Making The City Playable – 19 October 2017

Posted on by Pete Vance

Composite image capturing the movement of three of BristolÕs iconic dock cranes, lit up for Crane Dance Bristol, a one-off performance from Laura Kriefman, from the Pervasive Media Studio at the Watershed arts centre, Bristol. 10,000 people gathered to watch as Laura Kriefman choreographed the synchronised cranes, at the headline event at the cityÕs Docks Heritage Weekend, a weekend of activities exploring the history and working life of the old City Docks. 3 Oct 2015

 

This strand of the Festival of the Future City explores the role of play in our future cities.

When considering the future city, it can be tempting to centre the conversation around policy and technology. Playable City combines public space, creativity and imagination to create unexpected interactions and inspire a new kind of dialogue, which puts people and play back at the heart of our future cities.

Today, play is finally being embraced as an antidote to the anonymity of the urban environment. The value play has in addressing the problems of city living and promoting the wellbeing of communities is being recognised more and more.

Our Making The City Playable Conference brings together some of the leading voices in play from across the world – including revolutionary play scholar Miguel Sicart, who believes that, ‘to play is to be in the world’, and our current Playable City Award winners Hirsch and Mann – to examine this newfound importance and show us how play can become an integral part of our daily lives.

We will hear from people developing work in cities as diverse as Montreal, Mexico City, Lagos and Copenhagen, and explore the broad range of social and cultural issues that play can help to address across the globe, as well as the unique environmental challenges they face in making their playful ideas a reality.

You will also meet the fifteen talented individuals who will be working with Watershed on our new talent development programme Creative Producers International, as they lead all the delegates in a Playful City workshop out in the streets of Bristol.

Making The City Playable Conference is produced by Watershed and supported by Arts Council England, British Council and UWE as part of the Festival of the Future City. Tickets are available at  http://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/8241/making-the-city-playable.

It will take place at Watershed on Thursday 19 October 2017. Tickets go on sale soon. Join our Playable City Community here: https://www.playablecity.com or follow us on Twitter @playablecity for further announcements.