Bingo!

We got all the regions today - some more than once. 23 minutes and a pretty efficient route!

The dogs think this is a great project - lots of extra walks, perfect for the border collie nature - 'random' twists and turns, not following the usual trampled path !

I found myself thinking about gaming as I walked. Mscapes, interactive and mobile technologies are used a lot for gaming, and whilst it's not something I spend my time doing, I've enjoyed and learnt a lot from the few games I have tried out - especially live real & virtual games, like the Come Out & Play urban games festival in Amsterdam I went to a couple of years ago. But I also find games a bit too prescriptive. It's more fun when you can change the rules and try your own version - do you get £400 for landing on go? Does all the cash really go into 'free parking'?!

So is there a game element to e-merge?

What interests me more than creating plots and puzzles is to provide a rich environment and then see what happens. More of a creative play I suppose - if you want to play with e-merge, you can make different walks, you could walk in circles (which someone did with the sister mediascape Something More), you could run backwards and forwards, try and 'catch' all the content regions - and see what happens if you catch them in different sequences or more than once. Or just explore the park - on and off the trodden pathways. You could arrange to walk with a friend, start together, go different routes and then meet again at a 'viewing' point. Or experiment with the same small area but choosing different music for your walk; maybe play with where and when you watch your film, the synchronicites with the surroundings that that could present. Or anything else to find out what's possible...

So I hope e-merge will have a light, fun, playful element for those who want it, and encourage the walkers to be adventurous and experiment. To me that's a bit like switching off the TV and going out to play with your own video camera instead....