Deconstruct This City 2019
Making Cities is a game I designed to demonstrate emergence theory as it relates to the creation of cities. Emergence theory is an explanation of the whole being smarter than its sums, a self-organizing organism that adapts to the most efficient way of living. A city is comprised of many different businesses, motives, and ideas, and creates complex communities that smoothly churn together. The decisions of individuals influence the identity of the city.
The basis for this activity is developed through the principles of Conditional Design, a design technique developed by Luna Maurer and her team in 2008. The focus is to understand the development of a product. The process is emphasized using rules and restraints to create. What are the emerging patterns? What is the material? How does the input of the experiment influence the outcome?
This game is less of a competition and more of a dance or experiment of outcomes. One to four people can participate. Each time the game is played, a different pattern, or city, emerges. The rules are located on the back of the lid to the box. Similar–colored blocks can touch each other. Blue blocks can touch unpainted and white blocks. White blocks can touch blue and yellow blocks. Yellow blocks can touch white blocks. Unpainted blocks can touch blue blocks.
Through these restraints, I hope for participants to be able to draw conclusions to the complexities of how a city forms and functions. The blocks were designed to have an open-ended shape that resembles a house but could also be interpreted as pills, cars, or bugs. The colors were drawn from road signage.
The blocks and box were cut using a CNC machine. The blocks were painted, and the title and directions are cut vinyl.
