Mapscotch

Filed under Ongoing Event, Game, projects

Event Information

Artist: Mary Flanagan

Mapscotch is an activity using the old street game of hopscotch as a tool to explore and critique existing issues in social public spaces, and build a counter image of our future urban experiences.

How can designers and artists use the theme of street play to engage city inhabitants? To raise awareness? To engage in a particular social commitment? All maps represent priorities and interests, embedding into their design philosophies about the environment and the way in which the environment is experienced. This Conflux workshop focuses on translating the experiences of the city into playable maps, which might or might not utilize mobile technologies in their design, with the goal for instigating some kind of social change, or at least conversation about social change.
We will use the old street game of hopscotch as a tool to explore and critique existing issues in social public spaces, and build a counter image of our future urban experiences. “Mapscotch” works best with simple rules; simple rules can give rise to complex, emergent, and intelligent systems. We will be designing hopscotches that might address social themes, such as: displacement, translation, cultural negotiation, language, class, power (i.e., “laborscotch” “humanrightscotch”).