Hello Lamp Post: Play test

Last week PAN Studio, Tom Armitage and Gyorgyi Galik spent an intensive couple of days in the Pervasive Media Studio, testing a BETA version of their Playable City Award winning project Hello Lamp Post.

20 volunteer play testers came together over the two days to hear more about the project and to take to the streets of Bristol, sparking up conversations with their city and feeding back their experiences to the team. Using a simple text messaging service, they said ‘Hello’ to all manner of items of street furniture, from lamp posts to post boxes and boats to bollards.

We all learnt a great deal about how it will feel to be a participant in this exciting project, tuning in to the secret conversations of the city. It opened up all sorts of unusual questions, such as ‘what would you expect a bus stop to say to you?’, and ‘what message might you leave for the next person to visit the phone box that you have woken up?’

A few photos from PAN’s Flickr feed:

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The team received lots of great feedback and are continuing to develop the experience before it launches in the Summer. More information coming very soon!