Alternative Mapping - Exploring the T

Our assignment:
In groups of two, create a “guide” for visiting an existing place/site/event/etc. in Boston that promotes an interactive experience and presents an alternate interpretation of the space. Your goal is to invent an interactive system (an interactive experience and a language that prescribes that experience) that mediates your audience’s experience of a site in a specific way that differs from how they would “normally” interact with the space. Every part of the interactive experience you are trying to facilitate and how you are directing that experience should have a reason for existing that is related to your chosen site. Chance, play and flexibility are potentially key concepts and they too should exist in relation to your idea.

Our guide:
Get on the T. Any line, at any time. Ride until you see someone with Red Sox clothes get on. Get off at the next underground stop. Explore the length of the platform and the surrounding station, staying within an arm’s reach of any wall. Try to get from one side of the station to the other without going more than 5 feet from the wall. Crossing doorways or hallways is acceptable if they are 5 feet wide or less. Otherwise, you have to go down the hall. When you reach the other end of the platform, get on the second train that comes once you are finished and waiting.

Liz and I were a group, and switched with Dexter and Nader. We liked how open-ended our guide was, and decided that any suggestions for improvement only reduced the amount of customization that a person would have. Some of our wording was a little funny - Dexter and Nader commented that they were unsure if they had to explore only one side of the station (the length of the yellow line, for example) or the whole station itself. We could have made that part clearer, but deciding for yourself based on station layout may be a key factor for the interaction, as well.