Asphalt Games: Enacting Place Through Locative Media

Chang, M. and Goodman, E. 2006. Asphalt Games: Enacting Place Through Locative Media. Leonardo Electronic Arts Almanac: Locative Media, MIT Press.

 

Locative media – the representation and experience of place through digital interfaces– opens frontiers for artistic expression in public space. With New York as a gameboard and a website prompting play, players of *Asphalt Games* conquer turf on an online map by performing and documenting game moves on real-world streets. They vie for territory through physically and socially risky games combining found objects, traditional street games, and social commentary. As a hybrid of physical and digital performance, *Asphalt Games* exists through the interplay of social and spatial play. It suggests that locative media move beyond pinpointing location to enacting place as a medium for expression.

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