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INTRODUCTION | GAME THEORY | DESIGN THEORY | GAMES { 1 2 3 4 5 6 }    
    Underdogs & Superheroes is a research project exploring design interventions for public places. In architecture and urban planning, design practice must take into account the social and societal ramification of form and infrastructure. As technology is increasingly integrated into our urban environments, we feel a need to rethink how the design of interactions with these technologies affects everyday life and opens new opportunities for communities and localities.




Typically, technologies implemented in cities today are either generic and universal (such as traffic systems) or commercial and media-driven (such as location-based mobile services). We are interested in designing interactions with technology to support localities and encourage participation – open systems that are adaptable over time and appropriateable locally, that can affect a global presence from the bottom up.

Sparked by our desire to promote positive and open communication for communities, the project situates interaction in public space as an opportunity for sharing difference, fulfilling aspirations, and enhancing togetherness. The outcome of the project will be a series of installed urban interventions, designed for playful inhabitation of the city.

Design approach

Rather than starting with a concept, a technology, or a business plan, Underdogs & Superheroes begins with a methodology for involving stakeholders and the public from the start.

     



In exploring locally relevant and open forms of expression, we have found it necessary to rethink the design process itself. Rather than adopting the approach of 'design for all' or 'localizing' global solutions, we investigate notions of 'site-specific', 'local', 'cultural', 'inherent' and 'universal' in the design of public experiences. Drawing on our other work in design methods, we apply innovative methods and formats for participatory involvement of new 'players' in the design space.  

























  Our methods in Underdogs & Superheroes involve a game-based methodology to engage people experientially, creatively and personally in the design process. We have developed a series of activities – or games – which are held in public spaces, by correspondence, or as workshop formats. Since November 2002, 5 design ‘games’ have been held, involving approximately 45 people – or players – in the project:

Drawing on game theory and performance, our game-based methodology invoves a conceptual framework and palette of techniques to support the suspension of disbelief during design sessions so that participants can immerse themselves fully in the possibilities in the design space. Design games provide principles and strategies for envisioning future or alternate realities, enabling collaborative and situated concept development, and increasing possibilities for engagement with a broad spectrum of participants and stakeholders.




Game activities are carefully designed and staged to create a space for participants enter into the design space and participate emotionally, experientially, and creatively. Formats for individual and group work incorporate techniques for enactment, improvisation, rule sets, and temporal and spatial boundaries. A shift in focus and attention is accomplished through the use of narrative constructs, designed worksheets, and interaction props.

We have found that games help engage users’ imaginations by representing reality without limiting expectations to what's possible here and now; engaging experiential and personal perspectives (the 'whole' person); and opening the creative process to hands-on participation through low or no-tech materials and a widely-understood approach.






   
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The Games
The Underdogs &Ssuperheroes game series consists of 5 games.
Listed below are the games that have been played thus far.

1   Superhero survey
aspirations, identity and
transformation 		2 Automatic mapping
locating emotions & sites of transition in the city
   
"OUR EXPERT EQUIPMENT HAS INDICATED THAT YOU ARE A BEING WITH EXTRAORDINARY POWERS. WE WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU SOME QUESTIONS TO ADVANCE SCIENTIFIC THINKING IN THE FIELD."
"PLAYGROUNDS : SPINNING, STAIRWELLS : LEADING, PASSAGES : INVENTING, SQUARES : TRACING, BRIDGES : WISHING, REVOLVING DOORS: SINGING, BENCHES: DREAMING"
     
3   Public mapping:
participatory pattern mapping
of local sites		 4  

Story of the object:
anthropology of personal objects of transformation

   
"SUPERHEROES AND ARCH ENEMIES MUST MEET... WHERE IS THE BORDER BETWEEN
GOOD AND EVIL IN GOTEBORG?"
"THEY MIGHT HAVE SEEMED LIKE ORDINARY OBJECTS KEPT IN NORMAL POCKETS. BUT IN A SECRET LIFE BATTLING THE FORCES OF EVIL, EVERYTHING HAS A SPECIAL MEANING."
     
5  

Superpower prototypes:
role-playing with interaction props
in the city

6

Becoming a Superhero:
the role of the designer, play-acting superheroes in local public spaces

   
"SECOND SENSE : PROTOTYPE MODEL NO. Y19 size L DURABLE & PRACTICAL FOR INVISIBLE FORCES & YES/NO ANSWERS"
"WINDOWS REFLECTIN, REMINDING ME OF ANOTHER WORLD AND THAT THE FUTURE WILL COME."
   

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    The Future of the Games

Cultural interventions:
think, act, change!

Cultural interventions will take place as a series of publicly installed and iteratively designed technology concepts. Models for public interaction { Game 5} and personal tools {Game 4} are being designed for expression {Game 1} in archetypical urban sites {Games 2 & 3}.
  



Underdogs & Superheroes is a project within the Public Play Spaces research platform at the RE:FORM & PLAY studios, Interactive Institute.

Project team:
Margot Jacobs + Ramia Mazé
Anna Dahlberg + Anna Götesson