Playing Hard: Urban Art Games of Summer 2010.

Article by Angela Ferraiolo.

Angela Ferraiolo investigates an international collection of different ‘Urban Art Games’, taking place this Summer 2010. And finds connections that directly and indirectly link to Situationist ideas and approaches, with artists creating alternate experiences, constructed situations, psychogeography projects, and play as a form of critical engagement & thinking. Featuring SFZero, Atmosphere Industries, The Crux Club, Opt-in Productions, Berlin Invisible Playground & Hakim Bey and more…

“Not long ago, urban games were a kind of novelty. Some grew out of the street performance tradition of live theater. Some came from gamers who were involved in tabletop RPG and wanted to experiment with live reenactment. Others were produced by media artists as a way of experimenting with new technologies like GPS and text messaging. But along with these approaches to play, and at times learning from their carefree attitude towards entertainment, there grew another tradition of the urban game, a tradition of using the city focusing on exploration, and as a specific kind of critique.”

http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=399