Melbourne is a bustling urban metropolis filled with life.

Its tram bells call a sing-song chorus, carting people to and fro.
Its laneways hide secrets for the adventurous to find.
Its arcades bristle with activity, echoing with excitement.
Its parks teem with life; human, four-legged and more.
Its streets are lined with buskers, imbuing the air with song.
Its cafes buzz with coffee lovers, relishing their morning brews.

Melbourne is a busy city indeed.

But within this busyness there are many and varied opportunities for play to occur.

How can we take orchestrate a playful takeover, transforming busy-ness into playful-ness?

The city is waiting to be opened.
Its layers exposed.

There are multi-layered realities in our modern urban lives, not all of which are visible to the naked eye.

Physical, digital, social, historical, cultural, economical, ecological, psychological… To name but a few.

As our city evolves, the interplay of these layers creates a liveable, diverse, creative, knowledgeable and playful city.

64 Ways of Being is a project supported by the Victorian government that will use augmented reality, game design and public art to playfully reveal the multi-layered realities of Melbourne, transforming the city into a giant playground.

How many layers of reality do you experience in the streets of Melbourne and how can play help us to reveal, share and participate in our multi-layered city?

Photo credit: James HH Morgan

Collaborations and opportunities for creative development can come from things you’d never expect to be playful, such as infrastructure.

Our city is rapidly expanding, and with growth comes a greater emphasis on infrastructure.

As public transport, roads and shared paths become more ubiquitous, new opportunities are emerging for creative industries to take an active role in the development of Melbourne. Who says all infrastructure needs to be solely functional?

Last year Dr. Troy Innocent converted a tram into a moving, playable symphony. The tram will once again take to the streets for its final chorus on route 96 from Brunswick to St Kilda for Melbourne International Games Week 2019.

What new collaborations will you venture into to bring playful augmentations to our everyday urban lives?

As our city grows, our day-to-day urban lives become ever busier. Smart City design strives for an urban design that is liveable, but it also places the onus upon a high-functioning society, often leaving playfulness by the wayside.

With this push towards functionality, we are losing a time-old tradition; playing together in the streets.

Attend Playable City Melbourne to take part in the growing discussion around playable city design and find opportunities for how you or your organisation can contribute to this new frontier for game design, urban design, culture, society, architecture and more.

As our city develops, how can we integrate playfulness into our urban lives to bring play back into our streets?