Kick-Off Project

Game Boards and Knowledge Maps

Readings: 

1. The Rules of the Game, Eric Zimmerman
2. Rules, Play and Culture: towards an aesthetic of Game, Frank Lantz and Eric zimmerman
3. Knowledge Maps, Mararek Kohn

Context: the Game Board

Play a game board. Yes, that's right, we will be playing a board game during class.

Games are a dynamic design system producing a set of experiences that signify social rules, cultural systems, physical and emotional behaviors. The are, in fact, a constructed object. A design system. An interactive design system. 

Questions:

1. How can we use  "play"  to be a design method for exploring, investigating and mapping?

2. What can a game board model teach us about interactive or participatory design and how can we can utilize these models for developing concepts for thinking about design systems?

3. How can an analog interactive experience inform how we think about interactive design for a the internet?

Knowledge maps:

Translation of one form of knowledge [play] to another [mapping].

Expression of a dynamic system through a visualization of interactivity.

Proposal:

Design a knowledge map [system] that communicates a specific concept/interactivity from of your game. Find a new context for your concept that enables a system to be designed and implemented. Your system should construct a social interaction and reaction.

Proposal should be prototype proposal with visuals and a written description of the project.