Welcome to our Wednesday Lunch talk on 6th February between 11.30-13.30 when we welcome Jon Back who will talk about the game Codename Heroes and the project Play Spaces at the Mobile Life Centre.
Please register before February 4 so that we can plan for seating and catering.
Venue: EIT ICT Labs Stockholm Co-location Centre, Isafjordsgatan 26, floor 3C.
The game Codename Heroes and the project Play Spaces at the Mobile Life Centre
Abstract: According to the Flemish historian Huizinga, the activity of play is signified by its deliberate delimitation from ‘the real’. Everything we play at doing is set aside of what we consider the ordinary. At the same time, just about anything we do can be done as play. In play, we rely on an explicit identification of the time, place, and participants in the activity to establish a zone in which we feel encouraged to try things we do not normally dare to do, or feel comfortable being seen doing.
In the Play Spaces project at Mobile Life, we explore this concept of play, and look in particular at mechanisms that support the mixing and coexistence of play with everyday life in semi-public and public spaces. In the talk, the pervasive game Codename Heroes will be presented, focusing on how it was designed to empower, trough play, its core audience of young girls as they appropriate public space.
For more information:
Mobile Life: www.mobilelifecentre.org
Codename Heroes: www.codenameheroes.org
Jon Back: www.lets-play.se
Biography
Jon Back is a Ph.D. student at the Mobile Life Centre with an interest mainly in the design of games, play and playful activities. His focus is on how the design affects the engagement, feelings and experiences of the game.
Jon's interest in the design of activities, with a game design focus, comes from a broad background. He has got a background in computer programming and design, from where he moved on towards communication with a pedagogical twist and games as the main tool. He has designed both live action roleplaying games and published board games, for both work and entertainment use.
