Schirn Kunsthalle. Playing the City

With „Playing the City“, Schirn presents 23 international artists who have turned Frankfurt’s city centre into a place of activity. From performances to guerilla activities. An attention catching campaign should be developed for the exhibition to raise awareness for the city “playing field” without overshadowing the exhibition itself.

The principles of the game
The campaign is based on the exhibition concept from Schirn: the city of Frankfurt, its inhabitants and internet users get involved in a mysterious real and virtual game. Passers-by and users become participants with the artists playing the main roles. The setting is an abstract playing field in an urban setting. With the help of a dice, the user enters the game and controls a human dice with every throw – leading him to the website content.

The participants
Passers-by from the “real world” also become participants. They are filmed at traffic lights and marked with an individual code. A microsite then combines filmed material and individual codes and leads further: the passers-by enter their code and receives a personal film clip where they see themselves as part of an over-dimensional game. This is visualized by a giant dice which the passers-by rolls through the streets.

The game implementation
The design of the campaign substantiates the exhibition theme without restraining the artistic range of the activity. The central communication element, the dice, is immediately decipherable as a symbol for the playful theme and is used as a continuous element for visual recognition of this. Further activities such as a newsletter, an exhibition blog, a YouTube channel and a Facebook group, as well as posters and floor banners round off the integrated campaign concept. Users can also download a mobile dice tool for the iPhone which sets the human dice rolling when shaken.

An attention grabbing interpretation of the exhibition for the web, which combines virtual and real elements with each other. The themes of the exhibition are furthered online. The playful character involves the user, who then takes a hand in directing events themselves. All activities and marketing are bundled in an integrated experience on the website. The dice serves not only as “guerilla” action, but also as navigation on the website. An audacious exhibition concept pursued innovatively on the Web.