In the summer of last year I submitted a panel idea for SXSW which went to community vote, the SXSW Advisory Boards and SXSW staff before making it through to the first batch of events to be programmed for 2010.

I am really excited to be presenting at the Festival, and have been lucky enough to secure sponsorship from UK Trade & Investment and Arts Council, England. The panel takes place on Tuesday 16th March and is called Pervasive Games and Playful Experiences: Rendering the Real World. I will be joined by Toby Barnes of Mudlark, Nina Steiger of Soho Theatre, Duncan Speakman and Simon Johnson of SlingShot to discuss the following questions:

  • What makes pervasive games the quintessential 21st century artform?
  • Why/how have pervasive games captured the imaginations of the masses?
  • Who are the new practitioners and what makes them good?
  • Are we just playing in the panopticon or do pervasive games offer real freedoms?
  • Can a powerful collective desire for play create meaningful disruptions to the status quo?
  • Can pervasive games really have a positive social impact (through public collaboration and the radical re-appropriation of shared spaces, real and virtual)?
  • Will a dream platform ever emerge or will this always be a fractured development space?
  • If "locative media is fundamentally based on the appropriation of technologies of surveillance and control" (Andreas Brockmann) what duty do creatives have to address this fact in their work?
  • How do pervasive experiences deal with narrative? Who shapes/owns/consumes the story?
  • What is the role of the writer and curator or audience in this mixed medium, if everyone is involved and the city has become the stage?