ZWERM
The question
As information technology becomes embedded in our cities, opportunities arise to design applications that genuinely benefit urban communities. Can a public game strengthen neighbourhood participation — and bring together neighbours who never speak, around something playful?
What we made
ZWERM (Dutch for “swarm”) had two Ghent neighbourhoods compete through a network of ten game components in public space: totem-like interactive trees where residents gathered with RFID cards, playful whistling sparrows responding to human whistles, and an online community platform. Each component had its own design goal and its own interface, set up so that they reinforced one another. The project ran on a consortium: iMinds brought the living lab methodology, Alcatel-Lucent the smart city and Internet of Things technology, and the City of Ghent the terrain and the neighbourhood activation, together with local community groups. I joined that consortium for the product design and prototyping of the game components, and to research what playful, gamified installations do in an urban social context.
What came of it
The research paper on ZWERM received a Best Paper Honorable Mention at CHI 2014, the leading international conference on human-computer interaction. The project formed the core of my PhD on the appropriation of interactive interventions in urban public space, and led to the TEDxGhent talk Play Social in the City. The whistling sparrows went on to have a second and a third life. Sparrows of Hasselt I carried myself, from the technology to reaching the neighbourhood. In Quand Les Zoziaux in Schaerbeek I handed that second part to seasoned socio-cultural workers.