Medialab-Prado turns Madrid into a screen of solid interfaces and urban digital games

Until next time 7 July, Medialab-Prado holds the collaborative development workshop "Solid interfaces and digital games in the public space", showing the projects in the streets of the center of Madrid.

Medialab-Prado will show the selected projects in the collaborative development workshop "Solid Interfaces and Urban Games: Digital Games in the Public Space", which can be seen until 7 in some central streets of Madrid.

These selected projects use interactive street furniture, Environmental Sensors, Digital Facades, Multiplayer video game dynamics, sound compositions or Gardening Guerrilla to propose other ways of experiencing the city and making it more sustainable.

The collaborators registered in this intensive workshop also participate in the production of the selected projects, aimed at thinking about play in public space as an opportunity to generate and create other urban uses and the links that are established between citizens, in which the city is the interface.

During these seven days, the work and experimentation platform dedicated to the digital façade of Medialab-Prado, together with collaborators, workshop tutors and technical assistants of the project, with the advice of Nerea Calvillo, curator for Medialab-Prado of Connecting Cities, ideas will be tested and prototypes will be developed. Next, a brief summary of these projects that can be seen in Madrid.

Sonic Skate Plaza

The Sonic Skate Plaza proposal, by Pablo Serret de Ena, it is an intervention in the public space in which the Plaza de Las Letras in Madrid becomes a stage for an "Orchestra of skaters". With the use of different sensors located on the surface of the square and its urban furniture, These elements are transformed into an interface that activates sound compositions with the movement of the skaters who usually use the square. From their interaction, Paths and skills can generate multiple and variable compositions, resulting in sound pieces created by using the skateboard as an instrument.

Real-time audio can be played well by public speakers (event) or by wireless frequency (Fixed installation), the latter being accessible via mobile phones and headphones. The fixed installation would also result in a platform where the sound associated with the sensors could be "curated" and intervened by different sound artists, musicians and users, both local and foreign, thus generating connections between a "real" physical square and a "virtual" one; Between the local and the global.

Other elements, such as the digital façade, will support this activity for the visualization of routes and actions of the skaters.

Temporary Babel3D

This project is a network construction simulation game, in the form of a tower, that evolves from the flows of movement thanks to multiple real and virtual players. Temporary Babel3D is an interactive game for the construction of the Tower of Babel: a space where time and space oscillate and perspective shifts; where user-generated real and virtual movement flows sculpt the dynamics of construction and destruction and transform them into the building of a community-built game.

This project works on the idea of archaeologically reconstructing the Tower of Babel, and how community movements model temporary virtual architectures in a simple and engaging playful environment.

El Prado Gardening Guerrilla

It is a tactical mixed reality game that takes place in the city of Madrid and can last for days, weeks or even months, as players plant seedlings in various locations around the city and move plants from opposing teams to add to their own spaces.

Plants are marked with QR codes, and its GPS coordinates are transmitted to a server on the digital façade of Medialab-Prado, showing an abstract view of the game state (while keeping the location of the plant secret).

While the game focuses on espionage and team tactics, Playing with plants opens up new unexpected experiences in the perception of the city. In addition, Players are encouraged to treat plants and the environment with the utmost respect. The Prado Gardening Guerrilla is the first city-wide adaptation of the concept of the Gardening Guerrilla games, and integrates the digital façade as a game board and meeting place for players.

Urban Spirits

The aim of this project-game is to promote eco-friendly behaviour, creative and aggregative in the urban neighborhood. The game makes use of the new sensors of the Smart City and its urban spaces, especially interactive street furniture and digital facades, with which players can interact through their smartphones or directly with street furniture.

Urban Spirits, based on the metaphor of the same name, Receive data on the situation of the urban district through environmental sensors, and with this information the game environment dynamically changes. The purpose is to placate the little spirits through interaction with the environment, and each interaction is a small exercise aimed at reinforcing social involvement, creativity and ecological awareness in the participants.

On the other hand, Medialab-Prado participates together with ten other institutions in the European Urban Media Network for Connecting Cities initiative, whose objective is the creation of a network of media facades and urban screens for the circulation of artistic and social content.

The initiative is funded by the European Union's Culture Programme and is set up as a network for the exchange of experience and knowledge in which to generate a forum for debate around urban media facades and screens, as well as in the development of projects, Events, Calls, etc.

Be Sociable, Share!