm.

Today marks the beginning of week 4 and the wrap-up of many loose ends here in the Texas capital, and although I'd finally like to say I'm On Vacation, the reality is far from it. The workshop with the UT design juniors was a mega-success and before I forget everything that happened, I'm trying to make notes and plans for the next opportunity to run something like this.

The juniors were fearless, enthusiastic, professional, and committed to the project: Magic Circles for Midtown. They were assigned a location in Austin that can be described as 'uninteresting', 'transitional' and 'empty' and they gave it new life and meaning with experiments for play in public space. 30 Second Theatre, A Shady Busstop, Bubblewrap Carpet, and Tic Tac Toe Day took the sleepy zone by surprise and gave it's daily inhabitants something to think about. These projects were undoubtedly a success in that they changed the daily behaviors and caused unlikely interactions, questions and comments from the local population. They were also a success in the lessons learned and generalizations acquired:

1. 'For Free' signs are often -- in our world of 'free offers' that are never really free -- a deterrant, and dissuade action or interaction.
2. Play more freely happens in groups. Perhaps we each have our own adult non-play inertia that needs to be overcome by force -- and that's most easily achieved by a friend or two.
3. Play begets play: if potential players happen upon play in progess, they are more likely to join than they are to initiate it.
4. Bananas are always a good foot in the door of absurdity.
5. Feedback loops are integral. People want to know what's going on, and they're more likely to have a meaningful experience if there's some sort of contextualization, framing or explaination. The easiest way to do that is for the artists on-site to answer questions and encourage interaction. Without them, the interface needs to be robust and possibly redundant in order to provide inspiration to act, encouragement for action, feedback for action, and answers to questionsa about action.

Students get into their roles by forming a single-file field-trip line to the site

An early experiment with unquantifiable outcomes. Is this gentleman really voting with his choice of seat?
Did he even see the chalk designations on the ground?

Another early experiment: materials brought on site become reveal several problems: of function and meaning.

I made fun of 7-11's 'Every Cup Counts' promo -- but truth be told, I couldn't walk in and NOT vote for Obama.
Clearly others felt the same way.
I felt strangely excited the rest of the day, walking around with my Obama cup, even once emptied of it's slurpee.
OBAMANOS! OBAMA!!!!!!!!!

Nancy, Angela, and JM hard at work on their second prototype. They are hardcore.

The bubblewrap carpeting in the construction tunnel had early and repeated success. Case in point: Alyssa made a point over the 2 days of this installation to come through the tunnel to jump on the bubble and when asked about her experiences, she commented that the installation had been the brightest point in her week. Thanks, Alyssa!

Trouble-makers in the making: I didn't realize that this was the class when we were walking up and I was thrilled at the turnout of bus stop clientelle!

Here's everyone -- plus a nice lady waiting for the bus -- waiting for trouble to come their way.

Bananas!

Notice the big smile on the fellow at the left who has his dry-cleaning, a balloon (you can't see) from Teddy and Kerrie, and now a banana.
He's going to be the patron saint of public art some day.

Lastly, the Playtime Hustler hustles some real play from the folks in the smoker's lounge at Guadalupe and 15th.
Here's to more Less Work, More Play afternoons. And maybe even some large-scale building-to-building tic tac toe.

Now that we can see how play can be so easily achieved -- I'd like to challenge myself to seek the notion of Meaningful Play in further versions of this type of workshop.

In starting to think about it, I came across a posting in Jane McGonigal's syllabus for her class Game Design as Art Practice : According to Salen & Zimmerman, meaningful play requires that players be given opportunities to take non-random actions or make decisions that have a discernable (immediately clear) and integrated (makes "big-picture" sense) effect on the game. For your game critique this week, please evaluate a game you play by asking the question: Does meaningful play happen? To what degree is it meaningful, compared to other games? Which game design elements make it meaningful (or not)?

These are exactly the questions I've been asking myself, although I'd substitute 'intervention' for 'game'. But maybe I should check myself. Maybe it is games I'm talking about and rejecting the idea because I don't (yet?) consider myself a game player. And that's a posting for another time.

But big congrats to the students for their hard work and great outcomes. It was a successful adventure for all involved, and I look forward to future opportunities, both with this subject matter and with this particular group of students.