Holly Gramazio, Games & the Future of Play
We have a special gaming themed Dorkbot for Maker Wednesday on the 15th October. From pervasive gaming and ‘playable cities’ - to consoles and the latest craze of crowd funded Role Players.
Our main speaker is Holly Gramazio formerly of the renowned Hide & Seek agency tasked with inventing new kinds of play. Now an independent game designer, Holly likes writing and talking about games, making work for public spaces, and exploring the intersection of game design and other cultural forms. Some of her games are events or temporary installations, and some of them are ongoing.
The last Hide & Seek game was created in collaboration with Kensington Palace is a Game of Crowns, an installation in the King’s State Apartments. Working with 815Agency, Havelock 11 and East London Kinetics they created a set of games inspired by an 1699 party and Christmas traditions of the period. Inviting you to make your way through the rooms and bow, dance, pose, spin, peer and more….
A Game of Crowns at Kensington Palace from Hide&Seek on Vimeo.
The project drew on their previous experiences of making games for cultural spaces, in particular The Building Is… which ran in Paris in summer 2013. Like The Building Is, the installation invites you through a series of installations, giving you a way to record the journey as you take as part of the game – but this time the setting was the opulent apartments of Kensington Palace, inside Kensington Gardens, the very place where William III’s 1699/1700 celebrations took place.
We are also calling for anyone else who has something gaming related to share. Have you designed your own game? Are you an avid collector? Got an idea how we can make Colchester ‘playable’? Come along and share your thoughts, ideas and connect with like minded locals. I’m also dragging out my Atari to host a Pac-man tournament. Whoever lasts the longest wins a mystery prize!
Or, if public speaking isn’t your thing, each month there is also loads of room for small, informal breakout sessions after speakers, during the social part of the event where you can demonstrate, show and tell or get some help on your project… Email Dorkbot with any ideas.
This event is 100% free to all. However we do accept donations toward our speaker fees and expenses to allow us to continue to increase the creative standard. Suggested donation is £5.
Wednesday 15th October, 7.30pm
The Waiting Room,
The Street with No Name, (off Queen Street)
Colchester, Essex, CO1 2PQ
RSVP via facebook
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WHAT IS DORKBOT?
Hosted on the third Wednesday of each month as part of The Waiting Room’s weekly Maker Wednesday. Dorkbot is fun, super informal, open door meetup for anyone, who like us, has an interest in technology. Be it as a professional, novice or amateur (Dorkbot’s official strapline is ‘people doing strange things with electricity’).
Whether you are a 12 year old equivalent to Tim Berners-Lee, the next Julian Assange working quietly on the news desk at the Daily Gazette, a Soldering Guru, Stratgeist to the internet stars in the Big Smoke, Content Architect for a local start up, UXer, UIist, Drupal Dreamer or PHP Muncher. I need your help.
LEARN MORE.
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WHAT IS MAKER WEDNESDAY?
Maker Wednesdays are held every week. They are free and informal workshop and show & tell sessions held at the St Botolph’s Waiting Room. They are open to everyone of all ages, backgrounds and skills and cover an array of ‘Maker’ themes. From contemporary creative industries to traditional craft
The aim is to provide a flavour of what’s on offer at our Hack/Maker/Library/Space. A shared workshop environment, accessed via a pay what you can membership scheme.