Augmented Reality Gaming

MadCity Design Notes

2011-07-22T03:36:00.000-05:00

Found this file while clearing my hard drive

11/4/04

MadCity Design Notes

Back to the days of designing the MadCity game, I felt that the most difficult part of designing a game is to have a holistic view about (1) the affordances and constraints of game engine, (2) the interpretation of curriculum standards, (3) local ecological issues, (4) how to motivate students and finally (5) conceiving a theme that incorporates these requirements as a coherent entity. Designing the game is not a waterfall process which goes top-down smoothly step by step. Instead, it is an iterative process that each revisiting of the above issues falsifies some assumptions and misunderstandings and reinforces certain beliefs. Each revisiting makes the goal more focused, the subject more perceivable and the obstacles more transparent.

Understanding the game and the game engine

Understanding the engine was not an easy process at all since the engine is designed based on some ideas and these ideas are not explicit in the annotation of the xml file. Another obstacle that impedes my way is that there is already a game over there. It is good in that it provides an example for a novice designer to understand what it can do. It is bad in that it constrain my imagination. I copied the content in the xml to excel files to study how Judy designed the game. More specifically how roles were designed, how scenario was developed and how players might perceive the game. It takes a long time to understand different “levels” about the game and, later, the game engine. Somehow I felt that the game was not quite appealing to me for some reasons. The three roles in the game were not evenly developed. She who played the MD might feel more engaged since she experienced more changes in the game in different time chunks. He who played the Government Official could feel bored since he got the same information all the time. The awareness of this potential design issues inform my understanding about the game and the game engine at the same time. If I were the player, would I be motivated by this design? How would I experience the game? What kind of understanding would I have after playing the game? As I tried to understand the game and the game engine, many questions puzzled me. Some of these questions are recurrent issues. I know that recurrent issues were more important since my mind put them in focus all the time. What makes these questions hard to answer was that I was not the player. The difference between experiencing the game by playing in the physical environment and playing the game with a button indoors makes a big difference in my understanding of the game and the game engine. The Boston Museum Game somehow inform my understanding about the game engine (is it a case of “transfer”? I think it is.) But experiencing the game as an observer is one thing and experiencing the game as a player is another. I struggled a lot in the process, worrying that the game I design would not work at all. Somehow my worry was a good thing because it forced me to find out possible problems in the game. It provided some hypotheses that I needed to justify. Designing the game should be like playing the game. The designer experience uncertainties and those uncertainties helped me frame key design issues. I did not realize these issues when I designed the game, of course. I would feel much more comfortable if I had known these before.

The interpretation of curriculum standards

Well, as a novice designer, I don’t even know the direction leading to the project. What made me struggle most was really the feeling of uncertainty. I did not know what I should do, where I should go and how I should respond. I really appreciate the routine discussion we had. They help me frame the whole project, making the goal more tangible and perceivable in many ways. Each talk we had pointed to some directions—practical and impracticable. They were all good since I knew that making mistakes informed how the system would not work. These talks helped me frame the major design issues. I realize now the importance of providing frameworks for the learners. The frameworks guide the direction, provide the lens and confine the boundary.

Not knowing that was a curriculum standard to follow could easily be a disaster since it provides the framework for curriculum design. Many professors would assume that we know, but the fact was that there were things that we certainly did not know. For example, I grew up in an educational environment in which we use standardized textbooks from the first year of my primary school till the end of my senior high school. Curriculum standard was one level above that and I did not know that (though I should have known that as a C&I doctoral student). In one of our talks I realized that I must understand the curriculum standards before designing something out of the blue. This understanding provided a key component in framing the game design. But I sensed there was still a tremendous gap not knowing what teachers were doing in a specific subject. How did they teach? What did students learn? What were the textbooks they used and how did their teachers make decisions in using those textbooks? These questions remain major questions in my mind and I think a designer should try something to bridge the gap.

Local ecological issues

Since the game engine was designed for environmental studies, I went for environmental issues. However, a Boston issue might not be a good Madison issue. Since I sensed that

GeoTagging in NYTimes

2006-11-02T11:02:00.000-06:00

Pictures, With Map and Pushpin Included
By IAN AUSTEN
Published: November 2, 2006

KATHLEEN BENNETT recently bought a device that keeps track of her location with help from the satellites of the Global Positioning System. But unlike many other people in Seattle, Ms. Bennett is not, by her own description, “an outdoor person” and will not be using it to find her way through the wilderness.

Kathleen Bennett uses a Global Positioning System unit when she takes her pictures. That data, and her pictures, are displayed on maps on her page on Flickr.

Instead, the new gadget is an accessory for Ms. Bennett’s personal passion, photography. She is one of many people who have taken up geotagging, which, broadly speaking, is the practice of posting photos online that are linked to Web-based maps, showing just where in the world the shutter was pressed. The rest of the article here.

Panoramio Experience (update)

2006-10-14T09:32:00.000-05:00

In my last post I lamented that Panoramio and GeoTagger did not *seem* to play together. I was very wrong. GeoTagger does indeed add GPS coordinates to the EXIF jpegs, and Panoramio does indeed read that EXIF info and map the jpegs appropriately. It all works like butter.

Here's where "user error" (my bad) came into play: when I uploaded the GeoTagged images via Panoramio's browser-based uploader, I was impatient. And because I saw the "Map this Photo" button, I incorrectly assumed that it hadn't read the GPS coordinates. Had I clicked "Finish" it would have been automatically read and mapped.

My apologies to both Panoramio and GeoTagger, both of whom have contacted me to help me figure it out (which is very cool, thanks guys!).

What I'm doing, as part of a Local Games Lab project, is assembling a place-based GeoCultural tour of a Madison, Wisconsin neighborhood that had been decimated by "Urban Renewal" project in the 1960s. This will eventually (this upcoming week) be ported to GPS-enabled Pocket PCs as a walking tour, and ultimately evolve into a game playable by three roles: Urban Planner, Ethnographer, and Historian. For now, I've overlayed a historical map in Google Earth that shows streets and features that have been bulldozed, and I use it to locate images based on other information we have. On Google Earth, it looks like this right now:I figure that it would be a good thing to have an option to do a web version of the tour even if you didn't have access to the handheld computers, or weren't in Madison, so combination of Panoramio and GeoTagger seem to be the best and easiest ways to do that. And I'm even more excited that they're cool, dedicated people.

Tripper vs. Panoramio

2006-10-12T12:54:00.000-05:00

Trippermap might be cool. Let's see...

vs. Panoramio

Okay, Tripper Map has potential, but the free version is not detailed enough for us; we'd need the "$10/year" version that incorporates the Google Map API. So, the question is, do we go with this for $10, or go with Panoramio.com for free?

Panoramio Pros

free
used it before
they seem nice
website badge uses Google Maps and looks great
incorporates photo thumbnails into Google Earth (looks great!)
email/post kml files (Google Earth) for others

Panoramio Cons

slow, but improving
single uploads only (no batch uploads)[UPDATE: Upon further use, I've found that their browser uploader is actually very fast as it allows multiple concurrent uploads, just not "batch" uploads. It also lets you edit the image titles as you wait.]
slow, manual geotagging process. Can't just type in an address, have to type in a city, then choose what state or country that city was in, etc. [UPDATE: Two things I've found. First, you only need to go through this process once, then do multiple uploads for that general location. It won't make you go through the process again until you hit "Finished". Second, if the jpeg has GPS coordinates in the EXIF info, you don't need to mess with the manual mapping at all; it's automatically read and mapped.]
Get errors: "Unable to select database: Too many connections"
~~doesn't (seem to) read EXIF info that I put on the images with GeoTagger although that may be GeoTagger's fault because it doesn't seem to work with Tripper either)~~[UPDATE: this was a user error. See next post.]

Tripper Map Pros

uses Flickr (easy batch uploads, easy Geotagging bookmarklets, popular and widespread, familiar)
Google Map API is great (check it out here under the "Mark's Google Map" tab)
can be easily incorporated into any website or blog

Tripper Map Cons

free map interface is too basic
free map interface renders poorly not close enough
"Premium" Google Map interface is $9.95/year

Hmm. I'm torn. [UPDATE: Not so torn anymore. Panoramio and GeoTagger have the edge (imho).]

Geotagging in iPhoto

2006-10-11T17:37:00.000-05:00

From OgleEarth, of course, comes a post of a brilliant person with ideas.

This one is much easier than the Flickr Geotagging process I mentioned on 8/22/06, and more fun because you get to mess around in Google Earth (which recently got updated to v4, by the way).

Here's how it works: Geotagger prepares images by adding GPS info (from GoogleEarth). Then you import the pics to iPhoto, and export them with the iPhotoToGoogleEarth plugin. I'll post more when I've done something with it.

There's also a newish thing called Trippermap that maps your Flickr photos. I'll have to check that out too.

Paper-based Local Games

2006-09-15T10:58:00.000-05:00

Through a MacArthur grant by Squire, Steinkuehler, Hayes, and Shaffer, I've been hired to help out with the Greenbush AR Game, the Star Schools Games Project, and the design and creation of a GLS (Games Learning and Society) Area in the Teacher Education Building.

One of the requirements of the Star Schools grant, I understand, is to create a paper-based game as a "control" game. As I was considering how to make such a game, I was led to the following thoughts on games, in general.

Re-playability: None of our tech-based games are really re-playable. They aren't designed to be. The philosophy that I think is behind this -- subconsciously, or unconsciously -- is from a curriculum mindset. We design a curriculum for kids to "go through" once. Then, next year, a new set of kids go through it. To contrast, the best games are infinitely re-playable. Imagine playing tic-tac-toe only once. You barely get the rules of the game and it's over. There is no "discovery and mastery" of the rules in a game that is played only once, unless it is heavily based on a well-known genre of games -- in which case it is more of a single variation of that game than its own game. And this is fine, if we want to go for that, but then the content of this particulat game is backgrounded.

Element of chance: If the game is too specifically directed, it's less of a game and more of a tour or a puzzle (maybe not a puzzle). The connect-the-dots option of specifying a path to take cannot be the best option, but I'm not sure of other options that would assure that the content was covered as well -- especially given the time constraints of a place-based game. This is a tough issue.

The affordances of the card game that we're working on supports both re-playability, and chance. Card games are typically quick, portable, and place-indifferent. In these ways, they contrast greatly with the type of tech game we're trying to make, which is markedly slow (need to move through the world), and place-specific (which I guess is the opposite of portable -- can't move South Shore Beach easily).

With this in mind, I think we should consider forgetting to try to make the paper-based game content-specific, and instead make it concept-specific. After all, learning about E. coli on a particular beach is not the ultimate idea behind any of these games. Instead, what we're trying to teach is math and reading, and maybe a bit of scientific thinking, right?

We can do that with a variation of flash cards -- and teachers have been doing that. I think this might be a better paper-based option that gets closer to the heart of what we're actually proposing -- that place-based games are richer.

So, tell me where my thinking here is off-base. Am I missing something? Or are we trying to do something much more through the paper game than we need to / want to?

Geotagging Flickr pics

2006-08-22T15:56:00.000-05:00

There's a not-too-complicated web app to manually generate geotags for your Flickr! photos at beeloop.com. Just

drag and zoom the map center to the location that the pic was taken,
copy and paste info generated in the first field into your Flickr! tags for the pic,
copy and paste info generated in the second field into your Flickr! description of the pic

You end up with something like this:

canvassing our newly made cedar canoe at Flying Moose Lodge, on the weekend, when the boys are back from their trips. Click here to see where this photo was taken. By courtesy of BeeLoop SL (the Mapware & Mobility Solutions Company).

On the cool scale, I'd say this isn't quite as nice as panoramio.com, but it *does* have the Flickr! connection that may be useful.

Ogle Earth

2006-08-22T14:46:00.000-05:00

If you're interested in place-based stuff, and haven't already been accessing the Ogle Earth site, you should start now. Their list of links has a lot of cool things like Panoramio, and Mappr!, etc. And the blog itself highlights some of the sorts of things potentially of interest to place-based game developers -- for example, the Gombe Chimp Blog post points to a place-based blog done up by the Jane Goodall folks. Pretty cool. Imagine place-based game content on Google Earth, further blending the line between virtual and physical. Especially integrating photos (hey! that's my camera!)

PocketPC annoyance

2006-08-22T14:17:00.000-05:00

It may be that I'm overlooking something obvious, but if my experience is typical, I'm at a loss to understand why anyone keeps using this platform. Here's my question: "If the battery is completely discharged, do I lose everything on it?"

It seems as though, on my 3 day drive back to Wisconsin, where my HP iPaq 4350 PPC was left in its case with an admittedly low battery, the battery died. This shouldn't matter, but when I restarted it, it ran through the initial set up (and stupid tutorial) sequence, and when it announced that it was ready to use, all my files and settings were gone.

Why does this matter? After all, my game files are safe because I have to load them from the Dell, and the things that I had sync should be safe, right? But the programs like chikyu, that lets me take waypoints and save them as Google Earth-friendly files, is gone. And all the Google Earth-friendly waypoint files I made in the Wildlands (in Maine) are gone. And the Task Manager program I loaded is gone. And EarthComber. And a bunch of other programs. Gone. Very annoying.

I suppose the thing to consider is that this sort of thing usually only happens once, and after that the user (me) learns to either never let the battery die, or to back up everything all the time. Maybe there's a program that will automatically back everything up to the storage card (I have a 1GB card I could use for that). But the bigger issue is that the waypoints are lost. They're still on the 'backup' GPS unit I bought when I was having troubles with the PPC and BT GPS combo -- as far as I know the Explorist 400 uses a memory that does not lose data when the battery is dead (at least it didn't when the battery last died).

Grrrrrr....

GeoTagging and AR games

2006-06-15T11:47:00.000-05:00

I meant to post this before I took off for Maine. Alas, plans...

It may be a helpful design step (as far as envisioning and sharing visions) to use Panoramio.com to geolocate pics and descriptions. I've started doing this with the Greenbush game stories here:

http://www.panoramio.com/map/?user=3582#lt=43.064310&ln=-89.400446&z=2&k=2&a=1

Note that it only supports JPEGs, so it may not be useful towards the end of the design phase. But it does support both JPEGs and "comments"--and allows multiple comments per pic, so design conversations can be held.

Anyway, I thought it was worth looking at.

Right-sized photos

2006-06-10T21:00:00.000-05:00

In the interest of parsimony, I have uploaded all of the pda quality photos to an otherwise empty directory here. I gave them names close to those of the titles of the different locations/challenges on the map so that they would be easy to match up.

Two things:
1) We need to change Lorraine Hotel to Hotel Loraine. Minor detail... but still worth noting. Also, I put in two photos, one outside, one inside, pick your favorite or use both.
2) For the Orpheum, the text and challenge are about the stunts done to get attention. I put in several photos of such stunts, just in case we can use them.

My name is Madison Intro

2006-06-10T17:26:00.000-05:00

My Name is Madison

My guess is that you arrived in Madison sometime on Wednesday evening? Your flight got in late and you made it to your hotel with just enough time to grab some dinner, maybe a drink, and then is was off to bed.

This morning you awoke hoping you hadn’t missed your alarm only to find that is was still a bit early. The first big decision was then either to go back to bed or grab a cup of coffee from the hotel lobby. You chose to get some coffee and found some time to read the newspaper.

Eventually you made your way to the Monona Terrace, registered for the conference, talked to a few friends, and sat in on a talk or two. A typical beginning for a day such as this.

Now you are standing here with ME, unsure of how to proceed. Maybe you should just go back inside, meet a few more people, and continue to talk about topics that really aren’t so interesting. Or should you escape? If only for a few moments, to explore what else is out there. If you are an adventurous type, I’ve got some things to show you.

Along the way we will be able to talk and get to know each other. There are a few stories that I’d like you to know and some friends you should meet. I’m excited about having you here.

I should tell you a little secret, first. I have a favor to ask. After you meet a friend or I tell you about a place, I’d like you to take a photo, a document of our travels. You have a camera, so feel free to indulge. Be creative and show me something about yourself, I’m interested in learning about you. This is your chance to make a memory of your trip.

I guess we should go then! Welcome to Madison.

Madison's Skyscrapers

2006-06-10T11:20:00.000-05:00

Text:
John Nolen is considered by many to be the father of urban planning - the idea that a city should plan its growth in order to create an attractive and healthy environment, rather than allowing the city to grow haphazardly according to the assorted plans of a multitude of landowners and real estate developers. In 1908, John Nolen came to Madison to aid the young city's growth. He made many recommendations to the city, one of which suggested that all buildings built near the capitol be shorter than the capitol itself. This would ensure that the capitol would always have a commanding view of the city, and that the majesty of the capitol would always be visible to residents. It took 12 years for a height ordinance limiting buildings around the capitol to 90 feet to pass through the legislature and become a law. There was much resistance, but the law was ultimately upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, becoming the first ruling in the nation that gave cities the power to pass laws to achieve aesthetic objectives. During the 12 years of conflict over the ordinance, three buildings were completed that exceeded the maximum height. The Churchill Building before you was the first.

Challenge:
Take a photo from the highest point you can reach.

Location:
The Churchill Building, right next to Grace Episcopal Church.

Media:
Photo of the [building formerly known as the] Gay Building

The Lorraine Hotel - Past and Present

2006-06-07T21:35:00.002-05:00

The ever changing architecture of downtown Madison has allowed for the new and the old to coexist. Contemporary high rise condominiums now stand next to Art Deco buildings from the 1920's. An example of the old becoming new is the Lorraine. Originally Madison's finest hotel, the building has now been renovated into condominiums. Built in 1923, the Lorraine Hotel cost 1.1 million dollars to construct, second only to the State Capitol building. It's eclectic design made it stand out to clients like Charles Lindbergh and John F. Kennedy as they spent time in Madison. MORE

Site - W. Wash

Challenge - ?

Media - Photos of bell hops and facade.

Place of Protest

2006-06-07T21:35:00.001-05:00

The turbulence of the 1960's swept through Madison like a violent storm.
It was early in this struggle that the University of Wisconsin became a battleground for ever growing negativity toward the Vietnam War.
While the main issue surfacing Madison dealt with research being done by Dow Chemical Company, a supplier of naplam, currents of social and class struggle soon came to the surface with skirmishes between police and students.
Students gathered and police dispursed with ghastly results, beatings and tear gas.
The protest culminated in the 1970 bombing of a Army Mathematics Research Center at the University, killing a research assistant and shocking the anti-war movements.

David Maraniss wrote, "It was simplistic to say that events were turning because of them; the culture was accepting, rejecting, co-opting, adapting, disapproving, and absorbing them at the same time. But if citizens outside the cauldron of the university were offended by the excesses of young radicals, more of them were also growing anxious about Vietnam and what it was doing to America. And in that sense the chaotic Wisconsin protestors were in the vanguard of a movement that before long would be embraced by millions."

Site - ?

Challenge - Have a peaceful protest

Media - Dow day video or photos of protests

Gaylord Nelson and Earth Day

2006-06-07T21:35:00.000-05:00

". . . on April 22, 1970, Earth Day was held, one of the most remarkable happenings in the history of democracy. . . "
-American Heritage Magazine, October 1993

Gaylord Nelson began his public service in 1948 as a state senator in Wisconsin. He was reelected three times, holding his Dane County seat for ten years. In 1958 Nelson was elected as the Governor of Wisconsin. After serving two terms, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served for 18 years.

The following is a article written by Senator Nelson about Earth Day -

"The idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political "limelight" once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. President Kennedey began the tour in September of 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.
Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called "teach-ins," had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me - why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?
At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance."

Site - ?

Challenge - Perform a act that is environmentally sensitive

Photo - Image of Gaylord Nelson

Progressive Politics and Fighting Bob

2006-06-05T19:43:00.004-05:00

Robert La Follette developed his fierce opposition to corporate power and political corruption as a young man. Affiliated with the Republican Party for almost his entire career, La Follette embarked on a political path that would take him to Congress, the governorship of Wisconsin, and the U.S. Senate. His support for progressive reforms, rousing oratory, and frequent clashes with party leaders earned him the nickname “Fighting Bob.”
For nearly ten years, La Follette traveled around the state speaking out against the influence of crooked politicians and the powerful lumber barons and railroad interests that dominated his own party. Elected governor in 1900, La Follette pledged to institute his own form of political reform. onage politics. La Follette worked closely with professors from the University of Wisconsin to help the state become “a laboratory of democracy.” By the time he joined the U.S. Senate in 1906, La Follette had become a national figure.

"The fundamental principle of a republic is individual responsibility. The responsibility is personal at the point in our political system where the citizen come in direct contact with the system itself. This is the intial point of all legislation, all administration. In all the activities preliminary to the primary, and in the primary itself, the citizen is an elementary force in government. Here the voter can lay his hand directly upon the shoulder of the public servant and point the way he should go."

Site - ?

Challenge -

Media - photo

Lady of Lake Mendota

2006-06-05T19:43:00.002-05:00

Lady of the Lake

On a cold February morning in 1979, residents of Madison awoke to find a new fixture peering above the ice of Lake Mendota. The Statue of Liberty had arrived in Madison courtesy of the Pail and Shovel Party, a student government association at the University of Wisconsin. In an effort to fulfill campaign promises, party organizers Jim Mallon and Leon Varjian had the statue flown in, but a cable snapped causing the copper symbol of freedom to submerge itself in the icy waters. At least that is how the story is told.

Site – View out toward lake Mendota

Challenge -

Media - photo

Gold Star Mothers - Ann Waidelich interview

2006-06-05T19:43:00.001-05:00

A discussion of the gold star flower bead on the capitol grounds and Manchester's Department Store

Site - corner of Mifflin and Wisconsin Ave.

Challenge - Remember the Mothers who have lost children to a war

Media - Video and Audio

Eddie Ben Elson - an interview with Doug Moe

2006-06-05T19:43:00.000-05:00

Eddie Ben Elson character around Madison - A guy who would mow his lawn nude and sell tickets to a comet that was to land in Lake Monona but never did.

Site - anywhere

Challenge - Do something that is excentric

Media - audio

Planning of Madison: John Nolen and the City Beautiful

2006-06-03T20:57:00.005-05:00

In 1908, John Nolen, a well known city planner, was contracted by several govermental officials for advice in laying out Madison city parks. For the city of Madison , Nolen recommended establishing boundaries for industry, business, government, and residential life, widening streets and planting trees, increasing land given to parks and plazas, and regulating the height and style of buildings near the capitol to highlight its place at the center of a thriving state.

Nolen pioneered the development of professional city planning. His approach blended social, economic, and physical aspects of urban life with the preservation of natural beauty. He felt strongly that “simple recreation in the open air amid beautiful surroundings contributes to physical and moral health, to a saner and happier life,” and his plan for the city of Madison is considered a preeminent example of the urban landscape movement.

The planners of Madison also adhered to the ideas of the City Beautiful Movement. The movement sought to use beauty as a social control device for creating moral and civic virtue among urban populations. Advocates of the movement believed that such beautification could thus provide a harmonious social order that would improve the lives of the inner-city poor.

State Street and the Capitol building grounds are prime examples of these ideas. Mixing lush park areas with broad avenues allows for a connection between rural urban life. Its architecture and form provides way of associating between important ideas. State Street is a prime example with government at one end and the university at the other.

Site - State and Dayton

Challenge -

Media - photo of Nolen

Madison the Idea

2006-06-03T20:57:00.004-05:00

Think back one hundred fifty years. The United States was a growing country with vast areas yet unknown. People were moving from industrial centers in the East to places West, seeking a new life and a space to call their own.

Standing where you are now at that moment in the past, only a small cabin would have stood here. This was a resting place on the long trip from the water ways of the Great Lakes to ore laden earth in the Southwest of Wisconsin. Native tribes and white settlers hunted and farmed the area called the Four Lakes Region.

It wasn't until November 28, 1836, that Madison went from being an idea in the mind of James Duane Doty, to being what was to become the capital of Wisconsin. Doty, a politician and pioneer promoter, played a high stakes game of political lobbying to speculate the land and convinced others that the area should become the state capital.

Existing only on paper the city began with the capitol building at its center at a point between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona, on an isthmus. Roads radiated from this point, named after the signers of the Constitution.
From this starting point Madison has grown to what it is today.

Site - King St

Challenge - sell an idea

Media - photo of Doty or early map of Madison

Farmers Market

2006-06-03T20:57:00.003-05:00

During the summer months, people congregrate around the Wisconsin State Capitol early on Saturday mornings. They come from places like Blue Mounds, Stoughton, and Mineral Point, bringing products exclusively made in Wisconsin. Tents are erected and signs are hung as the Dane County Farmers' Market begins.

Founded on European ancestors, farmers' markets have sprouted up across the country as a way for communities to support their agriculture and buy fresh, local produce. The Dane County Farmers Market was begun in 1972 by Mayor Bill Dyke to unite the urban and rural cultures, providing a way for city dwellers to reap some of the county's agricultural benefits.

The market is extremely important to the culture of Madison, not only as a way to connect, but as way to socialize. Vendors carry the stories of life in Wisconsin and only need to be asked to share a story. A welcoming face always greets you as meander through the crowds of people.

Site- Capitol Square

Challenge - Find a Wisconsin Made Product

Media - Photo of Market

Entertainment in Madison

2006-06-03T20:57:00.002-05:00

In the early 20's downtown Madison had a multitude of spaces for entertainment. There was the Capitol, the Strand, the Majestic, and the Orpheum, not to mention many others. You could take in a movie or go see who the lastest act was coming through town.

The Orpheum, inparticular, had several manifestations in Madison. Originally, on the opposite side of the square, where you are standing now is the site of the new Orpheum. Beginning as a place for vaudevillle acts to show off their talents, the space later exclusively began showing films. The owner of the Orpheum at the time of its construction, William Beecroft, was know for going to great extremes to bring in customers. There was a variety of stunts and competitions that were used to get people in the door.

Presently, the Orpheum is used as a restaurant, theatre, and special event venue. If you go inside, take in the lavish architecture and head downstairs to the old smoking lounge.

Across the street from the Orpheum now reside the Overture Center. Madison premiere entertainment facility, the Center is home to the Madison Symphony, Madison Repretory Theater, and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Designed by Caesar Pelli the structure was built through a donation from the Jerome Frauschi Family. Having just been completed this past spring, the Overture is a the jewel of urban development in downtown Madison.

Site - State St.

Challenge - Create your own stunt to bring in customers

Media - Photos

Dane County Courthouse

2006-06-03T20:57:00.001-05:00

Erected in 1885, the Dane County Courthouse was the work of Henry C. Koch, who also built Science Hall at the University of Wisconsin. In the 1950's the City of Madison and Dane County joined forces to build a new municipal building. This photo was taken as a document of the demise of the building. In its place is left a parking garage to supply space for those working and shopping in downtown Madison.

Jairus H. Carpenter - Judge 1885 - 1902

Site - Corner of Fairchild and Main across from parking structure

Challenge - What is lost here?

Media - Photo