An installation which nicely sums up one part of what #emfcamp was like: the random midi keyboard left quite literally in a grassy field, vaguely facing null sector (where the party is at). There’s no sign. It just silently SCREAMS “play with me”. Turns out this keyboard controls the lasers which go out across the whole site! Deeply satisfying to play with.

We can make the world a little more like this. We can reward people for being curious.

I quite enjoyed the gchqnet treasure hunt. We had to find the “hexpansion” chips that had been scattered around site. #emfcamp

Particular highlight was finding Dan, one of the organisers of this quest. After I chatted to him for a bit he said “now that you’ve met me, here’s a hidden hexpansion” and offers me a secret one from his pocket. Mindblowingly cool - I’ve only ever experienced something like this in a game.

We can make the world more like this. We can reward people for being curious.

All of these side quests demonstrated a really beautiful thing: literally everyone who was there brought something with them which contributed to the experiences of everyone else. Sometimes as humble as a random interaction which sparks an idea. This is really quite a beautiful thing.

Sometimes/often it’s easy to feel powerless: that our voices can’t change anything. But that’s not true: we can. We all can. #emfcamp

@herdingdata Things like this work *great* in closed, trusting environments. You find them at sci-fi conventions (especially small ones, like Redemption) and bigger, weirder, events like Wasteland Weekend.

I could even see pulling off a lot of stuff in a semi-open environment, like maybe a uni campus at Fresher's week.

But to have stuff just out in the open in public, all it takes is one arsehole and the thing falls apart. So do you now guard all the elements? Needs a lot of people!