| Description | The Scott Pilgrimage is a location-based game and city tour designed by a Toronto high school media studies class inspired by the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series and major motion picture. Players use mobile devices to undertake a ludic walking tour of all the major locations of the story as they learn about Toronto cultural history. The project was inspired by the work of Guy Debord and the Marxist Situationists International's advocacy of using urban spaces in playful and unpredictable ways, emblemized in the concepts of psychogeography and the dérive. It is also points to media guru's Marshall McLuhan's vision of the city as classroom, and influential urban planner Jane Jacob's deep belief that a metropolis should be built for people and not cars. I will discuss the successes and challenges of designing a locative game with high school students, but also explore the theoretical underpinnings of the project and its implications for the future of education, tourism, civics, urban design and how we engage with our cities. |
