Play Pen is created by Rachel Dodd, Stephanie Phillips, Lyn Russell & Vicki Smith
At Refinery ArtSpace 18-25 September 2022
Play Pen is an explorative place-making game that playfully seeks to engage community in creating solutions to adapting Whakatū / Nelson’s urban environment to future impacts.
The sceneography of the game is within the enclosing hills of the central Nelson area. Players are orientated within a mapped projection that invites a sense of approaching Whakatū / Nelson from seaward.
The playable area of the installation is an abstraction of the local urban environment providing a navigable scale for constructing ways to respond to the impending pressures for the current built environment.
Play Pen will be installed at Refinery ArtSpace from 18-25 September, alongside the Architecture + Women & Tātuhi exhibitions. These works all feature as part of the Aotearoa Digital Arts (ADA) Symposium Indeterminate Infrastructures; objects, signals and architectures.
The team acknowledges the influence of Hand Eye Society (Toronto, Canada) for sharing their brilliant zine Six for Bricks part of the Game Curious programme. Thanks Hand Eye Society!
Thanks also to Top of the South Brick Club for the loan of lego blocks for planning,
and Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects (Nelson & Marlborough) for support for the Saturday evening event.
