Playable Cartography

A In a push away from the functional and utilitarian intentions behind the 'smart city' creative movements such as 'playable cities' have emerged often using contemporary ubiquitous locative mobile technologies as a means for more meaningfully connecting people and public places. Drawing on recent studies that explore three key concepts: 'Game cartography', 'emotional cartography' and 'performative cartography', this paper describes three projects by the author that advocate for the capacity of cartographic interfaces in location based mobile media experiences to share human based, 'experiential data' relating to physical spaces through playful, insightful and creative interventions with public spaces. Presenting the term 'playable cartography' as a means of describing emerging creative practices regarding uses of interactive cartographic interfaces in contemporary locative mobile media-based experiences.