Hide & Seek - weekender 2010

This weekend was hot and rushed, but I had a fascinating day at Hide & Seek's weekender. I believe this is the fourth year in a row that they have held the event and although the output is different, the idea of bringing a diverse group of people together to create something is very in keeping with ThinkARK and ARK LAB. In many ways ThinkARK is The Sandpit and ARK LAB is Hide & Seek. As we work more and more through projects I think for me that the way ARK LAB is structured is very similar to a Theatre type set up. With the theatre putting on productions that are helped through involving a wide range of people that work to put on an event.

Beyond these similarities we visited the event to look at what is going on in the world of gaming in the UK at the moment. There was a lot of different games available on saturday, so we were excited to get onto as many as possible. I guess that was the only disappointment of the day that we were informed we could only book two games during the day. Yet others seem to be able to book more?

Beyond this however there were a number of smaller games that you could drop into at any time so we still had loads to do. So starting off with 'International playtime' by The Fun Fed, which was a collection of various type clown and acting games. They were fun and I managed to get quite sweaty running around in the mid day sun (what's that quote about sun and englishmen???). Next I wanted a more 'designed' game if you like so we got our map for the 'Time*Trials' By Michael Dales and Sophie Sampson. We were encouraged to download an App called placewhisper for our iPhone and go on a fact finding mission around London. The more you explore the more places you find and the more points you get.

Suffering in the heat try to chase virtual information in the Time*Trials game.

I thought this was a really interesting way of looking at a city and places I would not have gone to before were revealed. We were happy to learn we even earned a sticker due to us scoring a staggering 180 points. Next off the bat was The Zemblan Ambassador Will Make a Brief Statement By Ben Henley which was a bit like a mixture of Mock the Week and call my bluff. Very enjoyable 3o minutes.

So to sum up, great day, very hot, think we could definitely use gaming techniques within ARK to bring new audiences and break down barriers through play.