Recife: The Playable City
Recife: The Playable City was an ideas laboratory. It enabled twenty practitioners to spend time in the cities of Bristol in the UK, and Recife in Brazil, considering what a Playable City could be. They shared many thoughts, and created playful experiences for Recife. These included fortune telling bus stops, lighted pathways on rivers, touch controlled musical installations and theatrical city tours. You can read more about the ideas in this blog post.
The exchange culminated in a fantastic celebratory Showcase offering talks, workshops, exhibits, interventions and an amazing street party. The public were invited to get involved and experience their city in a new way. In the short documentary above you can get a flavour of the project, and hear from the people involved.
The Playable City is a term coined in Bristol as a counterpoint to the ‘Smart City’. It is imagined as a place where people, hospitality and openness are key. Where residents and visitors can reconfigure and rewrite the city’s services, places and stories. This programme transformed Recife into the world’s second Playable City after Bristol, a place where citizens have a voice and where there is permission to be playful in public.
“Recife: The Playable City was fantastic and has proven that cities and citizens, can learn so much from each other. As a result, we’ve become excited about taking this idea further, to establish a global network of Playable Cities. We’re proud that Recife are a founder member of this network and can’t wait to see what happens next." Victoria Tillotson, Producer at Watershed
Recife: The Playable City is part of Watershed’s wider Playable City theme that includes the Playable City Award, and a conference in late 2014. Find out the latest news by visiting the Playable City site.
Recife: The Playable City is a Watershed programme, delivered in collaboration with the British Council and Porto Digital as part of the British Council’s Creative Economy programme and UK/Brazil initiative Transform. The programme was made possible with support from Arts Council England, the Government of Pernambuco Estate, the Government of the City of Recife, and many other amazing partners. It was coordinated in Brazil by Fina Produção.
Related Links:
Recife: The Playable City
Recife: The Playable City on Flickr
Posted on Wed 30 April 2014.