Hannah Nicklin

Sandpit

Last Wednesday I went to the Broadway in Nottingham to take part in Hide&Seek’s Sandpit Tour. The tour was part of a bigger, week long video games festival, a lot of which I wish I’d had the time and train fares to attend. It was a real celebration of the digital form, past and present, and was a real boon (yeah I’ve not heard that word for a while either) for the city. The event was free, and you could book ahead, or just show up, and was made up of pervasive and playful games. I did my big academic analysis on the pervasive side of it last week, so here’s a more straightforward  record of the actual experience.

Thursday

50+ participants

Thursday was a pretty simple game, and was thrust upon us as soon as we arrived. It (rather cleverly) encouraged people to chat to each other straight away, and also readied you a little for letting go of your inhibitions, as half the time you were asking people just at the Broadway to see a film, and with no clue about what you were talking about. You were given a card with a day on, there were many of all the days, apart from Thursday, the aim being to become Thursday by 10pm. You shifted days by asking “Are you Thursday?” If they were a day that was adjacent to yours (if you were Sunday, that would be Monday and Saturday) then you exchanged cards (advantageously or not). I got to Friday. Frustratingly close!

Dadaist pursuit.

6 players

This was a simple ‘pick up and play’ game, used to fill in the time between games, and offered in a booklet for people to take away with them. Subverting Trivial Pursuit cards, a player would read out a question card, and the task of the other players is to reply with the funniest answer on the reverse of their cards. Whoever the questioner deems the funniest then receives a prize in the question card. Often a lot to do with delivery, I reckon with a few more drinks, an awesome little pick up and play. If I was going to be facetious and analyse it, I could say something about subverting the value in trading on information and education. It was also a lot more fun than trivial pursuit. Less stressful anyway (this may or may not have something to do with the way I approach it).

Vampires

Continue reading…

The Final Product

A piece written as the result of this experiment:

Listen to the Audioboo here

Let me know what you think! (RE product as well as process). It was a really, really interesting collaborative process, and the final product is by no means polished. But that’s not the point, is it :)

And the text:

I grew up here. But I don’t recognise it. It changes the land, the rain. After a while you just don’t see it.

I don’t know where all the water comes from. It’s like money, y’know, no one ever explained to me how there could be more in one place, and not use it up somewhere else.

Ice I spose. Like banks.

I wish you could see the sky.

It’s like darkness. Fuller than the sea. And warm. I don’t like that. It grates. The salt makes your face feel like its burning.

I lost you.

That’s a stupid way to say something, it’s not like a map would have been useful.

You died.

And I can smell you on my hair. You grabbed hold of it and you pulled me out of the water. Screaming past. Pushed me on top of the car. The red metal. It were slippery.

Very Titanic.

Do you remember that film?

I walked here. Everyone were walking in the opposite direction. I don’t know how many people I passed. The stones clinked on the path. People had used all of their words up. Wasted them shouting, saying ‘evacuation were ridiculous’ to committees of nervous looking councillors. There were always this feeling that somehow we’d be able to make it not true if we shouted loud enough.

And now they’re all the same – just a white sea of eyes walking past. Brown to me – your brown eyes. The way they, when you laughed. You look out of every face I see, but I know they’re not you, because they’re not laughing. And it’s not just you – because I know, I know now, you don’t realise. But we’re all connected. It sounds like hippy crap, but when you actually see people, when you actually see them, and this much, hurt, you feel it. You know we were always connected. Our breath. But now you breathe, and it doesn’t feel like you have. The air’s so wet.

I’ve given up on staying dry.

I’ve given up.

Paris Day 1 – Pictures and Plans

One simple thing that rules about Posterous (how I’m posting this)- the fact that you can post by email. So very useful when piggybacking on a poor frenchperson’s intermittent NETGEAR wifi connection.

So yes, I’m pretty tired after a long day of travelling, but happy to be in France. Went down to the Louvre and surrounding area after we got here, just a bit of exploring, then tea, and back.

My big plan is for tomorrow – intention is to do the Cimetiére du Montparnasse (definitely have to find Simone De Beauvoir) then the Eiffel Tower (because you have to really, don’t you?) and then Musée d’Orsay (I’m an impresssion/expressionist kind of gal) before lunch in the Jardin des Tuileries, Notre Dame, and if time permits, the Musée Picasso… Probably impossible, but worth a go.

Weather was pretty changeable here, warm breeze, showers etc. I am consoled by the fact that by the look of Twitter, it’s probably raining more in England.

[View with PicLens]