Week 18 of PLAY Pilots and it's about time to recap the project so far. We'll do this one in English to introduce non-Dutch speakers to the project as well. (So technically this is not a weeknote but an 18-weeksnote...)

So, what is PLAY Pilots about? The project consists of three live games at cultural festivals in Utrecht, along with an ongoing online game. PLAY Pilots links music, film and game culture, and aims to create 'playful' interaction between different audiences.

The online game in particular plays with the idea of mixing audiences by staging a battle of festival subcultures – ranging from Happy Campers and Spaceapes to Barflies and Scissor Sisters. Created by Hubbub, it allows players to challenge friends in text-based, Twitter-integrated 'duels' to earn virtual street cred and develop their own style.

Meanwhile, two of the live games have been played, with one more coming up in November...

Each of these games, produced by different Utrecht-based creative companies, represents an experiment in how to engage festival audiences in interactive, playful culture. We've also made sure to integrate each game with the PLAY Pilots website, which involved some interesting challenges in linking these live, physical activities with the online, virtual world.

August: Wip 'n' Kip at Stekker Fest
The 2010 edition of Stekker Fest, an outdoor electronic music festival, featured the first PLAY Pilots live game, created by Fourcelabs. They came up with an hilarious race involving spring riders (wipkippen). Afterwards, contestants could claim their race times as well as footage of their finish on the website. For an impression of the resulting spring riding madness, see FourceLabs' previous blog posts.

As a sidenote: FourceLabs will be presenting this project at the upcoming This Happened Utrecht. (This event tends to fill up in a matter of minutes, so if you'd like to attend, be quick!)

September: The Stereoscoop at Dutch Film Festival
The Dutch Film Festival is the annual ten-day showcase for the Dutch film industry, in venues around Utrecht. Created by new media collective Zesbaans, the second live game was a VJ installation titled the Stereoscoop, which allowed people to scratch and remix iconic scenes from Dutch film history.

Located near the central festival pavilion, the Stereoscoop attracted both players / VJ's and curious audiences. On a large screen with two scenes side by side, the installation playfully challenged people to find links between scenes and earn badges. These badges – with such names as the Shock Monkey, the Bully and the Alchemist – could then be redeemed on the website.

For images of the Stereoscoop check Zesbaans' blog posts.

Upcoming in November: 3rd Live Game at Le Guess Who?
The third PLAY Pilots game is coming up in November at the Le Guess Who? Festival, which places "creative, daring and refreshing scenes in the spotlights" – indie music scenes, that is.

Producers Monobanda are still in the process of developing this game, but their weeknotes so far suggest it will involve an intriguing combination of old-school cassette tapes and brave new RFID tags. The project's working title is Bandjesland (Tape Land), which will be physically located backstage at Tivoli, Utrecht.

We'll be announcing more about the Le Guess Who? Game soon, so stay tuned...