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Games for Change : Social Impact Games

Games for Change : Social Impact Games

Posted on by Kbaumlier

A serious game is more fun than it sounds.  A “serious game”  is  a genre of games that are  designed for a primary purpose other than entertainment.  Games that are designed for the purpose of solving a problem, present an issue, or educate are called serious games – or social impact games.

The annual conference Games for Change supports the creation and distribution of  social impact games that serve as critical tools in humanitarian and educational efforts.  Unlike the commercial gaming industry, the group aims to leverage entertainment and engagement for social good.

Often referred to as “the Sundance of Video Games”, the Games for Change Annual Festival is the biggest gaming event in New York City. It brings together leaders from government, corporations, media, academia and the gaming community to explore impact of digital games as an agent for social change.

This year Games for Change will be participating in a daylong Summit at the annual Game Developer Conference on March 6th at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.  Games for Change @ GDC will comprise of case studies, roundtables, lectures and demos to highlight models for collaboration on game design, distribution and publishing alternatives, and other topics.

This Summit is in addition to the annual Games for Change Conference that is held in June in New York City.

The Games for Change website has a game arcade online – where you can play and read about digital and non-digital games that engage social issues in a meaningful way.  The games explore issues such as civics, economics, education, environment, health, human rights, news, poverty and other social issues.

I  spent some time checking out some of the games in the arcade area of the Games for Change site.  One new game released this year is called Nanu Planet. Nanu Planet is the story of two space explorers who get separated on a planet split in two (“Nanu” is Korean for “divided”). Through a narrative journey, players explore the various areas of Nanu Planet while encountering different characters, puzzles, and adventures.

In the game using point and click function, players guide Parchi on his quest to find his partner and love interest, Puchi.  The game has a playful cartoon look, but touches upon the deep and somber historical roots of the separation of Korea into its North and South regions.   By playing, you learn about Korea’s past chapter by chapter.

Another new game on the site is Wondermind developed by Preloaded.  This game is a series of mini-games and interactive films for children aged 8-12, designed to illustrate the neuroscience of the growing brain in child development.  The games aim to encourage an understanding of core aspects of neuroscience, including neural plasticity, spatial cognition, memory and language.

The games use Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland story and characters. Quests include searching for the Cheshire Cat in a complex maze using reflected light; catching the White Rabbit; and making sure the Mad Hatter serves the right type of tea to his guests.

One game in the Environmental Game area that is interesting is the game Commons, a multi-player, location-based mobile game for the iPhone, where players compete with one another to recommend improvements for their city.

Commons was the winner of the 2011 Games for Change Real-World Challenge presented by the Come Out & Play Festival and Games for Change.  This game is played in a specific site and time.

The game was made to solve the issue of “The Tragedy of the Commons”, a theory in which individuals will deplete a shared local resource while fulfilling their own needs, however without the intention of hindering other individuals or society as a whole. Commons aims to correct this by allowing players to examine their city for improvements and share them competitively with other players.

Commons ran for two hours on June 19th, 2011, a day before the 8th Annual Games for Change Festival. Over 70 tasks were distributed over the different areas of lower Manhattan. Players competed for points and four coveted titles that represented the best work in categories like best-suggested improvement or the most points. Commons was made to work for any city looking to engage its citizens and improve its city, one recommendation at a time.  You can download the game on Itunes – and the Commons site has documentation about the game.

Can games create social change?  Check out the Games for Change site yourself – and get your game on.

 

Links:

Games for Change

Games for Change @ GDC

Games for Change Arcade

Games for Change Vimeo Site

Wondermind Game

Nanu Planet Game

The Commons Game

 

 

Wind Paintings : Belgian artist Bob Verschueren

Wind Paintings : Belgian artist Bob Verschueren

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Today there are many artists who are working with art and the natural environment.   I recently was sent a link of an interesting use of wind and landscape – the work of  the late  Belgian artist Bob Verschueren who created Wind Paintings in the 1970s and 1980s.  To make the pieces he would go to a empty landscape and paint lines of crushed charcoal, iron oxide, chalk, and other pigments in a linear pattern. Over the time of a few hours, the wind would come through and create the works – and eventually blow them away.

On his website the artist writes a description of the works which states, “Natural pigments spread across the landscape with the help of the wind.  The conjunction of three decisive elements: the direction and the strength of the wind, the landscape and its relief and the hand of the sower of color.”  He also writes about how the first Wind Painting gave him the extraordinary sense of living his art – rather than creating it.

His other works include installations made of ephemeral materials including nettle and water lily leaves, sand, tree branches, moss, twigs, and vegetables.

To see more images of his Wind pieces and other art, you can goto his website – http://www.bobverschueren.net.

 

Links:

Bob Verschueren’s Website – http://www.bobverschueren.net

Write an Ode to an Object: Akiko Busch

Write an Ode to an Object: Akiko Busch

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Last night I attended a talk by author Akiko Busch at the Cleveland Institute of Art.  Busch writes about design, culture and the natural world and her books include Geography of Home: Writings on Where We Live, The Uncommon Life of Common Objects: Essays on Design and the Everyday , and Nine Ways to Cross a River.

In her talk, Busch talked about the relationship of language to how we engage with things. The first part of her talk focused on how writing about an object gives a new rich perspective.  She shared numerous examples and citations from literature, poetry, which included the book Robinson Caruso, John Steinbeck’s Log of the Sea of Cortez, and writings of Pablo Neruda.

Busch continued to talk about the value and power of describing things – and about the relationship of making and writing.  The history of this idea came from a course she taught a number of years ago in which students had to make various objects including a bowl and door handle – and they had to write an ode to each object.   The students learned how writing is a way to understand and connect to the object, making the subject larger and richer.

“The material and lyrical are mutually informative and are two different ways to get to something,” Busch said.  She continued to describe how making is thinking – and how making and writing work well together to expand perspectives.

She described how the haptic experience takes precedence over other experiences – and talked specifically about doors.  She had observed at libraries and other buildings that there is sometimes a written sign would be posted that warns visitors that a door can open suddenly, to push or pull, or some other written instruction.  She also observed that people would continually not read the sign – and would push or pull the door, or try to enter the wrong doorway.

She described how she spoke to designer Michael Bierut about this – and he shared his perspective that the physical cues override others (such as the written sign.)  She went on to share that any written sign on an object is an admission of failure, and that any visitor is going to usually ignore the sign – and push the door, go in the wrong door etc. – since we hang onto the expectations that things announce themselves.

“We think with the objects we love and we love with the objects we think with,” Busch said in her closing comments.

She then urged the audience to spend time writing an ode to an object, or a “recipe” about the object – in order to better understand the object that you are working on.

I am currently working on some creative resistance umbrellas for my  Stretch Your Paycheck interactive performance – and plan to write an ode to the umbrella before I start on the design of the graphics for the  orange and red umbrellas in my studio.

An Ode to an Umbrella…

 

Links:

Odes to Objects Examples– from Akiko Busch’s class Reading Design

Akiko Busch

Interview with Akiko Busch: on The Uncommon Life of Common Objects

 

Paper, plastic, or aluminum? November 15th – America Recycles Day

Paper, plastic, or aluminum? November 15th – America Recycles Day

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Paper, plastic, or aluminum?  Tomorrow – November 15th  is America Recycles Day, the only nationally recognized day to promote recycling in the U.S.  In my area there is a paper and used book drive at several libraries, an environment and recycle day event at a school, and a rain barrel workshop at the zoo.

Today, over 87 percent of people have access to community recycling programs, and over 50% of the population have curbside collection programs.  Recycling  started with paper, plastic and aluminum has now expanded to recycling paint, batteries, cellphones, printer ink cartridges, and used computers and electronics.

Since 1997, November 15 has been America Recycles Day – where events are planed to educate and motivate others about what can be accomplished when we recycle.  “I Recycle” events taking place this month, all designed to educate, motivate and inspire individuals to recycle more.

Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953 created the toolkits, resources, and website for the event, and is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization.   The organization has over 1,200 affiliate and participating organizations.

“Recycling not only protects the environment, it strengthens the community,” said Matthew M. McKenna, president and CEO of Keep America Beautiful, Inc. “The simple act of recycling creates the impetus for innovation in industry and fosters green jobs. Recycling can save communities money through more efficient waste management, and significantly reduces energy costs and demands on our natural resources. Ultimately, recycling improves a community’s cohesion and impacts the local quality of life.”

Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation are also among the national sponsors providing resources and supporting events. The company’s recycling website offers a host of resources including a free Aluminate iPhone app to help individuals recycle more.

Paula Davis, president, Alcoa Foundation says that “If all Americans recycled just one more can per week, we could reach our 75 percent recycling goal in the U.S. and save enough energy to power almost 300,000 average U.S. homes for a full year. Every step counts.”

Image Source:
America Recycles

Links:

Find an America Recyles event near you: http://americarecyclesday.org/join-event

America Recycles Day

Keep America Beautiful

Alcoa Recyling Page

 

Carp: It’s what’s for dinner!

Carp: It’s what’s for dinner!

Posted on by Kbaumlier

The Asian carp, considered an invasive species that have made it up the Mississippi River and possibly to Lake Michigan might be the next up and coming fish to eat.  Some chefs and officials in Illinois are considering marketing the fish which includes of two species (the Bighead and Silver carp) instead of trying to just get rid of it.

Carp is said to be a tasty fleshy fish.  The carp has two obstacles to wider acceptance: bones and a bad rap.  Currently the carp suffers from bias in the U.S. The fish looks terrible and smells bad, but it has a subtle, moist flavor that is surprising – provided you remove all the bones.

“Everyone agrees the word carp has a negative connotation to diners in the U.S.,” John Rogner, assistant director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, an agency charged with keeping the fish from taking over Lake Michigan, said in an article from the latest issue of Audubon. “I think they’re great smoked, and I’ve had them fried. I think the fish will sell itself once it’s given the chance.”

The fish is already being eaten by a number of ethnic groups.  The Vietnamese community cooks carp in coconut milk with lemon grass and chili peppers. The Polish like to draw out the fishy odor by soaking it in milk and onions.

There is precedence of chefs popularizing fish.  Prior to the early 1980’s,  the Louisiana Redfish was not a popular fish. After Chef Paul Prudhomme developed a recipe for “blackened redfish”, the fish got so popular it almost got fished to extinction.

Chef Philippe Parola and his group plan to re-brand Asian carp as Silverfin and popularize the fish with boneless, pre-cooked and flavored Silverfin fish fillets.

According to Chef Phillipe Parola, the taste of carp is like a cross between scallops and crabmeat.  He has created recipes, which include silver fin fried strips, silver fin almondine, silver fin with fresh berries and silver fin cakes.

 

Image Source:
Photo by Chef Philippe Parola www.chefphilippe.com
Links:

Silver Fin Craze

Carp for Dinner – Audobon Magazine article