Cognitive Cities certainly has been the most stimulating conference of 2011 for me so far. (Despite the few shortcomings I reported on earlier.) So I am super glad it is getting follow-up in the form of a salon in Amsterdam. Tomorrow. And I will be speaking. So, Thursday June 30 in TrouwAmsterdam’s Verdieping: Cognitive Cities [...]
Author Archives: Kars
Speaking at dConstruct 2011
I am really pleased to be speaking at dConstruct this year. I’ve attended the conference myself several times and always enjoy the well-curated program and the good things offered by the event’s home, lovely Brighton. You’ll find the abstract I submitted below. Have a look at the conference site for the rest of the program [...]
Posted in Upcoming Tagged adaptation, brighton, cities, clearleft, conferences, dconstruct, play, reuse, Talks Comments closed
Things we’re working on (volume 2)
It’s been over half a year since I last talked about the projects we have on deck. I thought I’d do a quick post to give you a sense of what’s going on. We’re in the process of wrapping up Maguro. The game – titled Code 4 – is finished and has seen several successful [...]
Posted in Projects Tagged Buta, CDPI, Chi Sparks, Code 4, Creative Design for Playful Impact, DiGRA, HKU, Iruka, Maguro, Saba, science, Think Design Play, Utrecht School of the Arts Comments closed
Talking about Code 4 at Chi Sparks
Our longtime collaborator Alper Çuğun will be at Chi Nederland’s bi-annual conference to talk about Code 4 (formerly referred to as Maguro). Code 4 is a pervasive game we created for the Dutch Tax Administration with the aim of igniting organizational change. Chi Sparks is a conference that focusses on “the very important contributions that [...]
Posted in Upcoming Tagged applied games, Chi Nederland, Chi Sparks, Code 4, Maguro, organizational change, pervasive games Comments closed
New Games for New Cities at FutureEverything
Last week I was in Manchester for FutureEverything. I presented on games and how they can be used to improve city life. Below are my notes and a selection of slides. It’s longish, but hopefully informative. I’ve tried to connect criticism of gamification with the virtues of open-ended play, and show how the latter can [...]
Posted in Talks Tagged cities, citymagic, executive function, games, gamification, pervasive games, play, self-regulation, strangers, urban games, urbanism Comments closed
Looking back on playful Tweetakt 2011
I’ve just uploaded a set of photos taken at the opening of the playful Tweetakt 2011 exhibition. As you may recall, I was asked to curate an interactive addition to this youth theatre festival. The works I selected are in my opinion all wonderful examples of the way play can lead to performance. Each was [...]
Posted in Projects Tagged art, events, exhibitions, festivals, games, installations, interaction design, performance, play, theatre, This happened, This happened – Utrecht, Tweetakt Comments closed
“The opposite of play isn’t work…”
RANJ created a game that makes work in flower farming greenhouses more fun. The game plugs into the data being gathered there already, allowing workers to train their skills at spotting sick plants. In addition, they attempted to increase social interaction between Dutch and Polish workers by asking them to collectively answer a quiz or [...]
Posted in Thoughts Tagged boredom, Code 4, fun, gamification, motivation, play, work Comments closed
Two new projects in the portfolio
I’ve added two projects to our portfolio recently. I thought I’d post a quick note to point them out to you. Learning Lab The first one is Learning Lab, a design research project we ran in the last few months of 2010. It was commissioned by an experimental educational program for VU and UvA students [...]
“New ideas must use old buildings”
The other day I had dinner at a radio-station that was turned into a restaurant. My favorite events venue in Amsterdam used to be a printing press. And friends of mine are turning a massive sports hall into creative work spaces. The uses buildings were intended for, and what they’re actually used for, vary greatly. [...]