Abstract
Games such as Niantic’s Ingress and Pokémon GO have demonstrated that Pervasive Games can be highly engaging for their audience by creatively combining location-based data and augmented content. This research asks how Pervasive Games using Augmented Reality can contribute to a changing perception of Public Art through a playful exploration of place. By unintentionally discovering Art whilst playing games, new meanings are seen to emerge and are explored from new perspectives through the surprise of discovery and re-negotiation with art in public places. This chapter is a semiotic exploration, through analysis and interview of some of the signs and symbols of Public Art and particularly the ontological shifts arising from the re-contextualisation and revisitations of symbols in augmented frameworks. The analysis of semiotic change seeks to explore the shifting interpretations of Public Art afforded by playing games with augmented technologies. Pervasive Games such as Wayfinder Live, and even Pokémon GO and its precursors unravel an evolving set of rich discourses in which to investigate the recursive correlations of Art and Place. The outcomes of this analysis of Pervasive Games reveal the ontological implications not of intentional design, but of the unintended consequence of playing Games through Art.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adams S (2010) Guildford Lane—Melbourne’s New Art Precinct. https://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/art-and-design/article/guildford-lan. Accessed 11 Oct 2018
Conway S, Innocent T (2017) Ways of being: pervasive game design ethos in urban codemakers. Trans Digital Games Res Assoc 3(1):5–26
Davies H, Innocent T (2017) The space between Debord and Pikachu. In: Proceedings of the 2017 DiGRA International Conference, Melbourne, vol 14(1), pp 1–13
Debord G (1956) Theory of the derive, Translated by Ken Knabb. https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/theory.html. Accessed 9 Oct 2018
Della-Bosca D (2018) Recursion and the augmented experience of public art. Paper presented at the proceedings of the Australasian computer science week multiconference, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 29 Jan–2 Feb 2018. https://doi.org/10.1145/3167918.3167927
Galloway A (2006) Gaming: essays on algorithmic culture (Electronic Mediations). University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, p p7
Hawthorne E (2018) How can the poetic gesture show us a reality as we would like it to be?: Exegesis presented at the undergraduate conference, Queensland College of Art Brisbane QLD, Australia, 8 Oct 2018
Haywood J (2007) Lose the game. http://www.losethegame.net/faq. Accessed 10 Aug 2018
Highsmith C (2018) George Segal “The Breadline”. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FDR-Memorial-The-Breadline-detail.jpg. Accessed 7 Aug 2018
Huizinga J (1955) Homo ludens: a study of the play-element in culture. Beacon Press, Boston
Innocent T (2018a) Wayfinder live. http://troyinnocent.net/wayfinder_live.htm. Accessed 7 Oct 2018
Innocent T (2018b) Wayfinder live Bristol. https://twitter.com/troy_innocent/status/974741521252737025. Accessed 11 Oct 2018
Innocent T (2017) A framework for cloud aesthetics in mixed realities. Leonardo electronic almanac, vol 229(1). LEA/MIT Press, Cambridge MA. https://contemporaryarts.mit.edu/pub/aframeworkforcloudaesthetics Accessed 7 October 2018
Introvert (2004) The burghers of calais by auguste rodin in the memorial court of the Main Quad, on the Stanford University campus. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les-bourgeois-de-Calais.jpg. Accessed 7 Aug 2018
Invader (2014a) About invader. http://www.space-invaders.com/about/ Accessed 29 Aug 2018
Invader (2014b) World Invasion Melbourne. https://www.space-invaders.com/world/melbourne/ Accessed 29 Aug 2016
Laurent M, (1989) Rodin. Trans. Emily Read. Konecky & Konecky, New York
Lichty P (2014) The aesthetics of liminality: augmentation as artform. Leonardo 47(4):325–336
Montola M (2005) Exploring the edge of the magic circle. Defining pervasive games. In DAC 2005 conference. IT University of Copenhagen. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.125.8421 Accessed 30 Aug 2018
Noe A (2015) Strange tools. Hill and Wang, New York
Phillips P (2003) Public art: a renewable resource. In: Miles M, Hall T (ed’s) Urban futures: critical commentaries on shaping the city, Routledge, London, pp 122–133
Rafinski A, Zielke M (2014) Defragging the Magic Circle: From Experience Design to Reality Design. In: Proceedings of the 2013 DiGRA international conference: defragging game studies. http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/paper_423.pdf Accessed 17 June 2018
Salen K, Zimmerman E (2003) Rules of play: game design fundamentals. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Tipping R (2012, 2014) Artwork ahead. https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/204.2015.a-c/ Accessed 8 Aug 2018
Weigel J (2016) Pokemon Go finds public art. https://blog.sculpture.org/2016/08/10/pokemon-go-finds-public-art/ Accessed 17 Aug 2016
Whiteghost.ink (2016) Artwork ahead. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tipping_%22Artwork%22_(2004).jpg. Accessed 8 Aug 2018
Woods A (2016) Why This travel Blogger loves Pokemon Go. http://adventuresallaround.com/why-this-travel-blogger-loves-pokemon-go/. Accessed 29 Aug 2016
Zimmerman E (2012) Jerked around by the magic circle—clearing the air ten years later. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/135063/jerked_around_by_the_magic_circle_php?print=1. Accessed 17 June 2018
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Della-Bosca, D. (2019). Unintended Consequence: Pervasive Games and Public Art. In: Geroimenko, V. (eds) Augmented Reality Games II. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15620-6_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15620-6_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-15619-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-15620-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)