Public Space Games: Ministry of Reshelving

I’m a bit behind on reading Boing Boing, so I’m just now perusing Wednesday’s post about a new city-wide game: the Ministry of Reshelving, by Avant Game, a woman’s personal blog where she discusses some of the public games she’s created and participated in. Basically, following certain rules, you go to a bookstore and take George Orwell’s 1984 and reshelve it in the “Current Affairs” section, leaving notes behind about why. I love it that it’s fun and political, too. Can I reshelve Ann Coulter under fiction? Or better yet, under mental illnesses. This is much better than what I normally do, which is turn right-wing nutjob books around so you can’t see the titles.
I love the idea of public games and have blogged about them before:
26 Things Photographic Scavenger Hunt
New York Games
Design Institute’s Big Urban Game
The Go Game
Ernie about The Go Game
Alternate Reality Gaming Network
The Urban Iditarod
Geocaching – The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site
At one time, Lori and I put together a kick-ass scavenger hunt here in Indianapolis. Sadly, we have several teams sign up, but only one team actually did the work or showed up to claim a prize. I think I was so disappointed that I never actually published the game or the answers. I’d love to revisit the idea, though.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Lori

    leave her in fiction, steph. people with mental illnesses have enough of a social stigma — us crazy people don’t need others thinking that she’s part of our pack. *8-)

  2. Steph Mineart

    I can’t believe I was so insensitive, I’m very sorry. I don’t know why I didn’t stop to think about what I was saying there; I know several people who strive valiantly against mental illnesses, and should never put someone like Coulter in a class with them; they deserve much respect.

  3. Lori

    steph – please don’t think i was raggin’ on you as part of the PC Police or anything – i wasn’t offended! i just don’t care to be lumped into a group with Ann Coulter!
    😉
    as for the scavenger hunt, i was really disappointed when it didn’t take off either – i wonder what it would take to make it a really popular Mutual Friends event…

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.