Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

To Design with Strings for Playability in Cities

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Interactivity, Game Creation, Design, Learning, and Innovation (ArtsIT 2018, DLI 2018)

  • 1965 Accesses

Abstract

This paper explores how Donna Haraway’s “String Figuration” together with Maria Puig de la Bellacasa’s concept of “touch” as a design method have worked in the process of an augmented reality (AR) play called Play/ce. The aim of this paper is to propose that designers of playful cities are creating the conditions for playability to show how players can try out and play with responses in a city by different acts of touch. I suggest that responding, which comes from the act of relaying, is part of designing ‘games as a social technologies’, a concept from Mary Flanagan. I will develop this concept since I think it is especially interesting to take into account when it comes to using cities as playgrounds and turn people into full body players to explore what touch means.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Haraway, D.: A game of cat’s cradle: science studies, feminist theory, cultural studies. Configurations 2(1), 59–71 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Puig de la Bellacasa, M.: Touching technologies, touching visions. The reclaiming of sensorial experience and the politics of speculative thinking. Subjectivity 28(1), 297–315 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Tan, E.: Play the City. Jap Sam Books, Heijningen (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Flanagan, M.: Critical Play: Radical Game Design. MIT Press, Cambridge (2009)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  5. Bogost, I.: Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secrets of Games. Basic Books, New York (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Walther, B.K.: Pervasive game spaces. Gameplay out in the open. In: Space, Time Play. Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism: The Next Level, pp. 290–304. Birkhäuser, Basel (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Nilsson, E.: Arkitekturens kroppslighet. Staden som terräng. Ph.D. thesis, Lund University, Lund, Sweden (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Haraway, D.: Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press, Durham (2016)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  9. Mackenzie, A.: Transduction: intervention, innovation and collective life (2003). http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/mackenza/papers/transduction.pdf. Accessed 12 May 2018

  10. Stenros, J., Montola, M., Björk, S.: Designing temporal expansion. In: Pervasive Games, pp. 97–110. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Lammes, S.: Digital cartographies as playful practices. In: Playful Identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures, pp. 199–211. Amsterdam University Press (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Harley, J.B., Woodward, D.: The History of Cartography 1, xvi (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Ingold, T.: Lines: A Brief History. Routledge, Abingdon (2007)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  14. Augé, M.: Non-places an introduction to the anthropology of supermodernity. Verso, London/New York (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Bell, V.: Photo-image. In: Inventing Methods. The Happening of the Social, pp. 147–163. Paperback, London, New York (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Listerborn, C.: Trygg stad: diskurser om kvinnors rädsla i forskning, policyveckling och lokal praktik. Chalmers tekniska högskola, Thesis. Chalmers tekniska högskola. Göteborg (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Montola, M., Stenros, J., Waern, A.: Designing spatial expansion. In: Pervasive Games, pp. 77–90. Morgan Kaufman, San Francisco (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I want to thank everyone involved in the making of Play/ce so far, my co-researchers Pirjo Elovaara and Cecilia Barry, Jonas Svegland for technical expertise, the municipality of Karlshamn, the youth council and in particular the players who have contributed with their time and ideas to make the best out of the work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Blekinge Institute of Technology, 374 35, Pirgatan, Karlshamn, Sweden

    Annika Olofsdotter Bergström

Authors
  1. Annika Olofsdotter Bergström
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Annika Olofsdotter Bergström .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Anthony L. Brooks

  2. Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Eva Brooks

  3. University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Cristina Sylla

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Bergström, A.O. (2019). To Design with Strings for Playability in Cities. In: Brooks, A., Brooks, E., Sylla, C. (eds) Interactivity, Game Creation, Design, Learning, and Innovation. ArtsIT DLI 2018 2018. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 265. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06134-0_30

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06134-0_30

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-06133-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-06134-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation