Playlines in the Department of Liberal Arts
Working in collaboration with Dr George Legg, Lecturer in Liberal Arts and London, Augmented Reality (AR) studio Playlines is resident in the Department of Liberal Arts working on 'Street of Eyes', a collaborative project examining the rise of military urbanism in London through AR.
Immersive Augmented Reality (AR) studio Playlines are designing a playable encounter with London’s surveillance infrastructure. Working with Dr George Legg, Playlines will use academic research and real CCTV data to create an app that exposes the rise of military urbanism in London. Accessible to anyone with a smartphone, Playlines' ground-breaking real-world stealth gameplay, 'Street of Eyes', will use AR to bridge the tangible experience of everyday urban routine with the invisible infrastructure of mass surveillance. Think Pokémon Go meets the Panopticon.
Building upon George’s interdisciplinary research into London’s Ring of Steel and terrorism’s spatial politics, the project will also combine archival documents, political theory, and geographical methods as it historicises the rise of surveillance technology. This collaborative approach will provide an urgent and informative insight into London’s role in the development of counterinsurgency that will have lessons for urban centres around the globe.
By investigating spaces proximate to King’s, this project also aims to get students and members of the public to think carefully about the importance of academic and artistic collaboration in fostering understandings of urban life. As such, the project seeks to strengthen King’s relationship with its surrounding streetscape – placing the ethics and politics of urban infrastructure under the microscope.
Project team
George Legg is a Lecturer in Liberal Arts and London in the Department of Liberal Arts, Faculty of Arts & Humanities. His research explores the cultural, spatial, and political aesthetics of political violence. This interest is reflected in his first monograph, Northern Ireland and the Politics of Boredom, and his recent article on the spatial politics of London’s terrorism. George is currently working on his next monograph about the history of terrorism in London
Playlines is an Augmented Reality studio and consultancy specialising in immersion design and narrative. Led by Rob Morgan, an XR veteran and award-winning game writer and experience designer. Playlines recently completed a residency at National Gallery X, delivering at-home digital experiences of masterpieces in AR. Playlines' Augmented Gallery project for central London is due to launch Spring 2021.