LocalProjects

Urbanology is a large-scale game situated within the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a traveling laboratory that explores contemporary urban life through programming and public discourse. The game invites people to confront a variety of realistic urban dilemmas, inviting players to argue and vote for different scenarios along the major themes of urban life: innovation, transportation, health, affordability, wealth, lifestyle, sustainability and livability. Players are asked to answer uncomfortable questions such as "A casino will pay for free rail transportation from the center of the city to the airport - as long as trains stop at their casino. Will you allow this?". Answers are analyzed by a custom algorithm that calculates the closest real-world equivalent to the city that the player has created. In this way, the interactive installation invites visitors to set priorities to build the city of the future. In October of 2011, Urbanology could be played in person at the BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York City. The online version can be played at http://www.bmwguggenheimlab.org/urbanologyonline. The game experience for Urbanology was created by Local Projects and the physical design was created by ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles].