Finding Your Place

H O W M O B I L E G A M E S A N D S O C I A L M E D I A C A N R E D E F I N E C L I M A T E C H A N G E A N D C O M M U N I T Y

FINDING YOUR PLACE

Maxwell FoxmanNew York UniversityMedia, Culture & Communicationmhf223@nyu.eduWebsite: www.maxwellfoxman.info

CLIMATE BALANCE THROUGH PLAY

• Climate Collapse within 5 Years• Climate as network• Global connectivity in the

digital age• Climate effects a collective

of humans and non-humans• Climate is effected by

humans predominantly in the Anthropocene

A THEORETICAL HISTORY OF PLAY

• Play is expenditure or “waste”• The potlatch can act as a model of an economy of

play• We must create a “state of play”• Play has been deployed throughout political

movements• Occupy Wall Street’s human microphone• Belgrade’s protests against propaganda

• Games are an “environment” for play

PROXIMAL COMMUNICATION

• This can be defined as communication of a user’s presence in a particular place and time. • Typified in social media applications such as Foursquare• “Broadcasted” throughout mobile networks

“GAMING FOR GOOD”

• Joint contest of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and consultancy group PSFK

• Sees games as a new method of communication and way to affect change

• The contest deploy “gamification tools that individuals, communities, organizations and nations can use to embed this new reality [of climate collapse]” (Gore)

• The project envisioned games as a new means of communing and affecting climate change, where previous traditional national and international efforts had failed

GREENSQUARE

CLIMATE REALITY PATROL

SPROUT

REALITREE

STRENGTHS OF REALITREE

• Visualizing the wellness of the local environment• Mobile application

& visual display• Data from both

users and public sources• Perpetually must

be kept alive

WHY REALITREE WORKS

• Perpetual use• Potential for global engagement• Potential for visualizing climate collectivity• Focused less on “reward” than expenditure• Simple design and potential for quick “maximum

grip”• Utilizes both mobile and local components within

its design concept• Virtual trees in physical space • Mobile application to engage with trees

REALITREE IN REALITY

• Heavy cost to deploy at a large scale• Keeping users

engaged is critical• Conflicts in local

and global engagement• Necessity for

iterative design

A P L AY P R O D U C T I N R E A L I T Y

SOCCKET

LOCALITY AND MOBILITY WITH PLAY

• The Role of Local• Play is individualized• Locality must be

understood in terms of climate• Play and games

allow for a convergence of locality and mobility in terms of climate

• The Role of Mobility• Climate can only be

understood in terms of network• Local elements can

work in concert with climate through mobile technology• Mobility provides the

structure for local play

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS OF PLAYING FOR CLIMATE BALANCE

• Play provides the means of establishing perpetual activity on behalf of the climate.• Mobile technology provides a structure for

perpetual play on a global scale• Mobile technologies proffer a sense of place and

presence in the larger context of the climate• Mobile technologies proffer a sense of collectivity

and visualization of the environment• Mobile technologies can induce a specific set of

practices • Further study is required to test such products.