Date: Saturday 26 May 2018, 11am – 5pm
Location: My place!
“Minecraft my home” is an ongoing activity as part of my “Working with Gold” programme of public art in St Loyes.
It is a re-creation of St Loyes as a world in the Minecraft game. It lets local people explore their neighbourhood in a new way, imagine new possibilities for it, get rid of the things we don’t like, and put in the things we do. We can experiment… ask what if? We can express our frustration with our workplace or school in safety! Or we can be subversive, and make small changes that question the status quo. Anyone can explore, play and build in the Minecraft world of St Loyes. You can download it, the online version should be available until about October 2018, and I’ve written a couple of crib sheets for newbies. Have fun!
During Art Week Exeter, I held a meetup to explore the world together, share what we have been creating, and build more stuff.
Exeter City Futures are supporting the “Minecraft my home” activity, and on the day Mark from ECF kindly helped me out. During the day, he managed to build an ECF branch office in the Tesco car park. I built the shell of a new St Loyes Community Hub, Cafe and Gallery on the patch of derelict land that used to be a petrol station near Middlemoor. It has a number of really bad design features!
It was an opportunity for some to learn about Minecraft. It was good to welcome Peter Holland, my new City Councillor, and I think persuade him of the value of Minecraft as a way of re-imagining neighbourhoods. Mark and I have also laid some red carpet along ‘desire paths’ – places in real life where people have walked to get from A to B and marked paths where there were none before.
Others of us indulged in play. So within the online world, we now have two herds of ocelots and cows roaming free, and a tribe of villagers somewhere… I have to say I had a great deal of fun creating a Carl Andre / Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy crossover sculpture 100m above the Police HQ at Middlemoor!
Acknowledgements
Massive thanks to Exeter City Futures, and Mark Jones in particular. Exeter City Futures have their own Exeter 2025 Minecraft Challenge. See their website for more information.
